Would you turn back to the book of 1 Corinthians with me? We're going to read today the end section of chapter 4. We've been working our way through the book of 1 Corinthians, section by section. Paragraph by paragraph, now we've come to the end of chapter 4, and this is where Paul is going to wrap up his whole section in which he's been correcting the Corinthians about their developing division in the church. We titled this whole section, Avoiding Division. Now Paul is coming to the end of that whole section, and in chapter 5, next week for us, we'll be moving on to a different section with a different tone altogether and great new teaching for us to explore. But for now, let's pick it up in 1 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 14, where Paul is reflecting on his Correction so far. 1 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 14, follow along. 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? How do you respond when people correct you? Have you ever had trouble accepting correction? If so, you're not alone. Every single person who struggles with pride struggles to accept correction. But if you think about it, unless you happen to be perfect in this life, you're always going to have to receive correction. If you don't want to stay the way you are, correction is an essential part of life in a fallen world. And especially life for Christians. You can hide yourself away and just avoid anyone who would dare to be so bold as to correct you. Well, Proverbs says something about that, doesn't it? Proverbs 18.1, whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire and breaks out against all sound judgment. That could be you. But if you want to live in a community where people are going to be bold enough to speak into your life to correct you, you have to be able to accept correction. That gives us all a problem, doesn't it? Because we all struggle to accept correction. Have you figured out yet what your biggest struggle is in accepting correction from others? Actually, there are four, I think, typical responses to correction that highlight that struggle. One would be to accuse the person who's trying to correct you of some crime themselves. Another would be to excuse yourself. Another would be to refuse to receive the correction. And another one, well that last one goes a step further for the wicked man, would be to abuse the person who's correcting you. Proverbs 9.7 says, whoever corrects a scoffer gets himself abused. So those four common reactions, to accuse, to excuse, to refuse, or to abuse. And if you've experienced that, when you've tried to correct someone, you'll know the kind of problems that pastors face when we try to bring people face to face with sin and struggles that people may be having. You can correct a normal person and you don't receive any abuse but when you correct a normal person, you can still kind of expect people to react badly, can't you? Actually, when you're correcting a normal person, you can expect a normal person just like you to struggle to receive correction. And why is that? Well, actually, we've all learned to behave badly in response to correction when we're young, haven't we? Those typical reactions that come out to accuse, to excuse, to refuse, or even to abuse in response to correction, those typical reactions are picked up when we're tiny and they continue through our lives. A teenager who's just been told she needs to work harder on her homework suddenly accuses her parents of hating her. You just don't love me. A child who's told off for getting out of bed is very quick to find an excuse and to make up an excuse why he had to absolutely disobey what his parents clearly told him to do. The little boy who's told to sit down whilst he's eating his food may just start to kick and struggle to keep his legs straight. And absolutely, defiantly refuse to sit down and eat his food. And that's those typical responses to accuse, to excuse, to refuse. I can never forget the abuse I got when I tried to make a young lad pick up some litter that he'd thrown all over the street. Abuse is pretty typical when someone is absolutely committed to their path and you're absolutely committed to correcting them. Well, maybe you'd agree with me that those basic reactions that we encounter in others and see perhaps in ourselves, don't just go away suddenly when you become a Christian. Now, if you're truly a Christian, if you are someone who truly has succumbed to see yourself as a wretched sinner in the sight of God. If you've looked into your own heart and if you've said, you know what, I am wicked, I'm wretched, and you've come to God begging God, forgive me, Father, forgive me, I'm a sinner. If you come to God like that, deeply humbled because of your sin, and brought low. Well, you really shouldn't find it that hard to have someone else say to you, excuse me, I think you've got something wrong. Should you? You shouldn't find it hard to have someone correct you, but you do, don't you? If you're truly a Christian, actually, your new nature, the new you that God has created