Transcription
[Music] Will the Lord be with you? Also with you. If you have a Bible, and I hope that you do, would you turn with me? We are going to be looking at the book of First Corinthians this morning. And we're going to be looking at chapter 4. And we're going to be working through verses 1 to 13 this morning. 1 Corinthians chapter 4:es 1-13.
And through this book, we actually see that it's an epistle or a letter that has been written by the apostle Paul. And he is writing to a church in the city of Corinth. And this is a church in which Paul has actually, um, worked and labored in founding. So he's actually responsible for this church being established on a previous missionary journey. And initially, they they did really well in receiving the gospel and and welcoming Paul and showing him hospitality, where he spent months with these people.
Well, now, as he's on another missionary journey, he's been receiving these reports and letters asking questions and bringing concerns to him about what's going on within this church. And what we find through this letter is that there are multiple problems in the church, specifically that the the city of Corinth and its culture is starting to infiltrate the church. The city of Corinth being a a Greek city, full of multiculturalism and all of these, um, wisdoms and and these, uh, different educations and teachers are coming into this city with people trading and traveling. And what we see is that they start to elevate themselves by prioritizing status and wealth and education and comfort. And they're starting to bring that into the church, where they're no longer viewing one another as equals saved by the grace of God, but rather they're starting to compete with one another.
And what we see that there are certain, um, factions that are starting to form within the church, and we start to see division in the church, where certain individuals are following Apollos, which was an eloquent speaker of the day. Some are looking to Paul as the founder of the church, and others are looking to Cephas, who is Peter, and as an apostle of the church. And so we have all of these different groups that are forming, and they're saying, "Well, I'm really more important because I follow Paul, Apollos, or Peter." And so we see all of this infighting going on in the church, competing over status, over over elevation and comfort and prestige. And so what we see is that Paul is addressing many of these concerns in this letter and calling them to unite around the gospel.
And so for many, um, sections of this book so far, he's been pointing them regularly back to the gospel. That is to Christ crucified. He even says, "I don't come with all of this wisdom of the world, but I come to you with a very simple, humble message, and that is to preach who Christ is and what he did for you." And so he's been calling them to this simple message. And he understands and explains that there are many in this world that are going to view this message to be foolish. But for those who are being saved, they understand that the gospel is the power and the wisdom of God. So it is it is paramount that every church would be gospel-centered, that we would be seeing the gospel in our lives, that it would be proclaimed from our pulpits.
And then so from that, he then goes on to say that we need to then think about our lives and our ministries. He wants us to consider what type of life we are living and and what are we doing with our actions, with our teachings, and with our intentions when it comes to ministry. Because if you notice in chapter 3, what Paul does is he actually addresses the fact that though they have received the gospel previously, they had that good foundation initially, they hadn't grown any, and that they actually were still on milk, where they needed to be at this point on spiritual solid food. And so he starts to rebuke them lovingly and call them to maturity because they aren't going beyond the simple tenets of the faith. They aren't ready for the deeper things of God. And so he's he's getting them to consider their own spiritual status, where they are at in their own growth, in their own faith journey.
And then he also goes on then to explain how we as ministers or as servants, we aren't anything compared to God. And how he says that ultimately, we all are one with one purpose, serving the Lord. And some might be different. Some might water, some might plant, some might till the soil, some might reap the harvest. But ultimately, Paul, Apollos, Cephas, we're all on the same team here. And we're called to preach the gospel, live out the gospel, and grow in our faith and grow in in our understanding of the deeper things of God, because there will be a day where every single Christian will be judged.
Now, this once again, as he talks about this judgment, this isn't about our salvation. For those who are in Christ, we are saved by grace through faith, not of works. However, that does not mean that our works do not matter. And so, he wanted us to consider living a life that has lasting significance. Because one day, every single one of us will be tested. Our works will be tested by fire, Paul says in the text. And if you are building on your life on on the foundation that is Christ, if you're building with these cheap materials, if you're prioritizing things that aren't very important, if you're teaching things that aren't biblical, if you have, um, good actions, but your intentions are not pure, it says that on the day of judgment, Christ is going to look at these things, and he's going to burn them up. They're going to be gone, and you will suffer loss. It says in the text, now this is a believer. This is a saint who will suffer loss if they squander their life in ministry.
