1 Corinthians 4:3 · World English Bible
1 Corinthians 4:3 Meaning But with Me It Is a Very
But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you, or by man’s judgment. Yes, I don’t judge my own self.
What does 1 Corinthians 4:3 mean?
Upekkhā: Equanimity A steadiness that neither rises to praise nor sinks under blame. To count the verdict of others a very small thing is to let their approval and their scorn pass through without snagging on either.
From the Buddhism reading below.
1 Corinthians 4:3 through 1 lens
The same verse, read by one tradition.
Buddhism
BUDDHISM
Buddhism
Upekkhā: Equanimity
A steadiness that neither rises to praise nor sinks under blame. To count the verdict of others a very small thing is to let their approval and their scorn pass through without snagging on either. A rock in the surf that lets every wave break over it and stays put.
Lokadhamma: The worldly winds
The eight gusts of gain and loss, honor and scorn, praise and blame, pleasure and pain. Man's judgment is one of these winds, and Paul has felt it shift too often to trim his sails to it. A weathervane spins with every breeze, and he has stopped being the vane.
Sakkāya-diṭṭhi: The view of a self
The habit of taking a solid "me" to be defended and scored. Saying he will not even judge his own self, he loosens the grip on the very thing a verdict fastens onto. Nobody is home at the door the accusation keeps knocking on.
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Buddhism lens
Live 1 Corinthians 4:3 today
- Leave one piece of feedback unargued today. Read it, take what is useful, and put the rest down without writing the reply in your head on the drive home.
- When a compliment comes, say thanks and let it pass through instead of filing it away as evidence. The same steadiness that survives criticism is the one that does not need praise.
- In the meeting where someone gets your work wrong in front of others, correct the facts in one flat sentence and stop. No case for yourself, no tone. The verdict in the room is a very small thing.
Whose approval are you still quietly auditing yourself against?
The same truth in other traditions
Stoicism · Marcus Aurelius
How much freedom a person gains by not caring what the next one says about them. Other people's verdicts belong to other people.
Tao Te Ching
Praise and blame are the same wind from two directions. The one who is not moved by either has nothing for the wind to carry off.
Sufism · Rumi
The lover is not insulted by insult and not improved by applause, because the thing being praised or attacked was never the real address.
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