John Calvin 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 you are full. Having earnestly, and without the use of any figure, refuted their vain confidence, he now also ridicules it by way of irony, because they are so self-complacent, as if they were the happiest persons in the world. He proceeds, too, step by step, in exposing their insolence. In the first place, he says, that they were full: this refers to the past. He then adds, You are rich: this applies to the future. Lastly, he says, that they had reigned as kings; this is much more than either of those two. It is as though he had said, “What will you attain to, when you appear to be not merely full for the present, but are also rich for the future—even more, are kings?” At the same time, he tacitly upbraids them for ingratitude, because they had the audacity to despise him, or rather those, through whom they had obtained everything.

Without us, says he. “For Apollos and I are now esteemed nothing by you, though it is through us that the Lord has conferred everything upon you. How inhumane it is to complacently rest in the gifts of God, while meanwhile you despise those through whom you obtained them!”

And I wish that you did reign. Here he declares that he does not envy their happiness (if indeed they have any), and that from the beginning he has not sought to reign among them, but only to bring them to the kingdom of God. He intimates, however, on the other hand, that the kingdom in which they gloried was merely imaginary, and that their glorying was groundless and pernicious, since there is no true glorying except that which is enjoyed by all the sons of God in common, under Christ their Head, and each of them according to the measure of the grace that has been given him.

For by these words, that you also may reign with us, he means this—“You are so renowned in your own opinion that you do not hesitate to despise me, and those like me, but see how vain your glorying is. For you can have no glorying before God, in which we do not have a share—for if honor accrues to you from having the gospel of God, how much more to us, through whose ministry it was conveyed to you! And assuredly, this is a madness that is common to all the proud, that by drawing everything to themselves, they strip themselves of every blessing—even more, they renounce the hope of everlasting salvation.”