We all want to be winners. We all want people to think well of us. Common sense dictates that it is desirable to be rich (I Corinthians 4:8), prudent, strong, and distinguished (4:10). Much like the people of ancient Corinth, we modern Americans tend to admire the knowledgeable, the competent, and the capable.

But Paul has other priorities. He says that a true apostle of God, one whom God sends to speak and to model the message of Christ, will be completely baffling to the world. After all, to worldly people, it just doesn’t make sense that a Man could be God, or that a Man could rise from the dead. To worldly people, it doesn’t make sense to live a life of humble service to others: that’s for losers. To those who live only according to what makes sense to them, Christians are no better than fools, or as Paul says in 4:13, the scum of the earth, the dregs of all things.

And so we shouldn’t be surprised that Christians, in Paul’s time and ours, suffer the sort of ill treatment that Paul describes in 4:11-13. Even today, those who live in countries dominated by Islam are often disowned or even killed by their families if they profess faith in Christ. And for many Chinese Christians, wondering when the government is going to invade or even tear down their houses of worship, these verses are way too close for comfort.

But no matter how harshly the world chooses to treat Christians, it is our response to such abuse that truly demonstrates the character of Christ. For in 4:12 and 13, Paul explains that one who is filled with the Spirit of Christ will respond in the same way Jesus did when He was unjustly accused and crucified. For He responded to insults with blessings. When faced with every sort of persecution, instead of buckling under the pressure, he endured.

And so that’s why, instead of boasting in his considerable wisdom, Paul admits that he is a fool for Christ. He is only too willing put his weakness on display, to admit how badly he has been mistreated. For it is when we are rejected and abused like Christ that the strength, the endurance, and the forgiveness of Christ can shine through us most clearly. It is when we share His sufferings that the world can more clearly see Him in us.

I Corinthians 4:1-21 (NASB)

Let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.
2 In this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy.
3 But to me it is a very small thing that I should be examined by you, or by any human court; in fact, I do not even examine myself.
4 For I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not by this acquitted; but the one who examines me is the Lord.
5 Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts; and then each man’s praise will come to him from God.
6 Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that in us you might learn not to exceed what is written, in order that no one of you might become arrogant in behalf of one against the other.
7 For who regards you as superior? And what do you have that you did not receive? But if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?
8 You are already filled, you have already become rich, you have become kings without us; and I would indeed that you had become kings so that we also might reign with you.
9 For, I think, God has exhibited us apostles last of all, as men condemned to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men.
10 We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are prudent in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are distinguished, but we are without honor.
11 To this present hour we are both hungry and thirsty, and are poorly clothed, and are roughly treated, and are homeless;
12 and we toil, working with our own hands; when we are reviled, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure;
13 when we are slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become as the scum of the world, the dregs of all things, even until now.
14 I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children.
15 For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.
16 I exhort you therefore, be imitators of me.
17 For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, and he will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, just as I teach everywhere in every church.
18 Now some have become arrogant, as though I were not coming to you.
19 But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I shall find out, not the words of those who are arrogant, but their power.
20 For the kingdom of God does not consist in words, but in power.
21 What do you desire? Shall I come to you with a rod or with love and a spirit of gentleness?