HOW TO JUDGE PREACHERS – 1 Corinthians 4:1-5

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on August 19, 2018 under 2018 |

Bethany Bible Church Sunday message; August 19, 2018 from 1 Corinthians 4:1-5

Theme: We must judge Christian ministers according to truly godly standards—neither too highly, nor too lowly.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

We have been exploring the section in 1 Corinthians in which the apostle Paul dealt with divisions within the church. The Christians there had been separating themselves from each other under particular apostolic preachers or teachers; and they had been doing so, not on the basis of godly principles, but on the basis of human wisdom and standards of performance. It was a real problem.

Some were saying, “I’m of Paul”; others, “I’m of Apollos”; and still others, “I am of Peter.” These were, of course, all good and faithful teachers; but the people were trying to make something close to ‘rock stars’ out of their favorite ones. And as we saw in our last time in 1 Corinthians, Paul told them—in 1 Corinthians 3:21-23;

… let no one boast in men. For all things are yours: whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world or life or death, or things present or things to come—all are yours. And you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s (3:21-23).

It’s a sad thing when Christians view their preachers in a wrong way—either to lift them up too high and thus become their adoring fans; or to estimate them too low and thus become their cynical critics. It’s sad because, either way, it gets our eyes off the Lord Jesus Christ to whom we truly belong.

But how then should Christians view the preachers and teachers and ministers God gives to the church? What is the proper way to see them? It’s not a question of whether or not they should be seen at all. As we’re told in the Scripture, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself

gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ (Ephesians 4:11-12).

So they are necessary as God’s provision to His church. But how should they be thought of?—so that the people of God will neither view their ministers too highly or too lowly?—so that the saints can thus gain the benefit and blessing God intends for His people to have through them?—and all so that everyone will keep Jesus Christ at the center of their focus?

I believe that that’s the great subject that Paul takes up in Chapter 4 of 1 Corinthians. In 1 Corinthians 4:1-5, the apostle wrote;

Let a man so consider us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by a human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. For I know of nothing against myself, yet I am not justified by this; but He who judges me is the Lord. Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each one’s praise will come from God (1 Corinthians 4:1-5).

And here, I believe we are given the basic principles for a balanced view of preachers and teachers and spiritual leaders in the church—seeing them neither too highly, nor too lowly, but just right; and all in such a way that the Lord Jesus is kept in the central focus, and the people of God are blessed by the ones He gives to serve them.

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Now; I have to tell you—as a preacher, preaching a sermon on how to rightly judge preachers makes me a little nervous. Perhaps it should. But I definitely see the importance of doing so. I am supposing that one of the most important things about a local church—or even about the church at large—is how it views its preachers. How it views its preachers will be a reflection of how it views the Lord who gave them.

Whenever the church views particular preachers and teachers too highly, it gets into trouble—and so do the preachers and teachers. The people of God begin to divide themselves from one another over their particular preacher, and begin to develop factions against one another—creating entire movements under that preacher and calling themselves by that preacher’s name. Sometimes, they grow to rely too highly on that preacher’s interpretations of Scripture—or even too highly on that preacher’s theological speculations; and end up believing and doing things that the Bible never taught. And the preachers or teachers themselves—being human—often thus become tempted to draw followings around themselves; and in the process, to turn the eyes of the people away from Jesus and on to themselves. Sometimes, when they are viewed too highly, preachers and teachers even begin to allow secret moral compromises into their lives—and expect that those sins will be overlooked because of their esteemed position.

Or let’s look at it in the other direction. Whenever the church holds too low a view of its preachers or teachers, it often fails to listen to them and to gain the benefit that God meant for them to receive from their shepherding ministries. When preachers and teachers are being measured by human standards—that is, by whether or not they are as good as the professional entertainers of this world, or by whether or not they say things that match up with what worldly-wise ‘experts’ are saying—then the people of God will fail to hear from them the hard and truly ‘other-worldly’ things from God’s word that they need to hear. The church then becomes tempted to demand that its preachers or teachers compromise the truth from God in order to satisfy their cravings. And likewise, the preachers and teachers themselves begin to be tempted to give in and gratify those desires.

