The contentious, carnal, critical, Corinthian crowd. This Church was split by carnality—and cash! Some had rocketted to fame and become the merchant princes of the city. So Paul says, ‘‘Ye have reigned as kings without us.’’ Ponder the glaring contrasts in I Cor. 4:8: ‘‘Ye are full, ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us.’’ ‘‘We are fools; we are despised; we both hunger and thirst and are naked’’ (verse 10). The blessed compensation is in verse 9, ‘‘We [apostles] are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men.’’
