Even if you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. Sermons
I. GENERALLY SPEAKING, CHRISTIANS MAY BE DESCRIBED AS CHILDREN. 1. Like the Corinthians, most members of the Church of Christ need constant and watchful care. Providence has appointed that children should be born more dependent than the offspring of the inferior animals upon parental attention and devotion. From infancy unfit the approach of manhood and womanhood, human beings stand in need of the supervision and assistance of their parents. So is it with the members of Christ's Church. They are in need of pastoral care and kindness, and without this are not likely either to grow in Christian character or to escape the assaults of their foes. 2. In addition to care, they need wise and fatherly counsel. It would be well if spiritual pastors bore in mind the inexperience of a large proportion of the flock. Paul was a faithful counsellor, and in writing to these Christians at Corinth he warned them very faithfully against the faults and errors they were in danger of falling into. Not with severity, but with directness and earnestness, he admonished his spiritual children, and entreated them to render obedience to his advice and directions. Even sincere disciples of Christ are often in peril by reason of their own want of knowledge and experience, and by reason of the temptations which beset them in this world. Hence the importance of such pastoral admonitions as those of which Paul here gives an example. II. THERE ARE IN THE CHURCH OF CHRIST THOSE WHO MAY BE DESIGNATED SPIRITUAL FATHERS. At Corinth the apostle occupied a pre-eminently honourable and influential position. He claims in this passage to have been, what the history of the Acts shows that he was, the planter of the vineyard, the founder of the edifice, the father of the family. It was by his labours, his bravery, his perseverance, that the Christian community came into existence. In the highest sense, of course, the Father was God himself, who gives the Spirit of adoption to all his people. But instrumentally, the apostle was blessed by God, through the preaching of the gospel, to the begetting and birth, so to speak, of this congregation, this spiritual household. This relationship involved the obligation on their part to reverence, honour, obey, and gratefully to love and rejoice in, one to whom they were, under God, so immeasurably indebted. For his was a unique position with regard to them. No other could claim to stand in the same relation, and Paul was bold to tell them so. Still are there those who are honoured by the calling of God to this spiritual fatherhood; and such should meet with that respectful and grateful recognition which is the due of benefactors so signally favoured by God himself. III. TUTORS AND INSTRUCTORS IN CHRIST OCCUPY IN THE CHURCH A POSITION ONLY INFERIOR TO THAT OF SPIRITUAL FATHERS. At Corinth the charisma of teaching seems to have been imparted and exercised in a measure almost embarrassing in its abundance. Paul speaks hyperbolically of the "myriads" of tutors who followed up his apostolic labours. The same Spirit bestows gifts in multiplicity and variety. Let Christians be grateful for all the "means of grace," and especially for the holy and devout ministrations of the learned, the wise, the sympathetic, and the strong. For thus is it appointed that the Church should grow in grace. - T.
I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you. He proceeds —I. WITH LOVE. 1. Not as a schoolmaster, but as a father. 2. Not to shame, but to warn. 3. Not to threaten, but encourage (ver. 16). 4. Not to punish, but to supply suitable help (ver. 17). II. WITH FIRMNESS. 1. He discourages the perverse (ver. 18). 2. Exposes the false. 3. Exalts the true. 4. Submits the choice of a rod or love. (J. Lyth, D. D.) I.II. III. (J. Lyth, D. D.) 1. Not a mere instructor, but the instrument of communicating new life. 2. This cannot be accomplished by severity, but by a loving proclamation of the truth. II. HIS INFLUENCE — 1. Depends upon example (ver. 16). 2. Supposes that he is in Christ (ver. 17). 3. Will generally succeed where precept and example are combined. (J. Lyth, D. D.) I. IS A NIMROD, a mighty hunter for faults (Jeremiah 20:10; Psalm 56:6). Faithfulness does not delight to dwell on a fault, but censoriousness does. II. A MIGHTY CREATOR It makes faults where there are none; it puts the worst construction on words and actions. Examples: The Pharisees and disciples going through the corn-fields. Eliab to David. It calls zeal rashness — Michael to David. Faithfulness is discreet in its decisions. III. IS AN EASY RELIEVER WHERE HE IS NOT AN INVENTOR OF FAULTS. Examples: The two false witnesses against Christ. The people of Ephesus when Demetrius slandered Paul. The Israelites when the spies returned and brought the evil report which the Israelites believed. Faithfulness is not credulous; it believes not every spirit, but "tries the spirits." IV. IS A KIND OF OPTICIAN. It magnifies small things, makes a man an offender for a word, carries magnifying-glasses with it. Faithfulness endeavours to mitigate the offence (1 Peter 4:8). V. IS A KIND OF CRIER. It propagates the faults of men where they are not known. Example: Ham (Genesis 9:20-22). Faithfulness concealeth the matter (Genesis 9:33; Proverbs 11:13). VI. DELIGHTS TO DWELL ON A FAULT (Psalm 102:8). Faithfulness grieves and laments the failings of others (Proverbs 24:17). VII. IS VERY SUPERCILIOUS IN ITS REPROOFS (Isaiah 55:5; Luke 18:11). Faithfulness is tender of the reputation of others, and desires to reclaim and restore them. (Homilist.) (Canon Evans.) II. 1. Instrumentally. 