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.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(8) Now ye are full.—These three following sentences are ironical. The emphasis is on the word “now.” Ye are already (as distinct from us Apostles) full, rich, kings. You act as if you had already attained the crowning point in the Christian course. “Piety is an insatiable thing,” says Chrysostom on this passage, “and it argues a childish mind to imagine from just the beginnings that you have attained the whole; and for men who are not even yet in the prelude of a matter to be highminded, as if they had laid hold of the end.”

Without us.—The Apostle would have his converts be to him as his crown of rejoicing; but they now assume to have “come into the kingdom” without any connection with him who had won them to God.

And I would to God.—Here the irony is dropped, and these words are written with intense feeling and humility. The Apostle, reminded, as it were, by the word “reign,” that the time will come when the war and controversies of the Church militant shall end, expresses his deep longing for that blessed change. (See 1Corinthians 3:22; 1Corinthians 9:23, where similarly the Apostle shows that in rebuking the folly of the Corinthian Church he does not under-estimate their privileges.)

Benson Commentary

1 Corinthians 4:8. Now ye are full — The Corinthians abounded with spiritual gifts; and so did the apostles. But the apostles, by continual want and sufferings, were preserved from self-complacency. The Corinthians suffered nothing; and having plenty of all things, were pleased with and applauded themselves. And they were like children who, being raised in the world, disregard their poor parents. Now ye are full, says the apostle, in a beautiful gradation; ye are rich; ye have reigned as kings — A proverbial expression, denoting the most splendid and plentiful circumstances; without us — That is, without any thought of us; or, by the ministry of your own teachers, without our help. And I would to God ye did reign — In the best sense: I would ye had attained to an eminence of grace and holiness as well as of gifts; that we also might reign with you — Might have no more sorrow on your account.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

4:7-13 We have no reason to be proud; all we have, or are, or do, that is good, is owing to the free and rich grace of God. A sinner snatched from destruction by sovereign grace alone, must be very absurd and inconsistent, if proud of the free gifts of God. St. Paul sets forth his own circumstances, ver. 9. Allusion is made to the cruel spectacles in the Roman games; where men were forced to cut one another to pieces, to divert the people; and where the victor did not escape with his life, though he should destroy his adversary, but was only kept for another combat, and must be killed at last. The thought that many eyes are upon believers, when struggling with difficulties or temptations, should encourage constancy and patience. We are weak, but ye are strong. All Christians are not alike exposed. Some suffer greater hardships than others. The apostle enters into particulars of their sufferings. And how glorious the charity and devotion that carried them through all these hardships! They suffered in their persons and characters as the worst and vilest of men; as the very dirt of the world, that was to be swept away: nay, as the offscouring of all things, the dross of all things. And every one who would be faithful in Christ Jesus, must be prepared for poverty and contempt. Whatever the disciples of Christ suffer from men, they must follow the example, and fulfil the will and precepts of their Lord. They must be content, with him and for him, to be despised and abused. It is much better to be rejected, despised, and ill used, as St. Paul was, than to have the good opinion and favour of the world. Though cast off by the world as vile, yet we may be precious to God, gathered up with his own hand, and placed upon his throne.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Now ye are full - It is generally agreed that this is spoken in irony, and that it is an indignant sarcasm uttered against the false and self-confident teachers in Corinth. The design is to contrast them with the apostles; to show how self-confident and vain the false teachers were, and how laborious and self-denying the apostles were; and to show to them how little claim they had to authority in the church, and the real claim which the apostles had from their self-denials and labors. The whole passage is an instance of most pungent and cutting sarcasm, and shows that there may be occasions when irony may be proper, though it should be rare. An instance of cutting irony occurs also in regard to the priests of Baal, in 1 Kings 18:27. The word translated "ye are full" (κεκορεσμένοι kekoresmenoi) occurs only here, and in Acts 27:38, "And when they had eaten enough." It is usually applied to a feast, and denotes those who are satiated or satisfied. So here it means, "You think' you have enough. You are satisfied with your conviction of your own knowledge, and do not feel your need of anything more."

Ye are rich - This is presenting the same idea in a different form. "You esteem yourselves to be rich in spiritual gifts, and graces, so that you do not feel the necessity of any more."

