Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Corinthians 4:5
Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.
5. Therefore judge nothing before the time ] The precept is here applied to the relation of teacher and taught which is laid down generally in St Mat 7:1 and Rom 2:1. It is our duty to listen to the teaching of God’s ministers, test it humbly yet candidly and sincerely, by the aid of God’s word, to ‘hold fast that which is good’ and act upon it (1Th 5:21), but to avoid all scrutiny and imputation of motives, since to search the heart is the prerogative of God alone. “Learn not to judge, for we do not know the secrets of the heart. We judge men by gifts, or by a correspondence with our own peculiarities, but God judges by fidelity.” Robertson.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Therefore – Inview of the danger of being deceived in your judgment, and the impossibility of certainly knowing the failings of the heart.
Judge nothing – Pass no decided opinion; see the note at Mat 7:1. The apostle here takes occasion to inculcate on them an important lesson – one of the leading lessons of Christianity – not to pass a harsh opinion on the conduct of any man, since there are so many things that go to make up his character which we cannot know; and so many secret failings and motives which are all concealed from us.
Until the Lord come – The Lord Jesus at the Day of Judgment, when all secrets shall be revealed, and a true judgment shall be passed on all men.
Who both will bring to light; – See Rom 2:10.
The hidden things of darkness – The secret things of the heart which have been hidden as it were in darkness. The subsequent clause shows that this is the sense. He does not refer to the deeds of night, or those things which were performed in the secret places of idolatry, but to the secret designs of the heart; and perhaps means gently to insinuate that there were many things about the character and feelings of his enemies which would not well bear the revelations of that Day.
The counsels of the hearts – The purposes, designs, and intentions of men. All their plans shall be made known on that Day. And it is a most fearful and alarming truth, that no man can conceal his purposes beyond the Day of Judgment.
And then shall every man have praise of God – The word here rendered praise epainos denotes in this place reward, or that which is due to him; the just sentence which ought to be pronounced on his character. It does not mean as our translation would imply, that every man will then receive the divine approbation which will not be true; but that every man shall receive what is due to his character, whether good or evil. So Bloomfield and Bretschneider explain it. Hesychius explains it by judgment ( krisis). The word must be limited in its signification according to the subject or the connection. The passage teaches:
(1) That we should not be guilty of harsh judgment of others.
(2) The reason is, that we cannot know their feelings and motives.
(3) That all secret things will be brought forth in the great Day, and nothing be concealed beyond that time.
(4) That every man shall receive justice there. He shall be treated as he ought to be. The destiny of no one will be decided by the opinions of people; but the doom of all will be fixed by God. How important is it, therefore, that we be prepared for that Day; and how important to cherish such feelings, and form such plans, that they may be developed without involving us in shame and contempt!
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 5. Judge nothing before the time] God, the righteous Judge, will determine every thing shortly: it is his province alone to search the heart, and bring to light the hidden things of darkness. If you be so pure and upright in your conduct, if what you have been doing in these divisions, c., be right in his sight, then shall you have praise for the same if otherwise, yourselves are most concerned. Some refer the praise to St. Paul and his companions: Then shall every one of us apostles have praise of God.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come; seeing that the judgment of secret things belongs to God, judge nothing before the time, which God hath set to judge all things. The works of the flesh are manifest, and men may judge of them; but for secret things, of which it is impossible that those who do not know the hearts of men should make up a judgment, do not judge of them before the time, when God will certainly come to judge all men.
Who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: if men cloak the hidden things of darkness with the cover of hypocrisy and fair pretences, they will at that day be most certainly uncovered, and the secret thoughts, counsels, and imaginations of mens hearts shall in that day be made manifest.
And then shall every man have praise of God; and then those that have done well, every of them shall have praise of God; as, on the contrary, (which is understood, though not here expressed), those that are hypocrites, and whose hearts have been full of evil thoughts and counsels, shall by God be put to shame and exposed to contempt.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
5. Disproving the judicial powerclaimed by the Romish priesthood in the confessional.
Thereforeas the Lordis the sole Decider or Dijudicator.
judgenot the sameGreek word as in 1Co 4:3;1Co 4:4, where the meaning is toapprove of or decide on, the merits of one’s case. Hereall judgments in general are forbidden, which would, on ourpart, presumptuously forestall God’s prerogative of final judgment.
LordJesus Christ,whose “ministers” we are (1Co4:1), and who is to be the judge (Joh 5:22;Joh 5:27; Act 10:42;Act 17:31).
manifest . . . heartsOurjudgments now (as those of the Corinthians respecting their teachers)are necessarily defective; as we only see the outward act, wecannot see the motives of “hearts.” “Faithfulness”(1Co 4:2) will hereby beestimated, and the “Lord” will “justify,” or thereverse (1Co 4:4), according tothe state of the heart.
then shall every man havepraise (1Co 3:8; 1Sa 26:23;Mat 25:21; Mat 25:23;Mat 25:28). Rather, “hisdue praise,” not exaggerated praise, such as the Corinthiansheaped on favorite teachers; “the praise” (so the Greek)due for acts estimated by the motives. “Then,” not before:therefore wait till then (Jas5:7).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Therefore judge nothing before the time,…. This is said to prevent rash and precipitate judgment, and agrees with that well know Jewish maxim, , “be slow in judgment” s; not hasty to pass sentence; it is best to leave things to the great day of account, than to be free in censuring one another. There is a time “fixed” for the awful judgment, though of that day and hour knows no man: judge nothing
until the Lord come; who at the fixed time will certainly come to judgment, and that suddenly, at unawares, in an hour no man knows of:
who will bring to light the hidden things of darkness; meaning not so much vices, immoralities, wickedness of all sorts committed in the dark, and which it is a shame to speak of; but those hidden things of dishonesty, those secret arts and private methods which false teachers have made use of to conceal themselves, and carry on their base designs to the injury of truth, the souls of men, and the cause of Christ:
and will make manifest the counsels of the heart; what were the views and intentions, the aims and ends of these men in taking upon them to be preachers of the word; when it will appear that these were not the glory of God, and the good of the souls of men, but filthy lucre, popular applause, or some such mercenary view, and sinister end.
And then shall every man have praise of God. Every regenerated soul; everyone that is a Jew inwardly; everyone that has the circumcision of the Spirit; and particularly every faithful minister, who is more especially designed; to whom it will be said, “well done good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord”. The apostle, in these words, has respect to the false teachers who sought the praise of men, and not the honour which comes from God; and which the true ministers of the word will have another day, however despised and criticised by men now.
s T. Bab Sanhed, fol. 7. 2. & Pirke Abot, c. 1. sect. 1.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Wherefore (). As in 3:21 which see.
Judge nothing ( ). Stop passing judgment, stop criticizing as they were doing. See the words of Jesus in Mt 7:1. The censorious habit was ruining the Corinthian Church.
Before the time ( ). The day of the Lord in 3:13. “Do not therefore anticipate the great judgment () by any preliminary investigation () which must be futile and incomplete” (Lightfoot).
Until the Lord come ( ). Common idiom of and the aorist subjunctive with or without for a future event. Simple futurity, but held forth as a glorious hope, the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus as Judge.
Who will both bring to light ( ). Future indicative of this late verb (in papyri also) from (light), to turn the light on the hidden things of darkness.
And make manifest ( ). (Ionic and late) causative verb from . By turning on the light the counsels of all hearts stand revealed.
His praise ( ). The praise (note article) due him from God (Ro 2:29) will come to each then () and not till then. Meanwhile Paul will carry on and wait for the praise from God.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Judge [] . See on ch. 1Co 2:14. The change of the verb favors the rendering examine for ajnakrinw. The Lord is the only competent examiner therefore do not judge until He comes to judgment. Even I myself am not competent to institute a conclusive examination, for the absence of condemnation from my conscience does not absolutely acquit me. See the critical note on 1Jo 3:19 – 22.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “Therefore judge nothing before the time.” (hoste) “So then” (Greek me pro kairon ti krinete) “judge ye not anything before the time-season or time period.” This refers to either 1) the period of the judgment seat of Christ or 2) the period or time-season of the great white throne judgment 2Co 5:10-11; Rev 20:11-15.
