1 Corinthians 4:8-13

"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! For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things."

When we think about someone who was given all that he has bragging because of it, we recognize his foolishness. I remember being teased by my classmates for not ever having the newest and best sneakers when I was growing up. Though they were given their sneakers by their parents, they thought themselves better than I because of it. We would all acknowledge that my classmates’ actions were wrong and shallow. But deep within ourselves we might cling to an unspoken belief that we are better than those who have less than we. Perhaps we think as the Hindoo, that somehow, we earned it. The Bible indicates that this is not so. All that we have was given to us by God, and it was not given because we deserve it.

In fact there are some people who are better than we, who have far less. This truth is established in these verses. There were some prideful Corinthian believers who thought themselves better than other Corinthian believers Because of what they had. Paul draws attention to the fact that he and the other apostles had less than these prideful Corinthians. The apostles, who were in such authority and given so much favor with God, were the scum of the world by human standards. Perhaps there is an element of sarcasm in these words, but the point was that being poor (or not having certain spiritual gifts [as would be addressed later]) does not make someone lower than another. And we need to completely rid ourselves of this notion or the notion that somehow it is really our due. It is not. It is all God’s. All that is ours is from Him, and we are only stewards of it. Let us be found trustworthy, humble stewards.