“For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord” (1 Corinthians 4:4).

This verse is hard to understand. Here is the context, “But to me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you, or by a man’s day; but I do not judge my own self, for I know nothing by myself. Yet I have not been justified by this, but He who judges me is the Lord” (1 Corinthians 4:3-4). Other translations of the Bible read “of myself” or “against myself.” But there is no such Greek word in the text. The preposition has been added. There is an implied sense of the knowledge that Paul speaks of in the verse as being against or apart from himself. Nonetheless, the literal Greek reads, ‘For I know nothing myself.’

Back up for a moment and look at the phrase, “or by a man’s day” (1 Corinthians 4:3). The Greek word translated as “by” (hupo) can also be translated as “of,” but literally means “under.” “Man’s day” is a literal translation, but it is an unusual phrase. So unusual that it is best understood to be an idiom that suggests the light of man or the light of humanity. The phrase we are looking at literally means under the light of humanity. Putting this all together we could read the verse, “But to me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you, or judged under the light of humanity” (1 Corinthians 4:3 — my translation). Paul is saying that human reason or human experience or human discernment (the light of humanity) is not sufficient to evaluate God or the works of God. Human wisdom is inadequate to judge or understand Paul because his conversion and regeneration are a work of God.

There are many layers of meaning in these few verses. We know that Paul was defending himself against accusations made against him by others in the church. The nature of those accusations is unclear. But we can surmise that they stem in part from his opposition to the worldly wisdom (the Greek perspective) that was common among Corinthian believers. He put himself and the heart of Christianity in opposition to the common sense and practices — the common (Greko-Roman) culture — of the day. He said that the wisdom of Christ is contrary to human wisdom, that the culture of the church (believers) is contrary to the culture of the world (unbelievers). Those who supported the superiority of human wisdom accused Paul of foolishness among other things.

So, following the basic themes of First Corinthians to this point, we understand that Paul’s comment in verse 4 was an expression of the crux of his argument against worldly wisdom. The story of the Serpent in the Garden and the temptation and Fall of Adam and Eve tells us that the Serpent provided a way to know the world apart from God. Satan convinced Eve that truth was not dependent upon God, that truth could stand alone, apart from any reference to God. From this perspective, God and man (humanity) could both use reason to understand and discern truth because truth was thought to exist independently of God and man. And furthermore, said the Serpent, God knows that if you employ reason as the primary tool for understanding the world, “your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5).

When Paul said “for I know nothing … myself” (1 Corinthians 4:4) he meant that genuine knowledge of the world required a reference or anchor point beyond himself, beyond his own ability to know and understand. He meant that human knowledge required a point of reference that was eternally fixed and stable through history in order to overcome the self-deceptions that are inherent in a self-contained, self-dependent or human-dependent perspective. If human knowledge is limited to human experience, then all knowledge is relative. You have your experience and I have mine, and who’s to say that one is better or more right than another? If there is no dependable reference point outside of human experience and knowledge, then all knowledge is relative.

But if all knowledge is relative, if all knowledge is simply a matter of perspective, then nothing is truly or objectively knowable. In such a case knowledge does not reveal truth, but only perspective. If all knowledge is relative then everything depends on how you look at it. In such a system truth has no place. In such a system truth cannot have a consistent meaning and, therefore, is meaningless.

And this is exactly where our contemporary world is at. Relativism is the reigning doctrine that is taught in public schools and universities. People are taught today in these institutions that knowledge that is devoid of any reference to God or Scripture is the only knowledge that is reliable. Religion is understood today to be a matter of personal opinion, which means that objective knowledge must be purged of religion because personal opinion distorts objective knowledge. Thus, public schools and universities today pride themselves on the fact that they teach knowledge of the world without reference to God or Scripture. They think that they are teaching objective truth, that truth itself stands apart from God or apart from any reference to God or to Scripture.

What they don’t recognize is that they have elevated human knowledge, human reason, human perspective and/or human experience to the status or function of a god. Reference to God in the pursuit of knowledge is like reference to the North Star for purposes of navigation, of knowing where you are. Once you know the position of the North Star, the positions of the other stars indicate your position on the earth. If there was no North Star in the sky, no star whose position is stable year round, navigation would not be possible. In a similar way, God and His Word serve as the objective, stable perspective from which all other human knowledge has any significant meaning.

(This analogy breaks down in the contemporary world because we now use satellite technology for navigation on the oceans. However, it should be noted that such navigation depends upon man-made devices. Thus, the navigational references (satellites) remain a function of human knowledge and experience. They can help us understand where we are on earth, but not where we are in the universe.)

And we all know this at some level. Paul quoted popular Greek poetry to the Greeks at Mars Hill. A popular poet was quoted as saying, “In him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). Paul was pointing out that the Greek pagans understood the importance of an objective, stable point of reference regarding life and the pursuit of knowledge. This Pagan Greek poet was right to suggest that all human knowledge and experience are dependent upon God.

Paul goes on to say that it is the Lord who judges him. Again, he offers a contrast between the judgment of the world and the judgment of God. His point in part is that it is not his own limited knowledge that has reached out to know (discern or evaluate) the Lord, but rather that it is the unlimited knowledge of God that has reached down to know him. And only through being known by God Paul then knows his place in the world. It is not through knowledge of the world that we come to know God’s place in the world. But rather it is by being known by God that we come to know our place in the world. The difference involves a seismic shift in perspective. It is a matter of coming to see things from God’s perspective, not our own. It is a matter of regeneration in Christ.

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