1 Corinthians 4:1-5 God Knows Your Heart!

1 Corinthians 4:1-5  So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of God.  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 till the Lord comes.  He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts.  At that time each will receive his praise from God.

He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts.  In today's focus, Paul talks about the intent of the heart of those who ministered to the Corinthians.  He reminds the Corinthians that Apollos, Peter, Paul himself, and all other ministers to the church were to be regarded as servants of Christ, entrusted with the secret things of God.  They were not to be considered as anything more than who they were, and the Corinthians were not to judge them on any other terms.  The Corinthians should not lift up or debase these servants of God.  Paul wanted them to know that God would judge these workers for Christ at the appointed time.  He will judge rightly how they lived and what their real intentions were when they ministered to the people.  Did they minister for the glory of God or did they minister for their own glory?  Did they want a large following for themselves or for God?  Paul knew the answers to these questions had to be left with God and his righteous judgment.  Jeremiah said many years earlier, The 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 man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve.” (Jeremiah 17:9-10)  The Corinthians were trying to decipher the real purposes and motives behind these spiritual leaders, to determine the validity of their teaching.  Paul said they would never really know the true motives of these men.  For now, they should consider these spiritual leaders and teachers as what they were: servants of God.  God knows the hearts of men, just as it was when He told Samuel to pass over all of Jesse's sons who were brought before him and to send for the youngest who was tending sheep.  God anointed David: The LORD does not look at the things man looks at.  Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.  (1 Samuel 16:7)   
  
The question for us today is what does God see in our hearts: what are our motives?  We have been given a trust.  What are we choosing to do with our new lives in Christ?  Are we servants of God, choosing to follow him and his will for our lives or are we choosing our way, our plans, our will?  Are we building our lives on eternal truth, so others might follow us?  As we have already read in 1 Corinthians, Paul represented godly pursuits as gold, silver, costly stones.  But if we build on the mundane activities of life that will soon pass away when we die, we build with wood, hay or straw.  (See 1 Corinthians 3:12)  When we meet our demise, no one will care how many hours we spent exercising to keep fit.  No one will care very much about how many interesting places we visited in our lifetime.  No one will mention how many hours we spent watching television or interacting with our electronic devices.  All of this is transitory and literally disappears when we are gone.  These ephemeral pursuits we considered so important in our lives will garner no praise in the spiritual world where God exists, for they were self-serving, self-oriented, self-fulfilling.  Peter speaks so well of this: For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.  For, “All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever.”  And this is the word that was preached to you.  (1 Peter 1:23-25)  We are no longer part of the perishable; we have been raised with Christ incorruptible.  We can choose life in him with the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus prayed, Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  (Matthew 6:9-10)  We are to be his servants, to love the people in the world as God loves them.  With the Spirit to teach and to guide us, we can yield to God and prove faithful.

Paul informs the Corinthians they should not judge the intents or purposes of the people who minister to them.  God will judge them, and his judgment is just.  God will judge the fruit of our lives, for He knows us intimately.  He knows minute by minute what we are thinking, nanosecond by nanosecond.  Nothing escapes him.  As Paul implies, we cannot judge ourselves: 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.  His conscience is clear, but he still does not know if he has completely been pure in his heart, pleasing God at all times.  But He says, the Lord will be my judge; He alone will determine the truth of my life.  It is the Lord who judges me.  We can trust the Lord, for He has brought grace and mercy to all who call upon his name and receive his forgiveness for their sins.  We can go to the Bible and see the grace He gave while He walked this earth.  The woman who was to be stoned for committing adultery is a tremendous example of Christ's mercy in action.  The Pharisees and teachers of the law try to trick Jesus by bringing this woman before him, but He says to them, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”  With these words, they all leave, from the oldest to the youngest, for who except Jesus could have lifted a stone against her?  When Jesus asks the woman who is left to condemn her and she tells him they are all gone, we read,  “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”  (See John 8:1-11)  Just as this woman who deserved death received grace, we who are IN CHRIST are hidden from the final, eternal judgment because of Christ's work in us.  But all of us will come before the Lord.  He will examine our hearts, exposing the essence of our lives.  Were our thoughts fixed on us or did we have time to praise and worship him?  Did we love God and our neighbor as ourselves?  Of course, in some way, all of us will be speechless, for we will see how often our wills took predominance.  But the Lord is our judge, and we will stand by his mercy and grace, resting in the knowledge that He is the Rock of our salvation, our Redeemer and Lord!