Morbid Self-Introspection
I Corinthians 4:1–5
“This, then, is how you ought to regard us: as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the mysteries God has revealed. Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.”
Pulpit Commentary notes that the verse discourages all morbid self-introspection. It also shows that the Apostle Paul is not arrogantly proclaiming himself superior to the opinion of the Corinthians, but is pointing out the necessary inadequacy of all human judgments. The heart is too liable to self-deceit to enable it to pronounce a judgment with unerring accuracy. Hence neither your contemporaries nor can you form any final estimate of yourself because our knowledge is too imperfect. What more of God? How can some judge His character when He Himself is the standard? But like St. Paul, God is the ultimate examiner, indeed, “the human heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? "I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a person according to her conduct, according to what her deeds deserve (Jer 17:9–10), what we do know is our imperfection itself and God has not only told us about our condition, but in His grace, given our hearts the cure: “For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do-this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom 7:19–25).”
“This, then, is how you ought to regard us: as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the mysteries God has revealed. Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.”
Pulpit Commentary notes that the verse discourages all morbid self-introspection. It also shows that the Apostle Paul is not arrogantly proclaiming himself superior to the opinion of the Corinthians, but is pointing out the necessary inadequacy of all human judgments. The heart is too liable to self-deceit to enable it to pronounce a judgment with unerring accuracy. Hence neither your contemporaries nor can you form any final estimate of yourself because our knowledge is too imperfect. What more of God? How can some judge His character when He Himself is the standard? But like St. Paul, God is the ultimate examiner, indeed, “the human heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? "I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a person according to her conduct, according to what her deeds deserve (Jer 17:9–10), what we do know is our imperfection itself and God has not only told us about our condition, but in His grace, given our hearts the cure: “For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do-this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom 7:19–25).”
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