20/20 “I”
Sight
I Corinthians 4:6-13
Introduction: When I was young, even into young
adulthood, I had excellent vision, better than 20/20. Something happened somewhere in my 40s…
suddenly the letters on the page started to become blurry, and I found myself
holding the books further and further away as I read. And then the signs on the highway, in the
distance, seemed less distinct and started to be harder to read… When I went to
my eye doctor and he did his exam, do you know what he said? “You’re getting to be that age…”! Great, that’s
just what we all want to hear, right? Though
my eyesight has slowly been changing the most difficult thing to see rightly has
always been the same. It is difficult to get in focus, and the truth is,
sometimes I don’t even want to look at it because when I can see there
are things I really don’t like. I’m talking about the man in the mirror. Sometimes it’s like we have one of those
trick mirrors and things are distorted, other times it is like we forgot to
turn the light on. Occasionally it all comes into focus… and all I can do is
thank God for his grace! The Corinthians
seem like they had been looking into one of those trick mirrors. Rather than seeing
themselves rightly, as they really were, they had a distorted view of
themselves. And they liked what they saw,
and in fact, they were proud of it. Paul was writing to remove the cataracts, to
do some Lasik surgery, to help them
recover 20/20 “I” sight. The truth is…
Big Idea: We have nothing to boast about
except Jesus, all that is good in us is from Him.
I. Confronting Pride (6-8).
I have
applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that
you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be
puffed up in favor of one against another.
7 For who sees anything different in you? What do you have
that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you
did not receive it? 8 Already
you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Without us you have become
kings! And would that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you…
Confront pride by encouraging biblical thinking (6). The
language Paul uses here has given commentators a bit of a headache over the
centuries, but it seems clear enough in terms of the main point: “I said all
that to say this: think about yourselves and your leaders biblically.” Everywhere else Paul uses the phrase “it is written” there is an implicit
reference to Scripture. If that is the sense he has in mind here, he is telling
the Corinthians that he wants them to view themselves and their Christian life
biblically, that is, through the lens of Scripture.
We’ve been having an adult Sunday School
series entitled “Ballast for your boat.”
Basically we have been dealing with Bible doctrine. One of the subjects we touched on recently
was the biblical doctrine of human depravity, or the total inability of
unregenerate humans to do anything pleasing to God or to come to Him in their
own strength. The importance of seeing
ourselves correctly, in the light of the truth God has revealed in His Word,
seems to be Paul’s concern here. The
opening chapters of the Bible present a key part of the story: God created us,
so we owe Him our life, our love, and our obedience. Humans rebelled and
brought sin and its consequences into the world. We were dead spiritually,
without hope, alienated from God, unable to do anything to be reconciled to Him,
yet He intervened in human history, sending the Son in human flesh, to provide
a way for us to have life. There is not much room for boasting in that story.
There isn’t much place to pridefully exalt one human leader over another. It’s all about Jesus. We have nothing to
boast about except Him. In the words of John the Baptist: He must increase, we
must decrease. The more we see of
ourselves, the more we’ll be driven by our need to God, the more we see Him as
He is, the more clearly our desperate need will be revealed. John Calvin in the
famous opening section of his Institutes
of the Christian Religion put it this way:
Nearly
all the wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of
two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves… Indeed our very poverty
better discloses the infinitude of benefits reposing in God. The miserable
ruin, into which the rebellion of the first man cast us, especially compels us
to look upward… from a feeling of our own ignorance, vanity, poverty,
infirmity, and—what is more—depravity and corruption, we recognize that the
true light of wisdom, sound virtue, full abundance of every good, and purity of
righteousness rest in the Lord alone. To this extent we are prompted by our own
ills to contemplate the good things of God; and we cannot seriously aspire to
him before we began to become displeased with ourselves…
The Corinthians seemed to be rather
pleased with themselves, satisfied in their supposed wisdom and spiritual
maturity, and consequently they had become stagnated in their spiritual lives.
Paul is seeking to prompt them to take a more honest look at the man in the
mirror. They needed to think biblically, to "not go beyond what is written."
We need to understand grace: “…What do you have that you did not receive?”
(7). Who sees anything different in you? Do you really think that you are so
different, so special? Time for a reality check! And “What do you have that you
did not receive? If then you received
it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?” The Bible and our own experience both confirm this truth: Our life, our
salvation, whatever gifts or abilities we have, the material positions we have
accumulated, we can’t take credit for any of it! Spiritually speaking this underscores the
doctrine of grace. Like the song says, “Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to
the Cross I cling…” and another says “All that am, and ever hope to be, I owe
it all to thee… to God be the glory!” It seems that the Corinthians were
struggling at exactly this point.
What do you have that you did not receive?
Nothing. Think about it. You didn’t ask to be born, and when you were you came
into the world naked and crying. As surely as you brought nothing with you, you
can’t take anything with you. One of the most important themes that has been
echoing through our Sunday School series on doctrine, is that we can’t take any
credit for our salvation, it is all of God, as the Scripture says: “…of Him you
are in Christ Jesus…” Alistair Begg put it this way, “The only thing we bring to our salvation is
the sin for which we need forgiveness.” The hands of a beggar, reaching out to receive
the gift of a king. That is grace: God’s unmerited
favor. As one acrostic puts it, G.R.A.C.E., God’s Riches At Christ’s
Expense. If we grasp the doctrine
of grace, there is simply no room for boasting. Jesus did it all, all to Him I
owe.