Ye have reigned as kings - This is simply carrying forward the idea before stated; but in the form of a climax. The first metaphor is taken from persons "filled with food;" the second from those who are so rich that they do not feel their lack of more; the third from those who are raised to a throne, the highest elevation, where there was nothing further to be reached or desired. And the phrase means, that they had been fully satisfied with their condition and attainments, with their knowledge and power, that they lived like rich men and princes - revelling, as it were, on spiritual enjoyments, and disdaining all foreign influence, and instruction, and control.

Without us - Without our counsel and instruction. You have taken the whole management of matters on yourselves without any regard to our advice or authority. You did not feel your need of our aid; and you did not regard our authority. You supposed you could get along as well without us as with us.

And I would to God ye did reign - Many interpreters have understood this as if Paul had really expressed a wish that they were literal princes, that they might afford protection to him in his persecution and troubles. Thus, Grotius, Whitby, Locke, Rosemuller, and Doddridge. But the more probable interpretation is, that Paul here drops the irony, and addresses them in a sober, earnest manner. It is the expression of a wish that they were as truly happy and blessed as they thought themselves to be. "I wish that you were so abundant in all spiritual improvements; I wish that you had made such advances that you could be represented as full, and as rich, and as princes, needing nothing, that when I came I might have nothing to do but to partake of your joy." So Calvin, Lightfoot, Bloomfield. It implies:

(1) A wish that they were truly happy and blessed;

(2) A doubt implied whether they were then so; and,

(3) A desire on the part of Paul to partake of their real and true joy, instead of being compelled to come to them with the language of rebuke and admonition; see 1 Corinthians 4:19, 1 Corinthians 4:21.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

8. Irony. Translate, "Already ye are filled full (with spiritual food), already ye are rich, ye have seated yourselves upon your throne as kings, without us." The emphasis is on "already" and "without us"; ye act as if ye needed no more to "hunger and thirst after righteousness," and as if already ye had reached the "kingdom" for which Christians have to strive and suffer. Ye are so puffed up with your favorite teachers, and your own fancied spiritual attainments in knowledge through them, that ye feel like those "filled full" at a feast, or as a "rich" man priding himself in his riches: so ye feel ye can now do "without us," your first spiritual fathers (1Co 4:15). They forgot that before the "kingdom" and the "fulness of joy," at the marriage feast of the Lamb, must come the cross, and suffering, to every true believer (2Ti 2:5, 11, 12). They were like the self-complacent Laodiceans (Re 3:17; compare Ho 12:8). Temporal fulness and riches doubtless tended in some cases at Corinth, to generate this spiritual self-sufficiency; the contrast to the apostle's literal "hunger and thirst" (1Co 4:11) proves this.

I would … ye did reign—Translate, "I would indeed," &c. I would truly it were so, and that your kingdom had really begun.

that we also might reign with you—(2Co 12:14). "I seek not yours, but you." Your spiritual prosperity would redound to that of us, your fathers in Christ (1Co 9:23). When you reach the kingdom, you shall be our "crown of rejoicing, in the presence of our Lord Jesus" (1Th 2:19).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Now ye are full, now ye are rich; you that are the teachers at Corinth, or you that are the members of the church there, think yourselves full of knowledge and wisdom, so as you stand in need of no further learning or instruction.

Ye have reigned as kings without us; ye think now you have got a kingdom, and are arrived at the top of felicity.

And I would to God ye did reign, that we also might reign with you; I am so far from envying you, that I wish it were so, and we might have a share with you. The apostle speaketh this ironically, not that he indeed thought they were so, but reflecting on their vain and too good an opinion of themselves.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Now ye are full,.... That is, in their own opinion: these words, and some following expressions, are an ironical concession. They were not full of God, and divine things; nor of Christ, and of grace out of his fulness; nor of the Holy Ghost, and of faith, as Stephen and Barnabas are said to be; nor of joy and peace in believing; nor of goodness and spiritual knowledge; but they were full of themselves, and were pulled up in their fleshly minds with an opinion of their abilities, learning, oratory, and eloquence, of their ministers, and of their own great improvements in knowledge under their ministrations. They fancied they had got to a perfection in knowledge and were brimful of it; and as the full stomach, from which the metaphor is taken, loathes the honeycomb, so these persons loathed the apostle's ministry, and the pure preaching of the Gospel; imagining that they had attained to something above it, and stood in no need of it; when, alas! they were but babes, children in understanding, and needed milk instead of strong meat; so far were they from being what they thought themselves to be.

