DEVOTION
THE 1ST
LETTER TO THE CORTHINIANS
RECEIVING PRAISE
1 Cor 4:1-5
4:1 So then, men ought to
regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things
of God. 2 Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove
faithful. 3 I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court;
indeed, I do not even judge myself. 4 My conscience is clear, but that does not
make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. 5 Therefore judge nothing
before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light
what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts. At that
time each will receive his praise from God.
NIV
As we will see most of what Paul
has been talking about is regarding himself and Apollos, however, we still have
been able to see truths that can apply to all of us believers. Is it not also true
that we should regard ourselves as servants of Christ? Have we not been entrusted
with the secret things of God? Because we have the Holy Spirit dwelling within
us who reveals all the truth to us, then we would have to believe that God has
not kept any secret from us. About judging, we know that we should not judge
one another, but the fact is, we should not even judge ourselves. It does seem contradictory
when Paul says that his conscience is clear, but that does not make him innocent.
Because it is the Lord Jesus who judges him, it would also make sense that we are
in the same position. We should not even judge ourselves. What is Jesus going
to judge us for? It is not our sins, for he went to the cross taking all our
sins, past, present and future, upon himself, that we might be forgiven, therefore
our conscience is clear. There is a time coming when all men will stand before
Jesus and give an account of themselves. But this account has nothing to do
with any kind of work, whether they would be considered good works or bad works.
If our works are to be judged, then it would nullify the grace of God, and return
us to the work contract of the Old Testament. However, the exposing of the
motives of men, will take place. Therefore, our motive is to serve the Lord, rather
then ourselves. This becomes somewhat of a issue that needs to be examined.
Surely, we must work and provide for our families’ needs. For the most part in
this country that entails a home, car, clothing, and food. However, we also
give ourselves many other conveniences of life that could be construed as
self-serving. However, how do we serve the Lord? What is it that we consider as
serving the Lord? Is it the work we do in church? If so, then we are back at
work contract again. There is no question that our salvation is free, that we
cannot earn it, work for it, or pay God back for it. But then what constitutes serving
him, if it is not by our works? We think that first and foremost we need to remain
in Christ. Our motive is to live a life of love. First, we are to love the
Lord with our whole being, that is knowing it is God who does all the work in
our lives. He is the one who started the work in us, and it is he who will
complete the work in us. He is the one who forgave us, and declares us holy and
blameless in his sight. There is nothing we can do to produce this position of
being holy and blameless. All the work is God’s. How could we not love him?
Then we are to love our neighbors as ourselves. Again, this cannot be done by
works, but only by love, which would translate as not causing any harm to them,
as we would not intentionally cause any harm to ourselves, for we love ourselves,
because God loves us, and if he loves us, why should we not love ourselves. So
then, love is the key, to the right motive, and that will be exposed by Jesus,
who will say to those who love him, “Come and enter into my rest”. But those
whose motives are not about Jesus, we dare not consider what praise they will receive.
The fact is, we should live for the praise of God, rather then the praise of
men.
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