Study Notes

I.      1 Corinthians 3,4-Judging is discriminating-You are deciding that one is superior to another, that you are superior to another and they are less

A.    3:1-2-Pray and release faith in God to be able to bear meat b/c you don’t want to miss out on something God wants to give you

1.      He couldn’t speak to them us spiritual people

a.    Galatians 6:1-3-Spiritual people help people get out of faults, they don’t look down on and judge people for having faults

2.      3-This is a group of people who are YET, STILL carnal – Meaning that they shouldn’t still be carnal

a.    How are they carnal? – The envying (contentious rivalry, fierce indignation), the strife (contention), and the divisions (dissension) is how they are carnal; But where did that stuff originate from? He answers that in verse 4

B.     3:3-4-These divisions are coming from them judging, separating, discriminating, deciding that because I am from Paul I am superior to you and others saying because I am from Apollos I am superior to you

1.      Judge-To distinguish or separate a person or thing from the rest, in effect to prefer, yield to him with the preference or honor

2.      The insinuation is that because I am from Paul I am superior to you 

a.    They are separating, making distinction, discriminating; We are superior to you because we are of Paul and you are less; They are judging one better than the other, one minister better than that one

b.    This is judging; They are examining, deciding, and pronouncing (They are actually saying, “I am of Paul, I am of Apollos.”)

c.     This is how verse three is manifesting, this is the root of verse three – They are judging and that’s causing the divisions

3.      They are saying Paul is better than Apollos but who are they to say that, to decide that, to make that judgment

a.    You can like the ones God uses to minister to you and honor them and think they are great, but cannot think they are superior

b.    It’s not the honoring of the man of God that he’s correcting, it’s the superiority to another and judging that he’s correcting

C.    3:5-10-He’s saying you’re separating us and making distinctions but we are one, laboring with God and if anybody is anything it’s God who is something, and the man is just the vessel God used and yet you’re trying to make distinction of one being superior to the other

1.      5-Who is Paul? Who is Apollos?

a.    They think they Paul or Apollos is something more than they are so he is going to bring the people to reality

b.    We are nothing but ministers (Ministers-One who executes the commands of another, servant of the king)

2.      6-What did Paul do? Nothing, but planted; What did Apollos do? Nothing but watered – Without God there would be no increase

a.    If you want to think somebody is something think God is something because he gave the increase

b.    7-Paul it’s God who is something, not us

3.      8-You’re trying to separate us and make distinction but we are one (AMP-Equal, one in am, of the same importance and esteem)

4.      9-You’re trying to separate us but we are working together with God on you his garden, his building, his people

5.      10-If we have done something it’s by the grace of God that we did it

6.      21-Don’t glory in men

7.      4:1-Think of us and esteem us as servant’s of Christ, assistants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God

a.    We didn’t come up with these mysteries, but rather God gave them to us

D.    4:3-He’s shedding light on the fact that they are judging; They were judging Paul and Apollos, making distinction

1.      That’s what they were doing in 1 Corinthians 3:4 when there were saying, I am of Paul, I am of Apollos

a.    If you are making distinctions that one is better than another and separating as one is superior to another you are judging

2.      When you feel like people are judging you how much should it matter to you what they say? Zero. Why? They are not the judge

a.    If people are judging you and it bothers you and you bite back usually it’s because you know what they are saying is true

E.     4-5-God is the judge

1.      God brings to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts

a.    There are things hidden to you and me that God sees and will bring to light

b.    If you don’t see everything it’s impossible to judge

2.      When God judges he’s looking on the heart and that’s something else you don’t see

F.     Don’t be puffed up for one AGAINST (that’s judgment, not mercy) another; be FOR every minister

1.      Don’t decide that one is better than another and then be puffed up for that one and against another

2.      Mercy is for you; But some got to a place where they were actually against Paul and some against Apollos

3.      6-Don’t think above that which is written – Think in line with the Word

G.   7-Who makes you to differ (judge) discriminate one from another

1.      They think they are superior and they think the ministers they like or superior and everybody else is inferior

2.      What makes you so different and so superior to another?

a.    WNT-Why, who gives you your superiority, my brother; HCSB-For who makes you superior; CJB-After all what makes you so special? CEB-Who says that you are better than anyone else?

