Spiritual Fathers and Puffed Up Sons Text: 1 Corinthians 4:14-21
Introduction: An Age of Experts and Orphans
We live in a peculiar time. We are drowning in information and starving for wisdom. A man can pull a device from his pocket and access ten thousand tutors on any subject imaginable, including the Christian faith. He can listen to sermons, podcasts, and lectures from a thousand talking heads. He has access to countless experts. But what he does not have, and what our generation desperately lacks, is fathers.
The Corinthian church had a similar problem. They were clever, gifted, and eloquent. And they were proud of it. They had their favorite speakers, their preferred brands of theology, and they were beginning to treat the Christian faith as a Gnostic philosophy club. They were becoming connoisseurs of Christian teaching, but they were forgetting the one who had brought them into the faith in the first place. They had many tutors, but they were acting like orphans. They were arrogant, puffed up, and full of words.
Paul writes to them here not as a scolding lecturer, but as a wounded father. He is about to lay down one of the most foundational principles of Christian discipleship, a principle that our egalitarian, anti-authority, and therapeutic age finds utterly offensive. That principle is this: Christianity is passed down from father to son. It is learned through imitation. And it is not a matter of mere words, but of demonstrable power. Paul is about to draw a sharp line between the inflated rhetoric of the arrogant and the spiritual reality of the kingdom of God. This is not just a pastoral issue for a church in ancient Greece; it is a direct confrontation with the flabby, sentimental, and powerless spirituality that plagues the modern church.
The question Paul puts to the Corinthians is the same one he puts to us. Do you want more talk, or do you want the real thing? Do you want a lecture or a life? Do you want a tutor, or do you need a father? And depending on your answer, do you require a gentle embrace or a stout rod?
The Text
I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me. For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, and who will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, just as I teach everywhere in every church. Now some have become puffed up, as though I were not coming to you. But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I shall know, not the words of those who are puffed up but their power. For the kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power. What do you desire? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love and a spirit of gentleness?
(1 Corinthians 4:14-21 LSB)
Admonition, Not Humiliation (v. 14)
Paul begins by clarifying the spirit of his correction.
"I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children." (1 Corinthians 4:14)
There is a world of difference between shaming someone and admonishing them. Shaming seeks to crush and humiliate. It is the tool of the tyrant and the abuser. Its goal is to strip a person of their dignity and leave them exposed and worthless. Admonition, on the other hand, is a tool of restoration. The word here, noutheteo, means to warn, to instruct, to put in mind. It is a course correction. A father who sees his son running toward a cliff does not yell at him to shame him; he yells to save him. Paul's sharp words in this letter are not meant to destroy the Corinthians but to rescue them from their spiritual folly.
He frames this entire interaction in familial terms: "as my beloved children." This is not a therapeutic tactic to soften the blow. It is the covenantal reality of their relationship. Paul is not a detached CEO addressing unruly employees. He is their father in the faith, and his heart for them is one of love. This is crucial. All true biblical discipline, whether in the home or in the church, must flow from love. Discipline without love is just cruelty. But love without discipline is just sentimentality, and it is a form of hatred, for it allows the beloved to continue on a path of self-destruction.
Tutors vs. Fathers (v. 15-16)
Here Paul makes his central point about the nature of their relationship and the basis of his authority.
"For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me." (1 Corinthians 4:15-16 LSB)
A tutor, or a pedagogue, was a household slave who accompanied a child to school. He was an instructor, a guide, a lecturer. He could impart information, but he could not impart life. A father, on the other hand, is the source of life. Paul is telling the Corinthians, "You can listen to a thousand different speakers. You can collect theological insights like trading cards. But you only have one father. I am the one God used to bring you to spiritual life." He "became their father through the gospel." The gospel is the seed, and Paul was the one who planted it in Corinth.
This is not arrogance; it is a statement of fact, and it carries immense implications. Because he is their father, he has a unique authority and a unique responsibility. And because they are his children, they have a unique obligation. What is it? "Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me." This is the logic of discipleship. We learn by imitation. Children learn to walk, talk, and act by watching their parents. Spiritual children are no different. Paul is not setting himself up as the ultimate standard. As he says elsewhere, "Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ" (1 Corinthians 11:1). Paul is a living, breathing, walking example of what it looks like to follow Jesus. He is telling them, "Don't just listen to my teaching. Watch my life. See how I handle suffering, how I deal with conflict, how I preach the gospel. Do that." This is a far cry from the abstract, disembodied "spirituality" so popular today.
