1 Corinthians 4:8
Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Without us you have become kings! And would that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you!
This is one of the most sarcastic statements Paul writes in any of his letters. We have to read it as a criticism of the way the Corinthians were boasting in their favorite leaders. They thought that they had arrived at the spiritual mountaintop. They were super spiritual, “super Christians,” shining examples of a Christian. On what did they base this? Some of this may have been related to their outward display of spiritual gifts, such as speaking in tongues, discussed in ch. 14. Minimally, they had thought they were spiritually mature but all that they were doing–the divisive attitudes, the approval and compromise with immorality, and poor worship–indicated their immaturity. By putting themselves first, they were living like the world around them. They thought they were rich kings, that they had reached heaven on earth.
The gospel calls us to a different attitude, one where we are concerned about the least and would rather suffer loss so that others can come to faith. Paul’s example was one of suffering for the gospel. This is where real spiritual power is because it forces one to rely on God’s power and not our own. This is one of the most difficult things to do in our highly competitive world. The world follows the theory of evolution: eat or be eaten. When this infiltrates the church, it will only cause problems. God’s kingdom follows a different set of rules: we love because he first loved us (1 John 4:19). We put the needs of others first by having the mind of Christ (see Phil 2:1-11). There is no place for evolution’s survival of the fittest in God’s kingdom of love.
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