And the whole time long, the truth of God is not being heard; and the Lord Jesus Christ is not being kept in first place; and the church fails to be the witness to this world that God means for it to be. What a harmful thing a wrong view of the church’s preachers and teachers can be!

As a pastor and teacher, I know that my role does not make me any better than anyone else in the church. And I’m thankful that you know that also. I am not more of a ‘super-powered’ Christian than anyone else because of my role of service; nor does the Lord Jesus love me more than He loves any other of His redeemed saints because I am a pastor. But at the same time, my role in the body of Christ is an important and significant one. And I’m thankful that you believe that too. You might be able to do without me; but we both know you wouldn’t be able to do without the role that happens to be fulfilled by me Nor would any other church be able to do without the pastor God gives to it. My own work of viewing my role properly makes it possible for me to serve you in the way that I should; and your work of viewing my role properly makes it possible for you to gain the benefit of my service; and together, we keep our focus our Lord Jesus Christ, grow together in Him, hear from His word, and keep Him in first place.

So; Paul’s instruction to us in this passage is truly important. It teaches us that we must judge Christian ministers according to truly godly standards—neither too highly, nor too lowly, but just right. And what’s more, I believe we can rightly extend that same principle to every other role of ministry within the church family.

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So then; how should the preacher be viewed? What are the fundamental principles that Paul gives us in this passage? I see five things. And the first is that we are to view the church’s preachers …

1. AS WHAT GOD SAYS THEY TRULY ARE.

In verse 1, Paul spoke concerning these apostolic teachers—good godly teachers such as himself or Apollos or Peter—that the people of God were either over-esteeming or disregarding; and he wrote, “Let a man so consider us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.“

In these words, Paul called the people to view the spiritual leaders God gives to them in a remarkable way—certainly in a way that no self-respecting Greek philosopher or leader of a great humanist movement would have ever thought to be considered in their day. First, Paul called the believers to think of their preachers as “servants of Christ”. The word that Paul used for “servants” is the word that basically means “under-rowers”. Originally, this word spoke of someone who served in a ship—as one of the body of rowers who rowed at the command of the coxswain or to the beat of the drum. Eventually, it came to mean any kind of ‘helper’ or ‘servant’ who worked under someone else’s command. Such a servant was ‘under’ the command of someone else; and so, it shouldn’t be the servant that gets the attention or the esteem. What a way for Paul and the others to be thought of!—as just the ‘under-rowers’ of the Lord Jesus!—as just the helpers that serve under His command!—as just mere rowers who row at His call!

Second, Paul called the believers to think of himself and the other spiritual leaders as “stewards of the mysteries of Christ”. A ‘steward’ was basically a household manager. It is certainly a step above an ‘under-rower’; because a household manager would at least have the authority to give orders to others who served under him. But he would still be the servant of another—managing, and distributing, and giving out orders concerning that which had been entrusted to his care by the master of the household. And that’s all that Paul said that he and the others were—the ‘stewards’ of what belonged to the Lord Jesus, and the dispensers of that which had been entrusted to them by Him to give out to His people.

Paul said that he and the others—and indeed, all faithful preachers and teachers—where stewards of ‘the mysteries of God’. Paul made reference to those mysteries in Chapter 2 when he said;

… we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written:
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit (2:7-10).

What are those ‘mysteries’? They are the great truths of the gospel of Jesus—of our salvation in Him, of our completeness in Him, and of our glorious destiny in Him. They aren’t things that Paul and the others created. Rather, they were great truths that God revealed, and that He gave to His servants to pass on to His people—recorded for us in the Scriptures. And so; that’s all a true preacher is. He is a mere servant of the Lord Jesus, and a household steward of that which the Lord Jesus gives to pass on to His people for their blessedness and service.

And just think. If the whole church faithfully believed that way with regard to its ministers and teachers and preachers, it would pretty much eliminate any divisions over them; wouldn’t it?

