The Apostle John, looking back in wonder, writes that he and the other disciples had “handled” the “word of life” by touching Jesus! The NT Greek word translated “handled” in 1 John 1:2 is translated “handle” in Luke 24:39, “might feel after” in Acts 17:27, and “that may be touched” in Hebrews 12:18. The word “made flesh” was tactile and touchable in the person of the Son of God.
Until Jesus likewise becomes visible and tangible in his followers, he will remain abstract, unreal and “other-worldly” as he is to those who are not Christians.
The Lord Jesus was the embodiment of “the word of life”. Yet it is not only possible but highly desirable that Christians embody the words they preach, to the degree that those in need will, by faith, be able to see the Lord Jesus in them and then be touched by him through them (1 Corinthians 4:6).
Paul “figuratively transferred” to himself and Apollos truths he had taught at Corinth, and in so doing made truth less abstract and more real to them by relating it to two apostles they very much admired — “That you may learn in us”; learn through the differences in us that the Truth is bigger than both of us!
So we should refrain from using personal differences as an excuse to favour some Christian leaders more than others. The NT Greek word “phusioo” is onomatopoeic, i.e. sounds like what it describes: a puffed-up balloon! Paul uses the word repeatedly in his first letter to the church at Corinth, which leads us to think that some of its leaders had a highly inflated opinion of themselves.
Paul then switches from humility to irony, his gently humorous way of deflating the self-important groups. “Who makes you better than someone else?” (Verse 7) prepares them for “You are already full! You are already rich! You have reigned as kings without us.”
Paul’s strong irony is seen in his statement that if these “puffed-up” persons were in fact already reigning with Jesus, the despised apostles would be right up there with them — a thought that would not have even entered their inflated minds!
Verse 9 presents the spectacle of a conquering general parading his captives in a packed arena, with the most important behind and the least important – “the scum of the earth” — at the rear. It appears that some of the newer leaders had been elevated at the expense of the apostles. The expandable, would be” false apostles dismissed the true ones as expendable.
The name Paul means “least”. His ego had been punctured on the Damascus Road years before, and he was not about to let self be seen in divisive groups in the church who saw their new, so-called apostles as untouchable; so, the true apostle pricked their inflated egos with pointed sarcasm.
“I am crucified with Christ,” wrote Paul the apostle” in Galatians 2:20, “Nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me and the life which I now live in the flesh (body) I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20) The personal pronoun “I” (ego) seems at first to be a paradox, but the crucified ego is replaced by the new ego of the “born again” and resurrected believer. This solves the paradox and the phrase “in the flesh” ensures us that the home of this new ego is the body of every believer! Jesus, touching the needy through us, as they see him in us!