2) “Until the Lord come.” (heos an elthe ho kurios) “until the Lord comes.” No period of final, determining judgments of man’s deeds shall be made until the coming of Jesus Christ.
3) “Who both will bring to light.” (Greek hos kai photisei) “who will both shed light on.”
4) “The hidden things of darkness.” (ta krupta tou skotous) “the concealed or hidden things of the darkness.” The omniscient Christ shall uncover, cause light to shine upon, all hidden, covered or unconfessed sins of men; Every work and secret thing shall be unveiled in the judgment day, for every man. Ecc 12:13-14; Mat 12:37.
5) “And will make manifest the counsel of the hearts.” (Kai phanerosei tas boulas ton kardion) “and will manifest the counsels – (imaginations, vain, empty and presumptuous thoughts) of the heart.” Gen 6:5. Even the purposes and fleshly desires of men shall be revealed at the judgment so that every knee shall bow and every tongue confess to the Glory of God. Php_2:11-12; Rom 14:12.
6) “And then shall every man have praise of God.” (Greek kai tote ho epainos) “and then the praise” (genesetai hekasto apo tou theou) “will be to each one from God.” The “well done” from God is the real judgment praise that counts. Mat 25:21; Mat 25:23.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
5. Therefore judge nothing before the time From this conclusion it is manifest, that Paul did not mean to reprove every kind of judgment without exception, but only what is hasty and rash, without examination of the case. For the Corinthians did not mark with unjaundiced eye the character of each individual, but, blinded by ambition, groundlessly extolled one and depreciated another, and took upon themselves to mark out the dignity of each individual beyond what is lawful for men. Let us know, then, how much is allowed us, what is now within the sphere of our knowledge, and what is deferred until the day of Christ, and let us not attempt to go beyond these limits. For there are some things that are now seen openly, while there are others that lie buried in obscurity until the day of Christ.
Who will bring to light. If this is affirmed truly and properly respecting the day of Christ, it follows that matters are never so well regulated in this world but that many things are involved in darkness, and that there is never so much light, but that many things remain in obscurity. I speak of the life of men, and their actions. He explains in the second clause, what is the cause of the obscurity and confusion, so that all things are not now manifest. It is because there are wonderful recesses and deepest lurking-places in the hearts of men. Hence, until the thoughts of the hearts are brought to light, there will always be darkness.
And then shall every one have praise It is as though he had said, “You now, O Corinthians, as if you had the adjudging of the prizes, (224) crown some, and send away others with disgrace, but this right and office belong exclusively to Christ. You do that before the time — before it has become manifest who is worthy to be crowned, but the Lord has appointed a day on which he will make it manifest.” This statement takes its rise from the assurance of a good conscience, which brings us also this advantage, that committing our praises into the hands of God, we disregard the empty breath of human applause.
(224) “ Tanquam agonothetos The allusion is to the presiding officers or umpires ( αγωνοθέται) who adjudged the prizes in the Grecian games. (See Herod. 6. 127.) — Ed
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(5) Before the time.This is explained by the following words to be the day of the Lord. When this arrives the truth will be ascertainable, for God will bring into light all the things at present hidden in the darkness, and will show forth the inner motives of each heart. Then every man (and not only one party leader, as at Corinth) shall have his due and proper praise from Godnot from man.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
5. The true Dignity of the Apostles, 1Co 4:1-13.
1. Stewards of divine mysteries to be judged by their own masters, 1Co 4:1-5.
2. Not to be treated with partisan arrogance, 1Co 4:6-8.
3. The effects of which arrogance on the suffering apostles is vividly depicted, 1Co 4:9-13.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Wherefore judge nothing before the time until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make openly clear the counsels of the heart. And then shall each man have his praise from God.’
‘Until the Lord comes.’ Not the change in terminology. Jesus is ‘the Lord’. He is not just a superior Teacher. There is one Lord, Jesus Christ. As the Son He is Lord over God’s household. All are to live in the light of Him and His expected return, for then He will pass true judgment and men will have to give full account of all they have done. Compare the many parables of Jesus which describe exactly this (e.g. Luk 12:35-48)
‘Judge nothing before the time.’ He is here thinking primarily of teachers such as Apollos, Peter and himself, and all their fellow teachers (1Co 3:22). But it also refers to all who would teach faithfully and are accountable to their Lord. He does not mean that the Corinthians should not judge the rightness of doctrine, or wrongdoing, or immoral behaviour. He later shows that to be their responsibility. He is saying only that they should concentrate on Jesus Christ, consider what is given to them, and not pass judgment on the adequacy or otherwise of His assistants and their motives. It is the quality and spiritual effectiveness of men’s service that should not be judged. That is the Lord’s responsibility. When He comes what is unknown will be brought to light and men’s motives and aims, hidden within their hearts, will be made clear. Then will God praise each one according to what he deserves. Much of what they have done, which men admired and praised, will be burned up, revealed as dross, but other will stand the examination and will come through as pure, refined gold and silver and costly jewellery (1Co 3:13).
However what is said here also applies to all Christians. In the end we have to account to Him for all we do and say. Then judgment will not be on appearance but on what is true. What we have kept hidden within ourselves will be laid bare. And for all His own there will be some praise from God, for any who are unworthy of any praise have thereby proved that they were not truly His.
‘The hidden things of darkness.’ These are the things that men do not want to have brought to the light. All have had such things in their lives, wrong aims, wrong motives, lack of spiritual application. And sadly many such things have gone on in church affairs. Much is done that is done for wrong motives and for self-gain. And we can be sure that they will all come out. But these are things that only God can judge. For only He can pierce into the darkness.
‘The counsels of the heart.’ What men think deep within. What lies behind their smooth words, or their faithful and often misunderstood service. All will be made openly clear.
‘And then shall each man have his praise from God.’ Then the reward will be given. Then will He say, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant.’ Compare Mat 25:21-23. Each will receive of the gracious giving of a solicitous Lord.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
1Co 4:5. Will bring to light, &c. This is a lively and just insinuation, that under specious forms his enemies concealed very dark designs, which would not bear the discoveries of that awful day. The next passage also suggests a very solid argument against magnifying one minister above another; namely, that the secret principles of men’s actions are unknown; and it is enlargeth upon to very good practical purposes: while the Apostle, at the same time, takes an opportunity of making a very solemn profession of his own faithfulness, and shewing the boldness which he had towards God, and his modesty and candour to men; all which were extremely suitable to the general purposes that he had in view. See Doddridge and Calmet.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
1Co 4:5 . Therefore judge nothing before the time , namely, with respect to me ; not as Billroth thinks: one sect regarding another , which is inadmissible in view of the preceding . and of the whole passage, 1Co 4:3-4 , which all applies to Paul . The process of thought from 1Co 4:3 onwards is, namely, this: “ For my part, you may judge me if you will, I make very little of that; but (1Co 4:4 ) seeing that I do not even judge myself, but that he that judgeth me is Christ, I therefore counsel you (1Co 4:5 ) not to pass a judgment upon me prematurely .”
] i.e. before it is the right time , Mat 8:29 ; Sir 30:24 ; Sir 51:30 ; Lucian, Jov. Trag. 47. How long such judging would continue to be , we learn only from what comes after; hence we must not by anticipation assign to the specific sense of tempus reditus Christi .
] i.e. , Joh 7:24 .
] describes the passing of the judgment , the consequence of the ., a manner accordant with the looking forward to the Messianic judgment . Luther, Raphel, and Wolf render: alium alii praeferte ; but this runs counter to the context, for it must be analogous to the general .
.] Epexegesis of : judge not before the time (judge not, I say), until the Lord shall have come . Then only is it a , because then only can the judgment be pronounced rightly according to the Lord’s decision. The marks out the coming as in so far problematical (depending upon circumstances; see Hartung, Partikell . p. 291), inasmuch as it was not, indeed, doubted, and yet at the same time not dependent upon subjective determination, but an object of expectant faith in the unknown future. Comp Mat 16:28 ; Mar 9:1 ; Luk 9:27 ; Luk 13:35 ; Rev 2:25 .
