What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love in a spirit of gentleness?(1 Corinthians 4:21)
It is very much like talking to someone face to face. Paul did not quite need to meet his believers face to face. Reading his epistle, you could feel his presence. His joy and his anger were appropriately conveyed to the readers, even to those who are reading it now. Of course, nowadays, there are many means of communication. People demand instantaneous interactions such as MSN. Today, writing and reading letters are no longer parts of our repertoire for survival. Many of us just don't know how to write properly, not to mention appearing before the readers.
Paul regarded themselves (including Apollos and Peter) "servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God ὑπηρέτας Χριστοῦ καὶ οἰκονόμους μυστηρίων θεοῦ" (1 Corinthians 4:1) and expected to be regarded as such. But Paul did not want the believers to go beyond what was written and puffed up in favour of one against each other, making Paul more important than Apollo; Peter more important then XXX etc. (1 Corinthians 4:6) They were all servants and stewards, each doing different tasks. Nobody was more important than the other. It was God who gave the growth (1 Corinthians 3:6). Paul was indeed a good writer. He wrote the same point a second time in a totally different way.
Paul continued to remind the believers that whatever they were possessing and whatever they had achieved now were gifts received from God. Therefore, their boasting had no substance. They had nothing to boast about. Belonging to Apollos was not good enough for them to boast about, nor was belonging to Paul.
What have you that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if it were not a gift? (1 Corinthians 4:7)
This is really a good piece of meditation material. We always think that we are what we make we are. We are persuaded by TV commercials that what we eat makes what we are. Ethical theorists encourage us to think that the choices we make in our life make what we are. However, geneticists will tell us that our genes provide us with a tendency towards certain character traits. So, our genes make us what we are. Social scientists would say that our social environment makes us what we are. In general, we tend to forget that it is God who makes us what we are.
This point is repeatedly recited everyday in the vesper. However, due to aesthetic reason, some modern translations of Psalm 100:3 do not render it clearly enough. Some translations have chosen a variant reading from some other manuscripts and rendered differently.
你們應該明認雅威就是天主，他造成了我們，我們非他莫屬，【思高】
你們當曉得耶和華是 神．我們是他造的、也是屬他的． 【和合本】
Know that the LORD is God! It is he that made us, and we are his; (RSV)
If we go back to earlier translations, the original idea that we do not make ourselves is clearly retained. Let's look at the Hebrew text, then the Greek and various older English translations.
(Psalm 100:3, MT) דְּע֗וּ כִּֽי־יְהוָה֮ ה֤וּא אֱלֹ֫הִ֥ים הֽוּא־עָ֭שָׂנוּ וְלֹ֣֯א אֲנַ֑חְנוּ
γνῶτε ὅτι κύριος, αὐτός ἐστιν ὁ θεός, αὐτὸς ἐποίησεν ἡμᾶς καὶ οὐχ ἡμεῖς, (Psalm 99:3, LXX)scitote quoniam Dominus ipse est Deus ipse fecit nos et non ipsi nos (Pslam 99:3, Vulgate)
Know ye that the Lord he is God: he made us, and not we ourselves. (Psalm 99:3, Duouay-Rheims)
Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; (Psalm 100:3, KJV)
My dear Advocate, I acknowledge Your majesty. You are my Maker and Keeper. Allow me to sing praises to You all the days of my life. Amen.
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