‘The scum of the earth, the dregs of humanity’: whoever can Paul be talking about? (1 Corinthians 4.13) Perhaps the money-makers who had muscled in on the Christian fellowship, cheats like Ananias and Sapphira. No, it was no such people. It was not the enemies of the followers of Jesus. Believe it or not, it was people at the heart of the Christian fellowship, people like himself, Paul. Paul is not talking about other people. He is referring to himself.
This takes some believing. How could Paul think of himself in such terms? If he did make this statement, was he speaking tongue-in-cheek? Was he indulging in everyday rhetoric to make a point? Did it take language like this to get his point across to self-satisfied notables in the congregation? I am afraid the answer is yes. The apostle who wrote 1 Corinthians 13 and exalted lovingkindness above all else felt himself obliged to use something more telling than plain speaking when dealing with upstarts in Corinth. He is proposing to visit the city and invites the believers there to make up their minds. Do they want Paul to come talking sweet reason or do they want his analysis of the situation, harsh as it may be? The chois is theirs (1 Corinthians 4.21)
At this point we have to say ‘Whoah! Enough! No more!’ And bring Dobbin to a halt. This is not the way to win supporters in a Christian assembly. Indeed it is not the way to get things done in any place of common decency.
But Paul does it. He writes this inflammatory language. This is the measure of fragility that the Corinthian Church has allowed itself to enter into. Paul follows up this diatribe with other serious shortcomings in the sophisticated Church in Corinth. He sees their behaviour as prejudicing the very existence of the Christian movement.
The fact that Paul expressed himself in these terms is no warrant for our doing so. It is just possible that some of us have worn ourselves out, like Paul, earning a living with our own hands. It is less likely that we know what it is to be slandered and beaten up. We can only imagine the pressures that Paul and his colleagues experienced as they attempted to guide the young Church on an even keel.
If we can imagine those pressures, we can be pretty confident that we should not have shown more patience and restraint than Paul did. It was just as well that Paul was the one with his hand on the tiller.
TEACHERS WANTED
Christ Binder, national director of the mission agency Interserve, is looking for Christian teachers prepared to serve in far-away places. ‘Go’, the Interserve magazine (a nice piece of design work), is devoting an issue to the global opportunities in teaching.
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