] is the also customary with the relative, the effect of which is to bring into prominence some element in keeping with what has gone before (Baeumlein, Partik. p. 152; Buttmann, neut. Gr. p. 243 [E. T. 283]). In His function as Judge, in which He is to come, He will do this also , He will light up, i.e. make manifest, what is hidden in the darkness. Respecting , comp Sir 24:32 ; 2Ti 1:10 ; Plut. Mor. p. 931 C, and the passages in Wetstein. What withdraws itself from the light as its opposite (Hofmann, who takes as meaning as well, as also ) is included here, but not that alone. Compare rather the general statement in Luk 8:17 .
. . . .] a special element selected from the foregoing general affirmation. The significant bearing of what Paul here affirms of Christ at His coming is the application which the readers were to make of it to himself and the other teachers; it was to be understood, namely, that their true character also would only then become manifest, i.e. be laid open as an object of knowledge, but now was not yet submitted to judgment.
] so that ye can only then pass judgment on your teachers with sure (divine) warrant for what ye do. The chief emphasis is upon the . , which is for that reason put at the end (Khner, II. p. 625), and next to it upon what is placed first, . This does not mean praemium (so Flatt, with older expositors, citing wrongly in support of it such passages as Rom 2:29 ; Rom 13:3 ; 1Pe 1:7 ; 1Pe 2:14 ; Wis 15:19 ; Polybius, 2. 58. 11), nor is it a vox media (as, following Casaubon, a [616] Epict. 67, Wolf, Rosenmller, Pott, and others assume wholly without proof); but it denotes simply the praise, the commendation . The apparent incongruity with is obviated by the article: the praise that appertains to him (Bernhardy, p. 315) shall be given to each, so that Paul here puts entirely out of sight those who deserve no praise at all. And rightly so. For his readers were to apply this to him and Apollos ; hence, as Calvin justly remarks: “haec vox ex bonae conscientiae fiducia nascitur.” See 1Co 4:4 . Theophylact’s view, although adopted by many, is an arbitrary one: “unde et contrarium datur intelligi, sed mavult ,” Grotius (so also Bengel, Billroth, Rckert, Olshausen).
. ] not from men , as ye now place and praise the one above the other, but on the part of God ; for Christ the Judge is God’s vicegerent and representative, Joh 5:27 ff.; Act 10:42 ; Act 17:31 ; Rom 2:16 , al [617]
[616] d refers to the note of the commentator or editor named on the particular passage.
[617] l. and others; and other passages; and other editions.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
5 Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.
Ver. 5. Until the Lord come ] Tot argumeuta quot verba, saith Paraeus, every word here hath its weight. There shall be a resurrection one day of names as well as of bodies. Let that stay us when belied or misreported.
And then shall every man have praise of God ] His faith (now haply hidden, or not noticed) shall then be “found to praise, honour, and glory,” 1Pe 1:7 , -praise from the mouth of the Judge, honour in the hearts of saints and angels, glory in the kingdom of heaven after the judgment ended. Christ shall then be not only his compurgator, a but his encomiast (eulogizer).
a A witness to character who swore along with the person accused, in order to the acquittal of the latter. D
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
5. ] So then (because the Lord is the sole infallible dijudicator) decide nothing (concerning us, of merit or demerit) before the time, until the Lord shall have come (explains .), who shall also ( , inter alia : as part of the proceedings of that Day: or both ) bring to light (throw light on) the hidden things of darkness (general all things which are hidden in darkness), and shall make manifest the counsels of the hearts (then first shewing, what your teachers really are, in heart), and then shall the (fitting) praise accrue to each from God. is not a vox media , praise or blame, as the case may be, but strictly praise . Theophyl., Grot., Billr., Rck., Olsh., suppose the word to be used euphemistically, “unde et contrarium datur intelligi, sed mavult ,” Grot.: Calv., Meyer, al., think that he speaks without reference to those who will obtain no praise : “hc vox ex bon conscienti fiducia nascitur.” Calv. But I agree with De Wette, in thinking that he refers to : they, their various parties, gave exaggerated praise to certain teachers: let them wait till the day when the fitting praise (be it what it may) will be adjudged to each from God; Christ as the Judge being the , Act 10:42 , and so His sentences being . See also Act 17:31 , and Rom 2:16 , , .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
1Co 4:5 . The practical conclusion of the statement respecting Christ’s servants (see note on , 1Co 3:21 ): “So then do not before the time be passing any judgment”. , the cognate ace. = , as in Joh 7:24 . (the fit time, not the set time) signifies prematurely (so sch., Eumen. , 367), as seasonably (Luk 12:42 ). Our Lord gives another reason for not judging, in Mat 7:1 ff.; this prohibition, like that, points to His tribunal, bidding men hold back their verdicts on each other in deference to His ( cf. Rom 14:10 ). “Until the Lord come:” indicates contingency in the time , not the event itself; for this uncertainty, cf. 1Th 5:2 , Mat 25:13 , Luk 12:39 , Act 1:7 , etc. His coming is the toward which the hope of this Church was directed from the first (1Co 1:7 : see note); it will reveal with perfect evidence the matters on which the Cor [665] are officiously and ignorantly pronouncing. . . .: “who shall also illuminate the hidden things of darkness”. points to the cause , as to the result , and (1Co 2:10 ) to the mode of Divine disclosures. Christ’s presence of itself illuminates ( cf. 2Co 4:6 , and other parls.); His Parousia is light as well as fire (1Co 3:13 ) both instruments of judgment. , “the secrets hidden in the darkness” ( res tenebris occultatas , Bz [666] ) not necessarily evil things (see Rom 2:16 , 2Co 4:6 ), but things impenetrable to present light. Chief amongst these, “the Lord will make manifest ( ) the counsels of the hearts ”. These God (and with Him Christ, : 1Co 4:4 ) already searches out (Rom 8:27 ; Psa 139 , etc.); then He will make plain to men, about themselves and each other, what was dark before. The is the real self, the “hidden,” “inward man” (Eph 3:16 f., 1Pe 3:4 , and other parls.), known absolutely to God alone ( cor hominis crypta est , Bz [667] ); its “counsels” are those self-communings and purposings which determine action and belong to the essence of character. “And then (not before) the (due) praise will come ( ) to each from God (not from human lips).” . for it is on God’s behalf that Christ will judge; His commendation is alone of value (Rom 2:29 ; Joh 5:44 ). The Church is God’s field and temple (1Co 3:9 ff.); all work wrought in it awaits His approval. recalls the lesson of 1Co 3:8 ; 1Co 3:11-13 , respecting the discriminating and individual character of Divine rewards. “Praise” ambitious Gr [668] teachers coveted: let them seek it from God. “Praise” the Cor [669] partisans lavished on their admired leaders: this is God’s prerogative, let them check their impertinent eulogies. Enough was said in 1Co 3:15 ; 1Co 3:17 , of condemned work; P. is thinking here of his true (1Co 4:1 f.), who with himself labour and hope for approval at the Day of Christ; little need they reck of the criticisms of the hour.
[665] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.
[666] Beza’s Nov. Testamentum: Interpretatio et Annotationes (Cantab., 1642).
[667] Beza’s Nov. Testamentum: Interpretatio et Annotationes (Cantab., 1642).
[668] Greek, or Grotius’ Annotationes in N.T.
