We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are honorable, but we are despised.
All Commentaries on 1 Corinthians 4:10 Go To 1 Corinthians 4
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
We are fools for Christ"s sake, but ye are wise in Christ. This is a continuation of the irony of ver8. We are reckoned fools because of Christ crucified, whom we preach, and for whose sake we seem to expose ourselves rashly to so many dangers. For the Cross is to the Greeks foolishness. But you in your own eyes are wise in the Gospel of Christ, because of the eloquence and philosophy which you mingle with it, and because you take care to so preach Christ that you run no risk for His sake.
We are weak, as bearing without resistance many grievous adversities, such as hunger, thirst, nakedness, toils, injuries, cursings, persecutions, as is said in ver11.
But ye are strong. For you easily by your worldly eloquence, Wisdom of Solomon , and friendship turn the edge of all evils that attack you.
Ye are honourable, but we are despised. You are honoured, we are held in no honour. He teaches modestly, but yet sternly by his own example as a teacher, that the Christian"s boast must not be in renown, wealth, Wisdom of Solomon , eloquence, or the applause of men, but in being despised by others, and in despising glory, and in the Cross of Christ; and especially is this true of the Christian teacher and preacher. So S. Chrysostom. And in this way he endeavours to shame these self-indulgent, vain, and luxurious teachers, and also the Corinthians who preferred to follow such men, rather than the Apostles of Christ, who were giving for them their strength, their substance, and their lives. So Isaiah ( Isaiah 8:18) says, in the name of himself and the other Prophets, as well as of Paul and the Apostles, "Behold, I and the children whom the Lord hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel." And as the Annales Minorum relate, S. Francis used to say that he was a despised fool of Christ"s in the world, and was for this beloved of Christ Himself.
