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Instead of everybody being happy that they had a relationship with Paul or with Apollos, these relationships are now the basis for power-play.
Paul shows that the root cause for the division is pride and boasting.
Up until the twentieth century, traditional cultures (and this is still true of most cultures in the world) always believed that too high a view of yourself was the root cause of all the evil in the world.
Traditionally, the answer was hubris - the Greek word meaning pride or too high a view of yourself. Traditionally, that was the reason given for why people misbehave.
Our belief today – and it is deeply rooted in everything – is that people misbehave for lack of self-esteem and because they have too low a view of themselves.
The significant thing she says is that there is no evidence that low self-esteem is a big problem in society.
‘people with high self-esteem pose a greater threat to those around them than people with low self-esteem and feeling bad about yourself is not the source of our country’s biggest, most expensive social problems.’1
By using this particular word, Paul is trying to teach these Corinthians something about the human ego.
This word used here for pride literally means to be overinflated, swollen, distended beyond its proper size.
It brings to mind a rather painful image of an organ in the human body, an organ that is distended because so much air has been pumped into it. So much air, that it is overinflated and ready to burst. It ...
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I think the image suggests four things about the natural condition of the human ego: that it is empty, painful, busy and fragile.
The ego that is puffed up and over-inflated has nothing at its centre. It is empty.
Spiritual pride is the illusion that we are competent to run our own lives, achieve our own sense of self-worth and find a purpose big enough to give us meaning in life without God.
if you try to put anything in the middle of the place that was originally made for God, it is going to be too small. It is going to rattle around in there.
the parts of our body only draw attention to themselves if there is something wrong with them.
It is always drawing attention to itself – it does so every single day.
People sometimes say their feelings are hurt. But our feelings can’t be hurt! It is the ego that hurts – my sense of self, my identity.
It is incredibly busy trying to fill the emptiness. And it is incredibly busy doing two things in particular – comparing and boasting.
The way the normal human ego tries to fill its emptiness and deal with its discomfort is by comparing itself to other people. All the time.
Pride is the pleasure of being more than the next person.
Trying to recommend ourselves, trying to create a self-esteem résumé because we are desperate to fill our sense of inadequacy and emptiness. The ego is so busy. So busy all the time.
Paul does not look to the Corinthians – or to any human court – for the verdict that he is a somebody. So Paul is saying to the Corinthians that he does not care what they think about him. He does not care what anybody thinks about him.
When he says that he does not let the Corinthians judge him nor will he judge himself, he is saying that he knows about his sins but he does not connect them to himself and his identity.
Paul is saying that he has reached a place where his ego draws no more attention to itself than any other part of his body. He has reached the place where he is not thinking about himself anymore. When he does something wrong or something good, he does not connect it to himself any more.
The thing we would remember from meeting a truly gospel-humble person is how much they seemed to be totally interested in us. Because the essence of gospel-humility is not thinking more of myself or thinking less of myself, it is thinking of myself less.
True gospel-humility means I stop connecting every experience, every conversation, with myself. In fact, I stop thinking about myself. The freedom of self-forgetfulness. The blessed rest that only self-forgetfulness brings.
The world tells the person who is thin-skinned and devastated by criticism to deal with it by saying, ‘Who cares what they think? I know what I think. Who cares what the rabble thinks? It doesn’t bother me.’ People are either devastated by criticism – or they are not devastated by criticism because they do not listen to it.
Do you realize that it is only in the gospel of Jesus Christ that you get the verdict before the performance?
Paul is saying that in Christianity, the verdict leads to performance.
I do not have to do things just to build up my résumé. I do not have to do things to make me look good. I can do things for the joy of doing them. I can help people to help people – not so I can feel better about myself, not so I can fill up the emptiness.
All I can tell you is that we have to re-live the gospel every time we pray. We have to re-live it every time we go to church. We have to re-live the gospel on the spot and ask ourselves what we are doing in the courtroom. We should not be there. The court is adjourned.
