Wednesday, May 06, 2009

1 Corinthians 4:6-13

6Now, brothers, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, "Do not go beyond what is written." Then you will not take pride in one man over against another. 7For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?

8Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! You have become kings—and that without us! How I wish that you really had become kings so that we might be kings with you! 9For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like men condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to men. 10We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored! 11To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. 12We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; 13when we are slandered, we answer kindly. Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world.


Dig Deeper
One of the great illusions of life in the present age is that the world can offer things like wisdom, power, and money, that will actually benefit people in the long run. We buy into the belief that if we could just achieve the money, power, and fame that the world has to offer that then life will be better and easier. Yet, in our own culture and throughout history, those who achieved all of those things according to the world’s standards, are usually among the most miserable people on the face of the earth. They have achieved what most can only hope for and have realized that it has still left them wanting. Most Christians have rejected those values to one degree or another, yet we are always in danger of letting those values slip into our vision of what Christianity is. This is precisely what the Corinthians were doing, and the core issue (although with many different manifestations) that Paul will deal without throughout this letter. Rather than realizing that they were now people who were to live the life of the ‘age to come’ and reject the values of the world, they were trying to be Christians and still maintain the worldly principles of those around them. They did not understand that they had died to their own life and entered into the life of Christ.

Paul begins with an appeal to them to not go beyond what is written. He is most likely applying this saying to the Old Testament Scriptures that he has previously quoted in his letter. Their core problem is that they have been viewing the world through worldly glasses rather than biblical glasses. Rather than living as people of the ‘age to come’ they are living as though they still value the hollow wisdom and principles of the world. This was causing them to get puffed up with pride. In viewing themselves their Christianity through the eyes and values of the world, they were under the mistaken impression that they were some sort of superior hybrid of worldly ability and spiritual wisdom that no one could challenge.

Paul reminds them, in verse 7, a very fundamental truth. They have absolutely nothing to have pride over because anything that they may have, was a gift from God. When humans fall into the trap of boasting and bragging about the gifts that they have, they make the mistake of thinking that they are responsible for what they do have. Paul reminds them that anything they have comes from God. This is a fact they should not soon forget.

Paul must move beyond that point, however, because the Corinthians have gone far beyond that foolishness. They’re not just bragging about their own gifts, they think that they have been so spiritually fed that they are now complete; they believe they have achieved the pinnacle of spiritual wisdom and ability. In focusing on their abilities and achievements, they have missed the one thing that does actually make them special: God’s grace.

Paul moves into a bit of rhetoric that is highly sarcastic, but is, he feels, the only thing that will awaken them to the silliness in which they are engaged. Although this language is startling, we know that Paul must have felt the strength of the relationship he had with the Corinthian Church could survive this loving rebuke. Some in the Corinthian church were evidently viewing Christianity as something that made them special, something that made them kings compared to anyone else. This is quite different from the true life of Christ that has been given to them, a life that calls them to be servants rather than kings in the worldly sense of the word.

Paul sets up a clear set of contrasts between the worldly form of Christianity in which the Christians in Corinth were engaging, and the true Christian life that was on display in the life of the apostles. In describing the life of the apostles in verse 9, Paul uses the imagery of a Roman parade where the army would march triumphantly through the streets with the weary and worn prisoners in a chain gang in the back of the procession. Thus, he describes the apostles in terms of those who would be brought up last to die in the arena.

The contrast that Paul describes is stark and as opposite as it could be. The Christians in Corinth have created a brand of Christianity that values worldly wisdom, human strength, and the honor that comes from men. Paul doesn’t believe that this is the sort of life demanded by the Cross at all. The underlying question throughout this passage is: have they entered the life of the crucified Messiah or not? His unstated answer to that underlying question is that the apostles have, they have yet to do so. In contrast to the type of Christian life they have supposed for themselves in Corinth, Paul and the other apostles have embraced the way of the Cross, the life of the ‘age to come’ which seems like sheer foolishness to those in the world. In the eyes of the world they are foolish, weak, and dishonored, yet in the Kingdom of God, all things are turned upside down.

Paul has learned a different way of living. Harsh circumstances are no reason to question or leave the Christian life. There is no promise of a trouble-free life, just the means to overcome any problems in the present age because of the hope and power of the ‘age to come’. When cursed, persecuted, or slandered, Paul has learned to respond as someone who realizes that he lives in a different reality from the world. This, of course, seems like madness to the world, but it is the wisdom of God. What seems absurd to the world is just right in God’s eyes. Paul sums up his point at the end of verse 13. Once they realize that they have entered into the ‘age to come’ in some sense (with the promise of its full consummation at the return of Christ), they will stop living like the world, stop valuing what the world treasures, and stop caring what the world thinks of them.

Devotional Thought
What aspect of your life are you most likely to be tempted to take pride in as though you have accomplished something? Paul would remind us all that struggle with that, that anything we have is a gift from God. How would reminding yourself of this principle change the way you approach certain aspects of your life?

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