1 Corinthians 4:14-16 WEB

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - 1 Corinthians 4:14-16

Here Paul challenges their regard to him as their father. He tells them, 1. That what he had written was not for their reproach, but admonition; not with the gall of an enemy, but the bowels of a father (1 Cor. 4:14): I write not to shame you, but as my beloved children I warn you. Note, In reproving for sin, we should have a tender regard to the reputation, as well as the reformation, of the sinner. We should aim to distinguish between them and their sins, and take care not to discover any... read more

William Barclay

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - 1 Corinthians 4:14-21

4:14-21 It is not to shame you that I write these things, but to warn you as my beloved children. You may have thousands of tutors in Christ, but you have not many fathers; for, in Christ Jesus, through the good news, I begat you. So then, I urge you, show yourselves imitators of me. That is why I send to you Timothy, who is my beloved child and faithful in the Lord, for he will bring back to your memory my ways in Christ--exactly the same things as I teach everywhere and in every Church.... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 1 Corinthians 4:14

I write not these things to shame you ,.... Though they had a great deal of reason to be ashamed of the vain opinion they had of themselves, and that they suffered the faithful ministers of Christ to want the necessaries of life, when they abounded so much with the good things of it; and though the apostle's view in giving this narrative was to bring them under a sense of their faults, and to a conviction of them, and so to shame for them, in order to their future reformation and amendment;... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 1 Corinthians 4:15

For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ ,.... Or "schoolmasters"; by whom he means the false teachers, whom, for argument sake, he admits to be instructors in Christ, or ministers of his, as in 2 Corinthians 11:23 and who were many, and of whose number the Corinthians boasted; though they were not so numerous as here supposed; for the expression is hyperbolical: perhaps some reference may be had to the multitude of schoolmasters, tutors, and governors, and who also were... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 1 Corinthians 4:16

Wherefore, I beseech you ,.... Though he might have used the power and authority of a father, yet he chose rather to entreat and beseech them; saying, be ye followers of me ; for who should children follow, but their parents? The Vulgate Latin, adds, "as I am of Christ"; so Chrysostom in his time read it; and Beza says he found it so written in one Greek exemplar; and so it is in one of Stephens's; it seems to have crept in from 1 Corinthians 11:1 . However, though it might not be now... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - 1 Corinthians 4:14

I write not these things to shame you - It is not by way of finding fault with you for not providing me with the necessaries of life that I write thus; but I do it to warn you to act differently for the time to come; and be not so ready to be drawn aside by every pretender to apostleship, to the neglect of those to whom, under God, you owe your salvation. read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - 1 Corinthians 4:15

For though ye have ten thousand instructers - Μυριους παιδαγωγους , Myriads of leaders, that is, an indefinite multitude; for so the word is often used. The παιδαγωγος , from which we have our word pedagogue, which we improperly apply to a school master, was among the Greeks, the person or servant who attended a child, had the general care of him, and who led him to school for the purpose of being instructed by the διδασκαλος , or teacher. It seems there were many at Corinth who... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - 1 Corinthians 4:16

Wherefore, I beseech you, be ye followers of me - It should rather be translated, Be ye imitators of me; μιμηται , from which we have our word mimic, which, though now used only in a bad or ludicrous sense, simply signifies an imitator of another person, whether in speech, manner, habit, or otherwise. As children should imitate their parents in preference to all others, he calls on them to imitate him, as he claims them for his children. He lived for God and eternity, seeking not his own... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - 1 Corinthians 4:14

Verse 14 14.I write not these things to shame you As the foregoing instances of irony were very pointed, so that they might exasperate the minds of the Corinthians, he now obviates that dissatisfaction by declaring, that he had not said these things with a view to cover them with shame, but rather to admonish them with paternal affection. It is indeed certain that this is the nature and tendency of a father’s chastisement, to make his son feel ashamed; for the first token of return to a right... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - 1 Corinthians 4:15

Verse 15 15.For though you had ten thousand. He had called himself father, and now he shows that this title belongs to him peculiarly and specially, inasmuch as he alone has begotten them in Christ. In this comparison, however, he has an eye to the false apostles to whom the Corinthians showed all deference, so that Paul was now almost as nothing among them. Accordingly he admonishes them to consider what honor ought to be rendered to a father, and what to a pedagogue (254) “You entertain... read more

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - 1 Corinthians 4:14-16

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - 1 Corinthians 4:14-21

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 1 Corinthians 4:14

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 1 Corinthians 4:15

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 1 Corinthians 4:16

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - 1 Corinthians 4:14

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - 1 Corinthians 4:15

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - 1 Corinthians 4:16

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - 1 Corinthians 4:14

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - 1 Corinthians 4:15

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