1 Corinthians 4:14-20 A Parent in Christ

1 Corinthians 4:14-20 (NRSV)

​¹⁴I am not writing this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. ¹⁵For though you might have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers. Indeed, in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. ¹⁶I appeal to you, then, be imitators of me. ¹⁷For this reason I sent you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ Jesus, as I teach them everywhere in every church. ¹⁸But some of you, thinking that I am not coming to you, have become arrogant. ¹⁹But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power. ²⁰For the kingdom of God depends not on talk but on power.

Observation: Paul reminds his church in Corinth that he is their "father" through the Gospel and they should imitate his life.

Application: I don't come from a faith tradition where leaders are referred to as "father" or "mother", so that language doesn't come naturally to me. But this passage from 1 Corinthians reminds me that God places people in our lives who invest their time in us, to be an example for us, and help us grow. And whether or not we acknowledge it, God has also placed us in others' lives, too, so that we can be their example. These are not necessarily blood relatives, but they're connected to us by circumstance, by our own decisions to make ourselves available, and most importantly by the Holy Spirit.

Prayer: God, my Loving Parent, help me to be a good parent, too. Help me invest my time and effort in being a good example for my kids, and for those you have placed in my life to learn from me. Amen.