One of the major problems in the Corinthian church was the division caused by loyalty to human teachers. Paul addresses this issue in chapters 1 and 3, and then revisits this issue again at the beginning of chapter 4. After giving the negative command at the end of chapter 3, "Do not boast in men," he gives the affirmative command in verse 1 of chapter 4: "Regard us as servants." In that one word, servants, a unique Greek term used nowhere else in Scripture, Paul gives the picture of ministers of the church being "under-rowers," akin to slaves below decks in a galley ship, pulling the oars at the command of the captain. The main point that comes out of that word that Paul wants us to understand is that the ministers of God in the church did not choose that position for themselves. They were gifted and appointed by God, and as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9:16, they are under "compulsion" to fulfill that ministry, since that is the single unique mission in life to which God has called them and commissioned them to do.