1 Corinthians 4:8-16

Contrast between the Corinthian Teachers and St Paul

8. Now ye are full, now ye are rich Here we have one of the sudden turns of feeling so remarkable in the Apostle's style. Abruptly breaking off at the word -boast," he dashes off into an animated and ironical apostrophe. -I may well say -boast" for boasting is your crying sin, but it is boasting in yourselves, not in God. All your wants spiritual and temporal now are satisfied, you have become rich, you are reigning like kings. But in your self-satisfaction you give not a thought to those whose labours have made you what you are. Would that it were really with you as you imagine it to be! Then we might hope for some remission of our trials, distresses, humiliations. But at present all the sorrow, suffering, shame is ours, while either in fact or in fancy you are enjoying all the good things given to Christians, immunity from suffering, quiet of conscience (Romans 8:1), wisdom, honour, inward satisfaction." The word translated fullhas the sense of being satiated with good things, (Vulgate, saturati). Some editors read the verse as a series of questions. But the affirmative form strengthens the irony of the passage.

without us Though St Paul had admitted the Corinthians into the same blessings as he enjoyed himself, he had no share in theirblessings.

and I would to God ye did reign, that we also might reign with you The Apostle does not regard the persecutions and distresses he underwent as desirable for their own sake, but only as means to an end. The empire of evil is not to be destroyed without a conflict, and the sufferings endured by Christ's servants are the evidences that it is going on. But the best of those who are thus contending for the truth may lawfully wish that the conflict were over and the reign of the saints begun. Such a wish, in fact, appears to be expressed by the words, -Thy kingdom come."