But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgment: yea, I judge not my own self.
All Commentaries on 1 Corinthians 4:3 Go To 1 Corinthians 4
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
But with me it is a very small thing . . . or of man"s judgment. The Latin version give "of man"s day." The meaning is the same; for the "day of the Lord" is frequently put for the "judgment of the Lord," and a day is commonly named for defendants to appear for judgment. Cf. S. Jerome (ad Algas. qu. x.). He adds that Paul, as a native of the Cilician Tarsus, used the Greek idiom common there, and called "human judgment" "man"s day."
It would, however, be better to say that Paul, being a Hebrew, borrowed this from the idiom of the Hebrews. For he is alluding to Jeremiah , xvii16 , where Jeremiah , being mocked and persecuted because of his prophecies, says: "Neither have I desired man"s day; Thou knowest." The day of man is that wherein man prospers, and is honoured and praised by all as powerful, happy, and enviable. Jeremiah"s meaning, then, is: "I have not desired longer life, prosperity, riches, honours, pleasures, or the applauses of men; for if I had looked for such things I should not have prophesied to them of sadness and disaster, but I should have praised their glory and their lusts; but this I did not do, nor desired man"s day or his applause. For I know that man is but frail and miserable, and quickly to vanish away in death with all his goods and glory. Knowing this and recollecting it, I have not desired to please man in my prophecies and teachings, but to please and obey Thee, alone, O God, and to win commendation from none but Thee, and I call upon Thee to be my witness to this by saying, "Thou knowest," just as Job did when he said ( Job 16:19), "Behold, my witness is in heaven, and my record is on high.""
Song of Solomon , too, say S. Jerome, Rabanus, Hugo, S. Thomas, and others. In imitation of Jeremiah , therefore, the Apostle says: "With me it is a very small thing to be judged of you or of man"s day." In other words, he cared little for the power and wisdom of this world, for man"s favour and applause. Happy he who could say, " I have not desired man"s day," and call God for a witness to his truth. This is the height of perfection which enables a man to count all things as dross if only he can gain Christ. This noble portion was that of Moss, who abjured his position as son of Pharaoh"s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.
S. Chrysostom well moralises here: "Let us not, therefore, seek the praises of men. For to do so is to offer an insult to God, as though we counted His praise insufficient, and so passed Him by, and strove for that of our fellow-servants. For as those who contend for the mastery in a small arena seek for themselves a larger, because they think that the other is not large enough to display their prowess, so do they who contend in the sight of God pass by the larger arena, when they seek for the applause of men, and heap up for themselves punishment through their lust for the lesser good. Everything has been perverted, the whole world overturned, by this desire of ours to do everything for the sake of men, by our want of diligence in good works, by our disdaining the praise of God, and seeking only that of our fellow-servants. In our crimes, again, we despise God, and fear man; for if man were present we should abstain from fornication, and even though our lust burnt more fiercely its violence would be held in check by very shame lest we be seen by man. But when none but God sees us, we not only are guilty of adultery and fornication, but we have dared and still dare to commit far more heinous wickedness. Would not this alone be enough to bring down upon us God"s avenging thunders? Hence it is that all our woes have sprung, because in our disgraceful actions we fear not God but man."
S. Chrysostom again (Hom17 in Ep. ad Rom.) says: "Just as boys in play put on each other"s heads crowns of hay, and often laugh behind his back at the boy they have crowned, so too do those who speak you fair to your face jeer at you quietly among themselves. What else is this but placing crowns of hay on each other"s heads? Would or were nothing else but hay! But as it Isaiah , this crown of ours is full of warning to us, for it destroys all that we have rightly done. Consider, then, its value; flee from the loss it entails. For if there are a hundred, or a thousand, or a host without number to applaud you, yet all of them are nothing more than chattering jackdaws. Nay, if you but think of the cloud of angel-witnesses they will seem viler than worms, and their words more flimsy than cobwebs, more fleeting than smoke, or than a dream of the night. Say to thy soul what Paul said, "Knowest thou not that we shall judge angels?" Then call it away from such a feast, and chide it, and say, "Dost thou that art to sit in judgment on angels wish to be judged by such unclean spirits?""
S. Jerome too (ad Pammach.) wisely says: "The first monastic virtue is to despise the judgment of men, and always to bear in mind the words of the Apostle, "If yet I pleased men I should not be the servant of Christ." Some such saying, too, did God address to the Prophets when He told them that He would make their face as a city of brass, and an adamantine stone, and an iron pillar, that they might not tremble at the threats of the people, but with unmoved brow tread under foot the impudent jeers of their adversaries."
Lastly, Anselm says here: "The righteous look not for man"s judgment but for the award of the Eternal Judges , and therefore with Paul they despise the words of detractors."
This is what one of the Saints meant when he said, "If you wish to be happy learn to despise and to be despised." Yea, I judge not mine own self. I cannot certainly judge myself, my works, my motives, my conscience.