But on the flip side, for those who honor the Lord, they seek every day with all that they have, all that they do, they are seeking to glorify God. He says they will then receive a reward. It will be a great reward. Well, now, as we come to chapter 4, Paul is going to continue this thought. And in chapter 4, we kind of are getting to the end of this first section where he's been addressing this division between Apollos and Paul and Peter. And what he's what he's going to get here now is is continuing this theme about reminding them that ultimately, they're servants. But now he's going to start to look specifically about their judgment, about how they are judging one another's lives, judging one another's ministries, because once again, they are trying to compete and say, "Well, my ministry is more important, or I am more valuable to the church because I do this."
And so what he's going to start to address here, as you notice at the beginning in in verse, uh, verses 1 to, um, to six, we see that he actually starts to address these judgmental Christians. And I think what he wants to address specifically is to remind us as the church is that God's judgment is greater than our judgment. See, once again, what Paul starts to unpack for us is that the Corinthians were measuring men and their ministries by their own personal subjective preferences and prejudices. They were looking at someone's life at the a church, at a ministry, and they're saying, based on their standards, on their preferences, what they liked, what they valued, what they were hearing from the city, what the culture was saying should be important. That is how they were determining a a successful, effective, a valuable Christian. And so what he starts to explain for us here is that their judgment is completely off.
And I think it's a humble reminder for us as we think about judgment and these Corinthians specifically looking at their brothers and sisters in Christ and wanting to judge them is that I think we all have a tendency to fall into this trap. See, we all are evaluators. You know, this morning you have evaluated probably most people here this morning. You may have evaluated the church. This morning you were looking to see, okay, what do they have here? What is that person wearing? What did they say to me? Did they not talk to me? Why did they say it like that? You notice we do that about everyone? Or or the very first time you meet someone, you already start to make this story in your head about who they are. And then have you ever done that before? You had like, um, you know, you thought that maybe they were one way, and then you find out that, oh, they're completely different, and you have to rewrite the story in your head, because that's what we're doing. We're already making thousands, if not millions, of evaluations of people, of places, of ministries. We we are doing this regularly.
And on the flip side, we also are all being evaluated. That can be difficult to think about. Not only all that stuff that's going on in your mind is happening, but guess what? Everybody else is also having those thoughts. Now, some are maybe a little bit more severe than others, but ultimately, we all are doing this. We're all evaluating one another. We're looking to see what they're doing, how well they're doing it, why they're doing it. We're we're we're considering all of these things. And what we see in the church of Corinth specifically is that if you allow this to go to an unhealthy level, you start to cultivate within yourself a critical, judgmental spirit. And a critical spirit in a church is a cancer. A church will not grow, thrive, be effective for the kingdom if we have multiple saints starting to judge other saints, starting to lower them and exalt themselves, where they are now placing themselves as the judge.
Because once again, if you notice in verses 1 and 2, it says, "Let a man consider us as servants of Christ." Now, previously he had just used the word ministers, which could be used interchangeably to mean servants. But he says, "I want you to consider us," that is Paul, the apostles, all of these people that they're valuing, Apollos, he says, "I want you to consider us as servants of Christ, as stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required in stewardship that one be found faithful." So he says, "Just look to us as servants who were trying to be faithful." But they were once again, they were elevating themselves and becoming the judges rather than being the servants.
Now, I think it's so important that when we talk about judgment, especially within the church, that there there needs to be a a a helpful qualifier, because not all judgment is wrong. I know that many people whenever we hear about judgment, you know, one of the atheist, the skeptic's favorite Bible verses comes out of Matthew chapter 7, and many of you probably have heard it before. It says in in verses 1 to 2, it says, "Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you." So you might be thinking, "Okay, well, Paul seems to be getting on to these, um, these critical-spirited Christians in Corinth. Jesus says, 'Judge not, that you not be judged.'" But then, if you notice in the context of Matthew, when Jesus is talking about that, he's not talking about judgment wholesale. Rather, he's talking about hypocritical judgment. Those who would have a log or a plank in their eye and then they see their brother who has a speck in their eye and they decide, "You know what, rather than dealing with my huge issues over here, I need to go deal and address their little small issue." See, that's what he's talking about.
