Opposite Day
What is your immediate response to being treated badly? Disci=over what is lurking behind your automatic responses will reveal your spiritual strengths and weaknesses.
There’s a wonderful little video running around the internet making fun of those who claim the original apostles and followers of Christ were all lying to get ahead. They lied about the resurrection so they could be successful in starting a new religion!
Well, if that were true, they were a bunch of idiots because every one of them, except for St. John, died a martyr’s death. They were hunted, beaten, jailed, hated, driven from place to place, emptied 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. But none of the Apostles ever denied Christ after His resurrection.
The scoffers of Christianity insist all these witnesses lied and then spent the rest of their lives preaching what they knew was a lie, or worse, they were all deluded about the Mn Jesus, and every one of them suffered for this belief in Christ.
As I’ve always said, it takes more “faith” to be an atheist than to be a follower of Jesus Christ.
Look at our lesson today in 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.
St. Paul is about to teach his spiritual children in Corinth a valuable lesson IF they are humble enough and brave enough to embrace this powerful wisdom. By the way, notice humility and bravery are always companions. Always.
True humility is always bravery, and true bravery is always humble!
Paul spends the whole passage comparing his situation with his spiritual children in the Church of Corinth. And he makes sure they understand the reality of their place and his place. I bet you wouldn’t choose St. Paul’s situation if you had to choose. And that’s because St. Paul wants to illustrate to the Corinthian Christians that the Faith isn’t about making them “happy” or “comfortable.”
The Faith is about making them resilient, strong, consistent, and faithful.
St. Paul is clearly the “loser” in each comparison according to the wealthy and prosperous Corinthians. The apostles are “a spectacle” to both angels and men. The apostles are fools for Christ, but the Corinthians are “wise” according to the world’s standards. Paul says he is “weak,” but the Corinthians are “strong” by all appearances. Paul is hungry, and they are well-fed. Paul is homeless, reviled, persecuted, and slandered.
And how does Paul respond?
Here is the lesson St. Paul wants his spiritual children to learn from the life of their spiritual father. Paul does the opposite of his treatment. Persecution is met with endurance. Slander is met with conciliation. Paul blesses even those who revile him. And the lesson is clear. A True Follower of Jesus Christ always looks beyond the moment to the eternal. A True Follower of Christ looks past the temporary faults of their “enemies” to the image of God that every person who ever lived possesses. And the True Follower in Christ refuses to return evil for evil. Revenge isn’t in the heart of the True Follower of Christ.
And then Paul reveals his heart to his spiritual children. “I do not write this to make you ashamed.” St. Paul isn’t throwing a pity party and isn’t trying to get sympathy from the Corinthians. He writes this way to admonish (a fancy word that means “strongly encouraged”) his spiritual children to take on his way of dealing with external circumstances. And this is because if they are humble enough and brave enough to react this way to how others treat them, they will always be free no matter what happens to them!
St. Phillip is one of the 12 Apostles Christ chose to establish His Church to share the Good News of Christ with the world. St. Phillip was from Bethsaida in Galilee. Phillip was a friend of Sts. Andrew and his younger brother Peter. He was a serious student of the Prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures and was looking for the promised coming of the Messiah. Notice what he tells Nathaniel today: “We have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote…” Phillip’s hometown of Bethsaida means the “House of the Hunter,” Phillip is undoubtedly a man who was “hunting” for the Messiah. When he found Him, he immediately started telling others about Him. Knowing the Lord transformed Phillip’s life and even allowed Phillip to know himself as well.
Today, are you stuck in a mood that results from being a slave to other people’s opinions of you? Are you constantly reacting to life instead of living a free life because of the peace in your heart? It’s time to reject living your life as a slave to external circumstances and start living a Normal Orthodox Life!!
P.S. Christ’s Apostle, who was filled with God’s divine grace, he who was His genuine and faithful servant in all truth, all-lauded Thomas exclaimed aloud in deep repentance: Thou art both my God and Lord.
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