in you, wants to change, doesn't it? You as a believer are saying to God, you've come to God saying, God, I am wrong. Change me. Correct me, Lord. I want to be different. I need to change. Lord, you're going to have to work in my heart to make me different. Because I am the problem. That's the confession. That's the cry of someone who's seen themselves. So why is it so hard? to take correction from another person, from another Christian even. Why is it so hard? Well, it's the flesh, isn't it? Actually, every Christian has this ongoing struggle with this fallen humanness, this flesh, this body which is still fallen, it hasn't been transformed. It hasn't been glorified. You may have a new nature, the Bible teaches, but you've still got the old you, the old man, and I'm not talking about your dad, the old you that's still there. You carry that around with you till the day you die, and you can't just get rid of it. The Bible says the spirit wars against the flesh, and the flesh wars against the spirit. And so every Christian is locked in this battle with themselves. for the rest of their lives and you can't say that you don't struggle because you are still your flesh, yes you're a new, there's a new you but you are still, this is still your flesh, it's your heart, you can't blame someone else. Out of the heart flow adultery, murder, thieving, It's all coming out of you, and every adulterous thought that comes into your mind is coming from you, so you have to repent of your sin. And there's this struggle that goes on, but it's that same pride that you find in your heart as a Christian that bubbles up inside you when somebody else tries to correct you. and makes you want to say, you don't love me, or it's not my fault, or I'm not going to do it, or to start even abusing that person. Well, do you want some help this afternoon? Would you like some help with the whole business of accepting correction? It's hard, isn't it? Because you're dealing with your flesh. This passage is so helpful. Paul is writing to correct the Corinthians throughout the book of Corinthians, really from chapter 1 verse 10 onwards. But in chapter 1 verse 10, right the way through to chapter 4 verse 13, just before where we are, Paul has been correcting the Corinthians about this problem, their puffed-up attitude in favor of one teacher against another teacher, and it was starting to divide the church, and he's been correcting them, correcting them, correcting them, but in verse 13, just before this point, he's done. Paul's finished with his argument, correcting them about that issue, but he's not finished with them yet. Because he knows he's dealing with carnal Christians. He's dealing with real believers who are really struggling. I don't mean, by saying carnal Christians, I don't mean that they've not yet been baptized in the Spirit or they're just a different class of Christian. I mean, as Paul says in chapter 3, verses 1 to 4, he addresses them, he says, I could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh. That's the translation of the word which would otherwise be translated as carnal. They were people of the flesh, they were behaving, as he says in verse 3, are you not still of the flesh? While there's jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? They were behaving in a fleshly, carnal, unspiritual way. Not according to the life of the Spirit, but they were behaving according to their flesh, their humanness. It says in verse 4, when one says, I follow Paul and another, I follow Apollos, are you not being merely human? That was their problem. These Christians, these Corinthian Christians, were behaving carnally from the flesh. They were just behaving in a way that didn't characterize Christians. They couldn't speak to them as if they were Christians, but they were Christians. These were genuine Christians, but They were carnal and if you think about it, actually it's when Christians are being carnal that they need to be corrected. But when you're being carnal is when you're going to find it easy to be corrected or hard? Actually, when you're being carnal, when you're behaving according to the flesh as a Christian, that's the very time that you are going to find it hardest to receive correction from someone else, because the flesh is up. And anyone who's been married for more than a week knows what a struggle that is. It's hard to respond in a way which is godly, When your flesh is engaged, when you're being fleshy, human, carnal. Well, Paul's not finished with them, thankfully. He knows how hard they're going to find it. And he makes, in this last section, three appeals to them. to help them to receive the correction that he's already given to them. Three appeals to help them receive the correction that he's already given them in chapters 1, 2, 3 and 4. And so here they are for us in verses 14 to 21. Three appeals to help you receive correction. Did you need that today? If you don't need it today, you'll definitely need it in the future. So take out a pen, pencil, write with blood if you have to, but you need this recorded. The