I Corinthians 4:1-5
“Whose Judgment?”
February 27, 2011 - Eighth Sunday after Epiphany

         We stood in the middle of our first apartment and admired the freshly painted walls by the light of the lamps we had dragged in. In low cost married student housing, we had to paint the empty place ourselves before we moved in the furniture. We had worked all evening and were exhausted, but it looked beautiful, clean and fresh, covering all the dirt and grime of the people who lived there before.

         When we got up the next morning and saw our paint job by fresh sunlight streaming in through the windows it was a different story. What had seemed perfect by the illumination of a couple bare light bulbs was actually full of streaks and missed places where the old ugly color still showed through, especially in the bathroom where we had painted over wall paper. It took a second coat in daylight before it was O.K.

         At the end of our text, Paul says the Lord “will bring to light what is hidden in darkness.” He’s thinking of the great judgment that will take place when Christ returns, when God looks at all our paint jobs in the clear light of day. Jesus said in Matthew 10:26, “There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, nothing hidden that will not be revealed.” Whatever we do is going to show up for what it really is in the end, as we heard last week about the quality of materials we use in building up each other in the church.

         Paul is concerned here about that final, revealing judgment because of how he sees himself and his fellow apostles in verse 1. “This, then, is how you ought to regard us: as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the mysteries of God.” “Servants” here is neither of the usual words, not douloi, which means “slaves,” nor diakonoi, from which we get “deacons.” No, it’s hyperetas, a more rare word that designates those who act with authority under orders. It means a free person rather than a slave, acting directly as an assistant on behalf of the person in charge.

         Verse 1 is not so much Paul downplaying his authority as it is clarifying that he and the other apostles are like the first officer on the Starship Enterprise or like the President’s Chief of Staff. They serve directly on behalf of and in relation to the will of the one in charge, who for them is Christ.

         Likewise, that phrase “as those entrusted” designates someone placed in charge of a household on behalf of the owner. “Stewards” is the old word. Our modern word “manager” gets something of the idea. Paul wants to say that those who serve Jesus by preaching the “mysteries of God,” which means the Gospel,” are acting directly for and on behalf of Jesus. As he goes on to say, we should be careful in judging too quickly a person who serves Christ in that kind of role.

         Verse 2 tells us that Paul’s authority in relation to the Lord has not gone to his head. “Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.” The King James version may get it best here, “It is required in stewards, that they be found faithful.” If the apostles really are working directly for Jesus Himself, then you can be sure the Lord Himself will hold them accountable, will expect them to be faithful.

         Let’s consider the ways in which we also have been placed in stewardship of something or even of someone on the Lord’s behalf. At the least, we’ve each been made a steward of our own lives, our own selves. We’ve been entrusted with abilities and talents and time and resources, all of which Christ our Lord expects us to employ faithfully for Him.

         Many of us have been entrusted with the care and stewarding of at least one other life in a marriage. Some of us have been given the incredibly precious trust of children, and our Lord expects us to prove faithful in our care and stewardship of their lives for His sake. As we heard last week, all of us have been given stewardship in the care and building up of each other’s lives in our Lord’s church.

         Some of you have been given places of leadership in the church, whether it’s in worship or on our church council or in teaching a Sunday School class or home fellowship group. You may be leading a ministry like our warming center site or the family shelter. You may be writing cards to visitors or to church people who need encouragement and love. You may be cooking and sharing food. To whatever God has called you, you’ve been made a steward, a manager of the mystery of what Jesus is doing in this world. And Paul says that stewards are expected to be faithful.

         Who will pass judgment on your stewardship, decide if you’ve been faithful? In verse 3, Paul declares, “I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court…” As we said, and as we will hear more, he’s looking ahead to a very different judgment, to God’s judgment on his stewardship when Jesus comes back.

         This is great good news when we feel under attack as Paul felt under attack by his critics in Corinth. There are many voices of criticism around us even among family and friends; even in the church. Like Paul you and I can focus on being ready for the Lord’s judgment rather than being torn down and depressed by all the critical words we hear.

         Paul also adds, “indeed, I do not even judge myself,” a marvelous word for those of us who struggle with an inner voice of self-criticism. It’s the Lord’s judgment with which we must be concerned, not our own negative views about ourselves.

         This freedom from fear of judgment fits with what we heard from Jesus in the Gospel reading of the end of Matthew 6. He invites us not to be anxious about our lives in this world, but to seek and trust in God’s kingdom. It’s also no surprise that the very next thing Jesus said in Matthew 7 verse 1 was, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.” Ultimate judgment, that piercing light which shows up all the streaky spots we missed when painting the walls of our lives, that judgment is reserved for the Lord.

         So Paul says with complete confidence, “My conscience is clear…” We will talk about this when we start to look into Romans in a couple weeks. Paul is no Martin Luther, tortured by horrible guilt and a sense that he is a hopeless sinner. As Protestants, we may read Paul through Luther’s glasses and get the idea his gospel of grace is all about getting free from torturing guilt.

         The fact is Paul was pretty confident of his own goodness, his observance of the Jewish Law, and his righteousness before God. His problem was not a guilty conscience. But he did know what he says here, “that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me.” What matters to Paul is not so much getting free from guilt as it is being faithful before the Lord to the grace which he has received.

