Verse 8
His readers were behaving as though they had already received their commendation at the judgment seat of Christ. This is an indication of their over-realized eschatology. They should have been conducting themselves as under-rowing servants and paying attention to managing God’s work faithfully (1 Corinthians 4:1). Ironically Paul said he wished the time for rewards had arrived so he could enjoy reigning with his readers. Unfortunately suffering must precede glory.
"The irony is devastating: How they perceive themselves, masterfully overstated in 1 Corinthians 4:8; 1 Corinthians 4:10, is undoubtedly the way they think he ought to be. But the way he actually is, set forth in the rhetoric of 1 Corinthians 4:11-13, is the way they all ought to be." [Note: Ibid., p. 165.]
Irony and sarcasm were popular modes of discourse in Greco-Roman antiquity (cf. 2 Corinthians 11:7). [Note: Keener, p. 45.]
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