I deal with young people day in and day out who are obsessed with polishing their fame and reputation; Christ is secondary to the image they feel they must project. Some will even go as far as to "re-invent themselves" on places like MySpace or Facebook.
It's a hard step for us all to swallow the words of Paul in 1 Corinthians 4:13 -
"... we are made as the filth of the world, [and are] the offscouring of all things unto this day."
The Corinthian Christians were filled with pride in their own spirituality, finding it hard to identify with someone as "low" as Paul because of his “weaknesses” like physical infirmities and humility. Paul tells them of the reality of Christianity: we are considered the filth of the world and the "offscouring" to everyone. And that's not necessarily bad.
"Offscouring" is, in the Greek, the word peripsema {per-ip'-say-mah} and has a very graphic descrition of the lowliness of men. The Athenians had a yearly "offering" to the waters in order to "pay off" Poseidon. The human victims were called “scrapings” in the belief that they would wipe away the populations' guilt. In order to avoid public calamities, the Greeks cast a criminal into the sea as an offering; hence the term became used for a ransom. As they threw the worthless people into the sea (especially during a time of plague or famine, they would shout “Be our offscouring!”
Paul uses that term to describe us. We are the ransom, the willing offscouring, ready to pay the ransom. We are really the lowly of the population, fixing our lives to be sacrifices so that others may come to Jesus. Are we willing to take on that mindset...so that others may see salvation's path?
