1 Corinthians 4: 14-21….Paul a ‘perfect’ model.

I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me. That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church. Some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power. For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power. What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love in a spirit of gentleness?

Comment: I had a good childhood – not perfect – but I look back with happiness. My father had a few bad habits and I recall him saying, more than once, ‘don’t do what I do, but what I say!’ Paul felt a huge responsibility towards the Corinthian church to which he was in a very sense ‘their Father’. Whilst we often think of ‘to admonish’ as meaning ‘to scold’, its French roots mean ‘to advise or remind’. Paul was going to have some tough things to say but he wanted them to understand that his writing, his sending of the well taught and mature Timothy, and his plan of another visit was meant to very positive. But he says ‘I’ve spoken clearly, and I expect you to listen’. If you don’t obey I will use ‘a rod’ to sort things out! I would prefer to come with a gentle loving kindness – ‘your choice’ he says!

Prayer: Make me solid in Your Truth, O Father, but keep me teachable to lessons which You graciously seek to teach me.