1 Corinthians 4:5-6 The Most Disobeyed Passage in the Bible?

1 Corinthians 4:5-6 (KJV)
Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your sakes; that ye might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another.

These may be some of the most disobeyed verses of the Bible.

Paul urges us, with respect to those ministers of Christ we have come to admire, not to judge anything “before the time”. We tend to disregard this.

• We judge which pastors are successful and which are not
• We judge which preachers have the anointing of God and which do not
• We judge which preachers are effective in the pulpit and which are not
• We judge who is worthwhile to follow and who is not

We have all sorts of ways to justify this behavior; we aren’t, in our minds, calling one better than the other. We are only identifying which ones to follow. After all Paul said to follow him as he followed Christ.

Paul warns that the danger is that we would get puffed up; not in ourselves but in our favorite preacher. Tell me it isn’t true that whole fellowships of churches have been built around a favorite preacher. Tell me that those fellowships of pastors and churches have not engaged in thinking their leader (or leaders) is better than some other group’s leader (or leaders). Tell me that no one has ever been puffed up against another believer because they think the guy they follow is more of a man of God than the guy this other group follows.

I realize that false doctrine exists. I say we should carefully judge doctrine and denominations. We should and we must. However, within the ranks of sound Baptist churches, no one should ever judge one man’s ministry over another.

We do not know how the Lord will judge them in His time.

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1 Corinthians 4:5-6 The Most Disobeyed Passage in the Bible?

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