1 Cor. 4:8-13 Reigning with Christ

A Roman Victory Procession
(Image courtesy of http://www.culturalresources.com/images/RomanTriumph.jpg)

Today's text can be read here: 1 Cor. 4:8-13.

Jesus and the apostles took a unique approach to the Old Testament prophecies of the coming Kingdom of God. They saw a certain sense in which that kingdom had begun with the arrival of Jesus on Earth for the first time and in the spread of the Gospel after his resurrection. But they still maintained that the kingdom in its fullest sense would only break into history when Jesus returns, as he promised. Scholars like to use the balancing phrase "already … (but) not yet" to describe this dual aspect of God's kingdom.

Many students of the Corinthian correspondence also think that some of the believers there had neglected the second aspect and were boldly proclaiming that the present experience of believers was the only and the final realization of God's Kingdom. If so, then Paul's words in verse 8 sarcastically reflect that erroneous teaching.

Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! You have become kings—and that without us! How I wish that you really had become kings so that we might be kings with you!

His own rejection of this perverted "realized eschatology" is reflected in the words "and that without us"! He had no intention of celebrating the completion of the Day of the Lord before the Lord himself returned in glory!

Hand in hand with this perverted view of the arrival of the Kingdom of God went a corollary: if the Kingdom has arrived, bringing with it the definitive triumph of God over all evil, then true disciples of Jesus would not suffer. So Paul again uses sarcasm when he writes in vv. 9-12:

For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like men condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to men. We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored! To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly. Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world.

The Corinthians knew what an imperial victory procession looked like. Some of them had probably been to Rome and witnessed the spectacle. The victorious general in his chariot at the head of the procession, with a slave standing beside him, holding over his head the victor's crown and whispering in his ear "Remember you are not a god, you are a man". And behind him marched a long procession of the prisoners captured in the victory. Now Paul tells them: If you are right in assuming that all true disciples of Jesus now enjoy reigning as kings, and that reigning excludes suffering, then I must conclude that Peter, James, John, and the rest of us apostles who suffer daily for the Gospel must not be victors with Christ, but defeated prisoners, awaiting execution!

One of the most striking of all Paul's images is his use of the Roman triumph to describe his own career. This is seen quite clearly in 2 Cor. 2: 14-17. … Here Paul envisions himself as a person formerly hostile to the will of the ruler he now serves, and hence he has been taken captive by Christ and is being led around the world by God in Christ in the triumph. While he is being led to eventual execution, an aroma of Christ, the knowledge of him, is being disseminated throughout the empire as he heads ultimately for Rome. Not all the onlookers catch this scent, however; some smell the dying of Jesus in him and take offense, for it smells like death. This same idea can be found in 1 Cor. 4:9, where Paul says he is exhibited last of all Christ's agents (apostoloi) being sentenced to death, and being made something of a spectacle to gawk at and be amazed by (Witherington, Paul's Thought World, p. 237).

Paul goes on, continuing to use sarcasm: "And since I do not teach what you claim—that the Kingdom of God has no further fulfillment beyond this present age—then I and my fellow apostles are indeed 'fools', whereas you are wise!" He uses a very similar remark later, when in chapter 15 he teaches about the reality of the final bodily resurrection of believers: "For if only in this life we have hope in Christ, we should be pitied more than anyone" (1 Cor. 15:19).

And if these sarcastic statements were not enough to show these Corinthians the foolishness of their ideas, Paul goes on to describe the sufferings that he and his fellow apostles are experiencing in terms that unmistakably recall the experiences of Christ himself (vv. 12-13):

When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly.

Such distinctively Christian behavior—totally at odds with the ethics of surrounding groups—necessarily entails suffering and humiliation. How does this fit with their theory that the Reign of God had not only begun in their own lives, but also was not consistent with suffering? Not well!

How did this strange view of the fulfillment of the Old Testament predictions of the coming of God's Kingdom spring up and flourish so in Corinth?¹ Strangely enough, it appears that it may have had its root in the very blessings and gifts of God, so richly bestowed in these congregations. As Paul wrote in 1:5-7a,

For in him you have been enriched in every way—in all your speaking and in all your knowledge— because our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you. Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift …

Some of the believers there also continued to "eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed" (v. 7b), as Paul wrote further. But many, intoxicated by the lavish display in their midst of these supernatural powers of prophecy and other gifts of the Spirit, concluded that there was nothing more to wait for. This not only led them to the erroneous conclusion that "there is no (future) resurrection" — a view that Paul attacks head-on in chapter 15 — but the corollary that they were in fact reigning now and need not expect suffering or humiliation for the sake of the Gospel.

Paul's correct understanding of the way in which the believer can participate in Jesus' victory of evil in the present age is through conquering sin in his own life through his identification with Jesus' death to sin and resurrection to new life of holiness (see Romans 6). That was the form of "reigning with Christ" which these triumphal Corinthians were neglecting, by their bickering among themselves and despising those with fewer spiritual gifts.

Brothers and sisters, some of you may also be rejoicing in lavish blessings from God, both physical (for example, financial success, job promotion, etc.) and spiritual. We rejoice with you for this generous gift of God. But remember that the Church of Jesus around the world is not experiencing an easy time. Believers in other lands—and some in our own—are threatened if they speak out for Christ. Some are in prison. Some have been killed for their testimony. Some suffer hunger and thirst. And, of course, many believers in your own churches suffer from joblessness, from abandonment by a spouse, from grief over children who have abandoned any faith in the Lord Jesus. These sufferings too are endured for the sake of the Gospel, and are deserving of our ministries to these brothers and sisters. Christians who suffer mirror Jesus' own sufferings for us. It is a noble work. But it is also a condition that we, their brothers and sisters, should alleviate with our sympathy, practical assistance, and prayers.

2 Timothy 2:11-13:

Here is a trustworthy saying:
If we died with him,
we will also live with him;
12 if we endure,
we will also reign with him.
If we disown him,
he will also disown us;
13 if we are faithless,
he will remain faithful,
for he cannot disown himself.

References

1. Meeks (The First Urban Christians, pp. 121-122): "The common opinion among New Testament scholars is that all the problems addressed in 1 Corinthians are somehow connected with the beliefs about the resurrection addressed in chapter 15. It was not, according to this view, that the Corinthians who did not believe in the resurrection of the dead were simply skeptical of a future life or that they rejected the 'Jewish' notion of bodily resurrection in favor of a 'Greek' conception of the soul's escape from the body at death. Rather, they considered that spiritually they were already raised up with Christ and 'enthroned with him in the heavenly places,' as the baptismal liturgy probably stated (Eph. 2:6; cf. 1 Cor. 4:8). Now if we ask how people could imagine and continue to believe over some time that their physical life was unreal or of no consequence and their real life spiritual and transcendent, we might well guess that trance experiences of the sort that produce glossolalia [speaking in 'tongues'] could have served as strong reinforcement of that belief. Still, this is only a conjecture. The letter does not refer explicitly to any connection between the Corinthian Christians' 'realized eschatology' and their glossolalia."

Witherington has another explanation: "Scholars have frequently noted the realized eschatology of at least some of the Corinthians, but have not provided a convincing explanation of this eschatology from a sociological standpoint. We are now in a better position to provide that explanation. Greco-Roman paganism did not place much stress on a blessed afterlife. Religion was to be practiced for its present benefits, such as health and safety. In this very chapter, in v. 29, there is evidence that pagan beliefs continued to shape the Corinthian Christians' view of these matters" (Corinthians, p. 292f). See also "[T]he Corinthians, or at least some of them, think that they are truly and perhaps fully 'in the know' already. This comports with and is part of their realized eschatology. They have failed to realize that the knowledge and even the prophecy they have now are only partial, and that full knowledge only comes at the [return of Christ]" (op. cit., p. 270).

The re-formulation in N.T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God [2003], p. 279f. is not really different from the above ones, although he seems to think it is. For the simplest and best description of "realized eschatology" see William Sanford LaSor, The Truth About Armageddon: What the Bible Says About the End Times (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1982), pp. 18-22.