And in fact, if you notice, how does Jesus finish that? It's not so the guy with the plank goes away by himself and the guy with the speck goes away by himself, but rather, what are you to do? Take the plank, take the log out of your eye, and then what do you do? Go home. No, then you go to your brother who has the speck. So that means that you must go to the person that does have that problem. It doesn't say let the specks go unaddressed. So what he's saying is that when we talk about judgment, we need to make sure that we're not being hypocrites. You don't have the same issue or a bigger issue, and then you go and maximize your brother or your sister's problems and make the public know all about it.
See, I I think the same thing is going on here with Paul, that he's wanting us to think about this being judgmental rather than being discerning. And so I think there is a place for discernment. In fact, we see that Jesus says in John 7:24, he says, "Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment." Now, once again, Jesus would be, you know, contradicting himself if he was meaning that you can never judge in any circumstance in any case in Matthew 7, whenever he literally says in John 7. So that kind of helps you, Matthew 7, John 7, Gospels, one says judge not, the other one says you must judge, but judge with righteous judgment. Now, of course, how do we judge with righteous judgment? Primarily, what do we do? We look to God's word. We let the Spirit lead us and convict us and reveal the deeper things of God, as we've seen in this letter together.
But I think it goes a step further than that, because we see in 1 John 4:1, it says, "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world." And so now we see this warning about these false teachings, these false doctrines that are coming in. And what he says is that you must test every spirit. That is, that any teaching, any person that is coming into your life, you need to test them. You need to do what we're seeing here. You need to evaluate who they are, what their intentions are, and and what what are they bringing to the table? What are they teaching? Because these things really matter. And so we actually have a duty as Christians to evaluate.
But once again, there's a difference between having discernment in love, speaking the truth in love, and being that critical, judgmental Christian. And by the way, there are times, and this is why discernment in the Spirit's leading is so important. There are things that are going to happen in our lives. There are going to be social issues of our day that the Bible does not specifically address. There are going to be certain things that we have to utilize what God has given us in his wisdom by the Spirit and use discernment to make judgments. That's why he doesn't give us a huge book that literally just keeps growing every single time there's a new social issue of the day. Here's a new page, but rather he gives us these principles to live by that we then must use our discernment to discern what is good and what is wrong.
Because once again, when it comes to IVF or or other topics like that, they didn't have a a a context for that to talk about whether that's good or bad or what are the nuances with that. There are many things like that. Social media today, the Bible doesn't talk about it. Now, it does talk about excess. It talks about certain things like that, addiction, but it doesn't say specifically like how should we as Christians in the modern world utilize Facebook. It just doesn't give us that. And so we have to utilize the principles God has given us and use good and proper righteous judgment.
But of course, if we don't do what we see God calling us to, and if we allow ourselves to fall into that critical category, I think what we will find is that many of us will end up being paralyzed by other people's judgment. Have you ever been that person that's been a people pleaser? You look to other people, you're always so concerned what they are going to think about you. Whether you're being a good Christian, whether you're being a good parent, a good spouse, good at your job. Maybe you didn't graduate high school or college, and you're always thinking to yourself, what other people might be thinking about me. If you allow that to happen, it will and paralyze you. Because the thing is, no matter how hard you try, you're not going to please and impress everyone. You could literally be Jesus Christ, and people would still crucify.
But here's the hope that Paul, I think, offers us is that what we see in this text is that there is an inexhaustible grace for an exhausted world. That is in our judgments of one another. And that when we allow the the judgments of the world to get on our shoulders, it can be exhausting. It can be taxing. But he is offering us grace here that is inexhaustible, that will actually relieve our weary souls. Because what he shows us here is that Jesus is the judge, and we are his servants. And because of that, we then no longer have to be paralyzed by the opinions of others.
Look at how Paul says this in in, uh, in verses 3 to 5. It says, "But with me, it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by a human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself, for I know of nothing against myself, yet I am not justified by this, but he who judges me is the Lord. Therefore, judge nothing before the time until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each one's praise will come from God." So what he's showing us here is that we are to view ourselves and others as servants, but then Jesus is our judge. Why is that? Because we are insufficient judges, because it shows us that God alone sees the hidden things and knows the true motives of the heart. See, you can never condemn another Christian because you don't really know what's going on. You don't know what's happening in their life, what's going on in their heart, their relationship with God. Now, of course, we can discern and bear fruits, right? Right? We we understand there are certain things that we are to look for, but ultimately, we don't have the final say of that believer in their ministry. It's ultimately what God thinks of them and and their ministry.
