To the present hour we [apostles] both hunger and thirst, and we are poorly clothed, and beaten, and homeless. And we labor, working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure; being defamed, we entreat. We have been made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things until now. (1 Corinthians 4:11-13)
St Paul’s description of the lives of the apostles presents an unenviably difficult path: no earthly glory but hardships, homelessness, imprisonment, suffering and martyrdom. They did not become enriched by being Christ’s chosen apostles, nor did they become politically powerful. Most of the things that describe an apostle’s life in Paul’s words are things most of us want to avoid. Note also the behavioral descriptions of how apostles dealt with being reviled, persecuted and defamed. The apostles did not take or seek revenge for their suffering. They did not demand success, prosperity, fame or leisure. Rather, they continued to imitate Christ through all things, carrying their crosses on their paths to the Kingdom. St Cyril of Alexandria comments:
… the holy apostles … refused to be conformed to the things of which the world is mindful, but distanced themselves from fleshly lusts. For such always is the life of the saints. Yet for this reason they were plotted against and falsely accused by those in the habit of deeming burdensome those wishing to live in Christ, and they met with severe testing and imprisonment. They remembered, however, what Christ said: ‘If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But since you are not of the world, for this reason the world hates you (John 15:19). (GLAPHYRA ON THE PENTATEUCH Vol 1, p 302)