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A second principle Paul gave us is that the pastor or preacher or teacher must be judged …

2. FOR THE THING THAT IS MOST ESSENTIAL.

Very often, pastors or preachers are judged for things that are not essential—for their educational background, or their pulpit manner, or their entertaining presence, or their administrative skills, or their refined style, or for the large crowds they draw. Those are all good things; but they are not the essential thing. Paul tells us what that one, great, essential thing is in verse 2; where he says, “Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful.”

A faithful steward is one who the master can trust to do what he has been commanded to do—to keep on doing it even when it’s hard to do—and to distribute that which he has been ordered to distribute to the rest of the household even when some don’t want or appreciate it. And that is something that the Lord Jesus has already told us that He values very much in His pastors. In Matthew 24, He spoke of the promise of His return to this earth one day; and He said,

“Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing. Assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods” (Matthew 24:45-47).

So, dear brothers and sisters; that’s what ought to be valued most of all in a preacher or teacher. It’s not that he preaches entertainingly, or is an influential leader in the community, or is good looking—although those things aren’t necessarily bad. But rather, it’s that he is faithful—faithfully feeding God’s people with the truth of God’s word—faithfully giving to them what God has given for them to have—faithfully doing what his Lord and Master has sent him forth to do.

Paul was a great example of this. He once gathered a group of pastors together and told them that he was going away and that they would never see him again. He was on his way to other frontiers of service at the Lord’s call. And he said,

Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:26-27).

What a great thing to be able to say. May every pastor be able to say that! That’s how we should measure a pastor. Is he faithful? Has he given forth the whole counsel of God in his preaching and teaching ministry? If a church has a preacher who faithfully, accurately, uncompromisingly proclaims the word of God, then they have a pastor who possesses the one quality that is most essential in a steward of God’s truth.

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Another principle of rightly assessing a pastor has to do with the criteria used; that is …

3. NEVER BY MERE HUMAN EVALUATIONS.

Faithful pastors and teachers are a spiritual gift to God’s church. And as a spiritual gift, they should never be measured by merely human standards of evaluation. Sadly, however, they often are—and as a result, the health and well-being of God’s household are often brought to harm.

Paul illustrated this to us in verse three when he wrote, “But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you …” That may sound at first as if Paul was being arrogant—as if he was saying that he didn’t care what anyone thought of him. Sometimes, you’ll run into a preacher who has that kind of an attitude. But I don’t think that’s what Paul means. Taken in the context of this whole section of 1 Corinthians, he meant that he didn’t allow himself to be governed and guided by the worldly way that the Corinthians were evaluating their preachers and teachers. We get a hint of how they were thinking in 2 Corinthians 10:10. He quoted what some where saying about him;

“For his letters,” they say, “are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible” (2 Corinthians 10:10).

And do you know what? Maybe what they were saying was true. Maybe Paul wasn’t very impressive to look at; and maybe he wasn’t a particularly good speaker. But those weren’t the essential things; where they? And Paul said that when it came to his faithfulness in ministry, it was “a very small thing” to him that he should be judged by them in such a way. It probably meant something to him—but in the end, it was the least thing that he was concerned about.

Nor, as he wrote, was it a big matter to him to be judged “by a human court”—or, as it is in the original language—a human ‘day’. He wasn’t concerned about the styles and evaluations of human fashion or worldly wisdom. “In fact,”, he said, “I do not even judge myself.” That didn’t mean that he never considered or evaluated himself. He did. In fact, he once testified that he was ‘the chief of sinners’. But it was in that very context that he also said;

And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief (1 Timothy 1:12-13).

The Lord Jesus doesn’t measure His ministers on the basis of their worth according to human standards and estimations. If He did, then He never would have given the great ministry of bringing the gospel to the Gentiles into the hand of a former-blasphemer and former-persecutor of the church and a formerly-arrogant man! In fact, none of us would be called to service! But praise Him!—our Master doesn’t measure things according to such human standards!

And neither should we.

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And that leads us to another principle of how to judge the ministers that our Lord puts into His service. As Paul tells us in verse 4, it should be …

4. IN SUBMISSION TO THE ONE TRUE JUDGE.

Paul wrote, “For I know of nothing against myself …” And what we can take him to mean in this is that, as far as evaluating himself, he knew of nothing lacking in his ministry. As far as he could tell—with an honest review of himself—he could testify that there was nothing that would warrant him being judged poorly in his service to the Lord. Oh, that all of us who are in the Lord’s service could say the same thing!

