1Co 4:9-13 For I think God has displayed us, the apostles, in last place, like men condemned to die: We have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to people. (10) We are fools for Christ, but you are wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are distinguished, but we are dishonored! (11) Up to the present hour we are both hungry and thirsty; we are poorly clothed, roughly treated, homeless; (12) we labor, working with our own hands. When we are reviled, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; (13) when we are slandered, we respond graciously. Even now, we are like the scum of the earth, like everyone’s garbage.
Paul was no fool. He did not like suffering. He wished they were right. But they weren’t. The apostles followed the path of Christ’s humiliation. As He marched a parade route to His death, so did they. As Christ had suffered deprivation and defamation, so did His servants, and in His Spirit they endured and responded with grace. The apostles lived out the message of the Cross. But the Corinthians were complacent and secure with their “theology of the palace”.
