1 Corinthians 1:10-16 Now I beseech you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing… We may, and must, give a Benjamin's portion of respect to those who excel in age, pains, parts, and piety; but the lavishing by wholesale all honour on one, and scarce retailing out any respect to the other, is what Paul reproves. I. THE MISCHIEFS THAT ARISE FROM THIS PRACTICE. 1. Dissention betwixt ministers. As the Grecians (Acts 6:1) murmured against Abe Hebrews, so ministers feel aggrieved that people pass them by unregarded. Perchance the matter may fly so high as it did betwixt Moses and Aaron (Numbers 12:2). It will anger not only Saul, a mere carnal man, but even those that have degrees of grace to say, "He hath converted his thousands, but such an one his ten thousands." 2. Dissension amongst people. Like the women that pleaded before Solomon (1 Kings 3:22), they contend "The living minister is mine; he that hath spirit and activity: but the dead minister is thine; he cometh not to the quick, he toucheth not the conscience." "Nay," saith the other, "my minister is the living minister, and thine is the dead one. Thy pastor is full of the fire, of ill tempered and undiscreet zeal; 'but the Lord was not in the fire': whilst my minister is like to a 'still voice'; staunching the bleeding-hearted penitent, and dropping the oil of the gospel into the wounded conscience." 3. Rejoicing to wicked men, to whose ears our discords are the sweetest harmony. Let not the herdsmen of Abraham and Lot fall out, whilst the Canaanites are yet in the land. 4. Great dishonour to God Himself. Here is such looking on the ambassador that there is no notice taken of the king. II. TO PREVENT THESE MISCHIEFS, BOTH PASTORS AND PEOPLE MUST LEND THEIR HELPING HANDS. 1. I begin with the pastors. (1) Those who have the thickest audiences.(a) Let them not pride themselves with the bubble of popular applause, often as carelessly gotten as undeservedly lost. Have we not seen those who have preferred lungs before brains, and sounding of a voice before soundness of matter? Let princes count the credit of their kingdoms to consist in the multitude of their subjects: far be it from a preacher to glory when his congregation swells by the consumption of the audience of his neighbour.(b) Let them discourage immoderate admiration. When St. John would have worshipped the angel, "See thou do it not," saith he: "worship God." Know thou who lovest to glut thyself with people's applause, it shall prove at the last pricks in thy eyes and thorns in thy side — because sacrilegiously thou hast robbed God of His honour.(c) Let them labour also to ingratiate every deserving pastor with his own congregation. It was the boon Saul begged of Samuel, "Honour me before my people." And surely it is but reason we should seek to grace the shepherd in the presence of his flock. (2) I come now to neglected ministers, whilst others, perchance less deserving, are more frequented. Never fret thyself, if others be preferred before thee. They have their time; they are crescents in their waxing, fall seas in their flowing: envy not at their prosperity. Thy turn of honour may come next. One told a Grecian statist who had excellently deserved of his city, that the city had chosen four-and-twenty officers, and yet left him out. "I am glad," said he, "the city affords twenty-four abler than myself." And let us practise St. Paul's precept, "by honour and dishonour, by good report and disreport," and say with David, "Lord, here I am; do with Thy servant as Thou pleasest." 2. By this time, methinks, I hear the people saying, as the soldiers to John Baptist, "But what shall we do?"(1) Ever preserve a reverent esteem of the minister whom God hath placed over thee. For, if a sparrow lighteth not on the ground without God's especial providence, surely no minister is bestowed in any parish without a more peculiar disposing; and surely their own pastor is best acquainted with their diseases, and therefore best knoweth to apply spiritual physic thereunto. And as God's Word hath a general blessing on every place, so more particularly is it blessed to parishioners from the mouth of their lawful minister. Let not therefore the stranger, who makes a feast of set purpose to entertain new guests, be preferred before thy own minister, who keeps a constant table, feeding his own family. Wherefore let all the Ephesians confine themselves to their Timothy; Cretians to their Titus; every congregation to their proper pastor. As for those whose necessary occasions do command their absence from their flocks, let them see to it that they provide worthy substitates. (2) Let them not make odious comparisons betwixt ministers of eminent parts. It is said of both Hezekiah (2 Kings 18:5) and Josiah (2 Kings 23. 25) that there were none like them. The Holy Spirit prefers neither for better, but concludes both for best; and so amongst ministers, when each differs from others, all may be excellent in their kinds. As, in comparing several handsome persons, one surpasseth for beauty of face; a second, for a well-proportioned body; a third, for comeliness of carriage: so may it be betwixt several pastors. One's excellency may consist in the unsnarling of a known controversy; another, in plain expounding of Scripture; one, the best Boanerges; another, the best Barnabas: our judgments may be best informed by one, our affections moved by a second, our lives reformed by a third. Grant some in parts far inferior to others: was not Abishai a worthy captain, though he attained not to the honour of the first three? And may not many be serviceable in the Church, though not in the first rank? (3) Entertain this for a certain truth, that the efficacy of God's Word depends not on the parts of the minister, but on God's blessing, on His ordinance. (T. Fuller, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. |
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