God’s Word for You
1 Corinthians 4:18-19 The cross of ‘modern theology’
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Wednesday, December 28, 2022
18 Some of you are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. 19 But I will come to you soon, if the Lord is willing, and I will find out the power, not the talk, of these arrogant people.
Those pesky Corinthian factions were not friendly rivalries. Paul shows us that the groups that did not say “I follow Paul” were actually anti-Pauline. The ones who said “I follow Cephas!” also said, “Down with Paul!” Can you imagine such a thing in our church, where three pastors serve a couple thousand souls? Would those who say, “We love Pastor so-and-so” also tell me, “But we hate Pastor Smith”?
Paul knew that by telling them that Timothy was coming, they would think, “Of course! Paul knows better than to come back here. We have nothing to learn from Paul.” They thought that they had nothing to gain from listening to Paul anymore. They were children who were turning away from their father. But “We should fear and love God that we do not dishonor or anger our parents and others in authority, but honor, serve, and obey them, and give them love and respect” (Small Catechism). And also, “We should fear and love God that we do not tell lies about our neighbor, betray him, or give him a bad name, but defend him, speak well of him, and take his words and actions in the kindest possible way.” And still more: “We should fear and love God that we do not despise preaching and God’s Word, but regard it as holy and gladly hear and learn it.” A puffed up, arrogant batch of Corinthians were sinning against the Fourth, Eighth, and Third Commandments with their dismissive attitude about Paul.
Paul was on his way back to Corinth if the Lord willed. Then Paul would see the arrogance of these blowhards. He wants to know what spiritual results their words and actions had. If they were leading one another to repentance and a life of faith, why would they talk the way that they do? If they were not, then they were against the church, against the gospel of Christ, and everything to do with salvation. In that case, they had to be corrected or driven out. Paul said: “But you, why do you pass judgment on your brother? And you, why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat” (Romans 14:10).
In fact, Paul would make it back to Corinth as soon as he could. He wrote this letter from Ephesus in Asia Minor, where he stayed for two years (Acts 19:10). From there he traveled over to Macedonia (northern Greece) where he wrote 2 Corinthians, and spent three months in Greece, probably Corinth itself (Acts 20:2-3). He wrote Romans while he was there or nearby at Cenchrea.
Paul is preaching stern law here: You are sinning and in danger of hell if you continue this foolish attitude of preferring one minister over another, and especially of dismissing your spiritual father because of his doctrine. They were treating faith and the gospel the way that proponents of a “modern theology” treat faith and the gospel today: That they are able to ‘prove’ as absolute truth what common and ordinary people merely believe. They wanted to have a theology that was a system of science and not of faith. They were convinced that science and mathematics were the reason the universe exists rather than a tool used by human beings to understand and describe the universe. They promoted science and philosophy to a divine status rather than as servants and janitors of the divine truth of Scripture. For God and Christ our Savior are not products of human invention, but the source of all things. “Without him,” John says, “nothing was made that has been made” (John 1:3). For Luther said at Marburg: “The debate concerning space and its nature belongs to the realm of mathematics; theology, however, deals rather with the omnipotence of God which is above all mathematics.”
We put our faith in Christ because Christ is our Savior. If the world wants to call me a simpleton and a fool because of that, then I will wear those titles proudly the way my dad wore his sergeant’s stripes in the army. For just as my dad earned his stripes in the service of his country, so I will have earned those stripes and titles in the service of my Lord and my God. There is no sleeve big enough to bear them with the honor I would receive for such jeering and condemnation. For what can we do with a little cross flung across our shoulders by the world except bear it happily in Christ? The arguments of the world and its philosophy is nothing but the croaking of frogs in my ears when set against the divine music of the gospel of forgiveness and the resurrection in Christ Jesus. “I will not neglect your Word” (Psalm 119:16). For our Lord Jesus did all that he did that we should be his own, and live under him in his kingdom, and serve him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness. This we accept and delight in, with simple faith, and may it always be so.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.