1 Corinthians 4:11Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

That is, I am not speaking of circumstances long past, but of what is happening to us now. We have no concern for human affairs or outward glory, but turn our eyes only to God.

So we also must always act. It is not only angels who look upon us, but before them the very One who commanded us to strive. Therefore we have no need of praise from outsiders.

Not to be content with His attention, but to seek praise from slaves like ourselves, is to insult Him. Wrestlers competing in a small arena seek a greater one, considering the first inadequate for their distinction.

So those who struggle before the eyes of God, and afterward seek glory from men, abandon the greater and pursue the lesser. By this they bring great punishment upon themselves.

For this reason everything has been overturned. For this reason confusion has filled the whole world. We do everything with our eyes on men.

In good works we count God’s good pleasure as nothing, and seek approval from slaves like ourselves. In evil works also we do not look to Him, but fear men.

Yet men will stand at the judgment with us and will not help us at all. God, whom we now disregard, will pronounce His sentence upon us.

We know this, and yet we do not cease seeking men’s attention. This is our chief sin.

Before human eyes no one would dare commit adultery. However fiercely desire may burn, the force of passion is overcome by shame before men.

But before the eyes of God men not only commit fornication and adultery. They have dared, and still dare, to commit other sins even more grievous.

Is this alone not enough to bring down heavenly thunder upon us? But why do I speak of fornication and adultery? We are ashamed to commit far lighter sins before men, but not before God.

All evil has come from this: in evil deeds we fear men, not God. For this reason we avoid good deeds when they do not appear good to men.

We look not to the nature of things, but to the opinions of others.

The Corinthian teachers boasted of the opposite things: wisdom, glory, wealth, and honors. Therefore, wishing to overthrow their pride and show that they should not boast in these things, but be ashamed of them, he first mocks them and says, “You have become kings without us.”

He says: I proclaim that the present time is not a time of honors and glory, which you enjoy, but of persecutions and afflictions, which we endure.

If this is not so, but the present time is instead a time of rewards, then you disciples already reign, as I see. He says this ironically.

But we, the teachers and apostles, who ought to have received the reward before all, have not only become last before you, but condemned to death.

We constantly pass our life in dishonor, hunger, and dangers. We endure insults as fools, are persecuted, and suffer unbearable calamities.

He says this to persuade them by such admonitions that they must imitate the apostles. They must prefer dangers and afflictions to honors and glory, because the preaching promises not the former, but the latter.

Yet he does not say this directly, lest his words seem too harsh to them. He gives the admonition as was fitting for him.

If he had spoken directly, he would have said this: You are mistaken and deceived, and you have fallen far away from apostolic teaching.

For an apostle and servant of Christ must be counted a fool, and pass his life in affliction and dishonor, as happens with us. But you live in the opposite way.

In that case his words would have seemed biased, as containing praise of the apostles. They would have produced still greater boldness in those reproved for negligence, vainglory, and lack of self-control.

Therefore he does not use that manner of speech, but another, more striking yet not offensive. He continues his ironic discourse and says, “But you are strong; you are held in honor.”

If he had not used irony, he would have said this: One man cannot be called foolish and another wise, one strong and another weak. The preaching requires neither the one nor the other.

If one could rightly be called one thing and another something else, then what you preach might perhaps have some basis. But now it is not permitted to be considered wise or glorious, nor to be free from dangers.

If this is not true, then God has preferred you to us, the disciples to the teachers who endured countless calamities. But if no one can say this, then it remains for you to imitate our manner of life.

And let no one think, he says, that I speak only of the past. No, “even to this present hour we hunger and thirst, and are naked.”

Do you see that the whole life of Christians must be like this, not merely one or two days? So also among wrestlers, one crowned for victory in a single contest is not crowned again if he falls in another.

“We hunger,” he says, against the self-indulgent. “We are beaten,” against the arrogant. “We wander,” against those at ease. “We are naked,” against the rich.

“We labor,” against the false apostles, who wished neither to labor nor to face dangers, but cared for their own advantage.

But we are not so, he says. Besides outward dangers, we give ourselves to constant labors. And what is still higher, no one can say that we resent this or accuse our persecutors.

On the contrary, we repay our offenders good for evil. For it is not a great thing merely to suffer; that is the common lot of all. The great thing is to suffer without murmuring or irritation.

We act in the same way concerning evil deeds. According to our habit, we strive to obtain as good not what is good and noble in itself, but what seems so to men. Thus we become altogether corrupt.

