‘I write these things not to shame you but to admonish you, as my beloved children. For though you might have ten thousand tutors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers. For in Christ Jesus I brought you to birth through the Gospel. I beg you therefore, you be imitators of me.'
Paul now assures them that he writes this way as a loving father, not as a despot. He is admonishing them sternly because of his love for them. They are his beloved children, and he wants the very best for them. For in at least one thing he is unique, that it was he who first introduced the Corinthians to Christ, and through whom they found new life in Him. This at least proves his soundness and effectiveness. There are a multiplicity of Teachers (slave tutors) who will teach them many things, some good, some bad. But they do not have the same qualifications, as far as the Corinthians are concerned, as Paul has, for they are his spiritual children, and he was their spiritual father, and the way that he brought them to birth was not through ‘wisdom' but through the Gospel (1 Corinthians 1:17-18). Thus he begs them to be imitators of him as a child so naturally is of a father, living the Christian life as he lives it, behaving as he behaves (in 1 Corinthians 11:1 he amplifies his words as ‘be imitators of me as I am of Christ'. There is no question of them imitating him for himself alone). Compare Philippians 3:17; 1 Thessalonians 1:6). For as the means of their conversion he has proved, at least this to them, that he enjoys the power of God. Can the other Teachers say the same?
‘Though you might have ten thousand tutors in Christ.' Paul is basically saying that such tutors are two a penny. Anyone can set himself up as a tutor. They crowd round for the privilege of teaching the Corinthians their own ideas professing that it is in the name of Christ. The slave tutor had responsibility for children in a well-to-do family. He would watch over them, guide them, see them safely to school, watch over their morals, teach them good manners, and so on. But he was easily replaced if he turned out to be inefficient. The one who was really concerned for their welfare was their father. He was permanent.
‘Yet you do not have many fathers.' This is the fact of the matter. Those who really care for them are relatively few. Those who have brought them to birth have demonstrated by so doing that God is behind them, and that they truly care. They are not seeking ‘a following' but intent on leading them to Christ. Young Jewish students who were trained in the Torah by a teacher would recognise him as a ‘father'. Thus Paul is to be seen as their father, because he brought to them and taught them the traditions of Jesus and the truth of the Scriptures. He preached to them the word of the cross. Casual tutors seeking to usurp the father's authority and seeking a following should not be seen as on the same level.
Jesus had to warn the Rabbis about seeking the title ‘Master' and their students on calling them ‘father' (Matthew 23:8-9). Both were to look to God as servants of God. Paul is not advocating such a thing. What he is doing is stress his loving concern and the events that have revealed that he is truly their father in Christ Jesus. Let them therefore hear him and look to Christ. It was a bad day for the Christian church when Christians began to look to men as their ‘father'. He came between them and Christ.
‘My beloved children.' It is when Paul feels most deeply and speaks most strongly that he uses such endearments (2 Corinthians 6:13; Galatians 4:19).
‘I brought you to birth through the Gospel.' Paul sees himself as a father giving them life through the preaching of the Gospel in power, resulting in them being born from above by the Spirit of God (John 3:1-8; 1 Peter 1:23) and receiving new life in Christ (Romans 6:4; 2 Peter 1:4). He is of course their father in a secondary sense, for it was the Father Himself Who of His own will really brought them to birth through the word of truth (James 1:18; 1 Peter 1:3). Paul was merely the channel. But that is Paul's point, that he, and he alone was the channel through which God revealed His saving power, thus proving him to be a true channel of the Spirit.
‘I beg you therefore, you be imitators of me.' As we have seen 1 Corinthians 11:1 adds, ‘as I am of Christ'. But here he is challenging their willingness to copy him, rather than the opposition. That in the end will be the test of their response to his words, and he is about to put it to the test in chapter 5. There he will discover whether they are willing to copy him or not.