1 Corinthians 4

God has chosen some of us to bring His special message to the world. 

This message is about Jesus and how we are saved from our sins by believing in Him. 

Until now, God did not reveal this message to people.  He only hinted at it.  But now He wants to clearly show this message to the whole world.

Don’t judge us or each other.  God is the only true judge.  My conscience is clear, but even that does not mean that I am innocent. 

Only God knows the truth hidden in each person’s heart. 
God searches our hearts to see if our motives are right.

Don’t think of yourself as being more important than others.

Our life of sharing Jesus with others is not easy.  We go through many hard times.  We are beaten and put in prison.  We often don’t have enough food or clothes.  But when these hard times come, we endure them.  When people speak rudely to us, we respond with kindness.

But we are happy to do this work.  We have become like your spiritual Fathers.  Learn to live life the same way we do.

I hope to be able to come and see you soon and then I can see the people that say bad things about me, to their face.  Remember that the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what people say, but seeing God working in power.

In the meantime, I am sending my fellow worker, Timothy to you.  He has been a great support to me and I ask you to treat him kindly.