3.      The word differ in this verse is the same word to judge and so who made you the judge to decide this one is better than that one?

a.    JUB-For who makes you to judge?

b.    NLT-What gives you the right to make such a judgment

II.     *A big part of judging and not being merciful is this feeling of superiority that you are somehow better than someone else; That is at the heart of judging, that is at the core of judging and if we are going to put down judging, then we have to put down these feelings of superiority

A.    If you are superior what makes you superior to them?

1.      Is it something you have? What do you have that wasn’t given to you-1 Corinthians 4:7

a.    BBE-For who made you better than your brother? Or what have you that has not been given to you? But if it has been given to you, what cause have you for pride, as if it had not been given to you?

b.    GNT-Who made you superior to others? Didn’t God give you everything you have? Well then how can you boast as if what you have were not a gift

c.     TLB-What are you so puffed up about? What do you have that God hasn’t given you? And if all you have is from God, why act as though you are so great, and as though you have accomplished something on your own?

d.    ERV-Who do you think you are? Everything you have was given to you. So, if everything you have was given to you, why do you act as if you got it all by your own power?

e.    You’re acting like you’re something because you have it, but if it wasn’t for God you wouldn’t have it-James 1:17

2.      Is it something you know?-1 Corinthians 8:1-2

a.    If you think you know something and you’re puffed up about it you don’t know anything

1)       GW-Those who think they know something still have a lot to learn

2)       NLT-Anyone who claims to know all the answers really doesn’t know very much

3)       TLB-If anyone things he knows all the answers, he is just showing is ignorance

b.    There was a time you didn’t know what you know now and there’s still a lot you don’t know

1)       Are those who know what you don’t know superior to you?

c.     You’re acting like you’re something because you know it, but if it wasn’t for God you wouldn’t know it

3.      Is it something you do? – John 15:4-5

a.    If you are bearing some fruit and doing some things you need to know that without Jesus you couldn’t do anything

b.    If you are doing something they are not doing it’s because God showed you to do it and empowered you to do it and there was a time you weren’t doing the same things that other people aren’t doing now

c.     You’re acting like you’re something because you’re doing it, but if it wasn’t for God you wouldn’t be doing it

4.      Is it something you’re not doing?

a.    You’re probably doing stuff just like it

b.    If God did deliver you from it and you’re not doing it, it was just a short time ago that you were doing it just like they are doing it

5.      Is it because you think you are something? – Galatians 6:1-3 

a.    VOICE-Don’t take this opportunity to think you are better than those who slip b/c you aren’t; then you become the fool and deceive even yourself

b.    PHIL-If a man thinks he is, “somebody,” he is deceiving himself, for that very thought proves that he is a nobody

c.     This thinking your superior will hinder you from bearing another’s burdens and restoring one in a fault

B.     Don’t play a hypocrite and act like you’ve always had this, you’ve always know that, you’ve always done that and you’ve never done this because the reality is you didn’t always have it and know it and you weren’t always doing it and had it not been for the grace and mercy of God you still wouldn’t have it, know it or be doing it so stop pretending like you got it on your own

C.    Philippians 2:3-We aren’t to think people are less than us, we are to think that they are more than us

1.      CEB-With humility think of others as better than yourselves

2.      NIV-Consider others better than yourselves

3.      Thinking that you’re better than them lays the perfect foundation for you to judge them; If you think you are superior you will judge

a.    Don’t think that you are better than somebody, don’t decide that you’re somehow superior to them

b.    1 Timothy 1:15-He said he as the chief of sinners; This is him thinking more highly of others than he did himself

4.      The reality is that we are all very much in the same boat and the only reason that anybody comes up higher and increases in anyway was because of the mercy and grace of God and had it not been for that grace or mercy you’d be right where they are

a.    Romans 12:16 (AMP)-Don’t overestimate yourself and stick our noses in the air and look down on people

5.      Romans 3:9-Are we better than they? In no way

a.    MSG-V19-20-And it’s clear enough, isn’t it, that we’re sinners, every one of us, in the same sinking boat with everybody else?

