1 CORINTHIANS 4:13 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
“Being defamed, we intreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day.”
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 last sentence is devastating. 'Scum' (perisseia, literally 'filth') and 'refuse' (perikatharmata, cleansing-waste) were terms for the lowest outcasts. Apostles occupy the lowest social position. Yet this matches Christ's own trajectory: from honor to shame, from power to powerlessness, from life to death. The gospel's logic requires this descent.
Church Fathers on 1 Corinthians 4:13
“And labor;” now against the false apostles who endure neither toil nor peril, while they themselves receive the fruits. “But not so are we,” says he: “but together with our perils from without, we also strain ourselves to the utmost with perpetual labor. And what is still more, no one can say that we fret at these things, for the contrary is our requital to them that so deal with us: this, I say, is the main point, not our suffering evil, for that is common to all, but our…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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