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NOTES for Co1 4:20

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20 For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.
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What power, one wonders, does the apostle mean when he speaks of the power of the Kingdom? One might say that he means the power of God, and this answer would not be wrong. But what lies behind it? Indeed, much was said about God's power even before Christ came into the world, and it was understood in different ways. Of course, even then all believers realized that God's power and what the pagan world understood by power were different things. But this difference was not always clearly understood. Above all, it meant that God could intervene at any moment in any situation, changing it in a way completely unexpected by an outside observer, so that what seemed unshakable instantly collapsed while what had been entirely powerless and insignificant suddenly gained strength and became the decisive factor.

Yet this usually still concerned the laws of the untransformed world, which God uses to carry out His plans, often in spite of those who oppose Him and by turning events to His advantage in a wholly unpredictable way. Perhaps the most remarkable illustration of such a reversal is the story of Joseph. His brothers did everything to prevent God's plan, as they understood it, from coming to pass, but all their efforts, as later became clear, only brought that plan closer to fulfillment.

Paul is speaking about a different situation: one in which the Kingdom has already entered the world and is already borne witness to by people who have experienced life in it and communion with the One who brought it into the world. Here, of course, the subject is no longer external power. It should be noted that during the Second Temple period the proclamation of God became, in a certain sense, a proclamation of the word—both the Word of God in every sense of that expression and the human word without which people could not tell the world about their own experience of communion with God and hearing the Word.

Such was, in particular, the preaching of the Pharisaic mentors and teachers with whom the Savior so often disputed during His earthly ministry. This too was testimony, but testimony to their own, often subjective, experience of communion with God. Christian testimony, however, is always objective in the true sense of the word. It is testimony not about oneself before God, but about Christ and the Kingdom. Such testimony is possible only when the witness has already entered into the life of the Kingdom, lives by that life, and has its power at work within him. It is evidently this power to which the apostle bears witness, seeing in it the manifestation of the Kingdom.

Other notes

 
For Co1 4:20
20 For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.
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How many words are said has about the Kingdom of God. Certainly, Jesus, when explaining what it is, naturally used the words; but the very best definition of the Kingdom than He gave is, probably...  Read more

How many words are said has about the Kingdom of God. Certainly, Jesus, when explaining what it is, naturally used the words; but the very best definition of the Kingdom than He gave is, probably, when He says that it { the kingdom} is " amongst you ", when He Himself stood in the midst of them. Since then - words, words, words...

Very nice words. But the Kingdom isn’t in words, neither in its teaching. The dominion of God is in the heart of man, it is a living, efficient power, transforming the inside, filling man with light, joy, righteousness, peace, - and effusing into the world around, transforming it also. Look which changes took place in the human relationships during the last 2000years, which attitudes began obviously to be considered of inadmissible (slavery, various kind of discrimination), - behind all this stands a spiritual principle: the Kingdom of God is in the heart of men. Certainly, all this is still only the beginning of the transformation, we are still "spiritual pithecanthropus", but let's wipe our eyes and we shall see the action of this bright Divine power and therefore shall praise the Lord.

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For Co1 4:8-21
8 Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us: and I would to God ye did reign, that we also might reign with you.
9 For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men.
10 We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised.
11 Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwellingplace;
12 And labour, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it:
13 Being defamed, we intreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day.
14 I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you.
15 For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.
16 Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me.
17 For this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved son, and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ, as I teach every where in every church.
18 Now some are puffed up, as though I would not come to you.
19 But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord will, and will know, not the speech of them which are puffed up, but the power.
20 For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.
21 What will ye? shall I come unto you with a rod, or in love, and in the spirit of meekness?
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Continuing the conversation about the Kingdom, Paul again turns to the theme of poverty and...  Read more

Continuing the conversation about the Kingdom, Paul again turns to the theme of poverty and true wisdom. Contrasting his own position with the position of those who occupied prominent places in the Corinthian church, the apostle again reminds the Christians of Corinth of what he had already said more than once both to them and to his other fellow believers: the Kingdom is not of this world, and therefore it cannot in any way triumph in our world, which has not yet been fully transformed, before its complete transformation at the end of time (vv. 8-14). And the point is not that Paul did not want to see the Corinthian Christians as they imagined themselves to be, but that before Christ's return this could be achieved only by rejecting that fullness of the Kingdom which, in a world not yet transformed to the end, is incompatible with any triumph.

The apostle reproaches no one; he only reminds the Corinthian church of certain fundamental things without which there can be no question of any life in the Kingdom (v. 14). And when he warns the Christians of Corinth that he can come to them not only with love, but also with rebuke ("with a rod," v. 21), the apostle's purpose is not at all a desire to shame or unmask anyone. It is simply that, seeing what is happening in the Corinthian church, Paul could not fail to understand that he would have to confront very serious spiritual problems, that many of the local church leaders are, in essence, not witnesses of Christ and the Kingdom at all and are leading their community in a completely wrong direction. He knows that these leaders have ceased to be witnesses and have become simply teachers, like those who in those days could be found in abundance in any rabbinic or philosophical school. And he knows that such teachers, whose whole strength lies in skillful command of speech, will inevitably retreat before the true power they cannot resist: the power of the Kingdom, which every true witness manifests (vv. 18-20).

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For Co1 4:1-21
1 Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.
2 Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.
3 But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self.
4 For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord.
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.
6 And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your sakes; that ye might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another.
7 For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?
8 Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us: and I would to God ye did reign, that we also might reign with you.
9 For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men.
10 We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised.
11 Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwellingplace;
12 And labour, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it:
13 Being defamed, we intreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day.
14 I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you.
15 For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.
16 Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me.
17 For this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved son, and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ, as I teach every where in every church.
18 Now some are puffed up, as though I would not come to you.
19 But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord will, and will know, not the speech of them which are puffed up, but the power.
20 For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.
21 What will ye? shall I come unto you with a rod, or in love, and in the spirit of meekness?
Hide
What the apostle Paul speaks about is one of the most difficult and at the same time most necessary things in Christianity...  Read more

What the apostle Paul speaks about is one of the most difficult and at the same time most necessary things in Christianity. From a worldly point of view, the path that the Lord Himself takes and to which He calls His disciples is the path of failure, the path of humiliation. “We have become a spectacle to the world”—the Greek text uses the word θέατρον, theater, spectacle: people who are watched with derision. Jesus, who was welcomed as the Messiah—scourged and crucified on a tree. Paul, the most learned of the Jews—weak and forever persecuted, constantly insulted by his own children. Peter, the head of the new religious community—crucified upside down... Is such a path not madness? The Christian’s place is in this company. This is difficult, because we so greatly desire honor, recognition of our merits, and, finally, well-being. Paul’s experience is important to us because, together with those to whom he writes, we can see the One for whose sake he endures all this. And then, in response to our consent to become refuse and a laughingstock to the world, we will hear the Creator’s words: “You are precious in My sight” (Isa 43:4).

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