The office duties of Steward: (chap.4)
In this chapter Paul writes about the duties and office of the faithful steward and also explain about the shortcomings of the faithless stewards.
The faithful steward: (4:1-5, 9-13):
Paul urges the Corinthians the Apostles must work as servants but not leaders as factions. The Apostles are given the secret things of which is nothing but the message of the cross. Some of the qualities of the faithful steward are:
- He must possess clear conscience: (4:1-4): The word ‘minister’ literally means under-rowers. The image is that of a ship impelled by oars. The church is the ship, Christ is the commander and the rowers only obey orders. Since they have no right to give orders, no parties should be formed. Again Paul says those who have been entrusted meansStewards. The stewards are the slaves who have the charge of his master’s The church is the house; Christ is the Master and the apostolic stewards in charge, having the mysteries of God, the revealed knowledge, knowledge not of their own but given to them, which they must faithfully dispense it to the household.The supreme quality required in a steward is fidelity to his trust.
The important thing here was, not that the Corinthians should judge him a faithful steward, or that he should be faithful in his own judgment, but that the Lord shall count him faithful. In his own judgment he had been a faithful steward at Corinth, but that did not justify him, for he must be judged by the Lord.
- He does not judge others: (4:5): It is easy to judge other Christians whether they are good followers of Christ or not. But only God knows the person’s heart and He has the right to judge any one. It is a warning for all Christians that we should never ever be involved in judgement because all the judgement belongs to God. But we are to confront those who are sinning, we must not judge who is better Christian than others etc. When we judge someone, we
- He becomes a spectacle: (4:9):The image of (4:9) is either from the Coliseum, or the parade of a conquering Roman general, where the general displayed his armies first, the booty second, and at the end of the procession, the defeated captives who would be condemned to die in the arena. And, just as before going into the arena, the gladiators would say, “moriturisalutamus” (we who will die salute you), so in the same way Paul now salutes the Corinthian Christians!
The original word spectacle is ‘theatron,’ from which we get our word ‘theatre.’ When Paul says we have been made a spectacle to the world, he is speaking of how the apostles have been publicly humiliated. This kind of humiliation was the greatest horror to the pride of the Corinthian Christians.
The Corinthian Christians had two problems: they were proud of their own spirituality, and they were somewhat embarrassed of Paul because of his weakness and humble state. Paul is trying to address both of these problems!
- He was treated as a fool, weak and dishonoured by the world: (4:10): Paul was a learned man, an intelligent man in the eyes of the world. There was a time when he gloried his strengths, he was a honoured and powerful man. But then he met Jesus Christ and discovered that what he thought were assets were really liabilities. It was through his own personal suffering that Paul discovered that his spiritual strength was the result of personal weakness. Strength that knows itself to be strength is weakness, but weakness that knows itself to be weakness becomes strength. The Corinthians were proud of their spiritual achievements. The factions in the church were proud of their human leaders and favourite preachers. But all of this was only weakness. There is strength only when God gets the glory. That’s why Paul says: “My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9).