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Today's Pathway: I Corinthians 4:1-2 Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.

In today's passage Paul is giving the Corinthian believers some basic guidelines by which ministers are to be evaluated. It is commonplace to assess someone based upon his personality or his talent, or even on his productivity, but that would be following the "worldly wisdom" that Paul has been rebuking them for in the previous chapters. A pastor friend of mine once said that churches and pastors are deemed successful if they have what he called the "Three B's" - Buildings, Bodies, and Bucks. He was, unfortunately, correct. Paul wants to show the proper standards by which pastors and other ministers should be examined.

In verse 1 the word "account" is a financial term that has the idea of balancing books and getting things in order. Paul is saying that church members should "take an inventory" of himself and Apollos (and others), to see if they are what God wants them to be. He gives two words that summarize the criteria by which church leaders should be judged: "ministers" and "stewards". The Greek word translated "minister" is not the same word that Paul used in I Corinthians 3:5 to describe himself. That word means to be a "servant". The Greek word used here means to be an "under-rower". Jack Arnold explained it this way:

"Corinth was a seaport and it was a common sight to see the Roman war galleys. On the lowest level of these warships was a single row of benches on both sides of the deck where the rowers sat. Facing the rowers on a platform was where an officer would stand so the rowers could see him. It was the oarsman’s task to row according to the cadence set by the officer. The whole ship moved and stopped on his orders. These rowers were slaves in the Roman navy who had been forcibly put in the position of under-rower; it was not their choice. The word implies subordination and insignificance."

The second term used is "steward". Again, Jack Arnold gives us a good explanation:

"He was a privileged slave, picked out and set apart from the other slaves by the master of the household to oversee the household. He was a slave who was elevated above the other slaves and given the responsibility of dispensing to the members of the household the provisions and the stores of the master. A steward was not the master but a slave of the master. The steward was entrusted with certain valuable commodities which he was responsible to dispense."

"Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing."

Serving, studying, teaching, and following the Lord faithfully and exclusively; this is what God expects from pastors. It is what we should expect as well.