2. By the Spirit of Christ, who originates life into the soul. III. IV. V. (J. Lyth, D. D.) 1. Something more than to become the father of one's ideas. There are gifted men who generate the leading ideas in the minds of their contemporaries, by their conversation, speeches, writings. But these are mere schoolmasters or teachers. Coleridge and Carlyle arc examples of this. 2. Something more than the author of a certain style of thinking. Aristotle, Bacon, &c., are examples. 3. One who generates in another his own spirit, sympathies, and aims; one who transforms the character of another into his own image. II. THAT THE NOBLEST SPIRITUAL FATHER IS HE WHO BEGETS IN ANOTHER THE CHRISTLY CHARACTER. Many are the moral characters prevalent among men — the sensual, the sceptical, the selfish. The Christly character stands in sublime contrast to these; it is disinterested, spiritual, Divine. The man who generates in others this character — 1. Imparts the highest good. To be like Christ is the highest end of being; it is the summum bonum of souls. 2. Creates the highest mutual affection. Paul called Timothy his "beloved son," and speaks with inexpressible tenderness of his converts as his little children with whom he travailed in birth (Galatians 4:10). III. THAT THE CHRISTLY CHARACTER IS ONLY BEGOTTEN BY THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST. Natural religion cannot do it; Judaism, Mohammedanism, heathenism cannot do it; no speculative creeds, moral codes, ritualistic religions can do it. The gospel alone is the power to generate in man the true Christly character; it is that transformative glass into which as we look we get changed into the same image from "glory to glory." Conclusion: Learn from this — 1. The supreme interest of man. What is that? Learning, wealth, fame? No; Christliness. He who has this, has everything; all things are his. He who has not this, has "nothing," says Paul. 2. The grandest distinctions amongst men. What are they? Sages, soldiers, sovereigns? No; spiritual sires. The man who generates in another the Christly character has done a greater work than any sage or king has ever done. Every man may, and ought to, become a spiritual father. (D. Thomas, D. D.) I. THE RECORDS AND MEMORIALS OF THE CHRISTIAN FAMILY. 1. The propagating power of the Divine life in men is one of the distinctive features of Christ's religion. Other systems have made provision for carrying down their tenets, but the office of the Spirit of God is to recreate. The Founder of Christianity and His disciples claimed those in their day as "children," those who had been born again into a new family circle. 2. In looking up the genealogy of any line, the fact that there were known to be numerous descendants gives us the best evidence that we shall be able to trace the branches to the parent stock. The Church has as well authenticated outlines from the time of Constantine, in 325, as have the governments of the greatest nations of the past or their ruling houses. 3. You will realise, however, that a Church which has reached this stage of organisation and influence must have some time allowance for its crystallisation. Your scientist wants you to grant him thousands of years for the erosion of the bed of Niagara and the glacier tracts and deposits of natural forces. He must not deny some fair period of Christianising energy to cut the channel in which we find the love of God moving within the visible Church, so that the gospel might spread as it had done from India to Spain and Britain. The graves of the saints would bridge the gulf from to , if there were no other records. Their inscriptions of the Christian virtues, hopes of immortality, and faith in Jesus would restore the materials for our family history, and the types by which we could trace our ancestry if all other lines should fail. II. PROOFS OF OUR SPIRITUAL LINEAGE. 1. Paul traces his own new birth and life to Jesus, so that we may consider the great apostle to the Genthes as a representative of what men had begun to he in the line of Christian descent, and compare ourselves with him. We are told what .was the character of other people before they also were changed (1 Corinthians 6:9-11). In order to set forth more clearly the type of the new family, an example is given of one of Paul's pupils (ver. 17). Timothy is, as it were, a spiritual grandson of Jesus. We can tell what the gospel was as it worked in the son, sire, and founder of our faith. Then Timothy is particular not to teach doctrines only, but to put the people in remembrance of Paul's ways. They could see whether the child's walk and features were like those of the parent, and were "in Christ." 2. There are many varieties of temperament among children of the same household, and the Christian family presents us those with differing and peculiar traits. But does any candid man dare to say he cannot find to-day the type of those who formed the early Church in spirit, love, and works? If the men of the kingdom come short of your ideal, ask yourself where you received this noble image of the mind save from the gospel history. It should not be a matter of surprise that grotesque forms come to us from the isolated frontier communities of the world. The wonder is that they have preserved any likeness to our great ancestors. Select the best examples of faith and service in our world to-day, and you will be careful how you say you cannot find Christ, or His truth, or His will for you to obey. Through all the ages of darkness, idolatry, and persecution, the Spirit has been among men. III. AN INVITATION TO JOIN THE CHRISTIAN FAMILY. "Be ye imitators of Me." (W. R. Campbell.) (C. H. Spurgeon.) 