1 Cor. 4:14-17, “14 I do not write these things to shame you, but as my beloved children I warn you. 15 For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. 16 Therefore I urge you, imitate me. 17 For this reason I have sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved and faithful son in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach everywhere in every church.”
The Greek word for “instuctors” is παιδαγωγός paidagōgos.
Paidagogos definition:
“a guide,” or “guardian” or “trainer of boys,” lit., “a child-leader” (pais, “a boy, or child,” ago, “to lead”), “a tutor,” is translated “instructors” in 1Cr 4:15, AV (RV, “tutors”); here the thought is that of pastors rather than teachers; in Gal 3:24, 25, AV, “schoolmaster” (RV, “tutor,”), but here the idea of instruction is absent. “In this and allied words the idea is that of training, discipline, not of impartation of knowledge. The paidagogos was not the instructor of the child; he exercised a general supervision over him and was responsible for his moral and physical well-being. Thus understood, paidagogos is appropriately used with ‘kept in ward’ and ‘shut up,’ whereas to understand it as equivalent to ‘teacher’ introduces an idea entirely foreign to the passage, and throws the Apostle’s argument into confusion.”
A παιδαγωγός or paidagōgos cannot impart revelatory life-changing knowledge. No flesh shall be justified by the law. Paul was an apostle or messenger sent with full power of attorney to do the will of the Sender. The “instructor or schoolmaster” does not have God-given authority because he or she can only give anecdotal doctrine that is not necessarily sound or hygienic. The “instructor or schoolmaster” does not impart himself by grace either, Phil. 1:7.
Leave a Reply