If the Corinthians still haven’t gotten the message, maybe they’ll get this one: being a superstar isn’t fortune and glory, it’s foolishness and a prison. Certainly Paul doesn’t hate his calling, but he certainly has had his share of persecution and will have even more. It’s no glamorous job. For the Corinthians to brag about knowing him isn’t, to Paul’s estimation, a mark of nobility, but it’s to identify themselves with the oppressed. As Christ was, so is Paul. To get very far from that identity is to get too far from Christ.