Week 3 Optional Bible Prep

The Cross’ Message about “Self”

(The Hidden Problem with Self-Esteem Culture)

1 Cor. 3:1–4:4

 

Summary:

 

         There are four groups highlighted in Chapter 1: Those who belong to Paul, to Apollos, to Cephas, and those who belong to Christ. These are factions in the church, divisions between people of the congregation as to whose way of following Jesus is more authentic, more biblical, and which should hold authority over the congregation. Throughout the correspondence we see that the root of these divisions was another group who called themselves in Greek the Pneumatikoi, the “super spiritual ones.” This is the group that Paul devotes the most attention to in both letters and, according to Paul, the “super-spiritual ones” believed that because they received words from the Spirit, they also possessed a divine wisdom superior to that of others. In response others followed suit and set Apollos up as the expression of true Christianity, or Cephas, or even Paul.


 Paul’s answer is that they have made idols of themselves, the idol of Self and of Self-Regard which has caused them to pit these people against one another. The truth is that Paul, Apollos, and Peter all worked together under God’s provision, that all of the congregation together is the inner sanctum of God’s Temple. In Paul’s time and in every traditional culture prior to the modern era, the way of dealing with disagreements and conflict follows the culture of honor and shame. Do what your family, culture, or society expects, or everyone will look down on you, you’ll be an outcast, or the family will disown you. What matters most in this paradigm of self-regard is what others think of you. 


But in modern culture, we avoid this by allowing everyone to decide for themselves what is right and wrong on an individual basis: You do you, and I’ll do me. What matters most in this paradigm of self-regard is what you think of yourself. Paul argues that both of these are idols of The Self, a fraudulent means of establishing self-regard and self-esteem, whether through the judgment of others about yourself, or through your own judgment over yourself. He argues that only the verdict of God matters when it comes to the identity of the Self, which in turn gifts us the freedom of self-forgetfulness

 

Key Passages:

  1. Factions of Christians

vv. 4–8, Paul vs. Apollos vs. Cephas

 

  1. The Truth our Idols Obscure:

    • vv. 10–18

      • Paul with Apollos and Cephas

      • The “Temple” is not heiron, it is naos (Eng., inner sanctum)

 

  1. The Idols of Self and Self-Regard

  4:3a Judgment from others is irrelevant

4:3b Judgment of self is irrelevant

4:4a Even if I think I’m innocent, it’s irrelevant

4:4b Only God’s verdict over Self matters.

 

Key Idea:

 

         Both the traditional way of making others the standard of Self-regard and the modern way of making your Self the standard has a fatal flaw. They are both performance first, verdict later. The traditional way is that you must do first; then––and only then––are you accepted. Abide by these rules and guidelines, and then you can belong. And if it’s the performance that gets you in, you cannot help but look down your nose at others who do not add up the way you think you do, as is commonly the case in traditional cultures. In performance first, verdict later, the motivation is always to be a personal achiever or a moral achiever in the eyes of a community, which is then inevitably enslaved to what others think of you or even to what you think of yourself. And if it’s the modern way, according to which you make the standard for yourself, then you’re only ‘righteous’ because you say you are. 


Neither one of these is capable of handling criticism or confrontation, which leads the Corinthian congregation into endless factionalism. For the traditional culture, criticism and confrontation is devastating because the value you place on your life comes from the assessment of others. For our modern culture, you can’t manage criticism or confrontation because you must remain so far above it in order to make sure that it never touches the self-regard you’ve built for yourself in your own eyes. But the message of the cross undercuts both of these Idols of Self and Self-Regard, because the message of the cross is not performance first, verdict later. The Message of the Cross about the “Self” is verdict first (accepted), because Christ already performed for you. That is why only His verdict matters.