Fools for Christ’s sake.

1 Corinthians 4:8-17, 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. I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me. That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church.

There are those who distort the truth of the gospel for their own gain. Paul and the other apostles taught the ways of Christ “everywhere in every church” so that he could urge them to imitate him. The good news is that God has given us Jesus Christ, “the way, the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through Him.” The world in its wisdom rebels at this and wants to find its own way; Jesus says “Come unto me.”

We look to You to be saved; thank You for empowering us by Your Holy Spirit.

ESV Lectionrary