first appeal is very simple. He says, in essence, please don't think that someone who's admonishing you wants to disgrace you. Please don't think That someone who is admonishing you, wants to disgrace you. Here it is in verse 14. Did you see that? I do not write these things to make you ashamed. but to admonish you as my beloved children. Now, you've got to get it into your head, there's a huge difference between someone wanting to make you ashamed and someone who is admonishing you. Maybe you had a bad experience in your life of someone who took pleasure in making you ashamed, in disgracing you. I had a science teacher. He was giving out the exam results and giving the correct answers to all our exam questions and there was one answer that was particularly stupid. He read out the answer. Someone gave this as their answer and then he followed that with a very kind, naming no names of course, but just for fun we'll call him Dreon. And everyone laughed, and you're laughing, thank you, it's still there in my memory. I can never forget the humiliation of that moment. Thankfully it didn't put me off science. But it was painful. And I can never forget. I could hardly forgive until the day I became a Christian and saw how much the Lord had forgiven me. I could never forget the look of pleasure on that man's face as he humiliated me. There's something perverse, isn't there? And we all recognize it when an individual takes pleasure in humiliating or shaming or disgracing someone else. And you've probably got your own examples. Perverse. Sadistic. But don't confuse admonition with that. That's why Paul has to say, I do not write these things to make you ashamed. I'm not trying to disgrace you, but, by contrast, to admonish you. So what's admonition? Glad you asked. Admonition, well, actually that's an English word, comes from the Latin word ad, Monere, I hope I pronounced that right. Ad means to or towards. Monere in Latin would be to remind or to warn. So roughly kind of to warn, to remind, to put something in someone's mind. Actually the Greek word. Here in the Bible is nutheteo. If you've never heard that before, you may never hear it again. It's a great Greek word. For those of us who like biblical counseling, we maybe talk about something called nuthetic counseling. It comes from this Greek word, nutheteo. Two words in Greek, nous, mind. And to thermi, to place, put together those two words give the idea of putting something in somebody's mind. You're going to place it in their mind and that's where we would get the word remind from. And so you see that you're going to put something back in someone's mind would be to remind. This is talking about input. This is talking about placing a thought in somebody's head, actually the way it was used in the Bible, the meaning that it had. Words have meaning from the way that they're used in life, not just from their component parts, but the way it's used in the Bible. it would mean to counsel someone or particularly about avoiding or ceasing something that they're doing which is wrong, an improper course of conduct. And so we use this word admonish or warn or even instruct. Paul did a lot of it. Paul actually seemed to be constantly doing this. Acts 20, 31. He's reminding the Ephesian elders of what he did among them and he says, I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears. That's this word, nutheteo. Think of it, Paul, every day, putting things into their mind, admonishing them, warning them, correcting them verbally about the things which they were doing wrong, with tears. Colossians 1.28, him we proclaim. warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ. There's the great description of the Christian ministry, warning everyone. teaching everyone. Now there's a difference between instruction, mere instruction, and this idea of nuthateo, admonition. Nuthateo may include the idea of instruction. How can you put something in their mind without instructing them, unless they just know it already, in which case that's reminding them. But here's the idea of a warning coming in as well, even a correction. Paul also taught very clearly in the New Testament that every single one of us should be doing this. and we're all capable of doing it. Romans 15, 14, he said this to the Romans, I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to nutheteo one another. Yes, that's you, able, competent to counsel. How many Christians have to go and find a counsellor simply because the person sitting next to them on the pew doesn't feel that they are competent to counsel and yet Paul said of the Romans that they were full of goodness, full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and competent, able to nutheteo one another, to admonish, to counsel, to warn. Here it's translated, instruct. And we should be doing this, Colossians 3.16, let the word of God dwell, the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Now here's the list. Teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. What are you supposed to be doing all the time? Teaching one another. Joy for