"Suffering fools is unavoidable," said Ray Ipsow, "but don't ask me to be 'glad' about it."
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Nobody who is actually suffering fools chooses to be glad about it. But Paul makes the rhetorical argument that the Corinthians must suffer fools gladly, having listened to other anti-Christian arguments and seemingly taken them to heart. So Paul is all, "Look. You obviously have a history of listening to idiots. So what's the harm in listening to me, a self-proclaimed idiot?!" In doing so, he's not suggesting everybody in the world suffer fools gladly. He's suggesting the opposite! He's all, "Stop listening to fools, you idiots! Listen to me and Christ and the church!" Sure, he keeps saying in parenthetical references, "I'm a fool too!" But he doesn't mean it! It's just his way of worming himself through the Corinthians' front door so he can preach the gospel directly into their faces. To suffer fools gladly is to listen to terrible, self-serving, idiotic arguments that in no way improve your life (or the lives of others) through debate. Debate isn't a goal in and of itself! It's a tool and sometimes it's not the right tool. So when some asshat like Charlie Kirk or Ben Shapiro spouts a volcano of belligerent nonsense about somebody refusing to debate them, realize that they're basically screaming, "This person wants to drill a hole but they won't accept my hammer to do it!"
Suffer fools gladly? No thank you, sir. Even Paul, who said it, didn't actually mean it!
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