What is the Role & Power of Spiritual Mentorship in the Church?
What if being a spiritual parent mattered more than being a persuasive guide? Discover why Paul says the kingdom is about power—not talk—and how your life might be the example someone else needs.
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14 I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. 15 For though you have countless[a] guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. 16 I urge you, then, be imitators of me. 17 That is why I sent[b] you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ,[c] as I teach them everywhere in every church. 18 Some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. 19 But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power. 20 For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power. 21 What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love in a spirit of gentleness?
“For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me.” 1 Corinthians 4:15-16
At the end of 1 Corinthians 4, the Apostle Paul changed his tone. After using some sharp sarcasm in the previous section about servants and stewards, he pulled back and spoke gently. What’s important wasn’t just what he said, but how he and why he said it.
Paul wrote: “I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children” (1 Corinthians 4:14).
The Difference Between Teachers and Fathers
Paul made a crucial distinction: “For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers.”
We’ve all had dozens of teachers throughout our education—kindergarten teachers who taught us letters and numbers, algebra teachers who explained equations, literature teachers who opened books to us. They followed the curriculum and taught us about the educational process. But we only had one set of parents.
Those teachers might have shamed us when we messed up our multiplication tables or didn’t turn in homework. However, hopefully, parents speak to us in love and with authority, concerned about our long-term well-being rather than just what’s happening in the moment.
When Paul wrote to the church in Thessalonica, he said: “For you know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into His own kingdom and glory” (1 Thessalonians 2:11-12).
Good and loving fathers will correct, rebuke, and retrain, but they’re focused on long-term development and calling their children to walk worthy of God’s kingdom and glory.
Authority vs. Authoritarianism
Paul had earned the right to speak to the Corinthians with gentleness but firmness. This was the church he founded (Acts 18), where he stayed for at least a year and a half. He was the one who first brought them news about Christ.
We need to understand the difference between authority and authoritarianism. Authoritarianism is a dictator who rules with an iron fist, saying, “Because I said so.” Authority leads with soft power and leads out of love.
“Spiritual authority doesn’t reside in position or speech but in the authenticity of a life lived in Christ.” John Stott
That’s the authority Paul spoke with when he called them to follow him. He wasn’t being a critic like Statler and Waldorf from the Muppets, always striking down and saying “this is horrible, you’re wrong.” Instead, he was acting like a coach, saying, “This is the right way to do it, this is what God wants you to do, and this is what God is empowering you to do.”
Be Imitators of Me
Paul continued: “I urge you, then, be imitators of me. That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church” (1 Corinthians 4:16-17).
Despite how it may read, Paul wasn’t being arrogant. Later in this book, he said it even more explicitly: “Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1). It’s all about pointing to our Savior and Lord.
The Corinthian church was splitting because they had preferences for eloquent and smooth talkers at the expense of the gospel of Christ. The church was being infiltrated by the world’s ways. When worldliness enters the church, the church begins to decline.
Paul urged the church to stop following the ways of the world and instead follow his example, because he was following Christ. He wanted them to put into practice what they had heard from him and seen in his life.
The Apprentice Model: Do You Live a Life Worth Imitating?
Paul hadn’t spent his time just building churches—he was also building up people, investing in others, creating apprentices in the faith. We see this exemplified in Timothy, who received his faith from his mother and grandmother (2 Timothy 1:5).
Think of the old apprentice model: a master craftsman worked in the foreground while a young apprentice learned in the background. The apprentice began anew, became a journeyman when he grasped the concepts, and later, with further training, became a master craftsman capable of teaching others.
That was Paul’s model, and it should be ours too: to be illustrators of Christ’s character, imitators of God’s example, sharing our lives with others, investing in them, and then setting them out to do the same for others.
When Paul wrote to the Philippians, he said: “Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us” (Philippians 3:17).
So the question becomes: Do you live a life that you want to be imitated? Do you live a life where you can say, “Yes, do follow me”? Can you be open and honest with your family or friends about what your life looks like?
We have opportunities here to deepen our faith and share it with others, becoming their spiritual guides and mentors if we allow ourselves to do so.
The Transformed Life: When True Faith is Revealed
Paul continued with a warning: “Some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people, but their power. For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk, but in power” (1 Corinthians 4:18-20).
The church at Corinth was ready for a reset, a refocus, a reboot. They had been relying on their own preferences, living fashionable lives in Greek-Roman society, arrogant as though they didn’t need the power of God in their lives as long as they looked good doing it.
