Articles
Important Questions - 11
“For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it,, why do you glory as if you had not received it?” (1 Corinthians 4:7)
These three questions come near the end of Paul’s discussion of pride as manifested in the divisions in the Corinthian church (chs 1-4). Paul has blasted them for applying a carnal template to prominent figures in the kingdom, exalting some while minimizing others. This tendency to “think beyond what is written,” says Paul, is self-serving arrogance (1 Cor 4:6).
He thus asks three rhetorical questions, the first two of which establish the grounds for the rebuke implied in the last question:
1) Who makes you differ? Answer: God. Variation among servants is God’s doing, not man’s. It is not grounds for pride.
2) What did you not receive? Answer: Nothing; God gives all.
3) Why do you glory? Answer: [Embarrassing silence …] There is no reason to glory since all blessings are attributable to God. Why, then, should I boast that I follow the eloquent Apollos and despise the Paulites? Or why exalt Peter as a companion of the Lord and denounce Apollos as a second-tier evangelist? Such competitiveness is immature and destructive.