Now ye are rich; not in faith; nor in good works; nor in spiritual gifts and knowledge, though some among them were; but that is not here intended: the meaning is, they were rich, and abounded in knowledge in their own account. Like the Laodiceans, they conceited themselves to be rich, and increased with goods, when they were poor, and wretched, and miserable.

Ye have reigned as kings without us. The saints, in the best sense, are kings, made so by Christ; and have not only the name, and the ensigns of royalty, as crowns and thrones prepared for them, but kingdoms also: they have a kingdom of grace, which they enjoy now, and shall never be removed; in which they reign as kings under the influence of the Spirit of God, over the corruptions of their own hearts, which are laid under the restraints of mighty grace; and over the world, which they have under the feet; and over Satan, who is dethroned and cast out of them; and they shall inherit the kingdom of glory hereafter; but nothing of this kind is here intended. The sense of the words is, that these persons imagined that they had arrived to such a pitch of knowledge, as to be independent of the apostles; needed no instructions and directions from them, and were in great tranquillity and ease of mind, and attended with outward prosperity, so that they lived, as kings, the most happy life that could be desired; upon which the apostle expresses his hearty wish for them:

and I would to God ye did reign; not in carnal security, and in affluence of worldly enjoyments, which the apostle was not desirous of for himself, and other his fellow ministers; nor in a spiritual sense, merely as believers in common, and as he then did; but with Christ in his kingdom state here on earth:

that we also might reign with you; for all the saints will be together when Christ takes to himself his great power, and reigns; they will all reign with him on earth a thousand years; this is a faithful saying, nothing more true, or to be depended on, that those that suffer with him shall also reign with him; and not a part of his people only, but the whole body: hence the apostle wishes, that this reigning time for the church of Christ was come, then he and the rest of the apostles would reign also: but, alas! it was a plain case, from the condition they were in, of which the following words give a narrative, that this time was not yet.

Geneva Study Bible

{9} 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.

(9) He descends to a most grave mockery, to cause those glory-seeking men to blush, even though they did not want to.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

1 Corinthians 4:8. The discourse, already in 1 Corinthians 4:7 roused to a lively pitch, becomes now bitterly ironical, heaping stroke on stroke, even as the proud Corinthians, with their partisan conduct, needed a νουθεσία (1 Corinthians 4:14) to teach them humility. The transition, too, from the individualizing singular to the plural corresponds to the rising emotion. The interrogative way of taking the passage (Baumgarten) weakens it without reason; for the disapproval of such bitter derision (Stolz, Rückert) is, in the first place, over-hasty, since Paul could not but know best how he had to chastise the Corinthians; and, in the second, it fails to recognise the fact, that he, just in consequence of the purity of his conscience, could give rein to the indignant temper amply warranted in him by the actual position of things, without justifying the suspicion of self-seeking and thirst for power (this in opposition to Rückert).