[669]
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
judge. App-122.
nothing = not (Greek. me. App-105) anything (Greek. tis).
before. App-104.
time = season. t
he Lord. App-98.
bring to light. Greek. photizo. See Luk 11:36
make manifest. App-106.
counsels. Greek. boule. App-102.
shall every, &c. Literally praise shall be to each one.
of = from. App-104.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
5.] So then (because the Lord is the sole infallible dijudicator) decide nothing (concerning us, of merit or demerit) before the time, until the Lord shall have come (explains .), who shall also (, inter alia: as part of the proceedings of that Day: or both) bring to light (throw light on) the hidden things of darkness (general-all things which are hidden in darkness), and shall make manifest the counsels of the hearts (then first shewing, what your teachers really are, in heart), and then shall the (fitting) praise accrue to each from God. is not a vox media, praise or blame, as the case may be, but strictly praise. Theophyl., Grot., Billr., Rck., Olsh., suppose the word to be used euphemistically, unde et contrarium datur intelligi, sed mavult , Grot.: Calv., Meyer, al., think that he speaks without reference to those who will obtain no praise: hc vox ex bon conscienti fiducia nascitur. Calv. But I agree with De Wette, in thinking that he refers to :-they, their various parties, gave exaggerated praise to certain teachers: let them wait till the day when the fitting praise (be it what it may) will be adjudged to each from God; Christ as the Judge being the , Act 10:42, and so His sentences being . See also Act 17:31, and Rom 2:16, , .
Fuente: The Greek Testament
1Co 4:5. , judge) He does not say , decide; he more closely alludes to the judgment, which the Lord will give.- , the Lord) Jesus whom we serve, 1Co 4:1.-) also: He will not only judge, but will bring forth to light His judgment.-) is to throw light upon any object, for example, , to throw light upon the night, Exo 14:20, on the margin of the ed. Wech.: or to bring a thing to light, 2Ti 1:10. Both of these will be done at that time.- , the hidden things) The heart of man is truly a hidden cavern [crypt].- , of the darkness) into which no human eye penetrates.-, will make manifest) so that you will then at length clearly know us.- , the counsels) showing, who hath been faithful or not.- , of the hearts) according to the state of the heart, so the conduct is just [justified, 1Co 4:4] and praiseworthy or the reverse.-, then) Therefore wait.-, praise) The world praises its princes, warlike leaders, ambassadors, wise men, artists: God will hereafter praise His ministers.-) to every one, who is a praiseworthy, faithful steward; you only praise one, for example, Paul. So every one, 1Co 3:8. Concerning praise from God, see Mat 25:21. Those too, who are not faithful, expect praise, but their praise will be reproach. Therefore the contrary is also included by implication in the word praise, which is a euphemism [the opposite of praise being not expressed, though implied]; so the euphemism in, shall try or prove, etc., c. 1Co 3:13, 1Co 8:8; 1Co 8:10, notes. So blessing also comprehends cursing, Gen 49:28; Gen 49:7. There is a similar passage, 1Sa 26:23 (24).
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
1Co 4:5
1Co 4:5
Wherefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness,-Wait for the Lords judgment when he will bring to light all things now hidden in darkness.
and make manifest the counsels of the hearts; and then shall each man have his praise from God.-He will then open to view the secret motives of the heart and then every man, faithful as a steward, shall have the praise of God. Paul had confidence that God would justify him and Apollos in all the things over which the Corinthians had divided and for which they had been condemned. This does not mean that men should not test themselves by the word of God by which God will judge them.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Judging Prematurely
Judge nothing before the time.1Co 4:5.
1. The time of which the Apostle speaks is, of course, the Advent of the Lord. Judge nothing, he says, before the time, until the Lord come. He is thinking of his own character and work, which certain Corinthian teachers have been endeavouring to asperse. And what he declares is that in questions pertaining to his personal sincerity he admitted the authority of no earthly tribunal, he did not even rely on the verdict of conscience, he made his appeal to Christ. It was for Christs approval that he worked here; it was Christs vindication that he expected hereafter. When the end came, so he implies, the Corinthians would know what manner of man he had beenpure in motive, upright in conduct, faithful in witness. Meanwhile, if anything in his conduct and methods seemed perplexing, they were to avoid all harsh and uncharitable opinions, possess their souls in patience, and wait for the full and final explanationwhen the Lord comes.
2. Now, what is the exact force and import of the precept? Is it meant that we are to form and express no judgment whatever upon human conduct, upon anything that we see and hear of in the world around us? This cannot possibly be meant, and for more reasons than one.
(1) The first reason is that, if we think at all, many judgments, of the mind if not of the lips, are inevitable. What is the process that is going on with every human being, every day from morning to night? Is it not something of this kind? Observation is perpetually collecting facts and bringing them under the notice of reason. Reason sits at home, at the centre of the soul, holding in her hands a twofold rule of lawthe law of truth and the law of right. As observation comes in from its excursions, laden with its stock of news, and penetrates thus laden into the chamber of reason, reason judges each particular: by the law of right, if it be a question of conduct; by the law of truth, if it be a question of faith or opinion. In a very great number of cases the laws of truth and right, as held by the individual reason, are very imperfect laws indeed; still reason does the best she can with them, and goes on sitting in her own court, judging and revising judgments from morning until night. Probably two-thirds of the sentences we utter, when closely examined, turn out to be judgments of some kind; and if our mental or moral natures are healthy, judgments of some kind issue from us as naturally as flour does from a working corn-mill.
How can it be otherwise? God has given to every man a law or sense of right. As a consequence, every action done by others produces upon us a certain impression, which, when we put it into words, is a judgment. When we hear of a monstrous fraud, of a great act of profligacy, or of a great act of cruelty, we are affected in one way; when we hear of some self-sacrificing or generous deed, of some conspicuous instance of devotion to duty, we are affected in another: we condemn or we approve as the case may be. Woe to us, if we do not thus condemn or approve; for this would mean that our moral nature was drugged or dead.
In our day men sometimes think it good-natured to treat truth and falsehood as at bottom much the same thing; but this cannot be done for long with impunity. In the first age of Christianity it was not so. Ye have an unction from the Holy One, wrote St. John to the first Christians, and ye know all things. I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth. Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. This direct language of St. John would jar upon the ear of a generation which thinks that something is to be said for every falsehood, and something to be urged against every truth; but it is the natural language of those to whom religious truth is a real thing, and not a passing sentiment or fancy. The law of truth within us necessarily leads to our forming judgments no less than does the law of right.1 [Note: H. P. Liddon.]
One great evil of sin is that it takes away our right to be indignant when other people sin, and so in time our standard of thought is lowered to their scale.1 [Note: Phillips Brooks, Life, 79.]
(2) In the second place, Scripture stimulates and trains the judicial faculty within us, making its activity keener and wider than would have been possible without it. The servants of God in the Bible are intended to rouse us to admire and imitate them; and what is this but a judgment of one kind? The sinners in the Bible, from Cain to Judas Iscariot, are intended to create in us moral repulsion, not for their persons, but for their crimes; and what is this but an inward and emphatic judgment of another kind?
Then came the maxim that the indignation expressed by Him against hypocrisy was no precedent for us, inasmuch as He spoke as a Divine person. I contended that it was human, and that if a man did not feel something of the same spirit under similar circumstances, if his blood could not boil with indignation, nor the syllable of withering justice rise to his lips, he could not even conceive His spirit. Mr. Eagreed to this, to my surprise, and told an anecdote. Could you not have felt indignation for that, Robertson? My blood was at the moment running firenot at his story, however, and I remembered that I had once in my life stood before my fellow-creature with words that scathed and blasted; once in my life I felt a terrible might: I knew, and rejoiced to know, that I was inflicting the sentence of a cowards and a liars hell.2 [Note: Robertson, in Life and Letters of the Rev. F. W. Robertson, 212.]
3. The words of St. Paul, then, do not forbid us to form judgments and act on them, they simply convey a warning against premature judgments, an admonition in regard to those hasty and ill-considered verdicts we are apt to pronounce both on people and on facts, while in reality the elements for a sound and safe verdict are not in our hands. There are many facts, enterprises, events, and problems in regard to which it is of the very greatest importance to remember the rule of the text, Judge nothing before the time. They are all those matters into which there enters the element of ignorance, uncertainty, and change. They are those matters in which the fact must be reckoned with that you may be changed, or that they may be changed, or that surroundings may be changed, or that the amount of light may be changed, so that data that are hidden now may be known hereafter, to the altering of human estimates, the overturning of human views.
Let this be lead unto thy feet, that slow
Thy steps may be (as of one tired) to give,
When not convinced by sight, a yes or no.
