1 Corinthians 4:14

Paul’s Appeal and Warning

14 I am writing this not to shame you but to warn you as my dear children.

1 Corinthians 4:14 in Other Translations

14 I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you.

14 I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children.

14 I am not writing these things to shame you, but to warn you as my beloved children.

14 I'm not writing all this as a neighborhood scold just to make you feel rotten. I'm writing as a father to you, my children. I love you and want you to grow up well, not spoiled.

14 I'm not writing this to shame you, but to warn you as my dear children.

1 Corinthians 4:14 Meaning and Commentary

1 Corinthians 4:14

I write not these things to shame you
Though they had a great deal of reason to be ashamed of the vain opinion they had of themselves, and that they suffered the faithful ministers of Christ to want the necessaries of life, when they abounded so much with the good things of it; and though the apostle's view in giving this narrative was to bring them under a sense of their faults, and to a conviction of them, and so to shame for them, in order to their future reformation and amendment; yet it was not merely to put them to the blush, but to admonish and instruct them, that he enlarged on these things:

but as my beloved sons I warn you;
they being his children in a spiritual sense, for whom he had the strongest love and affection, as their spiritual Father; and as it was his place, and became him standing in such a relation to them, he warned, admonished, and put them in mind of their obligations and duty to him.

1 Corinthians 4:14 In-Context

12 We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it;

13 when we are slandered, we answer kindly. We have become the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world—right up to this moment.

14 I am writing this not to shame you but to warn you as my dear children.

15 Even if you had ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.

16 Therefore I urge you to imitate me.

Cross References

• 1. 1 Corinthians 6:5; 1 Corinthians 15:34; 2 Thessalonians 3:14
• 2. S 1 Thessalonians 2:11