Whose Evaluation Really Matters?

Dear Bethelites,

In our last pastoral chat, we had learnt about having a biblical view of the minister; one must understand his position (a minister and steward), his responsibility (to proclaim the mysteries of God or the gospel), and God’s requirement (to be faithful).  Today, we want to consider ultimately whose evaluation really matters.  People may be able to judge our actions, but they cannot judge our motives, intentions, hearts and minds.

The Apostle Paul went on to speak about the minister being overly concerned about the people’s evaluation of himself and his ministry.  Therefore, he wanted to show in the following three verses that no human being was truly qualified to evaluate the faithfulness of the minister or his work.  There was only One who was one hundred percent qualified to evaluate anyone perfectly, and that was the omniscient God.

Paul began by explaining what it meant to be evaluated by the people!

To be evaluated by the people

1 Corinthians 4:3, But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man’s judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self.

To judge is to examine, investigate or evaluate something whether it is true or not.  The literal meaning of the words man’s judgment is “man’s day.”  In other words, a man can only judge you as long as he has breath, and once he is dead, his day is up, his judgment will come to an end. He can no longer say anything for or against you.

That was the reason why Paul considered that it was a very small thing to be judged by the Corinthians.  It was not because Paul was proud that he was beyond being evaluated by the Corinthians, but rather that no human was truly qualified to evaluate God’s servants.

Allow me to further provide several reasons;

1. Man cannot read into the faithfulness of our hearts and minds.

2. Man’s judgment is imperfect.

3. Man’s lack of knowledge can adversely affect his judgment.

4. Man’s issue with self righteousness.

5. Man is often influenced by the majority.

Notice, Paul did not say that it was not important to be evaluated by the people, but it was a very small thing and one should not be overly affected by their evaluation and give up one’s ministry.  The minister could never remain faithful to God, if he was always concerned about what other’s judgment about him.  He must never let that happen!

II.  To be evaluated by oneself

From being evaluated by the people, Paul moved on to talk about being evaluated by oneself.  Not only must one not be overly concerned about other people’s evaluation of his ministry, he must also not allow himself to care only about his own evaluation.

All of us are naturally inclined to build ourselves up in our own minds, and perceive ourselves in a certain way. We may think that having accomplished all the tasks, and ticked all the boxes; then we must be faithful.  That is our own idea of faithfulness.  Some people may even appeal to their own conscience to justify themselves, “Well, I don’t care what others think about me and my work, as long as my conscience is right.”  But the problem is that one’s conscience may be clear and sincere, but he can be sincerely wrong!

Paul said, yea, I judge not mine own self (v.3b).  In other words, “I dare not even trust my own judgment because my evaluation may be as reliable as anyone else.”

Once again, Paul was not against self-evaluation, for Scriptures repeatedly exhort us to examine ourselves.  Here, the point was that no Christian, no matter how spiritual he or she might be, would be able to accurately evaluate his or her own spiritual life perfectly.

As far as Paul was concerned, he knew that he had not done anything wrong, and so if he were to apply self-evaluation, he would said, For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord (v.4).  Basically, Paul was like saying, “I am conscious of nothing against myself, but I know that I could be wrong about my own heart.  My conscience can be sincere, but I can be sincerely wrong.  My own self-evaluation cannot justify me even though I know that I had done nothing wrong.  I can praise my own deeds, but my own self-evaluation does not make a difference, and the only evaluation that will make a difference is the Lord’s….he that judgeth me is the Lord.

III. To be evaluated by the Lord

One should be concerned about being evaluated by God, being approved by Him and not man. 2 Timothy 2:15, Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.  Who is the one who actually knows our motivations, intentions, diligence, efforts, faithfulness, consistencies, etc?  God!

A pastor or minister serves the people because he is called to be minister of Christ and a steward of the mysteries of God.  In the course of his ministry, sometimes people may commend him for being faithful, while others may accuse him for being unfaithful, but it is a very small thing because his heart’s desire is to be found faithful by the One who has called him.

Verse 5, Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.

God has set a time when He would bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and He will make manifest the counsels of the hearts.  The hidden things of darkness are things unknown to men, and the counsels of the hearts are the motives and intentions.  These are the two things that refer to the attitudes of the inner man, which only God can see and therefore only He can judge.

Man can only see what is on the outside, and cannot know what is hidden in the deepest recesses of the heart.  Therefore, he should have no business in passing judgment on things he does not know.  If God has set aside a time for such judgment, he should be fearful in passing judgment before that time.

When is that time?  Until the Lord come, which means the time when Jesus would return and reward the believers.  There is no condemnation awaiting the believers (c.f. Romans 8:1), only rewards, that was why Paul said, and then shall every man have praise of God (v.5b).

Every believer will receive praise from God, more or less, and His praise will always be followed up with His reward.  Some believers will receive more rewards, while others will receive lesser rewards.  Only God knows how much the believers will receive; once the wood, hay and stubble are burned away, the gold, silver and precious stones will remain to be eternally rewarded.

The counsels of the hearts are the motives of the hearts.  If one’s motives are wrong, all his works will be wood, hay and stubble which will be burnt up.

Dear friends, it is good when fellow Christians speak well of us sincerely, but it is a very small thing because their evaluation does not affect our eternal reward.  Even though we know ourselves better than anyone else, we dare not judge ourselves, because our judgment is imperfect, and they do not have eternal values.  There is only One whose evaluation really matters, and that is God!  The day will come when He shall judge us, not for condemnation’s sake, but for reward.  And that is the day we are looking forward to!

In Christ,

Pastor Paul Cheng