In κεκορ. ἐστέ, ἐπλουτ., and ἐβασιλ., we have a vehement climax: Already sated are ye, already become rich are ye; without our help ye have attained to dominion! The sarcastic force of this address, which shows the repulsive shape in which the inflated character and demeanour of the Corinthians presented itself, is intensified by the emphatically prefixed ἤδη … ἤδη and χωρὶς ἡμῶν: “already ye have, what was only expected in the coming αἰών, fulness of satisfaction and of enrichment in Messianic blessings; without our help (mine and that of Apollos, 1 Corinthians 4:6) are ye arrived at the highest stage of Messianic power and glory, at the βασιλεία!” You have already reached such a pitch of Christian perfection, are become without us such mightily exalted and dominant personages, that there is presented in you an anticipation of the future Messianic satisfaction, of the Messianic fulness of possession and dominion. Ordinarily, κεκορ. and ἐπλουτ. (comp Revelation 3:17) have been taken as referring specially to Christian knowledge and other endowments (comp 1 Corinthians 1:5), and ἐβασιλ. either as referring likewise to knowledge, the highest degree of it being meant (Vater, Heydenreich), or to high prosperity and repute in general (Calvin, Justiniani, Lightfoot, Wetstein, Flatt, Pott), or to the quiet security in which kings live (Grotius), or to the “dominium et jus statuendi de rebus Christianis” (Semler), or to the domination of the one sect over the other (Estius), or of the teacher over his party (Billroth is undecided between these two views). But all these interpretations fail to do justice to the sarcastic method of expression, although they in part correctly enough describe the state of the case, which is here ironically presented. The right view may be seen in Hofmann also. In connection with the ἐβασιλ. left without being more precisely defined, nothing came so naturally and at once to the Christian consciousness as the thought of the Messianic βασιλεία.[653] And how well this idea corresponds to the wish which follows! If, however, ἐβασ. applies to the Messianic ruling (see on 1 Corinthians 3:22; Usteri, Lehrbegriff, p. 370), and consequently to the συμβασιλεύειν of 2 Timothy 2:12, comp Romans 8:17, then in that case κεκορ. and ἐπλουτ. also, to preserve the symmetry of this ironical picture, must be understood in the sense of the Messianic consummation of all things, and must denote the being full and rich κατʼ ἐξοχήν (namely, in the blessings of the Messianic salvation), which for the Christian consciousness did not need to be particularly specified. Comp Matthew 5:6; 2 Corinthians 8:9. The perfect brings before us the state, the aorists the fact of having entered upon the possession. See Kühner, a[656] Xen. Mem. i. 1. 18. As to ἤδη, i.e. now already, see on John 4:35.

χωρὶς ἡμῶν] without whose work, in fact, you would not be Christians at all!

καὶ ὄφελόν γε κ.τ.λ[657]] and (the thought suddenly striking his mind) would that ye had indeed attained to dominion! In the later Greek writers ὄφελον is used as a particle, and joined with the indicative, 2 Corinthians 11:1; Galatians 5:12. See Matthiae, p. 1162. Buttmann, neut. Gr. p. 185 [E. T. 214 f.]. Γέ strengthens the force of ὌΦΕΛΟΝ; see Hartung, Partikell. I. p. 372 f.; Baeumlein, Partik. p. 55 f. The thought is: “Apart from this, that ye have without us become rulers, would that ye had at least (γέ) become such!” Comp Klotz, a[659] Devar. p. 281 f.

ἽΝΑ Κ. ἩΜΕῖς ὙΜῖΝ ΣΥΜΒΑΣ.] Ye would doubtless in that case, Paul deems, suffer us also to have some share (beside you) in your government! The subjunctive is quite according to rule (in opposition to Rückert), seeing that ἐβασιλ. denotes something completed from the speaker’s present point of view (have become rulers), and seeing that the design appears as one still subsisting in the present. See Klotz, a[660] Devar. p. 617 f.; Stallbaum, a[661] Plat. Crit. p. 43 B.

Observe, we may add, how the sarcastic climax ends at last with ΚΑῚ ὌΦΕΛΌΝ ΓΕ Κ.Τ.Λ[662] in a way fitted to put the readers deeply to shame. Comp Chrysostom.

[653] So rightly also Schrader, Rückert, de Wette, Osiander, Ewald, Neander, Hofmann. Comp. Olshausen (who, however, gives a rationalizing view of the ruling).

[656] d refers to the note of the commentator or editor named on the particular passage.

[657] .τ.λ. καὶ τὰ λοιπά.

[659] d refers to the note of the commentator or editor named on the particular passage.

[660] d refers to the note of the commentator or editor named on the particular passage.

[661] d refers to the note of the commentator or editor named on the particular passage.

[662] .τ.λ. καὶ τὰ λοιπά.

