Fools for Christ

They were hunted, beaten, jailed, and killed for refusing to deny Christ. No one endures that for a lie. These men were changed by the Risen Lord, and their deaths prove it.

Jun 30, 2026

There is a wonderful little video making the rounds on the internet, making fun of those who claim the original Apostles and followers of Christ were all lying to get ahead. They fabricated the Resurrection, the argument goes, so they could seize power and influence.

Well, if that were true, they were a spectacular collection of idiots and failures.

Every one of them, with the exception of St. John, died a martyr’s death. They were hunted, beaten, jailed, hated, driven from place to place, stripped of their wealth, and eventually arrested and killed for refusing to deny Christ. Even John, who died of old age, was arrested, tortured, and exiled to the island of Patmos. Not one of the Apostles ever denied Christ after His Resurrection.

“We are fools for Christ’s sake.”

These men of wildly different backgrounds and careers, fishermen and tax collectors and zealots and scholars, left everything and everyone to follow Jesus. They witnessed the Resurrected Christ. They were empowered at Pentecost. They went to their deaths as firm believers. Their legacy of faithfulness is itself the proof of their message.

Memory eternal, Heralds of the Church. Please pray for us.

Today’s Lesson: 1 Corinthians 4:9-16

Brethren, God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men. We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are ill-clad and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become, and are now, as the refuse of the world, the off-scouring of all things. I do not write this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me.

The day after the great Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, the Church gathers us again to honor all Twelve Holy Apostles together. Yesterday, we focused on the two chief apostles, Peter and Paul.

Today, we remember the whole company, the full foundation of the Church our Lord established.

And Paul gives the Corinthians, and us, an extraordinarily honest picture of what being an Apostle of Jesus Christ actually looked like from the inside.

What Can We Take From This?

First, the Apostles were not winning by any standard the world recognizes, and they knew it, and they kept going anyway.

St. Paul lines up the comparisons without flinching. The Apostles are a spectacle. The Corinthians are wise. The Apostles are weak. The Corinthians are strong. The Apostles are in disrepute, hungry, ill-clad, homeless, buffeted, reviled, and slandered. The Corinthians are comfortable and honored.

If you had to choose, you would not choose St. Paul’s situation.

And that is precisely the point.

The Faith was never designed to make us happy and comfortable by the world’s standards. It was designed to make us resilient, consistent, faithful, and free.

These are not the same things.

In fact, they are often opposites.

The person most focused on comfort is often the least free, because their peace of mind depends entirely on circumstances they cannot control. The person who has learned to endure, bless, and conciliate regardless of how they are treated is free in a way that no external circumstance can touch.

The Twelve Apostles had this freedom.

They had it because they had seen the Risen Lord, and they couldn’t un-see it!

No prison, no beating, no exile, no execution could reach deep enough to undo what they had witnessed.

Next, the Apostles’ response to mistreatment is the most counter-cultural thing in the ancient world, and in ours.

“When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we try to conciliate.”

Notice the pattern. The expected response to being reviled is to revile back. The expected response to persecution is to resist or retaliate. The expected response to slander is to counter-slander.

St. Paul does the opposite. Every time. Blessing in the face of reviling. Endurance in the face of persecution. Conciliation in the face of slander.

This is not weakness.

This is one of the most demanding spiritual disciplines in the entire Orthodox life. It requires a person to be so rooted in their identity in Christ that another person’s cruelty cannot reach the foundation. It requires knowing with absolute certainty “Whose” you are, so that the opinions of those who oppose you simply do not have the authority they would otherwise have.

Notice, Paul tells us: humility and bravery are always companions.

Always.

True humility is always bravery. True bravery is always humble. The Apostle who blesses the one who reviles him is not being a doormat. He is operating from a place of such deep security in Christ that retaliation is simply not a live option. He has nothing to protect.

This is what the Twelve modeled for the world. And it is what changed the world.

Finally, St. Paul is not throwing a pity party. He is issuing an invitation.

“I urge you, then, be imitators of me.”

Paul makes it clear he is not writing this to make the Corinthians ashamed, to guilt them, or to elicit sympathy.

He writes as a father to his children, a spiritual father who has lived something and wants his children to live it too.

That’s what good and faithful fathers do!

He is telling them that the life he is living, which looks like loss by every external measure, is actually the most liberated life available to a human being in a fallen world.

The Twelve Apostles found that anchor. They found it at the empty tomb, confirmed it at Pentecost, and carried it to their deaths in every corner of the known world.

Be imitators of them.

The Synaxis of the Twelve Holy Apostles

Today, the Church gathers us for the Synaxis of the Twelve Holy Apostles, the feast day that follows immediately after the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, gathering the entire apostolic company into one act of commemoration and gratitude.

Andrew. James and John. Philip. Bartholomew. Matthew. Thomas. James the son of Alphaeus. Thaddaeus. Simon the Zealot. Judas Iscariot, who betrayed the Lord, and Matthias, who was chosen to take his place.

Fishermen and tax collectors. A zealot and a scholar. Men who argued about who was greatest and who fell asleep in the Garden. Men who fled on the night of the arrest and were hiding behind locked doors on the evening of the Resurrection. And then, transformed by the Risen Christ and empowered at Pentecost, they went out and turned the world upside down.

They would not have endured what they endured for a lie. No. These men were changed by the Resurrected Christ and the ministry of the Holy Spirit in their lives. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church, and the Twelve planted that seed with their own lives.

Your Response Today

Today, where does your peace depend on how others treat you?

Where does criticism reach deep enough to unsettle you?

Where are you still waiting for the world to honor you before you feel free to live fully?

The lives of the Apostles offer a different path. Not the path of comfortable indifference, but the path of genuine rootedness in Christ, deep enough that reviling produces blessing, persecution produces endurance, and slander produces conciliation rr than retaliation.

Choose one relationship or situation today where you can practice this. Where you can bless instead of revile, endure instead of retaliate, and make peace instead of counter-slander.

Not because you are a doormat, but because you are free.

Then pray simply:

“Lord Jesus Christ, make me an imitator of Your Apostles. Root me so deeply in You that no external circumstance can reach my foundation. Let me bless when reviled, endure when persecuted, and conciliate when slandered, not from weakness but from the freedom that only You can give.”

Being Orthodox on Purpose means living with the freedom of the Apostles, so rooted in the Risen Christ that the world’s reviling, persecution, and slander cannot reach my heart, and blessing flows out of you where chaos used to live!

Please pray for Fr. Barnabas and family as we travel. We are thrilled our daughter is going to participate in the Summer Camp at Ionian Village. Here’s the website to learn more -

https://www.ionianvillage.org/

Here is a link where you can help Fr. Barnabas with our Video Project - Click Here!

Fr. Barnabas Powell is the parish priest at Sts. Raphael, Nicholas, and Irene Greek Orthodox Church in Cumming, GA. He is also the founder of Faith Encouraged Ministries and produces the Faith Encouraged Daily Devotional on Substack. Watch the Faith Encouraged YouTube Channel here - https://www.youtube.com/@FaithEncouragedTV

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