1 Corinthians 4:10

We are fools for Christ’s sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised.

Fools. “The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness” (ch. 1:18). Because the apostles persisted in presenting the good news of salvation through simple faith in Jesus Christ, they were regarded as stupid and dull of understanding.

Nevertheless they did not dare to mingle worldly wisdom with the simplicity of the gospel. They were content to depend on the power of God rather than on the wisdom of this world (see Rom. 1:16, 17). Faithful Christians must expect to be misunderstood by the world, but that should not disturb them; they know that God’s way is contrary to man’s way, and must therefore seem strange to the carnal heart (see Isa. 55:8, 9; Rom. 8:7, 8; James 4:4; 1 John 2:15-17).

Ye are wise. Paul is speaking ironically as in v. 8 (see comment there).

Ye are strong. What a contrast between the self-distrustful, humble, consecrated apostle, who had come to the church at Corinth “in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling” (ch. 2:3), and the self-confident, arrogant Corinthian believers who felt that they were strong and wise in Christ.

Ye are honourable. Because of their assumption of worldly wisdom and their display of spiritual attainments, they held themselves in high esteem. The apostles, who did not presume to draw attention to themselves or their own excellent qualities, were despised. Paul’s design in these contrasts was to emphasize the folly of self-flattery and self-exaltation and to induce the Corinthians to exalt Christ and to think humbly of themselves (cf. Matt. 23:12).