1 Corinthians 4:11

11 Even unto this hour we both hunger and thirst and are naked and are buffeted and have no fixed abode.

1 Corinthians 4:11 Meaning and Commentary

1 Corinthians 4:11

Even unto this present hour
What is about to be related was not what befell the apostles now and then, and a great while ago; but what for a considerable time, and unto the present time, was more or less the common constant series and course of life they were inured to:

we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked;
wanted the common necessaries of life, food to eat, and raiment to put on, and gold and silver to purchase any with; which might be, when, as it was sometimes their case, they were in desert places, or on the seas; or when they fell among thieves; or had given all away, as they sometimes did, for the relief of others; or when they were not, as sometimes, taken notice of, and provided for, where they ministered, as they ought to have been.

And are buffeted;
not only by Satan, as the apostle was, but by men; scourged, whipped, and beaten by them; scourged in the synagogues by the Jews with forty stripes save one; and beaten with rods by the Romans, and other Gentiles.

And have no certain dwelling place;
were in an unsettled state, always moving from one place to another, and had no place they could call their own; like their Lord and master, who had not where to lay his head; and like some of the Old Testament saints, who wandered about in sheep skins and goat skins, in deserts, and in mountains, in dens and caves of the earth.

1 Corinthians 4:11 In-Context

9 For I think that God hath set forth us apostles, the last, as it were men appointed to death. We are made a spectacle to the world and to angels and to men.
10 We are fools for Christs sake, but you are wise in Christ: we are weak, but you are strong: you are honourable, but we without honour.
11 Even unto this hour we both hunger and thirst and are naked and are buffeted and have no fixed abode.
12 And we labour, working with our own hands. We are reviled: and we bless. We are persecuted: and we suffer it.
13 We are blasphemed: and we entreat. We are made as the refuse of this world, the offscouring of all, even until now.
The Douay-Rheims Bible is in the public domain.