1 Corinthians 4:1 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Let a man, &c. Having warned the believers at Corinth against entertaining an undue esteem for their own ministers, he now proceeds to show them in what light they ought to view all true ministers of Christ: and lest, from what was advanced in the preceding Chapter s concerning the inspiration of the apostles by the Holy Spirit, these Corinthians should imagine that Paul claimed to himself and his brethren an authority not derived from Christ, he here tells them that even the apostles were only Christ's servants; obliged in all things to act in entire subjection to him, and obedience to his will. So account of us as of the ministers of Christ The original word, υπηρετας, properly signifies such servants as laboured at the oar in rowing vessels, and accordingly intimates the pains which every faithful minister of Christ takes in his Lord's work. O God! where are these ministers to be found? Lord, thou knowest! and stewards of the mysteries of God Dispensers of the mysterious truths of the gospel. “The apostle gives to those doctrines, which in former ages had been kept secret, but which were now discovered to all through the preaching of the gospel, the appellation of the mysteries of God, to recommend them to the Corinthians. And he calls himself the steward of these mysteries, to intimate, that the deepest doctrines, as well as the first principles of the gospel, were intrusted to him to be dispensed or made known.” Macknight.