Are You Strong? 1 Corinthians 4

May the mumbling commence!

Are the wise?  Are you strong?  Are you rich?  Are you powerful?  The cultures that we live in the United States makes us want to answer these questions with an emphatic, “YES!”  Though the Apostle Paul wrote to a Corinthian church long ago, I believe his words bridge the gulf of time.  The bridge is because the words that Paul gives to the Corinthians are timeless truth.  The bridge is because the human creature has not learned much over the many centuries that have happened in the meantime.  Read this passage from 1 Corinthians 4:

Already 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!  For 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.  We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored!  To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless.  We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly. Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world. 

I am not writing this to shame you, but to warn you, as my dear children.  Even though you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.  Therefore I urge you to imitate me. (Verses 8-16)

I read these words on “Black Friday” morning.  I read these words still feeling a little overstuffed from the traditional Thanksgiving meal with family that is close by.  I write this reflection at about 9:30 am after much of the feeding frenzy of capitalism that happened at 5 am… no 3 am… no midnight… no 9 pm last night. 

I guess that those skilled advertisers have dug our hole deeper than the one that the Corinthians had in Paul’s day.  We do NOT have all we want.  We have used credit to act rich.  As a country, we have acted like the world’s policeman.  We wanted to prove America is still at the top of the heap.  We are king of the world, so we act as king.

If the Apostle Paul was with us today, he would wish that we truly were kings – but not the kind of depots we might hope to be.  The kind of kings Paul desires is those who have become fools for Christ.  This kind of king would show weaknesses to be strong.  Christ is made perfect in our weaknesses.  Paul’s type of king would show honor through being dishonored in this world’s sight for the sake of Christ.

Paul was talking about a king dressed in rags, hungry and thirsty, homeless, and calloused hands from hard work.  This king would receive the bum-rush treatment this world too often hands out – brutally beaten, cursed, persecuted, and slandered. 

I can hear it now, “Clean up and get a job.”  Maybe these kings for Christ would clean up and get a job if there was one available that did not conflict with the life of a Christian.  Instead, this kind of king proudly takes up the mantle of scum of the earth and refuse of the world.  The other choices are even worse.

Let us imitate Paul in this.  And remember: Paul was imitating Christ Jesus.

Am I wise?  Am I strong?  Am I rich?  Am I powerful?  No, I cannot be on my own.  To the extent that I stand with Christ Jesus and the Apostle Paul and many since who have walked in their footsteps, yes I am.

Enough mumbling for now…

Peace Out