1 Corinthians 4:14

I write not these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my dear children.

What a wealth of abused and suffering love lies in such a tender appeal as this! Not a word of blame, in the sense of recrimination not a trace of bitterness, just the appeal of a loving father for his wayward children. The great thrust of this whole argument was accurately seen by Morris "as an emphasis on the contradiction between the values of true Christians, and those of the worldly-wise Greeks."[31] The Corinthians had simply become mixed up regarding what were true values and what were not. The word from which "admonish" is translated in this place is the root of the cognate noun "admonition" (Ephesians 4:4), where "It is used of the duty of a father to his children."[32] Thus the metaphor of his being the father of the Corinthians was already in Paul's mind.

[31] Leon Morris, op. cit., p. 82.

[32] Ibid., p. 83.