Daily Bread 2011 - 1 Corinthians 4
Daily Bread 2011 – 1 Corinthians 4
14 I am not writing this to shame you, but to warn you, as my dear children. 15 Even though you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. 16 Therefore I urge you to imitate me. 17 For this reason I am sending to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church.
What Does This Mean?
Paul uses the term 10,000 guardians in Christ, meaning there were many who wanted to act as their disciplinarians (i.e. tell them what to do!), but they didn’t have many fathers like him. The difference is like someone who wants to give you advice or take your inventory, versus someone who is willing to invest their life in you to help you become the person God made you to be. The word for guardian is also the word for “tutor”, someone who dispenses teaching, but doesn’t necessarily walk alongside in development.
Paul distinguishes between true discipleship where someone says, “imitate me as I imitate Christ”, from “you need to do all this to be a “good Christian”. This would seem odd coming after the chapter where he warned them to not follow a personality. Importantly Paul says, “Imitate me as I imitate Christ!”, meaning “imitate Christ in me!” Since Paul could not personally come to be with them, he sent the next best thing, his close associate Timothy. Importantly Timothy would remind them of Paul’s way of life. The life of discipleship which was consistent with everything he taught.
What Does This Mean For Us?
This passage has enormous importance for us in the Church. It distinguishes between giving people prescriptions for what they should do, and literally becoming their parent and investing all you have so the person can come to maturity in faith and Christian formation. It is in this sense that Paul was their “father in the faith”. As Paul teaches, he doesn’t give them a bunch of theories which are untested in his own life, he says “copy me, as I try to copy the example that Jesus left for us”.
So the obvious question for you today is who or what are you imitating? Is there anybody’s example that you think deserves imitation? Another question worthy of our consideration is would anybody want to imitate your/my life? Could I say with any degree of confidence, imitate me as I imitate Christ? Whereas some might think that is an arrogant statement, taken in the right way with the right motive it would read, “Imitate the Christ in me, forget the rest”.
Of course if the rest of one’s life is totally inconsistent with a Christ-like life, then there are going to be problems for others in following you. This is challenging for Paul to say this, and obviously he feels comfortable enough with Timothy to commend him to them in the same way. While you or I may not be there yet, it is surely a goal worth pursuing through the grace we have in Jesus Christ.
Heavenly Father continue to good work in our lives and help us to conform to the image of Your Son so we might be able to say, “Imitate me as I imitate Christ” with the full conviction of Your Spirit, Amen.
14 I am not writing this to shame you, but to warn you, as my dear children. 15 Even though you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. 16 Therefore I urge you to imitate me. 17 For this reason I am sending to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church.
What Does This Mean?
Paul uses the term 10,000 guardians in Christ, meaning there were many who wanted to act as their disciplinarians (i.e. tell them what to do!), but they didn’t have many fathers like him. The difference is like someone who wants to give you advice or take your inventory, versus someone who is willing to invest their life in you to help you become the person God made you to be. The word for guardian is also the word for “tutor”, someone who dispenses teaching, but doesn’t necessarily walk alongside in development.
Paul distinguishes between true discipleship where someone says, “imitate me as I imitate Christ”, from “you need to do all this to be a “good Christian”. This would seem odd coming after the chapter where he warned them to not follow a personality. Importantly Paul says, “Imitate me as I imitate Christ!”, meaning “imitate Christ in me!” Since Paul could not personally come to be with them, he sent the next best thing, his close associate Timothy. Importantly Timothy would remind them of Paul’s way of life. The life of discipleship which was consistent with everything he taught.
What Does This Mean For Us?
This passage has enormous importance for us in the Church. It distinguishes between giving people prescriptions for what they should do, and literally becoming their parent and investing all you have so the person can come to maturity in faith and Christian formation. It is in this sense that Paul was their “father in the faith”. As Paul teaches, he doesn’t give them a bunch of theories which are untested in his own life, he says “copy me, as I try to copy the example that Jesus left for us”.
So the obvious question for you today is who or what are you imitating? Is there anybody’s example that you think deserves imitation? Another question worthy of our consideration is would anybody want to imitate your/my life? Could I say with any degree of confidence, imitate me as I imitate Christ? Whereas some might think that is an arrogant statement, taken in the right way with the right motive it would read, “Imitate the Christ in me, forget the rest”.
Of course if the rest of one’s life is totally inconsistent with a Christ-like life, then there are going to be problems for others in following you. This is challenging for Paul to say this, and obviously he feels comfortable enough with Timothy to commend him to them in the same way. While you or I may not be there yet, it is surely a goal worth pursuing through the grace we have in Jesus Christ.
Heavenly Father continue to good work in our lives and help us to conform to the image of Your Son so we might be able to say, “Imitate me as I imitate Christ” with the full conviction of Your Spirit, Amen.
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