God’s Word for You

1 Corinthians 4:14 You, my dear children

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Friday, December 16, 2022

14 I am not writing this to shame you, but to admonish you as my dear children.

Paul is thinking of all the things he just said. He takes no pleasure in his sarcasm and biting words. The purpose was not to shame the Corinthians but to correct their behavior; to teach them a valuable lesson about their faith. Paul was the man who founded the church in Corinth. Many of the Corinthians had first come to faith on account of Paul’s preaching there. “Every sabbath,” Luke wrote, Paul had reasoned “in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks” (Acts 18:4), “and many of the Corinthians who heard him believed and were baptized” (Acts 18:8).

It is striking that between verses 13 and 14 Paul doesn’t tell the Corinthians what to do. He criticizes their attitude and behavior, and then he says he is doing this as their father, and that they are his dear children. Paul felt this way about all of the people he preached to, especially when they were in danger of shipwrecking their faith: “My dear children, I am once again in the pains of childbirth for you” (Galatians 4:19). “I speak to you as to my children, do not be yoked together with unbelievers” (2 Corinthians 6:13).

In the soaring prologue of his Gospel, the Apostle John describes the four ways that someone can become a child. He says: “To those who believed in his name he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of blood, or of the desire of the flesh, or a man’s will, but born of God” (John 1:12-13). The first and most usual is a child born “of blood,” that is, the ordinary descent from human parents, a mother and a father. Since we all have parents, we do not need to explain this any further, except to say that a parent’s duty to a child does not end at birth (more about this in a moment).

After physical birth, the second way is the desire of the flesh, which is when an adult makes a choice to take over responsibility and care for a child. This is how children become either adopted by new parents, or become stepchildren if one parent has died. I fall into this category myself, since after my mother died, my father married and married again, so that I have had two step mothers after my mother.

After physical birth and adoption or step-parenting, comes the third way, which is “a man’s will,” as John calls it. And although some translations say “the will (or desire) of a husband,” how is that different from natural birth? But “the will of a man” can also be the desire, for example, of a teacher or pastor to be the spiritual father of a beloved pupil. So Paul calls both Timothy and Titus his sons (1 Timothy 1:2; Titus 1:4) even though Timothy’s mother Eunice was still living, as well as his grandmother Lois (2 Timothy 1:5).

Finally, there is our sonship to God. To be a son or daughter of God is a way of describing anyone with faith (Genesis 6:2,4; Hosea 1:10; Matthew 5:9). The new birth that makes us into children of God comes when faith is kindled in us by the gospel. This comes most often through baptism, “the washing of rebirth” (Titus 3:5), and through the preaching of the Gospel. “You have been born again,” says Peter, “not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God” (1 Peter 1:23).

Seeing that the Corinthians had been born again through Word and Sacrament, Paul chose to call them his own children. But see how Paul cares for them! Being a parent, whether of blood, or adoption, or out of the respect of a student, there is a responsibility that the parent has for that child and for all his children that comes out of the responsibilities under the law. First of all, the fourth commandment compels parents to love and care for their children, for what honor and respect would a child owe to a parent who did not care about them, care for them, and see to their needs? A parent who becomes a tyrant is no different from a political tyrant or madman. God did not grant you the gift of being a father or mother so that you could brag about it, but so that you could perform a useful service in raising that child. As Luther said about noblemen we can say about parents: A parent must never act as a child’s tormentor or vampire, bleeding his poor children of their gifts and talents and other resources, or skinning and flaying them of their dignity, self-respect, and especially their infant faith. This is not the purpose God had in mind with parents or step-parents. No, his plan was that they would be agents in the service of their children’s welfare. In short, every person owes love and respect to God, but God shows his love to all people. In the same way, children owe honor, love and respect to their parents, but their parents owe them care, love, and selfless service.

But even greater than this physical care comes spiritual care. We have a duty to our children to bring them to Christ. What kind of monstrous mother and father would condemn their own children to make up their own minds about faith? Why not forgo the spank on the bottom at birth and tell our babies to make up their own minds about breathing? We are commanded by God to bring up our children in the faith, for he says, “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it” (Proverbs 22:6). And Jesus invites: “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these” (Matthew 19:14). Teach the word of God to your children, “talking about it when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up” (Deuteronomy 11:19). Luther says, “Because there is no greater or better teacher to be found than God, there can also be no better training than his. Now, he amply teaches what we should do if we wish to perform truly good works, and by commanding them he shows that he is well pleased with them. So, if this is God’s command, and it embodies his highest wisdom (that is, teaching our children about Christ, faith, and good works), then I shall never improve upon it. In this way, you see, we should have godly children, properly taught, and reared in true blessedness.”

As for spiritual children, we who preach the gospel must take care to rightly divide law and gospel, to teach and re-teach the basic lessons of faith and doctrine, to teach the church’s children to love their Savior and to learn their catechism. We who preach must continue to instruct our adult members, even when they stubbornly refrain from coming to any of our Bible Classes. How does the shepherd recover a straying sheep? By doing nothing more than inviting the sheep back? In the end, he needs to “go and look for the one that wandered off” (Matthew 18:12).

Love those who have looked after you. Look after those who love you. And, “May the Lord make you increase, both you and your children” Psalm 115:14).

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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