Perhaps these words seem obscure to many, so they must be explained.

When we commit adultery, to begin with what has already been mentioned, we fear men more than God. We subject ourselves to them. We make them our masters.

For the same reason, we avoid many things that seem base to these masters, though in fact they are not base.

For example, living in poverty seems shameful to many. We avoid poverty, not because it is shameful, nor because we are convinced of this, but because it seems shameful to our masters and we fear them.

Again, to suffer dishonor and contempt, and to possess no authority, also seems very shameful and pitiable to many. We avoid this too, without examining the matter, but following the opinion of our masters.

We deal with the opposite things to our own harm in the same way. To be rich, noble, glorious, and famous seems a good thing. We pursue this, again without examining whether these things are truly good.

We merely obey the opinion of our masters. The people are our master. The crowd is our strict lord and cruel tyrant.

It does not even need to command us for us to obey it. It is enough for us to know what it wants, and we obey without its command. So devoted are we to it.

God threatens and instructs us daily, and men do not listen to Him. But a disorderly and coarse crowd does not even need to command. It need only say what pleases it, and at once we obey in everything.

How, you ask, can one be freed from these masters? If you act more prudently than they do. If you examine the nature of things.

If you do not look to men’s opinion. If above all you accustom yourself, in things truly shameful, to fear not men but the unsleeping Eye.

And if in good works you expect crowns likewise from Him. In this way we shall not depend on men in anything else.

Whoever does good and does not count men worthy to judge his virtues, but is content with the judgment of God, will not pay attention to them in contrary matters either.

But how, you ask, can one attain this? Consider what man is and what God is. Consider whom you abandon and to whom you flee, and you will soon attain everything.

Man is subject with you to the same sin, the same judgment, and the same punishment. “Man is like vanity” (Ps 143:4). He judges incorrectly and needs higher guidance.

Man is “dust and ashes” (Gen 18:27). When he praises, he often praises falsely, either from flattery or from hatred. When he accuses or censures, he does this from the same motives.

But God is not so. His sentence is impartial, and His judgment is pure.

Therefore one ought always to flee to Him. Not for this reason only, but also because He Himself created you, endowed you more than all, and loves you more than you love yourself.

Why then do we abandon the wondrous Rewarder and flee to man, who is nothing, judges falsely, and acts unjustly?

Does someone call you evil and wicked, though you are not at all such? Rather pity him. Weep that he has become corrupt, and do not regard his judgment, for the eyes of his soul are blinded.

The same things were said of the apostles, but they paid no attention to their slanderers.

Does he call you good and honorable? If you truly are so, do not become negligent because of this report. If you are not so, pay still less attention, and take it as mockery.

Do you wish to know how unjust, useless, ridiculous, and like the judgments of demoniacs, madmen, or infants the judgments of men are? Hear what once happened.

I shall speak to you not of the judgments of the common people, but of men considered most wise, the ancient legislators.

Who among men can be wiser than a man deemed worthy to write laws for cities and peoples? And yet these wise men did not consider adultery a wicked deed worthy of punishment.

None of the pagan laws punished it or summoned the guilty man to court. If anyone had summoned him for this, the people would have laughed at him, and the judge would not have accepted the case.

Divination also was not prosecuted among them, and no one among them was punished for it.

Drunkenness and gluttony were not only not vices, but among many were counted virtues. At military feasts they competed greatly in these things.

Those who especially needed to have a sound mind in a sound body were the very ones who especially gave themselves to drunkenness, weakening the body and darkening the soul.

None of the legislators assigned punishment for this offense. What could be worse than such madness?

And you seek praise from men with such inclinations, and you do not hide yourself? Even if they all admired you, should you not be ashamed and withdraw, hearing judgments and applause from such corrupt men?

Likewise, blasphemy was not considered blameworthy by the legislators. None of the blasphemers was summoned to court and punished.

If someone steals a garment or cuts a purse, they tear his sides and often even punish him with death. But one who blasphemes God is not condemned by pagan legislators.

If a man commits adultery with a maidservant while having his own wife, this is considered altogether nothing before both laws and men.

Do you wish to hear many other things proving their madness? Some things they do not punish, and others they themselves prescribe by law.

What are these? They establish spectacles. They bring there crowds of prostitutes and boys who commit fornication, insulting nature itself.