Understand that you have not yet “arrived” (8)! Paul
speaks with intense irony, his tone seems almost sarcastic in places. After
reminding them all that they have they have received, and so making clear that there
is no room for boasting, he says, “Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Without us you
have become kings! And would that you did reign, so that we might share the
rule with you…” In other words, “You talk like
you’ve already arrived, like you are already reigning with Jesus in the
Kingdom!” They were like the church in
Laodecia that we read about in Revelation 3:17, “For you say, I am rich, I have prospered,
and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind,
and naked.” They thought they had arrived, they were “satisfied,” and
consequently they had become Lukewarm in their faith. Listen, the Christian life is a process, it is a walk, though He satisfies our thirst,
we are (or should be) thirsty for more.
Though we have peace, we are always longing for home. Though we know
Him, we are compelled to be closer to him, to know Him better.
The New Testament presents
that tension between the indicative statements of who we are and what we have
in Jesus, and the imperatives that call us to live worthy of the calling with
which we have been called. The already, and the not yet. The Corinthians were
acting like they had arrived, and Paul was apparently left in the dust! Really? Their pride exposed their lack of
discernment and their spiritual immaturity. The truth is, we have nothing to boast about except
Jesus, all that is good in us is Him.
II. Demonstrating
Humility (9-13).
9 For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as
last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to
the world, to angels, and to men. 10
We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but
you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. 11 To the present hour we hunger
and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, 12 and we labor, working with our
own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; 13 when slandered, we entreat. We
have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all
things.
God’s strength and our weakness (9-10). Here Paul gets
autobiographical. This is how he feels that he and the other apostles are being
received and treated by the world. He paints a picture of condemned prisoners,
being publically exhibited as they are marched into the coliseum to face the
lions. Ironically, Paul is almost prophetical here of the treatment that
Christians would receive at different moments in Roman history, marched into
the colesium after the games so that the crowds could enjoy the spectacle of
seeming them ripped to shreds by the lions.
The suffering of this present age (11-13). Paul transitions from the biting irony in
the preceding verses to a description of the real life experience of the
apostles. After describing the experience
of himself and the other apostles, he uses a simile to emphasize the point: “We have become, and are still, like the scum of the
world, the refuse of all things.” He uses a word that
describes the “offscourings,” left over refuse of the cleaning process. We are like
garbage and you think you are kings!
In contrast to the Corinthians who are proud of their supposed wisdom,
gifts, and accomplishments, Paul is saying the predictions of Jesus are being
fulfilled in the experience of the Apostles. Jesus had said, “Do not be
surprised if the world hates you, it hated me first!” (John 15). He said “Foxes
have holes, the birds of the air have nests, but the Son and Man has nowhere to
lay His head!” Paul will outline his
personal experience in more detail in 2 Corinthians 11:23-28 his tribulations,
…far
greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near
death. 24 Five times I
received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. 25 Three times I was beaten with
rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was
adrift at sea; 26 on frequent
journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own
people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness,
danger at sea, danger from false brothers;
27 in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in
hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. 28 And, apart from other things,
there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches…
That would
make a great recruitment poster for Christian service would it not?! Of course
Jesus did warn his first followers, “If
anyone would be my disciple let him take up his cross and follow me!” Paul is making the same point here in I
Corinthians 4. The Christian life is not a promise of comfort and security in this life. If that is what someone
told you, they lied. This is exactly where the “health and wealth” preachers go
terribly wrong. The truth is, we will reign with Him, but we are not home yet.
We are sojourners, pilgrims, looking for something better.
Though we are not home, however, because
God is with us and in us, we have the promise of abundant life, eternal life,
and eternal security in Christ. Thus
Paul could say, whether in plenty or in want, in sickness or in health, “I can do all things through Christ who
strengthens me…” (Philippians 4:13). We will experience trials and pain in
this life, but 1) we will never face those times alone, and 2) we have the
promise that “The sufferings of this
present age are not worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed
in us..” (Rom 8:18). All that we
have, all that we are, we owe to Him. That is grace.
What is God saying to me in
this passage? We
have nothing to boast about except Jesus, all that is good in us is Him. To God
be the glory!
What would God have me to do in response to this passage? Do you have 20/20 “I” Sight? I am not
asking whether or not you need glasses, I and asking whether you see rightly
the person in the mirror, and whether that has compelled you have lifted your
eyes to the Lord of all Creation, Jesus Christ.
I remember reading one old commentator who said, “Humility does not mean
we think meanly of ourselves, it means we don’t think of ourselves at all.” If
we understand grace, we will know that loving Jesus and lifting up his name in
the world is our only reasonable response. We have nothing to brag about,
except Him. His is a story worth celebrating!
Think about that, amen.
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