. . . the two purpose
clauses in 4.6 combat factionalism by emphasizing the cooperation demanded by
the community practice of spiritual discernment. The first clause suggests that
Paul has utilized covert allusion so that the Corinthians might learn by the
cooperative example of Paul and Apollos how not to conduct themselves 'beyond
what is written'. Paul probably alludes to the six specific scriptural
citations he has already used earlier in the letter. Each of the cited passages
identifies how God destroys human standards of perception and reasoning and
replaces them with God's own divinely revealed norm. In 2.16 Paul characterized
this new standard for reasoning as the mind of Christ (cf. 1.10; Phil. 2.2-5).
Paul thus uses scripture to try to reshape the minds and perceptions of his readers,
challenging them to recognize that in Christ God has established new norms for
thinking and acting. He wants them to understand how God may now be known in
the world through demonstrations of Spirit and power in connection with the
embodied proclamation of Christ crucified (see 1 Cor. 2.1-5; 12.4-7).
The second purpose clause in
4.6 is dependent upon the first (Hooker 1990a: 107). In their service as διακονοι
(3.5; cf. 12.5), as fellow workers with God (3.9; cf. 12.4-6), and as servants
of Christ and stewards of God's mysteries (4.1), Paul and Apollos cooperated
rather than competed with one another. Thus, neither became 'puffed up' against
the other. Throughout the remainder of the letter, Paul pursues this attack on
competition among members of the community who have become 'puffed up' against
one another. Thus, in 4.6 Paul recommends himself and Apollos as models of
constructive cooperation. He later affirms that the Corinthians should imitate
this model that is grounded in the example of Christ himself (see 4.16; 11.1;
cf. Gal. 4.12, 14; 1 Thess. 1.6). (John G. Lewis, Looking For Life: The Role
of “Theo-Ethical”
Reasoning in Paul's Religion [Library of New Testament
Studies 291; London: T&T Clark International, 2005], 77)
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