The Christian's Relation to Public Opinion.
Note:
I. That St. Paul was judged unfavourably at this time at the bar of the public opinion of the church of Corinth. The expression "public opinion" describes the common fund of thought which belongs to a larger or smaller number of associated human beings. Every village, every town, every city, has its public opinion its own characteristic way of dealing with people and things about it. And, as earthly societies, churches have a public opinion of their own, first created by their members, and which, in turn, controls them. And this public church opinion is by no means certain to be always and everywhere just. St. Paul stood face to face with a section of this opinion at Corinth when he wrote: "With me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you or of man's judgment.
II. St. Paul is not at pains to conceal his perfect independence of the hostile opinion of the Corinthians. Not that we can suppose him to have taken any pleasure either in feeling or in proclaiming this independence, for he was a man of quick sympathy, rejoicing if he could be sure of the love of his converts, and not caring to conceal how much they could do to promote or to mar his personal happiness. But, as matters stood, he brushed aside a whole world of inward feeling to say that he was unconcerned as to their judgment upon his apostolical faithfulness. "With me," he said, "it is a small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgment."
III. Notice what was the consideration which sustained St. Paul in his conscious opposition to the opinion of the Corinthian Christians. He spoke as from a higher atmosphere, which was already moving him out of the reach of these human voices. He spoke as from the vestibule of a Divine presence-chamber. Just so far as a man is loyal to known truth and known duty, does he assert his manhood; and not in petulance or in scorn, not in indifference or in anger, he is thereby raised though he be raised upon a cross raised above the opinion of the world. It is a small thing that he is judged unfavourably by it, because in that higher presence he dares not judge himself at all, and yet he believes his intentions to be accepted by the justice and the charity of his God.
H. P. Liddon, Penny Pulpit,No. 855.
References: 1 Corinthians 4:3; 1 Corinthians 4:4. T. Arnold, Sermons,vol. i., p. 155; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. v., p. 272. 1 Corinthians 4:4. Preacher's Monthly,vol. ii., p. 258. 1 Corinthians 4:5. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. vii., p. 285; J. W. Reeve, Penny Pulpit,No. 3271. 1 Corinthians 4:7. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. v., No. 262; vol. xxii., No. 1271; vol. xxiv., No. 1392; T. Gasquoine, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxv., p. 168; H. P. Liddon, University Sermons,2nd series, p. 18. 1 Corinthians 4:7-21. F. W. Robertson, Lectures on Corinthians,p. 62; J. Edmunds, Sermons in a Village Church,p. 265. 1 Corinthians 4:11. Homilist,new series, vol. i., p. 126. 1 Corinthians 4:14. H. D. Rawnsley, Ibid.,vol. xxxii., p. 186. 1 Corinthians 4:15. H. P. Liddon, Church of England Pulpit,vol. xix., p. 253. 1 Corinthians 4:15-17. L. Abbott, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxxi., p. 228. 1 Corinthians 4:18. F. O. Morris, Ibid.,vol. xvii., p. 185.