1 Corinthians 4:14
I write not these things to confound you; but I admonish you as my dearest children.
Open 1 Corinthians 4:14 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Non ut confundam vos, hæc scribo, sed ut filios meos carissimos moneo.
- Greek New Testament (SBLGNT)
- Οὐκ ἐντρέπων ὑμᾶς γράφω ταῦτα, ἀλλʼ ὡς τέκνα μου ἀγαπητὰ νουθετῶν·
Haydock's commentary
On verses 14 to 17
I write not. St. Paul here insinuates to the Corinthians, that they ought to blush with shame for neglecting the apostles, who had suffered so many hardships for them, to follow after teachers void of honour, and to glory in being called the disciples of such men. (Estius)
I admonish you as my dearest children, of what is for your good, and I may take this liberty, as being your spiritual father in Christ, by whom you were first made Christians. Be ye followers of me, as I also am of Christ: follow the doctrine of Christ, which I follow, and taught you. Timothy, my beloved son in the Lord, whom I send to you, will put you in mind of what I teach, and of what I practise. (Witham)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm LXXVIII
10. “And they forgat His benefits, and the wonderful works of Him which He showed to them; before their fathers the wonderful things which He did” ( ver. 11 ). What this is, is not a question to be negligently passed over. Concerning those very fathers he was speaking a little before, that they had been a generation crooked and embittering.…What fathers, inasmuch as these are the very fathers, whom he would not have posterity to be like? If we shall take them to be those out of whom the others had derived their being, for example, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, by this time they had long since fallen asleep, when God showed wonderful things in Egypt. For there followeth, “in the land of Egypt, in the plain of Thanis” ( ver. 12 ): where it is said that God showed to them wonderful things before their fathers. …
St John Chrysostom Homilies on First Corinthians, Homily XIII
Ver. 14 . [3.] Then since he saw that the blow could not well be borne, he speedily heals it; saying, “I write not these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children.” “For not as abashing you,” saith he, “do I speak these things.” The very thing which by his words he had done, this he says he had not done: rather he allows that he had done it, not however with an evil and spiteful mind. Why, this mode of soothing is the very best, if we should say what we have to say and add the apology from our motive. For not to speak was impossible, since they would have remained uncorrected: on the other hand, after he had spoken, to leave the wound untended, were hard. Wherefore along with his severity he apologizes: for this so far from destroying the effect of the knife, rather makes it sink deeper in, while it moderates the full pain of the wound. …