Servant Stewards

Life after Pentecost (III)

I Corinthians 4:1-7

Do you remember from your school days, when the teacher left the classroom for a moment after appointing some student to watch the class and keep it silent? You heard the teacher saying, “While I’m gone there will be no talking.” You thought to yourself, “She must be joking; we are 2^nd graders and we love to talk.”

I did not like the fact that she usually gave this important job to a student who was her favorite! This student was called the “overseer” or hesgich in Armenian. That little student became empowered by the teacher. He/she had the power to write our names on the board. This meant punishment. This meant losing our favorite time, the recess. I did not like this approach of empowering a student who can manipulate his/her position.

This is the case with the First Century church of Corinth. We discussed Unity in church (June 3) and demonstrating God’s Spirit (June 10). Today we move on and we find the power of the Holy Spirit empowering the leaders in facing danger. It seems there was a problem in the First Century church of Corinth. Besides being divided amongst themselves, the members and leaders were jealous of each other, and proud of their positions. So, after three chapters about important issues we discussed last two weeks, Paul moves on to two words that are important in the life of the church: servant and steward.

1- Servant.

Obviously, the Corinthians became arrogant “Christian servants”.

Let us read verses 8-13.

“Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! You have become kings—and that without us! How I wish that you really had become kings so that we might be kings with you! ⁹For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like men condemned to die in the arena. ….. ¹⁰We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored! ^…… Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world.”

These verses indicate that the church of Corinth missed the point in being empowered by God to serve. Paul is disturbed by their pride, their self-satisfaction, their superiority. To explain his point, Paul chooses a picture that the Corinthian people will easily understand. He likens the proud people to a Roman General, who came from the war, parading in the city, dragging behind him slaves that will eventually die in the arena fighting with wild beasts. These are strong words by Paul. One thing is obvious that Paul is strict but gentle. I like the way he writes to instruct them. In verse 14 he says, “I am not writing this to shame you, but to warn you, as my dear children.”

Therefore, Paul describes himself as servant. Let me tell you what it means to be a servant:

The word servant in Greek is huperetes, which means “under-rowers.” Those people who are at the lowest level of the ship who take orders from above to row the ship. Please picture with me how important a role these men have for moving the ship. They have to synchronize with each other. If not, the ship will go in circles heading nowhere. For the ship to go forward, the rowers have to obey the commands that come from above.

“So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of God.” (1) This means one of the signs of the Christian who is empowered by the Holy Spirit is to be a servant. This means we are not serving ourselves, or just our family, just our church, we are serving Christ. If we serve Christ, others will see Christ in us. Paul uses the expression that the “secret things of God” are entrusted to us. The “secret” is Jesus Christ revealed to us. Jesus said, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” Whatever was hidden now is appeared in Christ. IF we are empowered by him, we need to serve him as the under-rowers who get the command from above. Paul, the apostle, the boss, is saying, “Hey guys, I am like you, learning to get the command from my commander. Look at my life, and learn from my life.”

We will continue in English.