Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Corinthians 4:8

"Already are ye filled, already ye are become rich, ye have come to reign without us: yea and I would that ye did reign, that we also might reign with you." — 1 Corinthians 4:8 (ASV)

Now ye are full.—The three following sentences are ironical. The emphasis is on the word “now.” You 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 people who are not even yet in the prelude of a matter to be proud-minded, as if they had reached the end.”

Without us.—The Apostle desired his converts to be 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 will end, expresses his deep longing for that blessed change. (See 1 Corinthians 3:22; 1 Corinthians 9:23, where similarly the Apostle shows that in rebuking the folly of the Corinthian Church he does not underestimate their privileges.)