1 Corinthians 4:5

“Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who even will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.”

This verse is, as it were, the full period put to the personal application which Paul has just made in 1 Corinthians 4:1-4. The ὥστε, so that, therefore corresponds to that of 1 Corinthians 3:21. There the meaning was: therefore no infatuation!

Here: therefore no judgment! The τι is rather a qualifying pronoun than the indication of the object of κρίνετε : “Do not pass any judgment!”

The words, before the time, are explained by what follows: till the Lord come, the true Judge. This character which belongs to Him exclusively is explained by the two following relative propositions. In fact, the infallible judgment of a human life supposes two things: the revelation of the acts of that life in their totality, even the most unknown, and the manifestation of the inner springs of the will, in the acts known or unknown. This is what Paul means by the two phrases: “ the things of darkness ” and “ the counsels of the hearts. ” The hidden acts, which will be brought to light, are not only the bad, but also the good (Matthew 6:3-4; Matthew 6:6; 1 Timothy 5:23-25). It is the more necessary to have regard to the last here as there is no question afterwards except that of praise.

The inner springs and feelings are what determine the true quality of actions in the eyes of God; it is therefore on the complete knowledge of them that the just appreciation of a human life rests.

The καί before φωτίσει, which we have translated by even, which others render by also, has been variously understood. Osiander, Rückert: “He will come not only to judge, but also to set in light.” This sense is inadmissible; for the second of these deeds should not follow but precede the first. Meyer: “Among other things, at His coming, He will also do this (set in light).” But why allude to other things, and what are those things? Hofmann establishes a correlation between the two καί in the sense of: both...and..., or of: not only..., but also. But why emphasize so strongly the hardly appreciable shade between the two almost synonymous verbs? It seems to me that the first καί, rendered by even, bears on the two following verbs, and contrasts the whole portion of the life known by other men with that which the Lord only knows and which He will then manifest. The second καί, and, serves only to connect the two parallel and equivalent verbs.

The and then brings out the gravity of this time of complete revelation; it contrasts it with the premature judgments of the Corinthians (before the time). Praise: the true praise, that which will run no risk of being changed into a sentence of condemnation by a higher tribunal, like the premature praises which the Corinthians decreed to their favourite teachers. What a sting lay in this last word addressed both to the frivolous admirers and to the self - sufficient orators who had excited this profane enthusiasm! From the passage about to follow, 1 Corinthians 4:18-21, we shall be able to gather to what point things were already going at Corinth in this painful direction.