For sunk is he mid fools in lowest place,
Who no distinction makes, and to the same
Conclusion doth arrive in either case.
Since popular opinion is inclined
Erroneous judgments oftentimes to frame,
Self-love comes in, the intellect to blind.1 [Note: Dante, Paradiso, xiii., tr. by Wright.]
(1) Judge nothing before the time, in view of possible changes in yourself. We all change. We change steadily, we change necessarily, in the process of the years. We change in structure, change in intellect, change in spirit. Our perceptions, our tastes, our needs, all of them alter. And therefore what seems worthless at one stage of our history becomes valuable at another, not because the thing is different in itself, but because we are different who have come to prize it.
Here is a lesson for youth. There are few things to which the youthful are so prone as the practice of judgingjudging men, judging methods, judging facts, judging books; and they are continually judging before the time. Youth is often very dogmatic, even when Christianized. It is apt to be contemptuous towards what does not come up to its youthful standard, depreciatory towards what does not square with its youthful tastes. Take the views of youth in regard to qualities of character. Certain of these qualities get scant justice from the youngpatience, for instance. How little do the young think of patience in comparison with self-reliance, fortitude, boldness of initiative, brilliance of attack. They are all for action, all for aggressiveness, all, too, for the men in whom action, and aggressiveness are the predominant features. But in setting slight store by patience, assigning it a lesser function, relegating it to a lower place, they are judging before the time.
Or pass from qualities of character to modes of presenting truth, and the attitude towards these. The young are often enamoured of the showythe showy in religious testimony, the showy in religious teaching. What draws them and holds them is often the element of novelty, the ingenious in thought, the rhetorical in language, the exciting in appeal. And yet, in looking down on the quiet and homelyplain, sober truth, plainly and soberly preachedthey are judging before the time.
When Dr. Wayland was president of Brown University, and professor of moral science, his eldest son, who was a senior, in reciting to him one day, drew from his father, by a question, the expression of a certain opinion. The esteemed author of this book, said the young man, holding up his fathers text-book on moral science which the class was using, holds a different opinion. The author of that book, my son, said Dr. Wayland quietly, knows more now than he did ten years ago. The teacher of any science who does not know more now than he did ten years ago, who never finds occasion to modify and qualify and reshape his utterances, is probably a cheap and poor sort of teacher.1 [Note: Washington Gladden, Where does the Sky Begin, 66.]
(2) But again, judge nothing before the time, in view of possible changes in the matters to be judged. These changes may be real and great. There are, for instance, the changes that are incident to a natural progress, from the partial to the perfect, from the provisional to the final, from the rudimentary stage to the developed, from the dust and confusion of the beginning to the faultlessness of the ending. Hence the commonplace, so often quoted and so often exemplified, that the public should not see half-done work.
I know a place of worship, the interior of which exhibits an amount of comfort, completeness, and beauty beyond the aspect of most, and certainly in advance of its own original condition. Yet in the first confusion, when old arrangements were disturbed, levels altered, and pews removed, one visitor after another entered the church, and the verdict of each was unfavourable: The work should never have been begun. The building should never have been touched. The result will be failure and disfigurement. So the grumblers went on, till, to avoid a general panic, as well as to secure peace for the actual work, those in charge had to lock the door. The fault-finding was all premature, as the fault-finders themselves acknowledged. Things fell into place and order and harmony; panel matched with panel, colour blended with colour, and the satisfactoriness of the final result justified the disorder and inconvenience of the temporary means.1 [Note: W. A. Gray.]
When an artist has projected a great picture, when he has completed all his studies, conceived his plan, and decided upon his methods, he proceeds to make his preliminary sketches. He roughly draws his various figures, in such postures and with such general expression as he means them to have in the canvas where he will finally place them. They are roughly done at first, and, taken by themselves, suggest no adequate notion of what the general composition will be. Perhaps he even paints each sketch with some elaboration. But even then it would be impossible to make a fair estimate of any of these carefully studied figures, or pronounce upon their colouring; because in the mind of the artist every one of these details has a definite relation to every other, and neither face nor figure, outline nor colouring, can be understood, except as it is thought of in connection with all the rest. So the real value of all these separate particulars cannot be estimated alone. But when the artist begins to draw them in together, when he groups these sketches on one surface, when he blends the colours, and combines them in relation to the lights and shadows of the picture, then one may begin to see, and not till then, all that the studies contained. They can be interpreted only by their final combination, their place in the finished picture.2 [Note: J. C. Adams.]
(3) Judge nothing before the time, in view of possible changes in surrounding circumstances. Changes may yet reveal the use of the object in questionevince the need of it, prove the value of it, and make you thankful it was ever provided. Till then, however puzzling the thing may be, be patient, be watchful, and do not judge unfavourably before the time.
There are certain religious definitions, certain theological formulas, the meaning and value of which are by no means very clear at first. They are so dry, so abstract, so rigid, so formal in character, so antiquated in phrase, that they seem at times a simple clog on the memory, mere dead-weight on the mind. How useless such lore! you say. Surely the time might be better occupied, the faculties might be better exercised, than in memorizing and storing such arid material as this! But in speaking thus, you may be judging before the time. Truth summed up and expressed in fixed and formal dogma may lie in the mind and the memory, unappealed to and unused, so long as there is nothing to disturb. But let circumstances change. Let the sky be dark with the clouds of religious doubt, let the air be agitated with the winds of religious controversy, let the pathway be blocked with the drifts of religious error, and then comes the use of such statements as these, making the road plain, keeping the road open, for those who can put them to use, while those who have no such provision are left to wander amidst the mists and the quagmires of fanaticism, fickleness, and doctrinal mistake.1 [Note: W. A. Gray.]
To summer travellers in Norway, ignorant of the implements of the country, there is a frequent cause of curiosity in certain cumbrous constructions of wood, disposed at intervals by the side of the public roads. There they lie, baking and peeling in the hot summer sunshine, never used, yet never removed. What is the meaning of them? They are lumber on the road. They are eyesores to the tourists. They scare the horses. Surely the best thing to do with them is to break them up into posts for the fences, or faggots for the fire. That is perhaps your impression, as you look at them on a bright July day. But if you visited Norway amidst the snows of the winter or spring, you would be thankful that these homely contrivances are in readiness. They are simply wooden snow-ploughs of unusual shape and size, kept on the spot for the use of the peasants who maintain the road. To say on a summer day that they are useless is plainly to judge before the time.2 [Note: Ibid.]
(4) Judge nothing before the time, in view of possible changes in the amount of light, with the consequent unveiling of facts at present concealed, data and evidence at present hid.
The supreme Court of the United States, just after the inauguration of President Buchanan, decided (over the case of Dred Scott) that slaves were property and not persons. This decision Lincoln, after succeeding Buchanan, challenged. At New York on 27th February 1860, he said: Perhaps you will say, the Supreme Court has decided the disputed constitutional question in your favour. Not quite so. But waiving the lawyers distinction between dictum and decision, the court has decided the question for you in a sort of way. The court has substantially said, it is your constitutional right to take slaves into the Federal Territories, and to hold them there as property. When I say the decision was made in a sort of way, I mean that it was made in a divided court, by a bare majority of the judges, and they not quite agreeing with one another in the reasons for making it; that it is so made that its avowed supporters disagree with one another about its meaning, and that it was mainly based upon a mistaken statement of factthe statement in the opinion that the right of property in a slave is distinctly and expressly affirmed in the Constitution. 1 [Note: The History of North America, xv. 106.]
4. Hitherto we have spoken of matters that may often be settled in time; we revert under this head to the standpoint of St. Paul, and speak of matters that for the most part must be left to eternity. Here a wide field opens up, suggesting at least four different cautions.
(1) Judge no ones character before the time. As a rule, you have not the evidence. The outer life which man sees may be different from the inner life which God sees, and may lie beyond your analysis, because beyond your ken. You see your neighbours failures, but not his aspirations; his stumbles into what is wrong, but not his struggles after what is right; his occasional sins, but not his fierce and lifelong temptations. God and God alone strikes the balance; let God and God alone be the arbiter. Judge not till the last great day, when He admits you to participation in His knowledge, and asks you to assent to His award.