But then, he adds, “yet I am not justified by this …”; that is, he wasn’t approved merely by the fact that he knew nothing against himself. It wasn’t his positive self-evaluation that justified him; because he could easily have been mistaken in that evaluation. Nor was he justified by the fact that he didn’t see anything short-fallen in his ministry; because he could easily have missed something. Rather, he says, “but He who judges me is the Lord.” That’s the one to whom he owed an accounting for his ministry.

When I think of these words of Paul’s, I also think of what he said in Romans 14. He was speaking there of how Christians were judging one another on the basis of morally neutral matters—such as who eats what kinds of foods, or what day someone observes before the Lord. He told those Christians;

Who are you to judge another’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand (Romans 14:4).

That’s a good principle to follow; don’t you think? I don’t believe that this should be taken to mean that a preacher or a teacher or a minister or spiritual leader is ever exempt from examination with regard to true matters of personal holiness. If a pastor is immoral for example, or if he behaves in such a way as to prove dishonest in his daily dealings, or if he is found to have misappropriated funds, or if he is found to have embraced heretical beliefs, he must be held accountable. But when it comes to things like style of preaching, or personal habits of ministry, or the particular direction he feels led toward in preaching and teaching from God’s word, we shouldn’t judge him. We should trust that he is doing what the Spirit of the Lord directs him to do. We should pray for him to follow the Lord’s lead; and we should also trust that where he needs to grow—if he needs to grow in any particular area at all—the Lord will help him grow.

Who are we to judge the servant of our Lord? That’s our Lord’s job; and we should submit ourselves to His judgment regarding the ministers He calls to serve us. We will gain much more from those ministers if we do.

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And finally, we should reserve our judgment until …

5. ONLY AFTER ALL THE FACTS ARE IN.

In verse 5, Paul wrote, “ Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each one’s praise will come from God.”

Not before ‘the time’! Paul spoke of this ‘time’ in Chapter 3; when he wrote,

For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire (3:11-15).

All too often, we’re far to eager to pass a preacher’s work through our own ‘fire’ of judgment. But we’re not really equipped to do so. Only our Lord Jesus will be able to weigh all the facts when it comes to that preacher’s ministry; and only He will be able to weigh the motives with equity. And on that coming ‘day’ of review, all the hidden things of darkness will be brought to light, and all the secret counsels of the heart will be revealed. We will say, “Oh! I had no idea! That was why they did what they did! That was why they brought that particular emphasis to things! That’s what they were going through personally that tested them, and refined them, and prepared them to preach just exactly what I needed to hear!”

In fact, I wonder if we won’t even say, “Oh! I didn’t even realize what it was—at the time—that the Lord was doing in my own life! No wonder He gave me that particular pastor at that particular time of my life to challenge me in that particular way! If only I had known the full truth, I would not have judged the preacher so wrongly!”

Knowing that this will be so, it’s best then for us to withhold judgment as much as we can now—until all the facts are in on that day. Surely, we will behold the sight of many receiving their praise from the Lord that we thought were doing things wrong; and we will repent of our own poor judgment.

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I hope that we can see from all this that we truly do harm to ourselves, to the body of Christ, to the ministers that the Lord Jesus provides to us—and even to our witness to the Lord in the world—when we wrongly evaluate the preachers and pastors He gives us. We ought not estimate them either too highly, or too lowly. Rather, we should evaluate them by the kind of standards that are set before us in this passage: (1) seeing them as the Lord’s servants, and as household stewards of the mysteries of God; (2) looking for the essential quality of faithfulness above all else; (3) never measuring the appointed servants of God by worldly, human-based standards; (4) always submitting our own judgment to the evaluation of the one true Judge; and (5), humbly reserving our judgment until the day of the Lord—when all the truth will be known.

I believe that if we do this, we will be keeping the Lord first in our focus—and will be gaining the greatest benefit from those that He gives to serve His people.

AE