the day, and we see it all the time when Grace Life London members sit round with Bibles open, instructing one another. That is good. But also joy for the day, hail the day, when Grace Life London members come to each other and say, my brother, I have to warn you, my sister, I've got to say something to you because it seems to me as though and admonishing one another. This is a command for all of us. There's no exception. There's no distinction here between preacher and people. It's not like, oh, I couldn't possibly say that. The pastor has to do it. No, this is all for us. When we're failing to do that, by the way, when you fail to do that for one another, that puts a tremendous, and let me say it, impossible burden upon your two pastors. That's impossible. The New Testament never envisages a situation where the only people who ever speak into the lives of the members of the church are the pastors, as if the pastors were the only people qualified to do it. No, no, no, the Apostle Paul saw every member as competent to do this. Now, I can already hear some of your objections. I know you're not saying it out loud, but I know them. Well, because those are the same objections that I feel in my own heart to that. Oh, but you know, I'm not sure how they would respond. Oh, but I really don't think I would have the words. You know, I'm really not very good at confrontation. I'm not going to ask you, but if I said put your hand up, if you've said that, most of your hands would go up in the air, and mine included. Well, there's no requirement to be good at it. The requirement is to do it. So here we have a description of the Christian life and it includes this business of admonishing one another. 1 Thessalonians 5.14, and we urge you brothers Now did you listen to that? Who was that addressed to? And we urge you brothers, that's actually brothers and sisters, works both ways with that word. We urge you brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. By the way, there's no place for impatient admonition And there's a correct manner, and there's plenty of things to learn about how to do this, but you can't get around the reality that the Bible says, brother, sister, be doing this. Admonish one another. 2 Thessalonians 3.15, do not regard him as an enemy. This is someone who's actually refusing to obey the commands in 2 Thessalonians, including idleness. Do not regard him as an enemy. Paul has just said to the Thessalonians, have nothing to do with him. They were to have nothing to do with that idle person and person who rejected all the commands in 2 Thessalonians, so that he would be ashamed. There's one incidence where you're supposed to see somebody ashamed, but They were to have nothing to do with him, that he would be ashamed. But don't regard him as an enemy, says Paul, 2 Thessalonians 3.15. But warn him as a brother, admonish him as a brother. This is something you would do to your brother. Why? Well, because you care about your brother. Now, by the way, if that's something we're all supposed to be doing, and you'd expect, wouldn't you, that if that is a duty for all Christians, then leaders within the Christian community, elders, people who would be looked up to as being spiritual among the congregation, deacons, Anyone who would take a position of leadership, they would be doing that all the more, wouldn't they? 1 Thessalonians 5.12 then teaches us that we're to respect those who labor among you and who are over you in the Lord and admonish you. Why would you particularly respect someone who would admonish you? Well, actually, if someone's willing to do that for you, they love you, don't they? Psalm 141, verse 5. Let a righteous man strike me, his a kindness. Let him rebuke me, it is oil for my head, and let my head not refuse it. Christian, isn't that the attitude that we need to have? Think, brother, sister, think what would happen if Nathan had said, oh, I don't think I could confront David. Think what would happen if the Apostle Paul had said, oh wow, I can't say anything to Peter. I know he's getting carried away and Barnabas and it's all hypocrisy, but I don't think I could stand up and confront the Apostle Peter. I mean, he was the first of the Apostles. Brother or sister, if that is the attitude that we take, who will ever confront pastors when they sin and by the way they do? If Christians are not willing to stand up and admonish one another, then there's nothing to stop Christians from going further and further and further and further into sin. And you know the picture, don't you? This is the typical picture in churches. Someone's in sin and everyone stands around sort of scratching their head. Trying to look the other way and pretending that it's not existing. And the situation continues and continues and continues until finally that person falls so far into sin, everyone turns away and says, oh! In all that meantime, All that time in between when something could have been said. And should, yes, should have been said. Nothing was said. And that, my brother, my sister, is a crying shame. And it's a good