1 Corinthians 4:8

“Now ye are full; now ye are rich; ye have reigned as kings without us; and I would to God ye did reign, that we also might reign with you!”

The asyndeton is a new evidence of emotion. The ἤδη, now, placed foremost, repeated, and that in the same place in the second proposition, well expresses the movement of this whole passage: “Now already!” Paul and the other apostles are still in a world of suffering; but at Corinth the Church already lives in full triumph.

The fulness denotes the imperturbable self-satisfaction which characterized the Corinthians. It is all over among them with that poverty of spirit, that hungering and thirsting after righteousness, those tears of repentance, which Jesus had made the permanent condition of life in Him (Matthew 5:1-4). They are people who have nothing more to ask, all whose spiritual wants are satisfied; they have reached the perfect life!

The expression, riches, no doubt, alludes to the abundance of spiritual gifts which distinguished this Church above all others, and which Paul himself had recognised in the outset (1 Corinthians 1:5; 1 Corinthians 1:7). The rebuke applies, not to the fact of their possession of gifts, but to the feeling of pride which accompanied it.

The aorist is substituted for the perfect, because the fulness is a state which remains, while the acquisition of riches is the initial and momentary fact.

The ἐβασιλεύσατε signifies, ye have become kings. The advent to royalty is expressed by the aorist; for the aorist of verbs in ευω denotes, not the state, but entrance into the state. This royalty is, of course, that of the Messianic epoch, when the faithful are to reign with Christ. This condition of things glorious seems to have already begun at Corinth. No more obscurity, no more infirmity! The Church swims in full celestial state. Unspeakable delights, sublime illuminations, miraculous powers, captivating sermons: it lacks nothing.

The words χωρὶς ἡμῶν, without us, have been understood in the sense of “in our absence,” or “without our co-operation;” as if Paul would say: “Grand things have passed at Corinth since we left you!” But in this explanation it is forgotten that the regimen without us takes the place, in this third proposition, of the ἤδη, already, which began the first two, and this leads to a meaning still more telling: “Without our having part in the elevation which is granted to you. Ye are rich, ye are kings; we others are not so happy....We still drag out the miserable existence of this nether world!” The without us paves the way for 1 Corinthians 4:9.

The last words are thus easily explained: “And would to God this grand news were true, that ye were really on the throne! For in that case, it is to be hoped that we should soon be seated with you.” This σύν, with, corresponds precisely to the χωρίς, without us, in the preceding proposition.

The γε, as always, is restrictive: “If this one wish were realized, all the others would be satisfied.” The restriction might also be understood in this sense: “If at least it were enough to desire it to secure that it should be!” This meaning seems to me less natural.

The second aorist ὄφελον (for ὤφελον), I owed, and hence it would need, is often used as a conjunction with the ellipsis of the following εἰ (if) to express utinam; the following verb is in the indicative, as dependent on the understood εἰ.