You are Kings!

1 Corinthians 4


⁸Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Without us you have become kings! And would that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you! ⁹For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. ¹⁰ We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. ¹¹To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, ¹²and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; ¹³when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.


How would you describe the apostles?  Would your description look much like Paul's?  Mine sure wouldn't.  They would be held in high honor, men of great kindness and discernment, and respected by all.  This is surely should have been true of them within the church, but Paul is writing from a worldly perspective.


These men did not lead a glamorous life.  They appear to be hated by many, looked down on by many.


Paul is writing here contrasting the Corinthians' views of greatness against the apostles, servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God (4:1).  He is sarcastically tearing into them.  Though the apostles have been given such honor in the church, they are not well regarded by the world.  This doesn't appear to be on purpose, as they respond in kindness and grace, but the world hates them.


Am I like this?  Are you?  Do you fit in well with the world?  In your secular workplace?  There is merit to living in kindness, but we should be 'against the grain' in some sense.  I am often too cool to be worthy of the above description.  I am too great according to the world.  I know this seems like bragging, but I am trying to confess that I have often lived according to a different (or wrong) definition of greatness.


Let us find in our Bibles the true definition of greatness and sell our reputations and possessions and accolades of this world for a treasure that is buried in a field.


"You cannot take possessions with you into the next world, but you can send them on ahead." Randy Alcorn, In Light of Eternity