reason why there's so much weakness in the churches. The problem is there's a huge temptation, isn't there, when someone does come to you and confront you like that. There's a huge temptation to think that they hate you. But it's love that makes someone willing to confront you. Do you agree? Proverbs 13, 24, whoever spares the rod, what, spoils the child? No, the Bible says, whoever spares the rod hates his son. If you as a parent are unwilling to discipline your child, it's not because you love them. That kind of an unwillingness is self-love, not love for the child. All of you would agree that a child needs loving discipline. And I'm not talking about a beating here. There's a huge difference between a rod and, as the Bible describes it, loving discipline and a beating, which is unrestrained and done in anger. Those are two very different things. And let no discipline ever be done in anger. But All of us would agree that loving discipline is necessary, wouldn't we? So why don't we do it? It's because we love ourselves and not the person. So brother, sister, love does not equal put a line through that sign. Love does not equal ignoring a problem. So when someone comes to you, You've got to deal with your heart, haven't you? When someone comes to you and is correcting you, you've got to quit your pity party. You can't be saying every time someone corrects you, nobody loves me, everybody hates me, I think I'm going to go and eat worms. I'm just off. They hate me. Quit feeling sorry for yourself. Give that up. Start thanking the person who's corrected you. I had to start this many years ago in the car. When you're driving along in the car and the person next to you says, Tom! You can respond in one or two ways. It's like, yes, I saw that. Or you can just say, thank you. And the conversation in the car goes in two different directions, depending on your response. But brother or sister, you've got to quit feeling sorry for yourself. and wishing that someone else had managed to say it differently, or say it in a way that didn't make you feel bad about what you'd been doing, and start thanking them for having the courage and the love to actually correct you, even if they did it badly, right? They probably want to help you. That, brother, sister, that is family affection, isn't it? Actually, that's where Paul's going with this. Please, he says, please don't think that someone admonishing you wants to disgrace you. And in his own case, he says, I wanted to admonish you as my beloved children. It's as his beloved children that he wants to admonish them, because of his great love for them, his family affection. And so here comes number two, the second appeal to help you with receiving correction, accepting correction. Please, please make sure you're following a humble, godly example. That's where Paul is going with this here, isn't it? In verse 15 through to verse 17. Innocence, he's saying, please, please, make sure you're following a humble, godly example. Verse 15, for though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. countless guides, that's the Greek pedagogue, it's a pedagogue, someone who would escort their sons usually to and from places, someone who would be like a tutor to ensure that their Children got to the place of education safely and perhaps even a tutor who would give instruction to the children. These were hired servants to do a job. These were people who would step in and take the place of the parents in giving education because they were hired to do the job. And by contra, of that kind of instructor, that kind of tutor, that kind of person who would step in to do the job, Paul says there were myriads, countless, thousands. The idea is there's no end to the number of people, Christian, who are willing to give you instruction. But by contrast, Paul says, you do not have many fathers. And immediately someone somewhere is saying, well, hang on a minute, Matthew 23 verse 9, father on earth for you have one father who is in heaven neither be called instructors for you have one instructor the christ the greatest among you shall be your servant that's true jesus did say those things but jesus is talking about the taking of titles and the giving of titles to people and that's not paul's point here in fact paul's point here Here, in this whole passage, is exactly the same as Jesus is. Jesus was driving at a humble, servant-minded leadership. That's exactly the point Paul is driving at. In the middle of driving at this point of humble-minded, servant leadership, Paul doesn't deny the reality that he became like a spiritual father to them. that he, to use his own language, fathered them, he brought them about, he brought them to birth by the gospel. He wasn't saying that he did it, it was It was by the gospel. I became your father in Christ, Jesus, through the gospel. It's the gospel that Paul saw as the agent, the thing which gave them life. But Paul didn't deny his own involvement in that. And by the way, when someone is involved in your conversion, that does kind of create a special bond, doesn't it? More