And what we see is that Jesus will not judge us based on our production. He's going to judge us based on our faithfulness. See, once again, the world is going to highlight how effective you were. How many people did you get into the church? How many people did you baptize? You know, how much money did you make in your life? You know, what's your bank account look like? How big is your house? You know, what how athletic are your children? The world is going to be looking at all of these superficial things, where ultimately what Jesus is going to be doing is he says, "I want you to trust me, and I want you to follow me. I just want you to be faithful. Whatever I give you, just be faithful in that, and that's all you have to worry about." Does that not give you relief? Comfort? Grace? The fact that all I have to do every day when I wake up is just go with God? Just say, "God, your grace is sufficient for me, and I'm going to do my best to follow, serve, and obey you." And I can tell you right now, if you do that, you're going to do all right. And at the end of your life, when you open your eyes in glory, you're going to hear that well done, good and faithful servant.
And so, I think what Paul is starting to show us here is that we are to view ourselves and view others in light of the gospel. In verses 6 to 7, he goes on to explain that that ultimately, we need to remember that all of our ministries, no matter what you receive in this life, it's all of grace. Your salvation is not of your works. It's of grace. Your ministry growth, how successful you are in whatever you do in life, it ultimately is of grace. It's the grace of God. You are to faith or called to faithfulness, but he ultimately is the one who provides the increase. We we read this last week that John says that nothing that we receive can a man bring of himself, but rather it is a gift from God. And so what we see here is that we need to look at one another and stop competing, stop fighting with one another, stop dividing over certain things, stop prioritizing the things of the world. And we need to start to view one another as brothers and sisters who have been called, set apart as saints. And now we are all called to walk and encourage one another to be faithful workers, because we know one day Jesus will judge, and Jesus will judge rightly. And so, therefore, it is far better for us to consider and and reflect on our lives, and we need to receive, or it is far better to receive the approval of Christ than it is to receive the approval of the world.
So then, as we look in verses 8 to 12, Paul then moves on from judgment specifically to really show the distinction between how the Corinthians are living and how the apostles have been living their lives. And I think what we see is that this world is not our home. He starts to address the fact that there are these Corinthians that are getting really comfortable. And you actually notice in, uh, verses 8 and following, he uses some holy sarcasm here because he says, "You are already full. You are already rich. You have reigned as kings without us. And indeed, I could, um, I could wish you did reign, that we also might reign with you." See how Paul is kind of using some holy sarcasm? Because they're living like kings. They have wealth. They have status. They have comfort. They're educated. And so they're thinking that they basically have all that they need. They're not being dependent on the grace of God. Rather, they now have become kings. They have become the judges. And now they are starting to divide over these Christians that they view as inferior.
But Paul goes on to show that that's not how he and all the apostles are living. They aren't living as if they are the kings, as if they are full, that they have all that they need in the world, but rather he goes on to describe, and you'll notice all of these words that he uses is that in this world, we believers, we are we are vagabonds. We're nomads, foreigners, without a home country. That is how we are to look at this world, to look at our lives. In fact, Philippians 3:20 says, "For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ." Likewise, in Hebrews 13:14, it says, "For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come."
See, what we see in these letters is that it's showing us that we as Christians, we as believers, we don't have our citizenship here. You might have a mortgage. You might have lived in the same town your entire life, but ultimately, that is not your home. Your citizenship is in heaven. If you were in Christ, you are a partaker, a citizen of the kingdom. And likewise, every city you pass through, these are not lasting, enduring cities. Your hope is in the eternal city that is to come. And so we need to recognize this when we are thinking about what we are prioritizing and what we are clinging to in our lives, because there are so many things right now that we are clinging to in this world that is going to pass away, and we're going to miss out on the rewards that are in this everlasting city.
And I think it's important that we think about this for a moment, that any good thing that you've experienced in this life, and any difficult thing that you've experienced in this life, they are what I call these quiet whispers of the world to come. Every good thing that you've experienced is just a shadow of the glory that is to come. Think about maybe the best things that you've ever experienced. Maybe the most beautiful thing you've ever seen. Maybe the the the happiest you've ever felt, when you felt the most at peace or joy in your life. These are all just shadows, quiet whispers of what is greater to come in our true home. Likewise, every time that you experience difficulty, maybe right now you are suffering, maybe right now you are experiencing hardship, maybe you're feeling lost or broken. Even in these moments, it's reminding you that you were made for more. That this was not meant to be your final home. It's saying, "I see that this is really bad. This is really evil. This is really dark." And it's reminding you, why is there something in us innately that says this isn't right? This isn't supposed to be this way? Is because we know that we were made for another world.
