Apostles Are Fools for Christ

Our Love for God

Loving God by Trusting Christ

Submit to God in Love

1 Corinthians 4:8-13 The Message

7-8 For who do you know that really knows you, knows your heart? And even if they did, is there anything they would discover in you that you could take credit for? Isn’t everything you have and everything you are sheer gifts from God? So what’s the point of all this comparing and competing? You already have all you need. You already have more access to God than you can handle. Without bringing either Apollos or me into it, you’re sitting on top of the world—at least God’s world—and we’re right there, sitting alongside you!
9-13 It seems to me that God has put us who bear his Message on stage in a theater in which no one wants to buy a ticket. We’re something everyone stands around and stares at, like an accident in the street. We’re the Messiah’s misfits. You might be sure of yourselves, but we live in the midst of frailties and uncertainties. You might be well-thought-of by others, but we’re mostly kicked around. Much of the time we don’t have enough to eat, we wear patched and threadbare clothes, we get doors slammed in our faces, and we pick up odd jobs anywhere we can to eke out a living. When they call us names, we say, “God bless you.” When they spread rumors about us, we put in a good word for them. We’re treated like garbage, potato peelings from the culture’s kitchen. And it’s not getting any better.

For Reflection

For the most part, Corinth was a prosperous city. The new Christians probably reflected that affluence.  They had grown in the spirit of Grace, but not in humility.  These passages show the corrupting influence of pride. Corinthians take on the robe of privilege, not the mantle of sacrificial service.  Fellow Christians suffer while the privileged boast of their Christianity.

Such practice today is the contemporary manifestation of feudal violence, where the privileged class exploits the peasants to maintain their economic and social superiority.  This results in the inequitable distribution of a community's spiritual and economic wealth.  This inequity exacerbates the effects of the economic and social distance between those whose lives seem to be inoculated against the vagaries of life's pressures and those whose lives are dominated by them.

Economic and spiritual affluence is not a bad thing. But when one's self-perceived status blinds one from the suffering of others and causes one not share one's blessings, one violates the commandment to love.  Thus, prideful Christians belie their Christian attitudes, beliefs, and values by ignoring their responsibility to provide mechanisms for social and economic justice.  They cease to fulfill their Christian covenants.

Pray

Pray so that you grow in both Grace and humility.  Pray that you will always be mindful of God's will that all people receive the blessings that follow a commitment to The Way of Jesus Christ.  Pray that you will take up the cross of responsibility for your neighbor's wellbeing.

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