1 Corinthians 4:8 Commentary and Bible Study

The apostle is clearly employing irony. ‘Now ye are full.’ You know everything. In Corinth you have got people, and even preachers who think they have arrived, they have learned everything they could possibly need to know. They have got all the grace of God and Christian experience and judgement. ‘Ye have reigned as kings without us.’ You make your own decisions. You decide what's what, who’s good, who’s bad; but you do it without us, the apostles, without the apostolic word. As Christian people you have got tremendous self-satisfaction. That should not be the attitude of a Christian. Yes, we praise God for every blessing, but we never think we have arrived. Of course, there is no resentment in these words; rather, Paul pities them for their shallowness. He is not trying to deprive them of anything but is full of generous desire that they will come to see what true riches are.‘Without us.’ If we were applying this to ourselves we would simply say, ‘Without the word of God.’ Christians use their own judgement for all kinds of things. Evangelicalism as a whole does this. Churches everywhere are using their own judgement, not just in legitimate areas, but concerning the essentials of worship. They are employing methods and matters of worship which they have invented themselves. They have decided this is going to attract large numbers into their services. Sadly, we are capable of doing this; we can borrow from the world; we can invent a new method every year. ‘Ye have reigned’, determined your own affairs without us, the apostles; without the word of God. ‘I would to God that ye did reign’, says the apostle, reign over your pride, reign over your worldliness, bring into submission all these things that spoil you as a church. I wish had self-mastery, and reigned over sin, that we also might reign with you. It is a way of saying, that then we would have genuine cause to rejoice in you; we could be so pleased with you, and share the joy with you.