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 have glory, but we have dishonor.

The power of these words derives from the truth that Paul was himself the founder of the church in Corinth. He had rescued them from the temples of vice and debauchery, preached to them the unsearchable riches of Christ, nurtured them in their weakness and immaturity as Christians, and suffered and toiled among them, even working in order to eat bread; and now, at the first visible signs of material prosperity among them, they openly despised their teacher, heaped unto themselves popular, shallow leaders after their own lusts, and were indulging the most amazing boastfulness and conceit. It was truly a disgusting development; and Paul's words here exposed the moral ugliness of their behavior.

Fools ... means "fools in the eyes of the world."

We ... yet, etc. ... contrasts Paul with the Corinthians in terms of their own egotistical reversal of the true values. Forsaking the true values and methods as taught by the apostles, those at Corinth had discovered a way of preaching "so as to procure a name of wisdom, reputation and profundity."[29] To discover such a way and then to walk in it has been a temptation to every preacher of the word of God who ever lived.