6.      Do you think you are better than them? Are you better than them? What makes you better? Who said you are better? Who are you to decide that you are better?

III.   Luke 18:9-14-If you think you’re superior you’re will judge

A.    9-The parable is about someone who trust in themselves that they are righteous and looked down on other people

1.      He thinks he’s something because of what he has done and to hear him talk about it you’d think that he figured out what to do cause he’s so smart and applied this his life because he’s so strong and that he’s doing this all of himself

2.      He’s feeling superior and looking down others and that will bear the fruit of judging, that will produce judging in your life

B.     11-He thinks he’s superior and that leads to judging

1.      When you practice a life of judging you end up praying with yourself (Mark 11:24-25, Galatians 5:6)

2.      He thinks he’s superior because he doesn’t do what the publican does

a.    What is stealing, adultery, and sin? It’s violation of the law – Do you think this Pharisee every violated the law? Yes; So what he is judging the publican of, he is guilty of himself; And so he thinks he is superior to the publican, but in reality he is a lot like him

3.      Does he want the publican to get help? No, in fact he likes where the publican is because that makes him feel superior and if the publican gets help and then he would no longer be superior to him; He doesn’t want the publican to get help and know what he knows; he wants to look down upon him and judge him and feel superior to him; Mercy on the other hand wants him to get help

a.    People like to judge because they like to believe they are superior

C.    13-He’s not judging because he knows he’s no superior

1.      He knows he needs the mercy of God and has no faith in his what he has done and does not trust in himself

2.      He may be a sinner, but he’s an honest sinner and he’s not pretending and playing a hypocrite

D.    Isaiah 65:5-This judging and superiority and pride is an irritant in the nostrils of God

1.      CEB-Who say, “Keep to yourself! Keep away from me! I’m too holy for you.” These people ignite my anger like a fire that burns all day

2.      MSG-They say, “Keep your distance. Don’t touch me. I’m holier than thou.” These people gag me. I can’t stand their stench.

IV.   Matthew 9:11-Jesus wants mercy not sacrifice

A.    They see Jesus eating with publicans and sinners which to them are lesser people; they have discriminated and judged these people as lesser; They are judging the sinners as inferior people, looking down upon them

B.     Jesus says rather than judging I will to have mercy; they want judgment Jesus wants mercy

1.      Jesus said I’m not looking to judge and discriminate against people, I’m looking to help them

a.    Sacrifice-Victim, Slay, Kill

2.      If someone is not something that I am, If they don’t know something that I know, If they don’t have something that I have I don’t discriminate against them and judge them less because they don’t have it, I want them to get mercy and I want to see them get the help they need from God to have the things God was so gracious to give to me

a.    Mercy wants them to get it; Judgment wants to discriminate and separate and feel superior to

3.      Mercy wants to them to get the help they need and to get that help they need to repent

a.    Jesus didn’t say oh I’m fine with their sin, he said they need to repent

V.    Acts 15:9-Judge-To separate, to make distinction (difference or division), to discriminate (categorize, classify, favor)

A.    7-This was a big deal and there was much disputing

1.      1-2-Some men were teaching you cannot be saved if you are not circumcised after the after the law of Moses and they were commanding people to keep the law of Moses and Paul and Barnabas didn’t agree with this and there was a heated discussion about this very issue and they decided to take this question to the elders of the church

2.      3-Paul and Barnabas had been seeing God move amongst the gentiles who were not circumcised after the law of Moses

3.      4-There was a group of believers who said the gentile converts need to be circumcised & commanded to keep the law of Moses

B.     9-God put no difference between us and them giving us the same Holy Ghost and purified their hearts by faith just like us; Peter is saying they are just like we are

1.      But these religious people were discriminating and “putting difference” between them and those gentile converts

2.      What these Pharisees were trying to do was discriminate against the ones who weren’t circumcised after the manner of Moses and judge and call them lesser and deciding that these who haven’t been circumcised are somehow lesser

C.    ***10-This is the mark of a judge, he is a hypocrite; They want these gentiles to keep something that they are not keeping***

1.      Hypocrites are pretenders and they want to pretend like they are keeping the law