Verse 1—Paul and Apollos are servants (hyperetas—literally under-rowers, the guys pulling oars on the bottom deck of a ship) and stewards (oikonomos—household managers). Not owners. Not celebrities. Household staff managing something that doesn't belong to them. And what are they managing? God's mysteries. Not doctrines, not programs—mysteries.
Verse 2—stewards must be found "trustworthy." There's that word pistos again. Faithful. The same word used to describe Jesus. The standard for Christian leadership is the same standard that describes Christ.
Verses 3-4 are where things get personal. Part of what we know from 1 and 2 Corinthians is that some group had come in and poisoned this community against Paul. At some point between the two letters, Paul goes back to Corinth and it goes horribly. By 2 Corinthians, he has gone through a deep, dark depression. A church he spent a long time with has turned its back on him and what he taught. We're seeing the early signs of that here—they are "passing judgment" on Paul, and it's not looking good.
Paul names three possible courts of judgment: theirs, his own, and the Lord's. He dismisses the first two. "I do not even judge myself. I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me." Even self-assessment isn't the final word. And notice what that final judgment looks like in verse 5: "Then each one will receive commendation from God." Not condemnation. Commendation. This fits with the refining fire of 3:13-15—God's judgment is not retributive. It ends in praise.
Verse 6—"Not beyond what is written." Honest to God, we don't know what this means. In the scholarship, it's deeply debated. Is Paul talking about the Hebrew Scriptures he's been quoting? Is this some Corinthian slogan that was slung at him? We don't know. We are definitely only hearing one end of the telephone call here.
Paul also warns against being "puffed up" (physioō)—a word he uses more in 1 Corinthians than anywhere else. It means "to cause to have an exaggerated self-conception." It's related to the Greek word for a bellows, a blast of wind. Today we'd say they were full of hot air, blowing their own trumpet, big-headed. Inflated. It's the image of something that looks impressive but is hollow inside—a balloon, not a boulder.
Verse 7—"What do you have that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive?" This might be the most important sentence in the passage. It's the theological death blow to all boasting, all faction-building, all spiritual one-upmanship. Everything is gift. Everything was passed on from someone else. Reminds me of Obama's "You didn't build that." If everything is received, competition is absurd.
Questions for reflection:
If even Paul doesn't trust his own self-judgment, what does that say about the confidence with which we pronounce judgment on others—and on ourselves?