Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling place;
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Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
Even unto this present hour we . . . have no certain dwelling-place. This remarkable description of the Apostle"s life is very like that contained in the Second Epistle (xi23), which those that are called to the ministry ought to put before them as an example, as the Apostolic men of great zeal do in England, Holland, India, and Japan.
S. Chrysostom (Hom52on Acts of the Apostles) says excellently on the words of xxvi29: "Such is the soul that is raised on high by celestial love that it thinks itself a prisoner for Christ because of the greatness of the promised glory. For as one in love has no eyes for any save her he loves, who is to him everything, so he who has been laid hold of by Christ"s fire becomes like one who should be living alone on the earth, caring nothing for glory and shame. For he so utterly despises temptations and scourgings and imprisonment that it is as though another body endured them, or as though he possessed a body made of granite. For he laughs at those thing...
Paul is talking about the present as much as about the past, because the Christian must always be living in this way, and not just occasionally. The wrestler may be crowned after a single victory, but if he then goes on to lose, he will not be crowned a second time.
Even unto this present hour we both hunger and thirst and are naked. Do you see that all the life of Christians must be such as this; and not merely a day or two? For though the wrestler who is victorious in a single contest only, be crowned, he is not crowned again if he suffer a fall.
And hunger; against the luxurious. And are buffeted; against those who are puffed up. And have no certain dwelling-place; for we are driven about. And are naked; against the rich.