1. Christ. 2. Scriptural examples. II. IS INCUMBENT ON ALL, especially ministers, parents, teachers, &c. III. SUPPOSES SOME PROFICIENCY IN THE TEACHER — principle, practice, motive. IV. IS MOST CERTAIN AND EFFECTIVE. It is more simple, persuasive, powerful. (J. Lyth, D. D.) 2. That we might have worthy patterns to imitate, God hath raised up in all ages excellent persons to lead us by good example in the paths of righteousness. 3. It was a special design of God's providence in recording and recommending to our regard the sacred histories. They were not framed as monuments of a fruitless memory; they were not proposed to us as entertainments of our curiosity; but they are set before us as copies to transcribe, as lights to guide us in our way to happiness. 4. Good example is of exceeding advantage to practice on many accounts. I. IT MORE COMPENDIOUSLY, EASILY, AND PLEASANTLY INFORMS OUR MINDS AND DIRECTS OUR PRACTICE THAN PRECEPTS OR ANY OTHER INSTRUMENT OF DISCIPLINE. Who would not more readily learn to build by viewing carefully a well-contrived structure, than by a studious inquiry into the rules of architecture? or to draw by setting a good picture before him, than by merely speculating on the laws of perspective? Neither is the case much different in moral concernments; one good example may represent more fully and clearly the nature of a virtue than any verbose description. E.g. — 1. If we desire to know what faith is, and how we should rely on the Divine Providence, let us propose to our consideration the practice of Abraham. 2. He that would learn how to demean himself in resisting the assaults of temptation, let him consider that one carriage of Joseph. 3. Would we learn wisdom, constancy, and resolution in the conduct of honest and worthy designs, let us set before our eyes the pattern of Moses. 4. Would you be instructed how faithfully to discharge the ministerial or any other office? With a steadfast attention then behold the excellent pattern of St. Paul. 5. I might in like manner instance how Elias's practice might teach us to be zealous champions for truth and righteousness; how they who would be good judges, or honest patriots, may receive direction from the carriage of Samuel, Daniel, and Nehemiah. II. IT PERSUADES AND INCLINES OUR REASON TO GOOD PRACTICE, COMMENDING IT TO US BY PLAUSIBLE AUTHORITY. For that wise and virtuous persons do anything is a very probable argument that we are concerned to do the like. It is obvious in temporal concernments how boldly men adventure their dearest interests in following such whom they deem honest and able to guide them. III. IT INCITES OUR PASSIONS AND IMPELS THEM TO THE PERFORMANCE OF DUTY. 1. It raises hope, by discovering to us the possibility of success in undertaking good designs, and that by the best and most convincing of arguments, experience. "The example," saith St. Bernard, "of a work done is a lively and efficacious oration, easily persuading what we intend by proving that feasible which we strive to persuade unto." 2. It inflames courage. So the apostle to the Hebrews signified when he set before them the examples of the patriarchs. How many persons, timorous and averse from dangerous undertakings, have notwithstanding become very bold and adventurous in war by the discipline and influence of an exemplary valour! 3. It provokes emulation, moving us earnestly to desire, and thence eagerly to pursue, whatever good, privilege, or advantage we see another to enjoy. Shall he, a man like myself, by noble dispositions and worthy performances, render himself highly considerable, while I, by sordid qualities and unworthy practices, render myself despicable? Shall a stripling David gloriously triumph over giants, while I basely am vanquished by dwarfs? 4. It works on modesty, that preserver and guardian of virtue, as Cicero calls it. For every good action of another doth upbraid and shame him who acteth not conformably thereto. 5. It awakens that curiosity which is of no mean efficacy on our actions. For whatever we see done, we are apt to inquire why and to what purpose it is done, what the grounds are, and what the fruits of the performance. 6. It pleases the mind and fancy in contemplation, thence drawing a considerable influence on practice. No kind of studious entertainment doth so generally delight as history, or the tradition of remarkable examples. Conclusion: Consider that God hath provided and recommended to us one example, as a perfect standard of good practice: the example of our Lord, the which declareth the use and efficacy of good example as one principal instrument of piety. (I. Barrow, D. D.) 5109 Paul, apostle The Seventh Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. June the Twenty-Eighth the Waiting Light Of the Character of the Unregenerate. The Three Tribunals The Inner and the Outer Revelation. Characters Will be Disclosed, and Justice Awarded. Human Characters Determined Only by Divine Decision. Distinguishing Grace Against Vain and Worldly Knowledge Of Matrimony. Of Orders. Letter I (Circa 1120) to the Canons Regular of Horricourt Letter Xli to Thomas of St. Omer, after He had Broken his Promise of Adopting a Change of Life. Regeneration. Fundamental Oneness of the Dispensations. The Preacher as an Apostle. Elucidations. Second Sunday after Trinity Exhortation to Brotherly Love. Against Vain Judgments of Men Of the Nature of Regeneration, and Particularly of the Change it Produces in Men's Apprehensions. Paul a Pattern of Prayer How to Preach the Gospel. A Burning and Shining Lamp. |
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