Motherhood in First Corinthians

1 Cor. 4:15 “For though you have ten thousand guides in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for i𝑛 𝐶ℎ𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑡 𝐽𝑒𝑠𝑢𝑠 𝐼 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑏𝑒𝑔𝑜𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑛 𝑦𝑜𝑢 through the gospel.”

The book of 1 Corinthians contains many facets for understanding the churchlife. In particular, we should pay attention to the tone, contents and authorship. Previously, we have talked on the divine attributes and virtues of Christ revealed in this book: comeliness, expression and humanity. At the same time, however, we know that the church in Corinth was also full of problems; at least 11 major issues are addressed throughout the epistle. What kind of person was Paul that he would write at length on so many issues? Who rebukes, pleads, encourages and admonishes their recipients?

Reading this book is painful, harsh and illogical, unless you understand that Paul was speaking with the spirit of a mother. Only someone with the heart of a parent can afford to speak in this way. Because it is from a mother’s or parent’s heart, Paul can go beyond logic (in contrast to the wisdom and philosophy of the world that the Corinthians were saturated by as discussed in this book) to speak, write and exercise the absolute privilege to discipline the recipients, who are his children in the gospel. Paul was not trying to save his face. His letter is definitely not a good letter, right letter, beautiful letter or moral letter; this letter is very raw to the core of humanity. Its content reveals the kind of relationship you can only find in profound and deep human relationships, like that between parents and children. Consider this, then, when you go through Paul’s writing here, you will suddenly be able to see this motherhood. There are very specific elements of motherhood throughout—conceiving, laboring, reproducing, delivering and the raising of a nursing mother. To get the most from this book, we must see beyond the harsh tone, or even at times the tone of the author’s vindication in this book.

If you, too, carry the heart of the mother, you’ll know how to enjoy Paul. The heart of a desperate mother is willing to do whatever she can to bring forth life, like many women in the book of Genesis: Rachel, Tamar, Hannah and more. To have offspring, the expression of the motherhood must be very tenacious, fighting for something to come forth and to survive—something that will not disappear in time.

Similarly, if you want to serve the Lord, this is your blueprint. We don’t serve Christianity or ideology; we serve the ministry. 1 Corinthians is the first book in the New Testament to reveal the author as a mother to the local church. No matter how philosophical, moral or beautiful the world is, the mother cannot tolerate her family to be divided; rather, she faces a real churchlife than one that looks perfect and beautiful but eventually brings in corruption. This is the tenacity to preserve those begotten in the gospel from division—to keep them from taking any other identity than Christ the crucified. Any other claim, teaching, high mind, good heart or opinion will deviate from this line of life. This is a heart of a mother and a faithful servant to the Lord.

(Above are notes of fellowship taken from a gathering on 5/22/2020, not reviewed by the speaker.)