Expositor's Greek Testament

1 Corinthians 4:8 depicts the unjustifiable “glorying” of the readers with an abruptness due to excited feeling (cf. the asyndeton of 1 Corinthians 3:16): “How much you have received, and how you boast of it!—So soon you are satiated!” etc. The three first clauses—ἤδη, ἤδη, f1χωρὶς κ.τ.λ.—are exclamations rather than questions (W.H[703]). Distinguish ἤδη, jam, by this time; νῦν, nunc, at this time (1 Corinthians 3:2, etc.); ἄρτι, in præsenti, modo, just now or then, at the moment (1 Corinthians 13:12, etc.). κεκορεσμένοι ἐστέ (κορέννυμι, to glut, feed full; in cl[704] Gr[705] poetical, becoming prose in κοινή; for tense-form, cf. 1 Corinthians 1:10, ἦτε κατηρτ.: “So soon you have had your fill (are quite satisfied)!” The Cor[706] reported themselves, in the Church Letter (?), so well fed by Paul’s successors, so furnished in talent and grace, that they desired nothing more.—ἤδη ἐπλουτήσατε (aor[707], not pf. as before): “So soon you grew rich!” The Thanksgiving (1 Corinthians 1:5) and the list of charisms in 12. appear to justify this consciousness of wealth; but ostentation corrupted Cor[708] riches; spiritual satiety is a sign of arrested growth: contrast Php 3:10-14, and cf. Revelation 3:17, “Thou sayest, ὅτι Πλούσιός εἰμί καὶ πεπλούτηκα”. The climax of this sad irony is χωρὶς ἡμῶν ἐβασιλεύσατε (aor[709] again), “Without us (without our help) you have come to your kingdom!”—“Gradatio: saturi, divites, reges” (Bg[710]). Paul was given to understand, by some Cor[711], that they had outgrown his teaching: “Then,” he says, “you have surely entered the promised kingdom and secured its treasures, if God’s stewards have nothing more to impart to you!—I only wish you had!” so he continues in the words καὶ ὄφελόν γε κ.τ.λ., “Ay, I would indeed that you had entered the kingdom, that we too might share it with you!” It is Paul’s sigh for the end.—Βασιλεύω (see parls.) can only relate to the βασιλεία Θεοῦ, the Messianic reign (1 Corinthians 4:20, 1 Corinthians 6:9 f., 1 Corinthians 15:50; N.T. passim; cf. Luke 22:28 ff; Luke 6:2 f. below; the judicial assumptions of the Cor[712], in 3 ff., square with this); and the aor[713] in vbs. of “state” is inceptive (Br. § 41)—not “you reigned,” but “became kings” (ἐβασιλεύσατε). This, of course, can only come about when Christ returns (see 1 Corinthians 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:9, and notes); then His saints will share His glory (2 Timothy 2:10).—ὄφελον (losing its augm.) is in N.T. and later Gr[714] practically an adv[715]; it marks, with following ind[716] past, an impracticable wish (Wr[717], p. 377); γε (to be sure) accentuates the personal feeling. Πλουτέω, βασιλεύω remind us again of Stoic pretensions; see note, 1 Corinthians 3:22.

[703] Westcott and Hort’s The New Testament in Greek: Critical Text and Notes.

[704] classical.

[705] Greek, or Grotius’ Annotationes in N.T.

[706] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

[707] aorist tense.

[708] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

[709] aorist tense.

[710] Bengel’s Gnomon Novi Testamenti.

[711] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

[712] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

[713] aorist tense.

[714] Greek, or Grotius’ Annotationes in N.T.

[715] adverb

[716] indicative mood.

[717] Winer-Moulton’s Grammar of N.T. Greek (8th ed., 1877).

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

8–16. Contrast between the Corinthian Teachers and St Paul

8. Now ye are full, now ye are rich] Here we have one of the sudden turns of feeling so remarkable in the Apostle’s style. Abruptly breaking off at the word ‘boast,’ he dashes off into an animated and ironical apostrophe. ‘I may well say ‘boast’ for boasting is your crying sin, but it is boasting in yourselves, not in God. All your wants spiritual and temporal now are satisfied, you have become rich, you are reigning like kings. But in your self-satisfaction you give not a thought to those whose labours have made you what you are. Would that it were really with you as you imagine it to be! Then we might hope for some remission of our trials, distresses, humiliations. But at present all the sorrow, suffering, shame is ours, while either in fact or in fancy you are enjoying all the good things given to Christians, immunity from suffering, quiet of conscience (Romans 8:1), wisdom, honour, inward satisfaction.’ The word translated full has the sense of being satiated with good things, (Vulgate, saturati). Some editors read the verse as a series of questions. But the affirmative form strengthens the irony of the passage.

without us] Though St Paul had admitted the Corinthians into the same blessings as he enjoyed himself, he had no share in their blessings.

and I would to God ye did reign, that we also might reign with you] The Apostle does not regard the persecutions and distresses he underwent as desirable for their own sake, but only as means to an end. The empire of evil is not to be destroyed without a conflict, and the sufferings endured by Christ’s servants are the evidences that it is going on. But the best of those who are thus contending for the truth may lawfully wish that the conflict were over and the reign of the saints begun. Such a wish, in fact, appears to be expressed by the words, ‘Thy kingdom come.’

