Admonishment is Good Medicine

The first six chapters of 1 Corinthians identify three cases of rampant sin going on within the congregation; Jealousy and strife in regards to following religious teachers, Sexual impropriety and Christians going to court with each other before Pagan judges.

It’s a big problem because the unity among Christians is the primary evidence to the deity of Jesus Christ (John 17). The church is supposed to be a shining beacon of righteousness to attract the spiritually sick of the world. The Corinthians were failing.

Paul admonishes (1 Cor. 4:14) them for these sins. Let’s look at his method as concerning the sin of their “Jealousy and strife”.

- Paul identifies the sin… “I follow Paul, I follow Apollos, I follow Cephas, I follow Christ”

- He identifies the preposterousness of the sin… “Is Christ divided?”

- He reminds them of their lowly station in life when they were called to be Christians and asks them how they became so smart as to elevate themselves over each other.

- He absolves himself of guilt, recounting how he presented the Gospel message to them.

- He assigns guilt to two groups of people; The Corinthian Christians because they were perpetual spiritual infants, i.e. not growing in the word (3:1-3) and those teachers who he left behind to help them develop (3:12-14).

- He identifies for them the full extent of their sin… they had judged Paul, an Apostle of God, to be inferior to their other teachers. (4:3)

- Finally he charges them not to “boast in men” but to “boast in the Lord”.

The Corinthian Christians had made a horrible mess of things. They thought they were spiritual giants but were instead spiritual infants. Paul was not ready to pull their spiritual lifeline. He knew the proper medicine for their illness was admonishment. Let’s not fail to admonish and do so in an effective manner. Otherwise a spiritual sickness, untreated, may lead to a spiritual death.