Sometimes, under the most unpromising appearances, there is a fund of hidden good. We all of us have known people with a manner so rude as to be almost brutal, whom we have afterwards discovered to have very tender hearts. And persons are to be found who have a reputation for stinginess, but who really save up their money that they may give it to the poor without letting the world know what they do. In the same way we have met people whose conversation strikes us as uniformly frivolous, or at least as wanting in seriousness, and yet it may be that this is the effect of a profoundly serious, but shy, reserved nature, bent on concealing from any human eye the severe self-scrutinizing, self-repressing life within.2 [Note: H. P. Liddon.]
While we are coldly discussing a mans career, sneering at his mistakes, blaming his rashness, and labelling his opinionsEvangelical and narrow, or Latitudinarian and Pantheistic, or Anglican and superciliousthat man, in his solitude, is perhaps shedding hot tears because his sacrifice is a hard one, because strength and patience are failing him to speak the difficult word, and do the difficult deed.1 [Note: George Eliot, Janets Repentance.]
(2) Judge no ones work before the timeleast of all, if that work be spiritual. Much of the truest and finest spiritual work that goes on is of a kind that defies tabulation. It refuses to be set down in statistics, or grouped in anecdotes, or presented in any tangible or calculable form whatsoever. The balance of the sanctuary is a rarer and more delicate instrument than the balance of the shop, though the balance of the shop too often takes its place. You cannot weigh the fruits of the Tree of Life as a shopman weighs apples and oranges over his counter, nor can you count the number of conversions as a shopman counts the coins in his till. The mistake of many, both without the Church and within it, lies in forgetting this, and importing the commercial principle of so much visible return for so much visible outlaya principle which is degrading to the work, discouraging to the worker, and presumptuous and dictatorial towards God.
The publication of the papers (afterwards published under the title of Unto this Last) in the Cornhill Magazine raised a storm of indignant protest; even a theological heresy-hunt could not have been more fast and furious. The essays were declared to be one of the most melancholy spectacles, intellectually speaking, that we have ever witnessed. The series of papers in the Cornhill Magazine, wrote another critic, throughout which Mr. Ruskin laboured hard to destroy his reputation, were to our mind almost painful. It is no pleasure to see genius mistaking its power, and rendering itself ridiculous. The papers were described by the Saturday Review as eruptions of windy hysterics, absolute nonsense, utter imbecility, intolerable twaddle; the author was a perfect paragon of blubbering; his whines and snivels were contemptible; the world was not going to be preached to death by a mad governess. The last passage of the book in particular filled the Saturday reviewer with indignant disgust. Let us hear the passage, for the author considered it one of the best he ever wrote, and it has reached many a mind and touched many a heart. He had been pleading for wiser consumption, for fairer distribution, for a more thoughtful direction of labour, for a simpler mode of life, and then continued thus:
And if, on due and honest thought over these things, it seems that the kind of existence to which men are now summoned by every plea of pity and claim of right, may, for some time at least, not be a luxurious one;consider whether, even supposing it guiltless, luxury would be desired by any of us, if we saw clearly at our sides the suffering which accompanies it in the world. Luxury is indeed possible in the futureinnocent and exquisite; luxury for all, and by the help of all; but luxury at present can only be enjoyed by the ignorant; the cruelest man living could not sit at his feast, unless he sat blindfold. Raise the veil boldly; face the light; and if, as yet, the light of the eye can only be seen through tears, and the light of the body through sackcloth, go thou forth weeping, bearing precious seed, until the time come, and the kingdom, when Christs gift of bread, and bequest of peace, shall be Unto this last as unto thee; and when, for earths severed multitudes of the wicked and the weary, there shall be holier reconciliation than that of the narrow home, and calm economy, where the Wicked ceasenot from trouble, but from troublingand the Weary are at rest.1 [Note: E. T. Cook, The Life of Ruskin, ii. 6.]
(3) Judge no ones discipline before the time. Do not judge your own. Perhaps you think that discipline harsh. Perhaps you think it singularly unsuitable. You are tempted to imagine that your spiritual character would have been better nurtured and your spiritual interests better served had God taken another method with youassigning you a different burden, leading you a different way. Not so. You may be sure that the burden fits your shoulders, that the path fits your feet, as they fit those of no one else. Wherefore be obedient, be patient, be hopeful. What you know not now you shall know hereafter, if not in this life, certainly in the day that makes all things clear.
We judge others according to results; how else?not knowing the process by which results are arrived at.2 [Note: George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss.]
(4) Judge no ones destiny before the time; you know not the determining elements. They are often hidden from you in life, and some who have passed as opponents of religion have, Nicodemus-like, been its secret friends. And in death the data may be hidden too. I speak with caution, even with trembling, remembering the danger of abuse; but I say that while the possibility of a late repentance permits no one to presume in his own case, it permits no one to despair in the case of others.
have not much sympathy with those who have great suspiciousness about false religion. I have not much sympathy with strong, positive [condemnatory] affirmations about peoples religion, where there is nothing decidedly bad. I have not much sympathy with those who are not disposed to admit and to hope that there may be reality where there is the appearance of some little good thing toward the Lord God of Israel.1 [Note: Rabbi Duncan, in Memoir of John Duncan, 425.]
The tragedy of our lives is not created entirely from within. Character, says Novalis, in one of his questionable aphorismscharacter is destiny. But not the whole of our destiny. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, was speculative and irresolute, and we have a great tragedy in consequence. But if his father had lived to a good old age, and his uncle had died an early death, we can conceive Hamlets having married Ophelia, and got through life with a reputation of sanity, notwithstanding many soliloquies, and some moody sarcasms towards the fair daughter of Polonius, to say nothing of the frankest incivility to his father-in-law.2 [Note: George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss.]
A sailor, who had long been the object of a mothers prayers, but had nevertheless lived a godless and a thoughtless life, was swept overboard in a storm. While he struggled in the waves a vision of his past rose before him, vivid, concentrated, intense, together with what seemed a last opportunity of making his peace with God. That vision he improved. That opportunity he embraced. Then and there he repented. Then and there he gave himself to Christ. When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord: and my prayer came in unto him, into his holy temple. And his first thought after the transaction was this: I shall die a Christian, and my mother will never know of the change. But she did know; for he lived to tell her, and to testify to others besides, by the consistency of his Christian walk and faithfulness of his Christian service.3 [Note: W. A. Gray.]
Judging Prematurely
Literature
Adams (J. C.), The Leisure of God, 143.
Church (R. W.), Village Sermons, i. 8.
Colenso (J. W.), Natal Sermons, i. 72.
Dale (R. W.), Weekday Sermons, 38.
Gray (W. A.), Laws and Landmarks of the Spiritual Life, 41.
Horne (W.), Religious Life and Thought, 86.
Hort (F. J. A.), Village Sermons in Outline, 217.
Howatt (J. R.), The Childrens Angel, 67.
Johnson (H.), From Love to Praise, 165.
Knight (J. J.), Sermons in Brief, 46.
Kuegele (F.), Country Sermons, New Ser., ii. 19.
Liddon (H. P.), Advent in St. Pauls, 551.
Lightfoot (J. B.), Sermons in St. Pauls Cathedral, 193.
Lilley (A. L.), The Soul of St. Paul, 179.
Neale (J. M.), Sermons in Sackville College Chapel, ii. 177.
Parker (J.), Studies in Texts, i. 173.
Sauter (B.), The Sunday Epistles, 30.
Skrine (J. H.), The Hearts Counsel, 8.
Stevenson (J. F.), God and a Future Life, 55.
Whitworth (W. A.), Christian Thought on Present Day Questions, 200.
Christian World Pulpit, xliv. 257 (Harries); lxxiv. 410 (Henson).
Church of England Pulpit, li. 93 (Udny); lix. 112 (Jackson).