They seat the whole people in elevated places. In this way they seem to animate the city and glorify great kings, whom they admire at festivals and victories.

What is more shameful than such honor? What is more unpleasant than such pleasure? And from such men do you seek praise for your deeds?

Tell me, do you wish to hear praises on the same level as dancers, libertines, jesters, and prostitutes? Is this not a sign of extreme madness?

I would like to say to them: Is it good to pervert the laws of nature and permit lawless unions? They would no doubt answer: It is not good. Indeed, they seem themselves to punish this crime.

Why then do you bring corrupt men onto the stage? And not only bring them, but reward them with countless and unspeakable gifts?

In another place you punish those who dare to commit these acts. But here you lavish money on them as common benefactors of the city, and support them at public expense.

But, you say, they are counted dishonorable. Why then do you rear them? Why do you wish to honor kings through dishonorable men?

“Even to the present hour we hunger and thirst, and are naked.” Why, he says, recall what came before? Look at what exists now: you are drowning in pleasures, while we are in the very opposite condition. “And are buffeted.” That is, we are beaten. He says this against the arrogant. “And we wander.” That is, we are persecuted; we are fugitives. This is against the rich.

Verse 10. We ourselves do not think highly of ourselves. For Christ's sake we consider ourselves simple people, fools, madmen, knowing nothing and meaning nothing in Christ. But you, endowed with every blessing from the Holy Spirit, do not think so humbly of yourselves. Even in Christianity you consider yourselves sages, the wisest people in the world.

In our own awareness, we are weak. In your opinion, you are strong, powerful, and rich, both in wealth and kinship, and in extraordinary heavenly gifts. You are in glory and seek glory, while we are in dishonor.

We live and preach, and we care for the salvation of other men's souls. Yet our struggle and our labor are not only neither respected nor valued graciously. On the contrary, we and our work are dishonored and put to shame.

“Even to the present hour we hunger and thirst, and are naked, and suffer, and wander,” and “we labor, working with our own hands.” By all this the Apostle revealed his patience. In the words that follow, he depicts the most perfect love of wisdom: “Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure.”

Verses 11-12. “Even to the present hour we hunger and thirst, are poorly clothed, are beaten, and wander, and we labor, working with our own hands.” The word “are poorly clothed” means that the Apostles had no other clothing for comfort beyond the simplest garment that covered their nakedness. The word “are beaten” means: we endure every kind of trial. So also he says, “There was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted” (2 Cor 12:7). The word “wander” means: we continually move from place to place for the preaching of the Gospel and have no house where we might stop and rest. Paul, being a tentmaker, made tents with his own hands.

Further, Saint Paul depicts in strong strokes, for the correction of the Corinthians, the heaviness and unsightliness, to human eyes, of the Apostles' position in the world: "We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are honored, but we are dishonored," and so forth.

All these contrasts must be understood as irony and rebuke. The Apostle speaks as though saying: we are appointed to endure being considered fools by the world. See above, 1 Cor 1:18 and following. But you Corinthians? Oh, you are another matter.

You would like to be called Christians and also to be considered sages for your learning and worldly eloquence. What inconsistency! Cast aside your vain thoughts, then, and rather imitate us.

Showing in himself and in the other Apostles an example of suffering for the faith of Christ, the Apostle compares his condition with that of men condemned to death. Such men certainly do not feel self-satisfaction and exaltation, as some gladiators did. On the contrary, they are deeply tormented by the thought of approaching death.

Those condemned to death, as criminals, are considered by all to be low and contemptible. Everyone fears to say a good word for them. Yet all consider it praiseworthy to slander them and even to insult them.

Among such people, the lowest labor for obtaining daily bread is regarded as ordinary. So are hunger, thirst, nakedness, and similar afflictions. Thus it was with the Apostles, and thus it is with all more or less perfect Christians (2 Tim 3:12).

We have been appointed not only to bring such a blessing to you, but to carry it throughout the whole world, so that we may impart it to all who are able to receive it. For this, not only at the beginning but always, we must remain in a state of humiliation according to God's decree.

Therefore, as we began, so even until now we continue to bear the lowest lot, like men condemned to death. "Even to the present hour we both hunger and thirst, and are naked." This does not mean that we go without clothing, drink nothing, and eat nothing.

Rather, we dress as we can, having no spare garments besides the one we wear according to the Lord's commandment. We eat and drink as circumstances allow. Because of this, we are often without food and drink.