Guardrails for Theology: Paul’s Prohibition Against Exceeding Scripture in 1 Corinthians 4:6

J. Neil Daniels

When Paul tells the Corinthians “not to go beyond what is written” (1 Cor. 4:6), he is drawing a firm line for the boundaries of both theology and church authority. His words were not spoken in a vacuum. The Corinthian congregation had begun to elevate certain leaders above others, dividing into camps based on personal allegiance rather than their shared allegiance to Christ. In recalling “what is written,” Paul directs them back to the Hebrew Scriptures (what we now call the Old Testament) which, following the example of Christ and the apostles, the early church received as God’s authoritative Word. His concern is clear: every theological conclusion and every ecclesiastical practice must rest on the solid ground of Scripture, not on the shifting sands of human speculation or the allure of novel ideas that cannot be substantiated from the text.

The Greek phrase τὸ μὴ ὑπὲρ ἃ γέγραπται (“not beyond what is written”) reinforces this point. The perfect passive form γέγραπται (“it stands written”) is a well-worn biblical formula, used throughout the New Testament to affirm the continuing authority of Scripture (e.g., Matt 4:4, 7, 10). The perfect tense emphasizes that what God has inscripturated in the past continues to bind His people in the present. The prepositional phrase ὑπὲρ ἃ (“beyond what”) pictures a step over a boundary—a deliberate crossing into forbidden territory. Paul’s aim, then, is not to stifle theological reflection, but to define its safe parameters: our reasoning must never outpace what God has revealed.

That principle still speaks with force today. Faithful theological work will always involve careful exegesis, the coherent weaving together of biblical truth, and the thoughtful application of that truth to the day-to-day challenges of our own time. But Paul’s warning reminds us that crossing beyond the limits of revelation is a perilous exercise. Invariably it is there, in speculative territory, that pride finds fertile soil, and theological brilliance becomes a stage for self-display rather than a means of building up Christ’s body. The safeguard of 1 Corinthians 4:6 is therefore not a constraint to be resented but a gift to be cherished: it fixes Scripture as our supreme and final authority—Sola Scriptura—and insists that every doctrine must be tethered to the biblical text itself, rather than constructed from philosophical fashions, cultural trends, or ingenious interpretations that cannot survive the scrutiny of sound exegesis.