Bengel's Gnomen

1 Corinthians 4:8. Ἤδη, now), in comparison with us. The words without us, which immediately after occur, agree with this.—κεκορεσμένοι, full) A gradation [ascending climax]: full, rich, kings. Its opposite is, we hunger, etc., 1 Corinthians 4:11-12. As the two epistles to the Corinthians exhibit great variety in mental feeling [ἦθος, Append.], incomparable urbanity [asteismus, Append.], and abundant and playful acuteness, so the passage before us is to such a degree remarkable for these qualities, that it should be understood, in respect either of the Corinthians or of the apostles, concerning their internal or external condition, concerning the facts themselves or concerning the puffed-up opinion of the Corinthians. The spiritual condition of the Corinthians was truly flourishing—flourishing also was that of the apostles. This was right: but troubles [the cross] from without galled the apostles and prevented them from pleasing themselves on that account: the Corinthians, inasmuch as being in a flourishing state even in things external, were pleased with and were applauding themselves, which was wrong. Therefore, the Corinthians were imitating the conduct of sons, who, after they have become illustrious, care little for their humble parents: in consequence of fulness, they were fastidious; of opulence, they were insolent; of kingly power, they were proud.—χωρὶς ἡμῶν, without us) A new and apt ambiguity; you have not us as your partners; consequently you have not had us as your assistants; you have forgotten us, as the saying expresses it, “many pupils become superior to their teachers,” πολλοὶ μαθηταὶ κρείττονες διδασκάλων.—ἐβασιλεύσατε, ye have reigned) ye have come to your kingdom. In this is implied the majesty of Christians.—καὶ ὄφελόν γε, and I wish) i.e. I do not envy you, my only desire is, that it may really promote your best interests, 2 Corinthians 12:14-15.—ἵνα καὶ ἡμεῖς, that we also) When you shall be perfected, the apostles will enjoy ease, and reach the end of all their troubles.—συμβασιλεύσωμεν, we might reign together) This is modestly said: with you; comp. 1 Corinthians 9:23, 1 Corinthians 3:22.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 8. - Now ye are full, now ye are rich; rather, already ye have been sated, already ye grew rich. There is a strong but healing irony in these expressions, and in the entire contrast between the comfortable, full fed, regal self satisfaction of the Corinthians, and the depression and scorn in the midst of which the apostles lived. The loving delicate irony is, in a different way, as effective as the stern denunciation of St. John: "Thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked" (Revelation 3:17). St. Paul's satire is always akin to charity; it is never satire with no pity in it. Ye have reigned as kings. The word simply means "ye reigned." Like the Stoics, so each little Corinthian sectarian regarded himself as a king. "To reign" was, however, a proverbial phrase (like the Latin vivo et regno) for being "happy as a king." Without us (comp. Hebrews 11:40). The Corinthians were cultivated enough to appreciate the deep irony of the phrase, "We poor apostles have become quite needless to you in your lordly independence." And I would to God ye did reign. The words "to God" should be omitted. The loving heart of St. Paul could never long keep up a strain of irony. He drops the satire, and passes on to impassioned and affectionate appeal. That we also might reign with you. If the exalted eminence which you now only enjoy in your own conceits had been but real, then we, whose "hope, and joy, and crown of exultation you are in the presence of Christ" (1 Thessalonians 2:19), should share the grandeur with you. 1 Corinthians 4:8

Vincent's Word Studies

Now ye are full (ἤδη κεκορεσμένοι ἐστέ)

Rev., better, filled. Ironical contrast between their attitude and that of the apostle in 1 Corinthians 4:3, 1 Corinthians 4:4. We are hungering for further revelations; ye are already filled without waiting for the Lord's coming.

Ye have reigned (ἐβασιλεύσατε)

American Rev., better, ye have come to reign; attained to dominion, that kingship which will be bestowed on Christians only at Christ's coming.

Without us

Though it is through us that you are Christians at all.