than that, they're the people usually who you've been able to see at somewhat close quarters. Because when you're thinking about the gospel, and when you're learning the gospel, and you've got all sorts of questions, am I really going to get down on my knees and beg God to forgive me as a wretched sinner? Am I going to really humble myself? and confess my sins to this God, and turn from my whole lifestyle of sin, and embrace following Christ at the cost perhaps of my own life, to take up my cross and follow Him. Am I really going to do that? And there's this man telling you the gospel. What are you doing? Or you're watching his life, aren't you? Or you're listening to the way he says things. Or you're watching to see whether actually it all marries up. Whether there's consistency there or not. And so, pity the confusion of those who heard the gospel from people who turn out to be false. But in this case, that wasn't so. And here were people who'd been watching Paul, and they'd seen his example. They'd received from Paul, like a newborn duck, the impression of a parent. Someone to follow. Someone who you could say wholesome about in every area. Someone who was truly a humble, godly Christian. And that in Paul's case for them occurred at the time for the Corinthians of many of their conversions. He was the first one there in Corinth to be sharing the gospel and preaching the good news to them. And as he did so, he became their father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. So Paul's now just reminding them simply of the relationship that he had with them. They knew him. They'd seen his life. So they could see the contrast between his life and their own new direction. Do you remember this in chapter 4 verses 8 through verse 13? Already you have all you want. Oh, he's stinging them. Already you've become rich. Oh, that wasn't congratulations. And without us, you have become kings. "'Would that you did reign,' says Paul, "'so that we might share the rule with you, "'for I think that God has exhibited us apostles "'as last of all, like men sentenced to death, "'and we have become a spectacle to the world "'and to angels and to men.' "'We are fools for Christ's sake,' says Paul the apostle, "'but you are wise in Christ.' We are weak, but you're strong. You are held in honour, but we in disrepute to the present hour, we hunger and thirst, we're poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless. We labour, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless. When persecuted, we endure. When slandered, we entreat. We have become and are still like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things. And Paul holds himself up again to the eyes of those Corinthians and says, Remember me? Remember? Can you remember you puffed up Corinthians? You people who've become so proud of your orators. And you're so proud of your wisdom. And so proud of your clubs. And your little cliques. And you think you've got it. You think you've found the man. And Paul says, do you remember me? Remember me? Remember me giving you the gospel? Remember my lifestyle? I was supposed to shock them. poorly dressed, buffeted, homeless, laboring, when reviled we bless, when persecuted we endure, when slandered we entreat, like the scum of the world. What do you say to that? Humble. Humble, godly leadership. That's an example, isn't it? That's an example to follow. That's why he sent Timothy in verse 17. 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. What an amazing thing, by the way, for the Apostle Paul to be able to send Timothy, a man, to those people, to remind them of himself. This is the purpose of discipleship, isn't it? You did the same to the Philippians. In fact, if you go through the New Testament, you think Timothy is always just being sent somewhere. Timothy, Paul's always got a job for him. Philippians 2.19, I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon that I too may be cheered by news of you for, and this is a description of Timothy. I have no one like him who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ." Paul knew what it was like to have, quote-unquote, disciples who turned out to be self-interested. Timothy, not so. Verse 22, but you know Timothy's proven worth, how as a son with a father he has served with me in the gospel. I hope therefore to send him just as soon as I see how it will go with me, and I trust in the Lord that shortly I myself will come also. Paul was always doing that. What's it like to have someone who you can send, and when you send him, you say, I know that when he gets there, you'll be reminded of my lifestyle. Everything about the way I lived, everything about my Christian life, every bit of teaching lived out. Think of it, Paul saw that as the thing that they needed to be refreshed of. to see the teaching not just spoken about but lived out. What is it like to have someone you can send who totally represents you? By the way, that is the purpose of discipleship. I could ask you one of those awkward questions. Okay, I will. Whose life are you modeling? Whose life