Last night I was at Cronulla Presbyterian Church listening to a sermon by Ian Stenhouse on 1 Corinthians 4. He opened by stressing the importance of having a proper opinion of oneself, illustrating this from the way Paul spoke about himself. Ian, drawing from an article by John Piper, drew attention to John Owen, whom Ian described as possibly the greatest English language theologian and certainly a man of immense stature and influence in his own time. Two days before he died he wrote in a letter to Charles Fleetwood,
I am leaving the ship of the Church in a storm, but while the great Pilot is in it the loss of a poor under-rower will be inconsiderable.
Explaining the image of the under-rower Ian asked us to think about the slave in the Roman galleys, rowing from below deck - images of Ben Hur as a galley slave come to mind. That’s how John Owen saw himself, as a slave, an under-rower in the Lord’s service. That too was how Paul said others should regard him, as a slave of Christ who had no rights other than to do what was demanded of him - to fulfil his trust of properly handling “the secret things of God” (1 Corinthians 4:1).
It’s a great image, isn’t it? Paul switches to a somewhat image when he thinks of himself as one condemned to die in the gladiatorial arena. Paul was no stranger to being brutally treated, cursed and slandered. But he has no illusions about the fact that God himself had “put us apostles on display” in this way (v9). Yet, remarkably, in confronting the arrogance of Corinthian Christians who equated spirituality with the good life, Paul warns that when he visits them he will come with all the power he possesses as an apostle committed to the kingdom of God:
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power (v20).
The kingdom of God is the dynamic reign of God, the lordship exercised by Jesus. It is precisely because Paul is prepared to accept whatever hardships are involved in living as the slave of Christ that he is such an instrument of power in the Lord’s hands.
Posted August 11, 2008
Upon clicking 'Buy now' you will be redirected to paypal.com where you can securely and quickly complete your purchase with a few clicks.
Immediately after payment at PayPal you will be redirected to a download page which
provides you instant access to your purchase.