A Living Letter (v. 17)
To reinforce this principle of imitation, Paul is not just sending a letter; he is sending a life.
"For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, and who will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, just as I teach everywhere in every church." (1 Corinthians 4:17 LSB)
Notice the language. Timothy is Paul's "beloved and faithful child in the Lord." The father/son relationship is replicated. Timothy is a spiritual son who has learned to imitate his spiritual father. And now he is being sent as a living embodiment of Paul's "ways in Christ." Timothy himself is the lesson. He is the sermon on two legs. His job is to remind them not just of Paul's doctrines, but of his ways, his manner of life, his conduct, his character. This is the apostolic pattern. Truth is not merely taught; it is lived and passed down through personal relationship.
Paul also adds a crucial qualifier: "just as I teach everywhere in every church." This is a shot across the bow of the Corinthian arrogance. They were acting as though they were a special case, a spiritual island where they could make up their own rules. Paul reminds them that they are part of a universal church. The truth is not provincial. The ways of Christ are the same in Corinth as they are in Ephesus or Philippi. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one standard of conduct.
Words vs. Power (v. 18-20)
Now Paul addresses the root of the problem: the arrogance of those who mistake talk for spiritual reality.
"Now some have become puffed up, as though I were not coming to you. But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I shall know, not the words of those who are puffed up but their power. For the kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power." (1 Corinthians 4:18-20 LSB)
The arrogant ones in Corinth were emboldened by Paul's absence. They figured he was all talk, writing harsh letters from a distance but lacking the courage to show up in person. They were "puffed up," a wonderful image of being filled with hot air. They were like balloons: big, shiny, and empty. Paul assures them he is coming, Providence permitting ("if the Lord wills"), and when he arrives, there will be an inspection. The test will not be a debate. He is not interested in their eloquent speeches or their clever arguments. He wants to see their power.
This is the central thesis of the passage: "For the kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power." The kingdom is not a philosophy. It is not a self-help program. It is the dynamic reign of Jesus Christ in the world by His Spirit. This power, this dunamis, is the power that raised Christ from the dead. It is the power that regenerates a dead heart. It is the power that enables a man to crucify his sin. It is the power that sustains a believer through persecution. The puffed up teachers had words, but did they have this power? Did their ministry produce changed lives? Did their own lives exhibit holiness and humility? Or were they just noise? This is the question we must ask of every teacher, and of ourselves. Does our Christianity have any horsepower, or is it just exhaust fumes?
A Father's Choice (v. 21)
Paul concludes by laying the choice squarely at their feet. The nature of his impending visit is up to them.
"What do you desire? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love and a spirit of gentleness?" (1 Corinthians 4:21 LSB)
This is not a threat from a bully. This is a choice presented by a father. He is asking, "Which visit do you want me to make?" He would much prefer to come with "love and a spirit of gentleness." He wants to come as a father who encourages and builds up. But if they persist in their arrogance, rebellion, and sin, he is fully prepared to come with a "rod." The rod is an instrument of discipline. In the Old Testament, it is the tool a shepherd uses to guide and protect his sheep, and it is the tool a father uses to drive foolishness from the heart of his child (Proverbs 22:15).
The rod of apostolic discipline is the authority to correct, to rebuke, and if necessary, to excommunicate. It is a severe mercy, wielded for the health of the church and the ultimate restoration of the sinner. Paul is giving them a chance to repent. He is telling them, "Clean your house before I get there. Deal with your arrogance. Humble yourselves." If they do, his visit will be a joyful reunion. If they do not, it will be a painful but necessary confrontation. The choice, he says, is theirs.
Conclusion
The church in the modern West is in a Corinthian crisis. We are awash in words. We have podcasts, blogs, conferences, and an endless stream of books. We have countless tutors. But where are the fathers? Where are the men whose lives are worth imitating? Where is the power?
We have become puffed up with our own cleverness, our theological sophistication, and our cultural relevance. But when the test comes, do we have anything more than words? Does our faith produce the tangible power of a holy life, a joyful family, a disciplined church, and a courageous witness in the public square? Or are we just hot air?
Paul's message is a call to return to the apostolic pattern. It is a call for older men to father younger men in the faith, not just by teaching them, but by showing them how to live. It is a call for younger men to humble themselves and seek out fathers to imitate. And it is a call for the entire church to recognize that the kingdom of God is a kingdom of power. It is a call to repent of our arrogance, our love of empty rhetoric, and our fear of fatherly discipline. For it is only when we are willing to submit to the rod of God's Word that we can truly experience the love and gentleness of our Heavenly Father.