Paul’s Call to Humble Self-Examination: Harmonizing 1 Corinthians 4:3 and 11:28

By Mark W. Christy, PhD

In 1 Corinthians 11:28, Paul adamantly proclaims that “a man must examine himself.”[1] This, however, may surprise his readers given his earlier admission in 4:3: “I do not even examine myself.” To resolve these seemingly divergent statements, this article will seek to determine Paul’s underlying meaning in 4:2-5.

For Paul, his refusal to self-examine in 4:3 is specifically related to his deferral to God’s judgment in His heavenly court. For this reason, he accords little in the way of significance to the judgment of others, or indeed, of “any human court.” He then points to the Lord Himself as “the one who examines [Him]” (4:4). The Lord’s judgment, unlike that of humans, is able to access the “hidden…motives of men’s hearts” (4:5).

In these verses, Paul is not trying to avoid examination that will help him become a better steward of God’s Word by applying its tenets to his life in an ever-improving manner (cf. 2 Cor 13:5); rather, his goal is to leave to God the final judgment. This being the case, he warns his readers against “passing judgment before the time…the Lord comes” (4:5). For him, “[h]is personal evaluations of his own performance are irrelevant; what his master thinks is what counts.”[2]

As one probes deeper into the apostle’s comments, one finds humility at the core. While he most certainly examined himself in light of his own directive in 11:28, he nevertheless put no absolute confidence in his findings. Paul realized that the frailty of his fleshly nature could easily allow him to judge himself either too graciously or even too harshly. He understood that only God could rightly assess the desires that lay beneath his thoughts and actions. While he may be “conscious of nothing against [him]self,” he readily admits that he still has yet to be “acquitted” (4:4).

In summation, Paul certainly upholds his call for self-examination even while he cautions against those who might pridefully conclude themselves to be guiltless since God alone is the only one capable of making such a judgment. In a way, Paul’s warning against going too far in making conclusions in regard to self-examination ultimately brings his readers back to diligently engaging in his direction to self-examine since they will never be able to arrive at a final conclusion to this exercise until God Himself intervenes when the Lord comes.

[1]All Scripture references are taken from NASB1995.

[2]Gordon D. Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, in The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987), 161.