1 Corinthians 4:16

16 I entreat you therefore, be my imitators.

1 Corinthians 4:16 Meaning and Commentary

1 Corinthians 4:16

Wherefore, I beseech you
Though he might have used the power and authority of a father, yet he chose rather to entreat and beseech them; saying,

be ye followers of me;
for who should children follow, but their parents? The Vulgate Latin, adds, "as I am of Christ"; so Chrysostom in his time read it; and Beza says he found it so written in one Greek exemplar; and so it is in one of Stephens's; it seems to have crept in from ( 1 Corinthians 11:1 ) . However, though it might not be now expressed by the apostle, it is to be supposed; for he never desired any to follow him any more, or further than he followed Christ; particularly he was desirous that these his spiritual children would follow him, and abide by him in the doctrine of a crucified Christ, he had preached among them, and not the false apostles, who had represented his ministry as weak and foolish; and in his life and conversation, especially in his humble carriage and deportment among them, and in his tender love and affection for them; observing their growing pride, haughtiness, and vain opinion of themselves, and those unnatural divisions and animosities which were fomented among them; and also in bearing reproach and persecution cheerfully and patiently, for the Gospel of Christ; a detail of which he had given them in some preceding verses.

1 Corinthians 4:16 In-Context

14 Not [as] chiding do I write these things to you, but as my beloved children I admonish [you].

15 For if ye should have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet not many fathers; for in Christ Jesus *I* have begotten you through the glad tidings.

16 I entreat you therefore, be my imitators.

17 For this reason I have sent to you Timotheus, who is my beloved and faithful child in [the] Lord, who shall put you in mind of my ways [as] they [are] in Christ, according as I teach everywhere in every assembly.

18 But some have been puffed up, as if I were not coming to you;

Footnotes

• [a] Parakaleo. The word has to be rendered very differently in English in different places, and is hard to render, though simple and easy to understand. It means 'to call upon a person so as to stimulate him to anything;' hence 'to exhort, comfort or encourage:' see Note to 2Cor. 1.4. It has a fuller force here than a mere apostolic or pastoral exhortation.