Paul and other first-century apostles and pastors lived in circumstances similar to our own. They represented a faith on the very margin of life in their world. More often than not their message was despised by the larger culture, whether Jewish or Gentile. Paul could declare that he and his fellow apostles were the “scum of the earth, the refuse of the world” (1 Cor. 4:13) and that the gospel was “a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles” (1 Cor. 1:23).