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1 Corinthians 4 · a question people ask

"So let a man think of us" (4:1). Who is us?

In the text

Before this chapter, the letter names Paul and Apollos together: "Who then is Apollos, and who is Paul, but servants through whom you believed" (3:5); and Paul, Apollos and Cephas: "whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas" (3:22). This chapter says, "Now these things, brothers, I have in a figure transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes" (4:6), and a few verses later, "God has displayed us, the apostles, last of all" (4:9). The chapter names the us of 4:1 no more closely than that, and these notes don't either.

The verses

“So let a man think of us as Christ’s servants and stewards of God’s mysteries.”
1 Corinthians 4:1 · World English Bible
“Who then is Apollos, and who is Paul, but servants through whom you believed, and each as the Lord gave to him?”
1 Corinthians 3:5 · World English Bible
“whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come. All are yours,”
1 Corinthians 3:22 · World English Bible
“Now these things, brothers, I have in a figure transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that in us you might learn not to think beyond the things which are written, that none of you be puffed up against one another.”
1 Corinthians 4:6 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of 1 Corinthians 4

1 Corinthians 4: Stewards of God’s mysteries

1 Corinthians 4 says, "So let a man think of us as Christ’s servants and stewards of God’s mysteries." (4:1), and says what is required of stewards: "that they be found faithful" (4:2). It uses the same word for Timothy, "my beloved and faithful child in the Lord" (4:17). And it asks, "what do you have that you didn’t receive?" (4:7).

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Last reviewed October 8, 2026. Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions