| I Corinthians 4:8
| Now you are satiated, now you are become rich: you reign without us: and I would to God you did reign, that we also might reign with you.
| Now you are satiated, etc. You great, vain preachers, you are rich in every kind, blessed with all gifts, etc. You reign over the minds of the people, without us, you stand not in need of our assistance. And I would to God you did reign, that we also might reign with you. I wish your reigning and governing the people were well grounded on virtue and truth, that we might be sharers of the like happiness. St. Chrysostom takes notice, that St. Paul speaks thus, meaning the contrary, by the figure called irony: and so also St. Chrysostom understands the two following verses, as if St. Paul only represented what those vain preachers said with contempt of him, as if he were only an apostle of an inferior rank, not one of the chief, nor of the twelve. And when he says, we are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise: it is certain the apostles were not fools, nor these preachers whom he blames, wise, especially in Christ. But though the apostle partly use this figure of irony, intermixing it in his discourse, yet he also represents the condition of all true apostles, and preachers of Christ crucified, whose persons and doctrine were slighted, ridiculed, and laughed at by men that were wise only with worldly wisdom, especially by profane libertines, and atheistical men, that make a jest of all revealed religion. To go about preaching in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, in want, under afflictions and persecutions, is what they think is to be miserable: they despise such men as the out-cast, the dross,{ Ver. 8. Tanquam purgamenta, omnium peripsema, os perikatharmata, Sordes, quisquiliae, panton peripsema, Scobes, ramentum. See Mr. Legh, Crit. Sacra.|} and the dregs of mankind. (See the Greek text.) (Witham) --- He speaks to the Corinthians, who forgetting their first fervour, and the Christian modesty which St. Paul had taught them, both by word and example, were endeavouring to distinguish themselves by the reputation and honour of the apostle, who had converted them, by their antiquity of faith, and by other things more frivolous. (Calmet)
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