         Which all helps clear up misunderstandings around the idea of judging and whether or not you and I are supposed to do it. Sometimes we read what Paul says here and what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount and get the notion that you and I are never to make any judgments about anyone else. We take Jesus’ “Judge not…” and Paul’s “…judge nothing…” as absolute commands that forbid us to evaluate or critique what anyone else does or says in any way. We ask “Why does the Lord tell us not to judge when He does it?” In other words, if it’s not good to pass judgment on one another, why is it O.K. for Jesus to do it?

         Neither Jesus nor Paul mean to forbid all kinds of judging between human beings. In the very next chapter, I Corinthians 5:12, talking about cases of sexual immorality in the church that were being ignored, Paul refrains from judging those outside the church but asks, “Are you not to judge those inside?” And in chapter 6, talking about lawsuits between church members, he says, “Do you not know that the Lord’s people will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases?”

         There must be two different kinds of judgment in view. In the first kind, we are clearly to judge and even punish those who visibly do wrong and hurt others, especially if they damage the community of the church.

         There is no problem in the arrest, trial and judgment of a person like Angela McAnulty, who betrayed her parental stewardship of her daughter in a horrifying way. We might disagree on whether death or a life sentence is the right judgment, but no one doubts that judgment is appropriate. Judging the wrong, hurtful actions of others to protect society and to protect the Lord’s church is appropriate.

         No, what Paul and Jesus condemned is a second and all together different kind of judgment which usurps God’s place and pretends to know the motivations and hearts of people. We may judge and address wrong actions, but judgment of the soul belongs to the Lord. Judging a person’s inner life is especially wrong when it’s another Christian.

         For another year or so I sit on our Covenant Board of Ministry. Part of what we do is hear discipline cases for pastors who have been unfaithful to the trust placed in them by their congregations. False doctrine, sexual misconduct, financial misdeeds and other abuses of the pastoral office are all addressed and judged. We hold each other accountable to the stewardship God has given us of Jesus’ church. We judge.

         Yet for the rest of us who like Paul have relative clear consciences, judgment will wait till that Day when the light of Jesus Christ shines so brightly that what’s actually inside us will be revealed. Our clear consciences don’t mean we are completely innocent. It only means that we have tried to be faithful to our stewardship and not deliberately betrayed it. Only God’s judgment, not human judgment, will show how well we’ve done.

         It’s true for all of us, not just apostles and pastors. Human courts and judgment will hold us accountable for gross and flagrant misbehavior, but the ultimate verdict on our hearts and souls belongs to Christ our Lord. That should, at one and the same time, be both reassuring and challenging.

         The reassurance lies in the fact, that like Paul we don’t have to worry so much, to be anxious as Jesus says, about what other human beings think and say about us. Judgmental people have no power over us. We don’t even have to succumb to the torments of our own self-judgment. As Paul says in Romans 8:31, “If God is for us, who can be against us? …Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then can condemn? No one.”

         On the other hand, the challenge is, as Paul says here, and over and over in his letters, that we will be judged by God for all the we are and all that we do. Like painting in the evening by electric light, we must work as hard as we can to get it right, to be faithful stewards of whatever God has entrusted to us, because the morning is coming when all that we’ve missed will show up.

         Paying little attention to human judgment should not make us complacent about God’s judgment. The Day is coming. If we paint our lives with sloppy strokes we may fool everyone including ourselves as long it’s dark outside. But when the great Son of God dawns upon our world and upon our lives, everything will be visible. We do well to live in a little holy fear as we draw the roller up and down our spiritual walls.

         Yet for all that, neither what Jesus said to us in the Gospel, nor what Isaiah 49 said about God comforting his people in the Day of Salvation, nor Paul’s attitude here calls us to live in terror of God’s judgment. What Paul pictures is not a wholesale condemnation of all our efforts, no matter how good we think them, but instead at the end of verse 5, “At that time each will receive their praise from God.”

         In “The Weight of Glory,” an essay full of insight, C. S. Lewis grasped what Scripture means when it talks about the glory you and I will enjoy in God’s kingdom. Our glory as human beings will ultimately be found in approval and praise from God for the lives we paint with all those faulty and incomplete strokes. When we enjoy God’s approval unmixed with the approval of others or our own self-approval, that is when we will finally feel whole and complete and at home with ourselves and with others. That will be glory.

         That’s why we do not judge others. So we won’t tempt each other to be satisfied merely with the praise we give one another. That’s why Paul suggests we don’t even judge our own selves. So we won’t be misled into mistaking our own self-approval for what we really want. We “judge nothing before the appointed time” because we are waiting for that time when our great Judge will judge us and yes, praise us for being faithful. It’s that approval, and that approval alone which will bring us glory and joy.

         Let’s consider then how to be faithful stewards of what God has entrusted to us. Let’s manage well the lives and jobs and possessions and marriages and children and all the opportunities and leadership roles with which He’s trusted us. And when the Day of His coming dawns, may it reveal, along with the inevitable flaws, some true faithfulness.

         Amen.

Valley Covenant Church
Eugene/Springfield, Oregon
Copyright © 2011 by Stephen S. Bilynskyj