But these Corinthians, they were getting so comfortable in this world that they were forgetting ultimately what they were living for, the world that is to come. And the thing is that what we see, and as he starts to describe them here, the these, um, what's going on in verse 10 is that the apostles are starting to experience persecution. Look at this. It says, "We are fools for Christ, but you," talking about the Corinthians, "you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are distinguished, but we are dishonored. To the present hour, we both hunger and thirst, and we are poorly clothed, beaten, and homeless, and we labor working with our own hands." Do you see that distinction he's making between the Corinthians who think they got it all going for them and the ones that are actually living for the world that is to come?
See, they know that as as believers, we should expect opposition. The fact is, if you are being a faithful servant, that's when you're going to get on the enemy's radar. If your life is going really easy, that could be a bad thing actually in the long run. Now, we're not looking to suffer. We're not looking for persecution, of course, but if you just if the devil, if the enemy is just letting you just live your life just in ease, that might be a red flag for you to think, "Well, why is the enemy not opposing me more? Maybe he doesn't actually view me to be very effective or a threat to his kingdom." We need to see that when the apostles were working, when they were serving, they were regularly opposed. And so, we should not then be surprised by suffering. Sometimes Christians, we get so shocked or so surprised when we experience difficulty, hardship, suffering in this life. But once again, we have to remind ourselves, this isn't our home. And whenever you're living in this place, the people that this is their home, they're not going to like you.
Jesus actually addresses this, does he not? We know that in John 15:es 18 and 19, Jesus says, "If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you." Now, once again, we're not trying to be horrible, unkind people, and there will be the lost world that do value some Christians, of course. But we have to understand that if you are living for the gospel, if you are preaching the gospel and preaching God's word and all that it says, even the difficult, controversial passages in culture, people are going to hate you. You're going to experience hostility and persecution. And so we need to understand that when we are thinking about the world and the home that we are prioritizing, there is a big difference between being faithful and being popular.
The Corinthians thought those who were the most popular, that means that they're the most faithful. But actually, a lot of the times it's the exact opposite. There are many people that can be popular. And some people, you know this, some people that have all these friends because they never really have any deep conversations with them. They never really hold them accountable. They're just really, you know, they're they're nice. They're nice to everyone. They always have a good encouraging thing to say to you, and that's all. They never have the deep. And so of course, everyone likes them. Everyone has a positive thing to say about them because they don't ever really get real and raw with you. Sometimes you have to get real and raw, and you have to be honest and open with people. And so what we see here is that we have to be careful and not seeking popularity in ministry. I know that we want people to know the Lord, and we want the church to grow, and the kingdom to grow. But ultimately, it's not for us to be popular. We have to be faithful, and then God, once again, gives the increase in our ministries.
Because once again, we see that the Corinthians, they were wanting their exaltation now. They were wanting the popularity. They were wanting the status. They were wanting recognition. And they weren't wanting sickness, suffering, or pain. Now, when we think about the comparison between the Corinthians and the apostles, which one do you better fit under? Are you that person that recognizes this world is not my home? I'm a vagabond for Christ. I'm a nomad. I'm a foreigner in this land. And I'm not going to be clinging to any of this stuff, any of this lesser temporal stuff. You can have popularity. You can have wealth. You can have status. I'm going to be faithful serving the Lord, and I'm going to go wherever he calls me.
Because by the way, that's the other thing we have to remember as American Christians. We might not always be called to stay in the US. Now, of course, many of us are called to be here and to serve and be faithful here, but you also might be called to go to a distant land. Are you open to that call if the Lord calls? We have to be willing to go wherever the Lord calls and do whatever the Lord says. But these Corinthians, once again, they had what they needed. They got their ticket to salvation, and now they're being comfortable. We have to make sure that we are not living the comfortable Christian life.
Now, once again, that doesn't mean that God doesn't give us pleasure and joys in this life. Of course, he gives us these good things, but we should not be prioritizing them or allowing them to sacrifice how we are to serve the Lord. We must be going actively opposing culture, preaching a message that is contrary to the world, and we must be looking like Jesus. Because once again, if Jesus was in our town, I bet you a lot of people would hate Jesus. And if you were wanting to be faithful and look like Jesus, do a lot of people hate you? Once again, it's kind of weird. It's counter, you know, to our our self, because we want to be liked. We want to be evaluated good, and we want to be popular. But once again, Jesus had a lot of people that followed him, but he had a lot of people that were against him. And that's what I think the apostles are witnessing. And he's saying that if you want to follow us, this is what it looks like.
