1 Corinthians 4:14

14 I am not writing you this to make you feel ashamed, but, as my dear children, to confront you and get you to change.

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 exhaust ourselves working with our own hands for our living. When we are cursed, we keep on blessing; when we are persecuted, we go on putting up with it;

13 when we are slandered, we continue making our appeal. We are the world's garbage, the scum of the earth - yes, to this moment!

14 I am not writing you this to make you feel ashamed, but, as my dear children, to confront you and get you to change.

15 For even if you have ten thousand trainers in connection with the Messiah, you do not have many fathers; for in connection with the Messiah Yeshua it was I who became your father by means of the Good News.

16 Therefore I urge you to imitate me.