are you imitating? Paul's point here was to say to the Christians in Corinth, who were going to struggle to receive correction from him. He'd given them the teaching, he'd given them correction, he'd stung them, he'd educated them, he'd pleaded with them, he'd done everything possible to correct them in a godly, careful way. But now he's going to appeal to them, so that they don't reject correction. And part of his appeal is, please, please, follow my example. That's what he had to say in chapter 11, verse 1. Now, be imitators of me as I am of Christ. He's not saying just follow me my way and because it's my way. No, he's saying follow me as I am of Christ. I'm imitating Christ, says Paul, so follow me. What a question. Who are you following? Are your eyes fixed on someone? And how does that happen? Oh, for Timothy it was life on life, wasn't it? You remember the story of Timothy, Acts 16, Paul picks him up en route, his grandmother had been educating him, he'd heard the gospel, he'd known the scriptures from childhood, he'd been converted, and then Paul wants, it says, he wanted to take him with him. And so Paul was intent on having Timothy around him wherever he went. And there came a time when Paul started actually sending Timothy And the process of discipleship was still ongoing. Paul was writing to Timothy. You can read 1 and 2. Timothy. Paul's still teaching, instructing Timothy, his, you would say, disciple. Although we're making people disciples of Christ, not our disciples. But Timothy was the man, one of the men, into whom Paul was pouring his life. Paul was Paul was, in every aspect of example, day by day, Christian living, pouring his life into Timothy. And it got to the point when he could say about Timothy, Timothy, there's a mess in Corinth. Would you go there? Because I know that when you're there, they'll be reminded of My ways, says Paul, my ways in Christ. As I teach them everywhere, in every church. It was a huge danger that the Corinthians were going out on their own. They liked this kind of slightly independent attitude of we've got the best way. And Paul has to say, no look, Timothy is going to come and show you how it's really done everywhere in every church. You can't get that kind of education at school, can you? You can't go to seminary and learn an example. You can't read books and see somebody's life, you can only see the edited version. This kind of education you get life on life. That's why Paul, when he says to Timothy at the end of his life, he says, the things that you have heard from me entrust to faithful men. who will be able to teach others also. The things that you've heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. There's a reality that Timothy needed to learn that he had the job of passing on the things that he had heard from Paul. And how was that going to happen? He was going to have to pick out faithful men. And I'm going to add another word there. the word available because this kind of impression can only be received life on life. It only happens when you're around the person. So let me ask you the question again. Whose life are you modeling? Are you modeling someone's life? Oh brother and sister, model a godly life. Follow a humble, godly example, because there's going to come a day when you're going to have someone correcting you, and you're going to find it hard, and you're going to need to have in your mind a picture of how godly Christians respond. And bless God for my godly, humble pastor who imprinted that picture of humility on my mind. Who are you modeling your life on? Something worse. Paul pleads with them, says make sure you're following a godly humble example because otherwise you might reject correction but you know there's something worse than just Not being willing to accept it like that. And that's to become stiff-necked. That's to become stubborn. I told you that sometimes those who are being corrected accuse the ones who are correcting them. That's why Paul says, I love you. Don't mistake me. I'm admonishing you. I'm not trying to make you ashamed. I love you as my beloved children. I love you. I do love you. So don't accuse the person who's correcting you of not loving you. But then there's a tendency to excuse yourself and to say, you know, we're okay. There's loads of people here in Corinth doing this and, you know, we've got our ways here in Corinth and Paul has to send them, say, look, you need to be following a godly example. Don't excuse yourself. There is a godly humble way and you remember it in me. Follow my example as I follow Christ, says Paul. And don't try and excuse yourself. But then there's a greater danger. The danger simply of refusing. I can never forget the chill that I felt. I think I physically shook. when an old man, after much discussion, looked me in the eye and said to me, you won't change my opinion. Now I just presented to him some very biblical arguments about why a particular course of action that he was taking was wrong. But he looked me in the eye and he said, I'm an old man, I'm stubborn, and I don't change. Now, he