Spiritual Fatherhood (1 Cor. 4:14-21)

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4:15. Paul is writing hypothetically as the founder of the church. Note 3 John 4. That is the Christian perspective.

  1. We must love.
    • 4:14. The NIV has ‘my dear children’ but it is actually ‘my beloved children’ (ESV). See Luke 15:20, 21-23. God rejoices when one sinner repents. Beware of bad discipline (Eph.6:4).
    • 4:21. Two options but the gentle one is the preferred one.
  2. We must teach the truth.
    • 4:17. Paul was sending Timothy to remind them of what they already knew – 16:10. Remember 1 Cor.2:2.
  3. We must set a good example.
    • 4:16-17. Paul says this kind of thing quite often – 1 Cor.11:1. Some things we learn better by modelling, e.g. how to work a computer.
    • 4:20 – not miracles so much as conversions.
  4. We must discipline if need be.
    • 4:14. Jay Adams based his whole directive counselling approach on this word νουθετέω – ‘to admonish’, not just to listen. See too 4:18-21.
    • Prov.3:11-12; Rev.3:19. Augustine: ‘the rod has its own kind of charity’.
    • Paul is like a nursing mother and a disciplining father in 1 Thessalonians 2:7-11.