But then, if this was the case, what was the real position of Paul and Apollos, and others like them? How were they to be accounted of? They were servants of Christ, stewards of the mysteries of God (cp. Matt. 24:45-4745Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? 46Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. 47Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods. (Matthew 24:45‑47); Luke 12:42-4442And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season? 43Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. 44Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath. (Luke 12:42‑44)). They were labourers in the vineyard, builders in the building, but the husbandry was God’s, and the temple was God’s. Moreover, if stewards, they must be found faithful. As to this, the judgment of the saints, or of man, was a small matter. This was man’s day; they might judge of him as they liked. In a matter like this, he had not even confidence in his own judgment, but he so walked in the presence of the Lord, that the Lord’s judgment of him every day was his greatest delight; and as to all the rest; the Lord was coming, who would bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and would make manifest the counsels of the heart, and in that day should every man have praise of God. Thus the apostle always walked in the light of the judgment seat of Christ, where all questions betwixt brethren would be settled (Rom. 14:10-1210But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. 11For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. 12So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. (Romans 14:10‑12)), where every workman would receive his reward or suffer loss (1 Cor. 3:1414If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. (1 Corinthians 3:14)), and where everything would be manifested (2 Cor. 5:1010For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. (2 Corinthians 5:10)). If the Lord judged him every day now, and he loved it, it would be no different then. What a blessing, and what confidence, thus to walk before the Lord! This is our pathway, though not all stewards. A saint is not a happy saint who does not walk in the full light of the judgment seat. That light must shine on him in mercy and love before he dies, for no unjudged flesh can stand there. Hence the saint, instead of glorifying Christ on his deathbed, is often brought to sad self-judgment, and sorrow, and struggles.
Paul had referred to Apollos and himself in all these things (ch. 3:4, 5), for their sakes, that they might learn in them not to think of men above what was written, nor be puffed up for one against the other. This was the evil at Corinth. Ministry was beginning to assume a wrong place there. Instead of the thought that ministers were servants, some were wanting to make them lords. Hence a puffing up. But who made them to differ one from the other? What had any one, but what he received from God? They were glorying as if they had not received it. They were rejoicing in their privileges, in their gifts, reigning as kings, anticipating the kingdom which would not be set up actually till the Lord came, and he would to God that that time had come, that he might reign with them. Instead of its being the time for reigning, it was the time for suffering, for Christ was rejected, and God had set them the apostles last, appointed unto death, a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. To have Christ as wisdom, was to be a fool in the world; to have Him as our strength, was to be weak before the world. They were often even hungry, thirsty, naked, buffeted, having no certain dwelling-place. They laboured, working with their own hands, reviled, they blessed; persecuted, they suffered it; defamed they intreated: they were made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things. Such was the blessed walk of the ministers of Christ of that day! This the Corinthians had forgotten. They took all the privileges as to position, without seeing that they were as a suffering rejected Christ in the world.
Yet all this sharp rebuke, which he was giving them, was all done in love. It was not to shame them, but as his beloved sons to warn them. They might have ten thousand instructors in Christ; it only puffed them up for one against the other. But he was a father, a far better thing; he had begotten them in the gospel. An instructor that does not walk in Paul’s ways, and who does not fall in with the spirit of the gospel, or have fellowship with it, is a poor thing. It tends to puffing up. But real begetting in the gospel, and the calling to remembrance of it, begets love. He besought them to be followers of him. For this cause he had sent unto them his son Timothy, who would bring his ways to remembrance, as he taught in every Assembly. The love and affection of the family of God is thus brought in to correct their ways. Some were puffed up as if the apostle would not come to them, but he would come shortly, and he would test them. They might be full of utterance, but the kingdom of God was not in word, but in power. A man might be full of words, but is there the unction of the Spirit? This was the test. Did they want him to come with a rod or in love?