1 Corinthians 4:10Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

"You are honored, but we are dishonored." Here he turns to the noble and to those who were exalted by outward dignities. Having uttered many reproaches, which strike more than any rebuke, the Apostle speaks here about the same thing with his characteristic dignity.

After saying, "You have reigned without us," and, "God has appointed us, the last, as men condemned to death," he then shows how they have truly been condemned to death.

"We are weak, but you are strong. You are honored, but we are dishonored." That is, we are driven out and persecuted, while you enjoy security. By weakness he everywhere means temptations. Again, you are glorious and noble, while we are dishonored. He says all this from strong indignation.

The meaning is this: how is it possible that we suffer affliction, while you enjoy security and pass your life happily? It is therefore evident that you are not in a good condition. On the contrary, your present conduct is dishonorable and unworthy of the Apostles. Therefore you must not be proud of it.

For this reason he had neither house nor table. He was poor, a wanderer, enduring nakedness, and wasting away from hunger and thirst. But though he was such below, see what he was above. Having been raised to the third heaven, where his head was, he had his eyes there. He was caught up into the ineffable mysteries of Paradise, seeing the invisible and enjoying what is beyond sense and understanding.

Who would not consider him pitiable, seeing him a prisoner, receiving wounds under blows, drowning in shipwreck, and carried over the sea waves together with his chains? Yet though he endured such things among men, he did not cease to have his eyes in his head, saying, "Who shall separate us from the love" of Christ in Christ Jesus? "Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?" (Rom 8:35).

This means the same as saying: who will tear my eyes from my head and set them upon what is trampled underfoot and earthly? The Apostle commands us also to do this, teaching us to "set our mind on things above" (Col 3:2). This is like demanding that we have our eyes in our head.

But you Corinthians are strong, since you possess wealth and worldly power. You are honored and are considered wise and skilled. But we are dishonored, since we are despised and called babblers. So in Athens the Epicureans and Stoic philosophers called Paul a babbler, saying: "What does this babbler want to say?" (Acts 17:18). After this he describes the hardships and sufferings of the Apostles.

With regard to others, under the appearance of a madman, he draws people away from a proud and vain life, which is truly mad, toward true reason, or toward truly reasonable deeds. Under the appearance of a simpleton from whom nothing can be demanded, he exposes vices and injustices in persons whom perhaps no one would dare approach with such a rebuke.

And yet some deliberately distort this difficult and lofty ascetic feat in Christianity. Such deceivers act outwardly according to the example of the holy fools-for-Christ and speak mysteriously. In reality, they seek only to gather money for themselves, and to have gullible piety serve them among those where they usually appear.

True fools-for-Christ either took nothing, or secretly distributed to the poor everything that good people offered them. Pretending before others and deceiving the credulous, the false fool-for-Christ finally grows accustomed to deceiving even himself. He considers himself God-pleasing and blessed, while he has neither the prayer, nor the fasting, nor the other lofty qualities of those who are fools for Christ's sake.

A grievous, most grievous sin!

The other contrasts of the Apostle must be understood in the same sense. We are weak and dishonored. We endure hunger and thirst, nakedness and blows. We wander, and we labor, working with our own hands. When we are reviled, we bless. When we are persecuted, we endure. When we are slandered, we entreat. We are like the refuse of the world, like dust trampled by all (1 Cor 4:10-13).

Some of the Corinthians, on the contrary, thought that by becoming Christians, perhaps from among slaves, they had received outward advantages in which they ought to boast.

In correcting such people by pointing to his own condition, the Apostle also touches the common disease of the Corinthians. They boasted in worldly wisdom and outward power. He compares them with himself and the other Apostles, who did not exalt themselves in wisdom and power.

On the contrary, they were considered foolish by worldly sages and were not at all offended by this. Nor were they offended that the powerful of the earth counted them as nothings, as the dust of the ground.

By the Angels, for whom the Apostles were objects of shame, or a spectacle, one may understand both good and evil Angels. The struggle they waged from different sides was an object of attention for both. The cause for which they fought has universal significance.

The good Angels rejoice when they see the victorious struggle of the Apostles and of all who believe in Christ. The evil angels contrive to bring greater shame upon them. Therefore, in another epistle, the Apostle Paul says: "Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against the spirits of wickedness under heaven" (Eph 6:12).

You know this by experience. You received our word, believed, cleaved to the Lord, and became wise in Christ. You became wise with the true wisdom that no one in the world has except believers. See how everything became clear for you. You know what God is, what this world is, how it began and how it will end, what man is and what his goal is, whence evil comes and how it is healed, and more. Who in the world knows this as you do?

"We are weak, but you are strong." Here too, as in the first statement, one must understand the supplement: we are weak for Christ's sake, but you are strong in Christ. We are weak for Christ's sake in that we are persecuted, beaten, and put in prisons. There is no outward power in us, as there is no outward wisdom.

But to those who follow our teaching we give moral strength, which no worldly power can overcome. You know this in yourselves. As soon as you resolved to follow the Lord, taking His Cross with firm determination to fulfill His commandments, and were baptized, you immediately received new life.

Through the laying on of my hands you received the grace of the Holy Spirit, who poured into you moral power. This power cannot be overcome by the passions rising within you, by the enticements of the world drawing you, or by the enemy warring against you. Thus you became strong in Christ.

Such power exists nowhere in the world, and there is no place to receive it except in the faith we preach.

"You are honored, but we are dishonored." Here too one must add: we are dishonored for Christ's sake, but you are honored in Christ. This is not something new, but rather a conclusion from what came before. What honor is there when they everywhere consider us fools, drive us from city to city and village to village, beat us, and put us in prisons?

By this the Apostle seems to say: so we are dishonored for Christ's sake. Correspondingly, in the first statement one must see the same conclusion: so you are honored in Christ. You are honored with true knowledge and moral perfection. You are honored with inward glory, which is the beginning and pledge of eternal glory in Christ Jesus our Lord.