Churchmans Pulpit: Third Sunday in Advent: i. 482 (Crosse), 483 (Mulchahey), 485 (Farquhar), 488 (Shipman), 490 (Johnson).
Contemporary Pulpit, 2nd Ser., ii. 193 (Church).
Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible
judge: Mat 7:1, Mat 7:2, Luk 6:37, Rom 2:1, Rom 2:16, Rom 14:4, Rom 14:10-13, Jam 4:11
until: 1Co 1:7, 1Co 11:26, 1Co 15:23, Mat 24:30, Mat 24:46, 1Th 5:2, Jam 5:7, 2Pe 3:4, 2Pe 3:12, Jud 1:14, Rev 1:7
who: 1Co 3:13, Ecc 11:9, Ecc 12:14, Mal 3:18, Luk 12:1-3, Rom 2:16, 2Co 4:2, Heb 4:13, Rev 20:12
praise: Mat 25:21, Mat 25:23, Joh 5:44, Rom 2:7, Rom 2:29, 2Co 5:10, 2Co 10:18, 1Pe 1:7, 1Pe 5:4
Reciprocal: Gen 38:25 – Discern Lev 13:4 – shut up Num 32:23 – be sure your sin Deu 32:34 – General 1Sa 2:30 – I will honour 1Sa 15:14 – What meaneth 2Sa 12:12 – secretly Job 1:5 – in their hearts Job 10:6 – General Job 12:22 – discovereth Job 20:27 – heaven Job 28:11 – and the thing Job 34:22 – no Psa 7:8 – The Lord Psa 33:15 – considereth Psa 37:6 – he shall Psa 44:21 – knoweth Psa 50:21 – set Psa 64:6 – they accomplish Psa 90:8 – our Psa 111:10 – his praise Psa 139:2 – understandest Pro 10:9 – but Pro 12:5 – counsels Pro 12:8 – commended Pro 24:12 – doth not he that Pro 31:30 – she Ecc 3:17 – God Isa 26:7 – most Isa 29:15 – and their works Jer 16:17 – General Jer 23:25 – heard Eze 16:57 – thy wickedness Eze 24:8 – I have set Eze 38:10 – that at Dan 2:22 – he knoweth Hos 2:10 – now Hos 7:2 – I remember Jon 1:7 – and the Mic 7:3 – wrap Mic 7:9 – he will Zep 3:5 – bring Mat 6:4 – reward Mat 10:26 – for Mat 13:30 – both Mat 18:23 – which Mat 22:11 – when Mat 22:12 – how Mat 25:32 – he shall separate Mar 4:22 – General Luk 8:17 – nothing Luk 12:2 – General Luk 16:2 – give Luk 16:15 – God Luk 19:17 – Well Joh 1:48 – when Joh 12:43 – the praise of God Joh 16:11 – judgment Joh 21:22 – If Act 17:31 – he hath appointed Act 24:25 – judgment Rom 2:6 – General 1Co 2:15 – yet 1Co 3:8 – and every 1Co 3:14 – General 1Co 4:4 – but 2Co 5:11 – but 2Co 5:20 – in 2Co 10:9 – terrify Gal 6:5 – General Eph 5:13 – for Phi 4:8 – praise 1Th 2:19 – in 2Ti 1:10 – and hath 2Ti 4:1 – who Heb 9:27 – but Jam 5:9 – the Judge Rev 2:25 – till
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
JUDGMENT IS MINE
Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come.
1Co 4:5
How very hard it is not to judge! That critical faculty is born in us; it is natural for us to bring all things we hear or see before the bar of our human judgment. God has given us this faculty, and we cannot help using it. It cannot be altogether wrong for us to use it.
I. There is a grave danger in the exercise of this faculty, a danger lest we should abuse this power, to set ourselves up as teachers, as if the right of delivering judgment had been committed to us. There is a danger lest we should judge harshly and uncharitably, to the hurt and detriment of others; from imperfect knowledge presuming to condemn the actions and motives of our neighbours: and it is against this sort of abuse that St. Paul warns us. It is not without a cause that this warning is given, for we know what an amount of harm it does in our days; how strongly people resent it, what an amount of unhappiness it causes, how wide of the marks our judgments often are! Very often those who are the most severe judges of their fellow-men are blind to their own faults, ignorant of the fact that what they condemn in others is the very thing of which they are themselves most guilty. They show an astonishing lack of self-knowledge, which would have enabled them to show greater charity and generosity. Those who have the deepest knowledge of themselves are the most humble and pitiful and merciful in their judgment?
II. The best self-knowledge does not enable us to fulfil the functions of the perfect judge.Our knowledge is only partial and limited when we regard others and their circumstances. Judgment is Gods prerogativenot mans. Judgment is Mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. The Father hath committed all judgment to the Son. Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come. It is worth while to notice that those who deal harshly must expect to be dealt harshly with themselves, while the merciful shall be dealt leniently with. Let us be patient with the faults and failings of those round about us; let us remember that we are shielded perhaps by the nature of our work and calling from many temptations which prove too strong for our fellow-men. Let us be not so ready to find fault as some are, and more ready to give praise; and if we have to give blame in the course of our duty, let us do it as kindly as we can, considering ourselves, our many weaknesses, our faults and sins.
III. God hath appointed a day when He will judge the world.Nothing escapes Gods notice. A day of justice and judgment is drawing near. We forget in our impatience that with God one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack, as St. Paul reminds us, concerning His promise. It is a needed warning, a reminder that we must have patience. After all, Gods inexhaustible patience and self-restraint are the very strongest proof of His majesty and power, for where there is boundless might, it is there you will find immovable calm and the infinite patience of conscious strength. Gods plans are worked out in some such way as this, with infinite patience, with dignity, and with power.
Rev. W. A. Norman.
Illustration
Does this seem to any of us a small matter, this matter of passing judgment upon others? It is not a small matter. There were few things about which Christ Himself spoke so gravely. He said, Judge not. He said that those who presume to take upon themselves the responsibility of judgment would themselves be judged most severely. Well would it be for us if we could be cured of a fault which very specially besets the religious mind. There is probably nothing of which we shall hereafter be so thoroughly ashamed as of the premature verdicts that we have allowed ourselves to pass upon others. Would we could abandon the habit! Our own lives would be brightened and the whole atmosphere around us would sweetened. The difference would quickly be felt in the Church, and by the world.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
5
1Co 4:5. Judge nothing as to the merits of human accomplishments by human standards of wisdom or philosophy. The Lord will come in judgment someday, and then all will be given due reward for any virtue they possessed, whether their brethren appreciated it or not.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
1Co 4:5. Wherefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come (the second time), who will . . . make manifest the counsels of the hearts (Ecc 12:14; Rom 2:16), and then shall each man have his praise from Godaccording to his fidelity; for that is the one quality which the Judge Himself has announced that He will single out as the characteristic of His true servantsWell done, good and faithful servant (good because faithful), thou hast been faithful over a few things, etc.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Our apostle’s design in these words, is not to condemn all judgment of persons, words, or actions, or to oblige us to suspend our judging till the day of judgment; but only forbids rash censuring, unadvised, uncertain, and unseasonable judging of the hearts and final states of men. We may judge what appeareth, but not what is hidden and unseen: for the judging of hidden things is referred to him from whom nothing is hidden.
Learn hence, That to take upon us to judge the heart, or to judge that which doth not appear, is to assume the office, and to take upon us the place of God: only he that is invisible can look into that which is invisible.
Observe farther, The person spoken of, who makes manifest the counsels of the heart, and brings to light the hidden things of darkness: it is Jesus Christ. Judge nothing till the Lord come, the Lord Jesus Christ.
A strong argument to prove the divinity of our blessed Saviour; he that has knowledge of the heart, of the secrets of the hearts of all men, and has all these subject to his judgment, is undoubtedly God. But Christ ascribes all this knowledge to himself, All the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts; and I will give to every one according to his works: Rev 2:23 therefore he is essentially and really God.
