1 CORINTHIANS CHAPTER 4
The Work of the Ministers of Christ. 1 Cor. 4, 1—21.
The apostle's fatherly discipline: V. 14. I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you. V. 15. For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel.
The apostle had written the last passage in holy indignation; like a stream, his speech had poured forth portraying the afflictions which were heaped upon the ministers of the Lord. And he can almost feel the deep humiliation, the feeling of confusion which must enter the hearts of his readers at this point. As a wise teacher, therefore, he adds a section which is intended to prevent their becoming embittered. He could indeed not bring out his rebuke without making them feel humiliated, but this feeling should lead to a true childlike reverence of his position and words. His severity springs from the anxious heart of a father that feels the deepest concern for his children: Not by way of shaming you do I write this, but by way of warning you as my beloved children. He regarded them still with the fullness of paternal affection, and it grieved him that they should be showing evidence of such unfilial behavior, hence his urgent appeal to them.
Paul substantiates his right to such fatherly admonition: For though you had ten thousand pedagogs in Christ, yet not many fathers. The word pedagog, in those days, denoted the family slave whose duty it was to bring the boys to school and to accompany them home. They had charge of the boys also during the hours not spent in school and thus assisted in their training. St. Paul here applies the word to the other teachers that may have been in Corinth, good and legitimate teachers indeed, doing their work in Christ and for His glory. Of these they may have had ever so many, yet they had only one father, only one that could be connected with them in the bonds of true fatherly affection: For in Christ Jesus, through the Gospel, I have begotten you. They were his spiritual children, their call to the fellowship of Jesus Christ, their regeneration was due to his personal work; that is what makes them so near and dear to him. Compare 1 Pet. 1, 23; 1 Thess. 1, 5; 2, 19; John 6, 63.