It’s a Hard Fall from a High Horse

“For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou had not received it?…..”For Thou wilt save the afflicted people; but wilt bring down high looks.”  I Corinthians 4:7; Psalms 18:27

In the passage that follows I Corinthians 4:7, Paul was contrasting the attitude and behavior of some of the church members in Corinth with that of himself and other gospel preachers.  He did not go easy on the Corinthian church members.  Some of their leaders had mounted their “high horses” in order to be able to look down upon the rest of the congregation as dictators assume control over the masses.  They had no authority to do this.  They were no more important or honored than the weakest member of the church, the little old lady in a wheelchair who couldn’t attend services but prayed for them at home.  Their wealth, intellect, and/or leadership skills had been given to them by Jesus.  They did not “pull themselves up by their own bootstraps”, that is, any accomplishments that they made were with the help of the Lord, and not on their own effort.  Most people don’t think about how God provides everything we need to sustain life.  If God removed oxygen from the earth, we would all be dead in a matter of minutes!  Folks take it for granted that the sun will shine, the earth will rotate on its axis, and the oceans will stay in their boundaries.  Those who do not believe in God will still go about their day receiving His blessings yet never giving Him the honor and respect that is due to Him.  People glory in, that is, take credit for things that they had nothing to do with.

These high-minded people believed they knew everything they needed to know about the gospel and Christ and were living on the “mountain top”.  Paul told them that he wished that they were correct because he would be right there with them, basking in the glow of those who have made Christ Lord over all.  However, Paul knew that no one ever attains perfect spiritual maturity.  If there was anyone who was close to that goal, it would have been Paul.  Is it not the goal of the believer to be as close to Christ in likeness as is possible for a human?  How many believers actually strive for excellence in their faith?

To contrast the difference between these boastful church members and those who serve the Lord as preachers, apostles, teachers, and missionaries, these church members may have held important positions in the church, but unlike the preachers and evangelists, they didn’t normally “get their hands dirty”.  In other words, they didn’t suffer the burdens, hardships, persecutions, and difficulties which those in the trenches endured as they carried the gospel.  It was a dangerous task to be a preacher of the gospel in Paul’s day.  They were “sheep among wolves”, as Jesus had warned His disciples (Matthew 10:16).  They might as well of had a bullseye embroidered on the back of their garments.  Paul stated that he and his fellow preachers were put on display for all the world to mock and use as sport, to be stared at by people and angels alike.  It is no different today.  In some third world countries, preachers are imprisoned for preaching the gospel, and in some western countries, they are forbidden from preaching certain parts of scripture which doesn’t align with the “politically correct” or “woke” crowd.  This only verifies that the gospel is a dynamic and powerful force of which the world desires to destroy, but, praise be to God, they will never succeed in their attempts.

From the behavior of these church members, we have to wonder if they actually knew the Lord.  They thought their eloquence and human wisdom put themselves on a higher level than that of Paul, Apollos, and Cephas, men who gave up everything to preach the gospel and win souls to Christ. Perhaps these were some of the people that Jesus identified as workers of iniquity who believed their “good” works would earn them a place in His kingdom.  However, He said that He would turn them away (Matthew 7:21-23).   These dedicated men of God suffered at times lacking food and water, clothes, and a roof over their heads.  Much of the time they had to work manual labor in order to support themselves because many of the churches either lacked funds or refused to support them financially.  They didn’t complain because they knew that the Lord would take care of them and bless them for their efforts.  They even asked God to bless those, that is, to favor with good things, those who would not support them.  No matter the loving responses of these men of God toward those who hated them, they were still treated like dirt and filth, nothing more than sludge at the bottom of a pond.  Much of this treatment was from those who claimed to be Christians!

It was not Paul’s intent to lay a “guilt trip” on the members at Corinth.  He did not like divisiveness, and the actions of these people were causing division in the church.  He wanted to bring them together for the one main purpose of worshipping the Lord and honoring Him in unity.  Paul considered himself their father in the faith for he was the one who had brought the gospel to them.  They had made it all about themselves, but he wanted them to make it all about Christ.  He urged the members to be like him, an example of commitment and dedication to Christ and the spread of the gospel.  Of course he was not suggesting that they become his followers, but that they follow his example in how he followed Christ as his Lord and Savior.