claimed to be a Christian. He said, you won't change me. I said, but look, maybe you haven't understood. If I can, please don't say that. If I can explain to you from the Bible and show you and convince you that this is correct and this is right and that the course of action you're taking is sinful and wrong, surely you'd be willing to, you won't change me. That stubbornness, that refusal, that starts as a child saying, I will not sit down. And when the child is forced to sit down, he may even verbalize it as one child did. I'm sitting on the outside but I'm still standing inside. Oh brother and sister, that stubborn spirit. is the spirit of rebellion against authority. It's the spirit of rebellion against God. And if we have that stubborn spirit, we are in serious, serious trouble. Please, please, please, says Paul in his final appeal, make sure you don't become stubborn. This is verses 18 to 21. Let's just read it. Some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills." Paul himself saw himself as subject to the will of God. He didn't have magical insight into God's will, and neither do we. But he said what he would do. He made a plan and looked to see whether the Lord allowed that plan. But here was his plan, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people, but their power. The word arrogant, by the way, is the word puffed up in both cases. Some are puffed up as though I were not coming to you. I will find out not the talk, not the word, not the speech, not so much interested in what these puffed up people say, but in their power. Do you remember the contrast between logos, the word, the speech, and power back in chapter 1 and chapter 2? Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, and not with words, logos, of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For since in the wisdom of God the world through wisdom did not know God, who pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs, the Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks. Verse 24, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. Brother and sister, Paul was gonna go there and find out not just the talk of these people, But whether their talk was really the gospel which contained spiritual power to save people The gospel is the power of God to the salvation of the Jew first and also the Greek There's power in the preaching of the gospel through humble godly people The Corinthians had gone all astray. Paul was willing, resolute, to go there and to engage in some examination. And when he examined them, he was going to deal with what he found. For the kingdom of God in verse 20 of chapter 4 does not consist in talk but in power. What do you wish, says Paul, shall I come to you with a rod or with love in a spirit of gentleness? Now there's a very, very scary possibility, isn't there? That you or I could have someone correcting us and because of that That thing inside us, that pride that might bubble up and say, no, I will not do it. We might face this outcome. We might face the reality, if we stubbornly resist, that we have to face discipline. Actually that was what Paul was threatening them with and giving them the choice. What do you want? Shall I come to you with a rod? That's the rod of discipline. Or with love in a spirit of gentleness. Those were the two outcomes for them. And what's he doing when he puts that in front of them? He's saying, please, please, don't be stubborn. Don't be stubborn. So brother and sister. When you receive correction, please, please don't think someone who's admonishing you wants to disgrace you. Please make sure you're following humble, godly example. And please, please, please don't let yourself become stubborn. You may expect godly leaders to pursue the same kind of course of action that Paul followed here. We should be doing this for each other, shouldn't we? And we should be ready to give and to receive correction and admonition. But you would expect godly leaders to admonish you, wouldn't you? You would expect godly leaders to set you an example and you'd expect godly leaders to be willing, if necessary, to discipline you if you were stubborn in your sin. Do you want that in a church? Do you want this kind of correction? Let's commit ourselves to this. Grace Life London, let's commit ourselves to this. Individually, to counter the kindness when people correct us. And to be willing to give it to one another in admonition, in love. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this time around your Word. We praise you. I ask you to correct us, Lord. We know that we get things wrong. We're not We have not arrived. We know that the Corinthians had that problem, but Lord, deliver us from it. Thank you for the peace in this church so far. May it long continue. Bless us, Lord. Prepare us to receive correction when we need it. Give us humble attitudes that consider it a kindness and lead us in that humble, godly lifestyle that we see held up for us here in Paul's example, help us to be willing to give and to receive that same example for others. In Jesus' name, amen.