Paul made it clear: they were focusing on the wrong thing. The kingdom of God wasn’t about eloquent speech, human wisdom, or polished persuasion—it was about the power of God. That’s what defines the gospel.
“I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.” Romans 1:16
God’s power is His ability to save us from our sin, from ourselves, and from putting little idols in His place on the throne of our lives. Talk is cheap. When you find out what somebody really has is when they demonstrate God’s power in their lives. That transformed life, not clever speech, is when true faith is revealed.
“I am not afraid that the people called Methodists should ever cease to exist either in Europe or America. But I am afraid lest they should only exist as a dead sect, having the form of religion without the power thereof. And this undoubtedly will be the case unless they hold fast both the doctrine, spirit, and discipline with which they first set out.” John Wesley
What we’re praying for here is for God to rekindle our faith. Where there’s much prayer, there’s much power. Where there’s little prayer, there’s little power. We must connect our faith to the source of power, which is God in the Holy Spirit. Without that connection, we’re just potential without power—like a flashlight without batteries.
The Choice: Your Strength or God’s Grace
Be reminded of your first love. Remember how God caught your attention. Remember how He convinced you that you needed saving, and not only that you needed it, but that He could provide it. Remember how He called you to a life of repentance, promised to forgive your sins, and set your life on a new path.
That’s available when you’re connected to the power. N.T. Wright says: “The kingdom of God is not a matter of eloquence, but of the energy of transformed lives.”
Has your life been transformed? Do you need it to be today? You have a choice. You can keep relying on your own strength, trying your hardest, doing your best, and knowing you’re falling short. Or you can accept God’s grace—His offer for forgiveness, reconciliation, peace in this life, and peace in the world to come.
However, at the conclusion of 1 Corinthians 4, the Apostle Paul makes a proposal: “What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love and a spirit of gentleness?” (1 Corinthians 4:21).
Paul was giving them the option of how they wanted him to return. He was acting as their father, building up the church, giving them a decision to make and a response to provide.
It’s the same for us today. Do you want to go about life as usual, keeping the status quo, or do you want to live a life that looks like Christ’s? Do you want to step out and leave behind worldly ways?
A Counter-Cultural Life
In the early church, Christians didn’t live in an era of Christendom where Christianity was the norm. They lived in a hedonistic culture, and their lives stood out in stark contrast. No one had seen people live like Christians—caring for the weak, poor, fatherless, and widowed. No one had seen people pool their resources and take care of those with material needs, saying, “I will have less so that you can have more, I will sacrifice so that you can gain.”
Our culture may not look like that now, but it appears to be heading in that direction. We have the opportunity all the more to have a faithful witness for Christ—a life that looks like His, a life that looks like His cross.
When you become a Christian and a member of our church, you agree to allow others to speak to you in love, hold you accountable in love, and speak over you in love. You’re agreeing to do that for others.
Our membership language asks: “Do you promise to keep God’s holy will and commandments and walk in the same all the days of your life?” We promise to join our brothers and sisters around the world in doing all in our power to fulfill our mission and strengthen our ministries through prayer, presence, gifts, service, and witness.
These are vows, and a vow is a vow. They’re just as strong as marriage vows and not to be entered into lightly.
Called to Be Spiritual Parents
The gospel is that Christ will transform your life by the power of the Holy Spirit into something that you will encourage people to imitate. Our call is to be changed and then to be change agents.
We have this opportunity to be spiritual fathers and mothers to others, to emerging generations, and to people our age who don’t yet know Christ. There was a point in your life when somebody told you about God and His love for you in Christ and about the power of the Holy Spirit to change your life. Hopefully, that has made all the difference.
That’s what we’re being called to be for other people.
Do you want to be that person for others? Do you want your church to be that church for your city and the world? Do you want to be people who can say to others, “Imitate us as we imitate Christ”?
By God’s will, He will do it. It’s the Holy Spirit who will make sure this happens. From our passage, it’s clear that the Apostle Paul said, yes, it is worth it. It is a blessing to be the spiritual fathers and mothers of others. It is good to lead them to Christ. It is good for you to have your own life imitate Christ’s because it brings glory to God in the process.
TL;DR
The Apostle Paul challenges the Corinthian church—and us—not just to listen to teachings, but to follow lives transformed by the power of God.
It’s not about eloquence or image, but about spiritual parenthood, imitation, and real gospel-powered change.
We are called to be more than hearers—we are called to be spiritual mothers and fathers, living lives worth imitating as we walk in the power of the Holy Spirit.
The question is: are we connected to that power, and are we living lives others could follow toward Christ?