And the and he actually goes on and says, "And the world and the angels are currently watching the church, how we live our lives." Isn't that really weird to think about? The world, of course, we know that the world, humanity, they're watching us. They see how we react to things, how we act. And whenever we see, or whenever rather they see or Christians are acting like the Corinthians, they're like, "Well, you just look and act just like us. There's nothing different about you because you're trying to move up the social ladder and you're trying to be wealthy just like us, and and you're negative to people whenever they, you know, do something bad to you." But Paul's like, you have to remember these people are watching you, and and they're discerning whether your message is true or not, whether this person you say you follow is really true and effective and transforms your life.
And likewise, the angels are watching us now. They didn't experience what we've experienced. They don't have the same type of redemptive story like we do. And they are in awe and wonder as they are seeing apostles, faithful Christians who are willingly suffering, enduring persecution, and even laying down their lives for Christ and the gospel and sacrificing comfort, because once again, they're in heaven. The angels are like, "We're in perfect peace and joy in the presence of God." And we're watching these people who are God's children, and they're going through all of this, and they're still proclaiming and serving the Lord. They are amazed by what they're seeing and what God is doing by his grace through the church.
And as we walk through this life, and as we think about this world not being our home, we can have confidence and comfort knowing that in John 16:33, Jesus does say, "These things I have spoken to you that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world." See, when we go through this world, it's not our home. There will be difficulty. There will be many who will oppose us. But ultimately, if we continue to be faithful servants walking through this life, we know that the one who walks beside us, the one who has all authority, is also the one that who has already come, and he has overcome this world. So there's nothing that we will face that he has not already overcome in victory.
And that kind of leads into the final thing. So then, as we think about what Paul is calling us to, to to be like the apostles and and to forsake the Corinthian living situation, we see that the way of Christ is different. See, it's funny that early on, you know, that they didn't call the the church Christians. Now, that that came a little bit later, and there were some that would call disciples, but the the main way that they would, um, articulate and say, "This is who I'm talking about," is that they would be the people of the Way. Now, there are many different religions and things, but but specifically, they called them, oh, that is a person of the Way, and it's because that they saw that they were going a different way. They were going on a different path that was counter to the world. And I think this is a reminder for us is that we are not to live or think like pagans. If you were walking the Way of Christ, it is going to look different than the way of the world.
In 1 Peter chapter 2:12, it says, "Live such good lives among the pagans that though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us." See, the Way of Christ is different, and it will glorify God, and it will it will shame the pagans, and that's also why many of them will be hostile to you when they when they feel shamed by seeing you living a good and holy life. And also, when we call it the Way, we have to remind ourselves that it's not just a way, but it's the Way. And Jesus says he is the Way. In John 14:6, he says, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me." And I think this is probably where they get that phrase from, where they started calling them, they are of the Way, because they saw Jesus as the only Way.
And so, if we want to live a life as Paul is calling us to here, we are to follow in the footsteps of Christ. Not only is he the source of our salvation, he is also the model for how we are to live our lives. And that's why in closing, you see here at the very end of this section, he says, "Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure; being defamed, we entreat." You see that? He is saying we are so different to how the Corinthians are living and how the world is living. Because when there are people who are against us, who hate us, when we experience difficulty in this life, what are we called to do? Be like Jesus. Practice the Way. Bless. When they persecute you, bless them. When you experience hardship, endure like Christ did. How he was able to go to the cross. Or as we have people who are saying horrible things against us, they're slandering our slandering our name, we exhort, entreat, that is, we encourage them. We respond with grace.
And so what we see in this passage is that the Way calls us to be willing to work and willing to suffer. Like Jesus says in Luke 9:23, "If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me." There is a willingness to work, a willingness to suffer if we want to follow the Way of Christ. But we know that the Way leads ultimately to eternal life and everlasting joy. That's what he offers us. That is why it is worth living. Matthew 5:10 in closing: "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven." So we see that God's judgment is greater than our judgment. This world is not our home, and the Way of Christ is different, and that is what we are called to as believers.