1 Corinthians 4:5 - Exposition

Judge nothing. St. Paul, in the Epistle to the Romans, insists with some indignation on this duty of checking the tendency to vain depreciation, both because we have not the capacity for forming adequate judgments, and because censoriousness is a very common though thoroughly unchristian vice ( Romans 14:4 , Romans 14:10 , Romans 14:13 ). Before the time. The time is when God shall "judge the secrets of men" ( Romans 2:16 ), and when "the day shall try every man's work of what sort it is" ( 1 Corinthians 3:13 ). Until the Lord come. The advent is called in the New Testament sometimes the "epiphany," and sometimes the parousia of Christ. The word used for "until" ( heōs an ) points to a time entirely indefinite. Both ; rather, also; i.e. among other things. The hidden things of darkness. "All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do" ( Hebrews 4:13 ; comp. Ecclesiastes 12:14 ). God "shall illuminate the crypts of the darkness which naturally fills the self deceiving heart." The counsels of the hearts. These may bear no scrutiny, even when the actions of the life have been made to look plausible enough. And then. God only "seeth in secret" ( Matthew 6:4 ), and therefore the praise and blame of men may in this life be equally unjust. Shall every man have praise of God; rather, each one shall then have his praise ( i.e. such praise as he deserves) from God. Some of the Greek Fathers ( e.g. Theophylact) here make "praise" a "word of intermediate sense," involving either praise or blame. But St. Paul says "praise" for two reasons—partly because he is thinking of faithful teachers like Cephas, Apollos, and himself, who were depreciated by rival factions; and partly because he, like other apostles, shows an invariable tendency to allude to the bright rather than to the dark side of judgment. The "praise from God"—the "Well done, good and faithful servant"—is so infinitely precious that it reduces to insignificance the comparative value of human praise or blame.