God’s guides – explaining God’s mysteries
1 Corinthians 4:1-5
1 So look at Apollos and me as mere servants of Christ who have been put in charge of explaining God’s mysteries. 2 Now, a person who is put in charge as a manager must be faithful. 3 As for me, it matters very little how I might be evaluated by you or by any human authority. I don’t even trust my own judgment on this point. 4 My conscience is clear, but that doesn’t prove I’m right. It is the Lord himself who will examine me and decide.
5 So don’t make judgments about anyone ahead of time—before the Lord returns. For he will bring our darkest secrets to light and will reveal our private motives. Then God will give to each one whatever praise is due.
There are some great phrases in this passage depending on which version you look at including:
- In charge of explaining God’s mysteries
- We are guides into God’s divine secrets
- The requirements for a good guide are reliability and accurate knowledge
- So don’t make judgements about anyone ahead of time.
Wow, don’t you want to be one of God’s guides helping people to see who He is and to be put in charge of explaining God’s mysteries to those around you. I think that is a great job to have. To do that well we need to be reliable, to not rush to judgement and to have accurate knowledge of God’s thoughts and mysteries. Let us be people who are passionate about our task – to guide people to God – and to do that with God’s love, grace, peace and mercy so that we can be reliable and not quick to judge others. Let us also be people who study God’s word so we can guide people well.
Lord, thanks that, like Paul spoke about here, we can be one of your guides. That we can bring you to those around us – your love, peace, grace and mercy. Help us to have accurate knowledge so that we can guide people well and fill us with your love, peace, grace and mercy so we can be reliable and not quick to judge others. Thank you, Lord that you want everyone to come back into your family. Help us to play our part. Amen.
Written by Therese Manning