Servants (1-5)

Paul turns to the heart of how each leader should view themselves—not as celebrities to be idolized but as servants of Christ. The word used for servant here is hyperetas, not the more common Greek word for servant diakonoi. The word hyperetas pictures under-rowers in a ship who, with all other servant-leaders, are not searching for celebrity but are pulling together, revealing the great mystery of Christ, His cross, and the resulting Kingdom (1).

In verse two, Paul changes metaphors and uses the Greek word oikonomois for servants and views leaders as those who are faithful with managing that which belongs to someone else (2).

Paul then explains how he viewed service. He did not evaluate his own motives as good, bad, or needing improvement. Paul did not sense he was competent to evaluate his own motives—only God was capable of that—so neither did Paul allow others to evaluate his motives. Paul was aware that it was Yahweh who examined his motives for ministry; only Yahweh could see that deep into his heart (3-4).

Paul then warns that it was unwise to evaluate the motives of any leader, for the true secret of who they were would be revealed and settled by Christ at His return. Paul was making it clear that he was not judging the motives of leaders; he was judging the activity of making celebrities of leaders and creating division by making some superior to others (5).

Pride and Leadership (6-8)

Paul then begins to use Apollos and himself as examples of what he had been seeking to explain. Paul never named the guilty people—the guilty being those who were seeking to capture attention away from Christ by elevating some human leadership as superior to others. Paul was not judging motives, but he was judging results. He was going to address the problem in this chapter and reveal an approach that would lead them to stay focused on Christ. 

Paul and Apollos were two leaders who did not violate the old saying, “Nothing beyond what is written.” They obeyed the word of God, not their own inclinations or secular opinions. In this way, they were saved from pride, for they considered their lives as not amounting to anything based on their own works. Paul wanted the Corinthians to “learn,” or he wished to disciple the Corinthian church in how to follow Jesus (6).

To Paul, pride answered some important questions concerning what made someone superior to someone else. To be superior, one would have to be able to boast in attaining or achieving something apart from its having been given (7).

The Corinthians viewed themselves with pride as they saw themselves as rich, reigning as kings, and having done so without the help of others (8).

The Life of an Apostle (9-13)

Paul next describes the life of an apostle, the life the Corinthians were going to be called to imitate. 

This description would have been abhorrent to the Greeks. The word “spectacle” conjures images of the gladiatorial games, contrasting one giving his life so others could be strong—enduring the list of hardships, and returning blessing for cursing—all describing the lives of those committed to Christ and His cross.

While the Corinthians were arguing over which celebrity leader was superior to others, Paul told them that he had been experiencing a different kind of life. 

• His profession as an apostle had been on display as last in the list of important professions.

• He had been like a man condemned to die. 

• He had become a public exhibit of God's love for both the world and angels (9).

• He had become a fool—weak and dishonored (10).

• He had been given to deprivations, hard work, and self-support.

• He had been mocked, persecuted, and slandered. 

• He had been treated like garbage and the mud everyone scrapes off their shoes (11-13).

While Paul was living on the back roads of difficulty and in the broken homes of humiliation, the Corinthians were living like kings in a palace. 

They had not paid the price to enjoy the life of Christ the apostles had given to them. They were living in a palace of blessing, imagining that they built their present life in Jesus on their own as they followed their celebrity leaders. Paul was advocating for humility and an appreciation for what they had been given by the hard labor of others.

How Leaders Are Honored (14-17)

Paul then chimes in with a moment of clarification—he was not seeking to change them by shaming them (14). The church was full of those who wanted to teach, be upfront, and announce their opinion. 

Paul was seeking to be a father-leader, one who disciplined those he loved. Paul was their father in Christ as he had birthed the Corinthian church into the gospel (15).

Paul then reveals the secret of how to follow a leader—not by making a celebrity of them but by imitating and following their example of behavior as they followed Jesus. 

Until a relationship with Jesus became a natural part of a person's life, Paul taught believers to follow the behavior of leaders as those leaders followed Jesus (16). This is what made leaders so necessary, not for their followers to idolize them but to study their behavior of following Jesus and then imitate what they were doing. 

This following of another’s example was so important that Paul sent Timothy, his faithful son in the faith, to remind the Corinthians of how his team followed Jesus (17).

Paul Is Coming (18-21)

Paul recognizes that some would not be moved by his letter and would continue idolizing leaders and creating factions, not at all comprehending their responsibility to focus believers on Christ and His pattern for how to live. Some were going to carry on as if Paul was never going to show up (18).

Fathering, not teaching, changes a person. A teacher tells a student what to think. A father shows a child how to live until the son/daughter learns how to do so independently. The fathering pattern was the Jesus-pattern for discipleship. 

Paul assures the Corinthian church that he was coming in the will of God, and when he arrived, he would not be deceived by the words of those who made celebrities of leaders but would see right through them to the power of what they were preaching. Their words would either be Kingdom-powerful or pretentious, producing nothing; Paul would confirm the power of their message when he arrived (19).

Paul then tells the Corinthians that the gospel of the Kingdom was not just a bunch of hot air blustering the air with sounds, but it was a message releasing the power of the living God. The gospel of the Kingdom created visible manifestations of God's presence (20).

In boldness, Paul then asks his readers to decide how he should come: to discipline their pride or in warm love and reassuring words (21).