Remember what Paul said at the start of his letter about the Corinthian Christians (1:26-31)? Their righteousness, holiness and redemption had nothing to do with what they had achieved, or learnt or earned. Paul used words like foolish, weak, lowly, despised and nobodies. Yet God called them.
But now Paul writes contrary to that opening.
“Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! You have begun to reign—and that without us! How I wish that you really had begun to reign so that we also might reign with you! 9 For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like those condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to human beings. 10 We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honoured, we are dishonoured! 11 To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. 12 We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; 13 when we are slandered, we answer kindly. We have become the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world—right up to this moment.” (1 Corinthians 4 v 8-13)
What is Paul doing? This is satire at its best. Paul’s use of sarcasm is masterful. Why?
It is because they look and behave anything but their Lord (who died on a cross).
It is easy today with the use of the internet to see some mansion of a boasting televangelist. It is easy today to watch a successful Church online that seems to have more worldly influence than the Spirit and whose success metric is not in the shadow of the cross. In 1978 Ron Sider published his book with a challenging title, ‘Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger.’ Nearly 50 years later, “the world produces enough food to feed all of its 8 billion people, yet 733 million people (1 in 11) go hungry every day.” (https://www.concern.net/news/world-hunger-facts-figures)
It isn’t wrong to be rich but what you do with your riches could be. It isn’t wrong to be successful but how you view your success could be.
Paul is not looking for sympathy. Far from it. He is simply exposing the pride of the Church for what they have and their embarrassment on what they’re hearing of their apostle.
And what of us? I guess we are somewhere in the middle. We don’t want the pride but a little more riches, success and recognition would be desirable. We want the presence and power of God in our lives but some don’t want to pay the price. Paul’s way is definitely to be avoided if we can. I don’t think v10-11 would look good on someone’s social media profile. Not if you were wanting to be invited to speak at the Western Church conferences. The cruciform of Christians seem to be in the shadows and the message of the cross is muted. Perhaps we need more satire to shock the Church back into the shape it was created for, the cross.
Missions Paul 