This paper is inspired by Giorgio Agamben's reading of the apostle Paul's ontological formula "hōs mē" ("as if not") and its significance for an existential response to the problem of social inequality. In 1 Corinthians, Paul exhorts a mode for fulfilling one's role in society while keeping in mind that it does not fully determine the meaning of one's life. The messianic formula of life hōs mē brackets the social and normative force of one's status without denying its material reality. Understood through the lens of kairos, hōs mē provides a distinctive messianic temporal mode as an existential strategy to engage social inequality beyond legal reform or identity assertion. The paper situates this ontological proposal in critical dialogue with selected decolonial reflections, demonstrating that living within hōs mē resonates with analyses of non-sovereign agency, opacity, and life under constraint, and may be mobilized beyond explicitly theological frameworks.