Observe lastly, What will be the issue and consequence of our Lord’s knowing and judging the secrets of men: Then shall every one have praise of God; that is, every one shall have praise that is praiseworthy; every good man, though now dispraised and despised, though censured and condemned, though loaded with scandals and false reports, yet then every righteous man shall have praise from Christ the righteous Judge.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Vv. 5. Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who even will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.
This verse is, as it were, the full period put to the personal application which Paul has just made in 1Co 4:1-4. The , so that, therefore corresponds to that of 1Co 3:21. There the meaning was: therefore no infatuation!
Here: therefore no judgment! The is rather a qualifying pronoun than the indication of the object of : Do not pass any judgment!
The words, before the time, are explained by what follows: till the Lord come, the true Judge. This character which belongs to Him exclusively is explained by the two following relative propositions. In fact, the infallible judgment of a human life supposes two things: the revelation of the acts of that life in their totality, even the most unknown, and the manifestation of the inner springs of the will, in the acts known or unknown. This is what Paul means by the two phrases: the things of darkness and the counsels of the hearts. The hidden acts, which will be brought to light, are not only the bad, but also the good (Mat 6:3-4; Mat 6:6; 1Ti 5:23-25). It is the more necessary to have regard to the last here as there is no question afterwards except that of praise.
The inner springs and feelings are what determine the true quality of actions in the eyes of God; it is therefore on the complete knowledge of them that the just appreciation of a human life rests.
The before , which we have translated by even, which others render by also, has been variously understood. Osiander, Rckert: He will come not only to judge, but also to set in light. This sense is inadmissible; for the second of these deeds should not follow but precede the first. Meyer: Among other things, at His coming, He will also do this (set in light). But why allude to other things, and what are those things? Hofmann establishes a correlation between the two in the sense of: both…and…, or of: not only…, but also. But why emphasize so strongly the hardly appreciable shade between the two almost synonymous verbs? It seems to me that the first , rendered by even, bears on the two following verbs, and contrasts the whole portion of the life known by other men with that which the Lord only knows and which He will then manifest. The second , and, serves only to connect the two parallel and equivalent verbs.
The and then brings out the gravity of this time of complete revelation; it contrasts it with the premature judgments of the Corinthians (before the time). Praise: the true praise, that which will run no risk of being changed into a sentence of condemnation by a higher tribunal, like the premature praises which the Corinthians decreed to their favourite teachers. What a sting lay in this last word addressed both to the frivolous admirers and to the self – sufficient orators who had excited this profane enthusiasm! From the passage about to follow, 1Co 4:18-21, we shall be able to gather to what point things were already going at Corinth in this painful direction.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
Wherefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and make manifest the counsels of the hearts; and then shall each man have his praise from God. [The revelation or manifestation of things which shall accompany the Lord’s coming, was mentioned in our last section. In the light of that hour, not only the deeds of men will be manifest, but even the motives which prompted the deeds. The Corinthians, having no adequate means of telling whether Paul spoke less or more than was revealed, would have to wait until that hour of revelation before they could judge him accurately and absolutely. If he was then approved, he would receive not only their praise, but the praise of God– Mat 25:21]
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
Verse 5
The counsels of the hearts; their secret characters and designs.–Praise of God; if deserved. The meaning is, that God will then pronounce a just sentence upon every man, according to his true character, as it shall then appear.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
1Co 4:5. Practical result of the foregoing. The metaphor of light, compared with fire in 1Co 3:13, suggests the ease and suddenness and completeness with which the great Day will make all things known; just as the daylight reveals things unknown in the night.
The hidden things; suggests how much that is needful for a correct estimate of men’s conduct now lies under an impenetrable veil.
The counsels etc.: the purposes, now hidden in men’s hearts, which move them to activity and which will determine their reward. A solemn warning to many at Corinth. All judgments on Christian workers before the Lord comes are before the right-time: (same word as season, see 1Co 7:5 🙂 for not till then will all the facts be known.
From God: rising as usual from the Son, whose coming will bring to light all the facts of the case, to the Father, who is the original source of the praise which, through the lips of Christ, will be given to each faithful servant.
From 1Co 3:21 to 1Co 4:7 we infer that the church-parties at Corinth were occasioned and nourished by the various estimates of various persons about Paul and Apollos. But these teachers, and all others, were alike helpers of Christ, distributing the hidden wealth of God. Each of them was thus an enrichment to the whole church. Moreover, upon them and all His servants, the Master will Himself pronounce sentence; and will justify His sentence by bringing to light all the facts of the case. Since these facts are not yet fully known, the Corinthians cannot pronounce a correct sentence on the merits of their teachers; and therefore ought not to attach themselves to one or other of them as his special disciples.
SECTION 5 deals specifically with the church-parties at Corinth. It is in part a reply to the question of 1Co 3:5 a, a question suggested by the reference in 1Co 3:4 to the church-parties; and in part a warning against evils which were their real source. Our ignorance of details obscures Paul’s reference to these evils, and lessens the force, which his readers would feel at once, of the sudden transitions of 1Co 3:16 and 1Co 3:18. But is evident that the Christians at Corinth overestimated mere human knowledge, and that some prided themselves on their superior learning. We can well conceive that some of these taught human learning rather than the word of the cross; and that some, by claiming undue recognition of their own learning, were actually injuring the church. Also, that the same spirit moved the church-members generally or universally to pronounce sentence on the comparative learning or eloquence of Paul and his colleagues; and that their differing estimates caused the divisions in the church.
To correct this complication of evils and errors, Paul says that both Apollos and himself were but garden laborers, doing the same kind of work and paid for their work, 1Co 3:5-9; that the work of all their teachers, which is but a continuation of work already begun, will be tested in the great day, 1Co 3:10-15; that they who injure the work already done will receive tremendous punishment, 1Co 3:16-17; that the truly wise man is he who has learned that all human wisdom is of itself utterly worthless, 1Co 3:18-20; that for this reason, and because all things belong to God’s people, no one ought to boast about men, 1Co 3:21-23; and that Paul and Apollos are but helpers and stewards, who will be judged by Christ, and whom no man is capable of judging aright, 1Co 4:1-5.
Fuente: Beet’s Commentary on Selected Books of the New Testament
4:5 {6} Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have {d} praise of God.
(6) A third reason proceeding from a conclusion, as it were, out of the former reasons. It is God’s office to esteem every man according to his value, because he knows the secrets of the heart, which men for the most part are ignorant of. Therefore this judgment does not pertain to you.
(d) One could not be praised above the rest, without the others being blamed: and he mentions praise rather than lack of praise, because the beginning of this dispute was this, that they gave more to some men than was appropriate.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Since only one Person has enough insight and is authoritative enough to pass final judgment, it is unwise for us to try to do so. Let there be no "pre-judgment seat judgment!" [Note: Johnson, p. 1235.] Of course, we must make judgments from time to time, but we should always do so with the knowledge that our understanding is imperfect. The place God will judge our lives is the judgment seat of Christ. If Paul’s references to his judgment by God in his epistles are any measure of how he regarded that event, he took it very seriously and thought about it often (cf. 2Co 1:14; 2Co 5:10; Php 2:16; 1Th 2:19-20; 2Ti 1:12; 2Ti 1:18; 2Ti 4:8; et al.).
"Paul lives in expectation of the imminent coming again of Christ." [Note: Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, s.v. "erchomai," by Johannes Schneider, 2:674.]
The things hidden in the darkness probably include the unconscious motives of God’s servants. Evidently God will find something in every faithful Christian’s life for which to praise him or her on that day. Paul did not just say each servant would receive what he or she deserves but that each would receive some praise. Of course, the more faithful among us will receive more praise than the less faithful.
"He [Paul] says nothing here about those who will receive not praise but blame [cf. 1Jn 2:28]; he is still thinking in terms of the Corinthian situation, in which some have praise for Paul, some for Apollos, some for Cephas." [Note: Barrett, p. 104.]
1Co 4:1-5 help us view those who minister to us as God’s servants, not our servants. They also help us as servants of God to remember to serve for the future approval of our Lord rather than for the present praise of people. The Corinthian church was not the only one that ever became disillusioned with its minister because he lacked "charismatic" qualities.