5 September 2020

We are fools for the sake of Christ, but you are wise in Christ.
We are weak, but you are strong.
You are held in honour, but we in disrepute.
To the present hour we are hungry and thirsty,
we are poorly clothed and beaten and homeless,
and we grow weary from the work of our own hands.
From 1 Corinthians 4: 6-15 (NRSV)

If St Paul had lived in these days of “delete” buttons, it is quite possible that he would have re-read this part of his letter and thought “hmmm – maybe a bit harsh” and hit the button. The fact that he, presumably, re-read it and decided to send it anyway and, even more improbably, the Corinthians kept it safe enough for it to be included in the canon of scripture, suggests that the Spirit really did not want this to be lost. Paul was a traveller who moved from town to town – often finding hostility and beatings, alongside having to try and find enough work to feed himself and then finding the energy to preach the good news to people who either dismissed everything he said or treated him as an out-and-out heretic. And then he hears of quibbles and quarrels from a group, most of whom are very comfortably off, thank-you very much, and who have settled and easy lives… It is somehow reassuring to know that even saints lose patience as Paul does here!

• • Why do you think a passage like this one survives and was not sanitised out of the scriptures?
  • How do you think people would react if they heard this directed towards them today? 

Think about what you now of Paul’s life – or investigate it online. Think about the sacrifices he had to make and how even he “lost it” sometimes.Make a mental (or journal) note of any thoughts or insights that emerge.