I Corinthians 4:7
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For who makes you so superior? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
Translate, "Who distinguisheth thee (above another)?" Not thyself, but God. glory, as if thou hadst not received it--as if it was to thyself, not to God, thou owest the receiving of it.
Open source ↗Here the apostle improves the foregoing hint to a caution against pride and self-conceit, and sets forth the temptations the Corinthians had to despise him, from the difference of their circumstances. I. He cautions them against pride and self-conceit by this consideration, that all the distinction made among them was owing to God: Who maketh thee to differ? And what hast thou that thou didst not receive? Co1 4:7. Here the apostle turns his discourse to the ministers who set themselves at the head of these factions, and did but too much encourage and abet the people in those feuds. What had they to glory in, when all their peculiar gifts were from God? They had received them, and could not glory in them as their own, without wronging God. At the time when they reflected on them to feed their vanity, they should have considered them as so many debts and obligations to divine bounty and grace. But it may be taken as a general maxim: We have no reason to be proud of our attainments, enjoyments, or performances; all that we have, or are, or do, that is good, is owing to the free and rich grace of God. Boasting is for ever excluded. There is nothing we have that we can properly call our own: all is received from God. It is foolish in us therefore, and injurious to him, to boast of it; those who receive all should be proud of nothing, Psa 115:1. Beggars and dependents may glory in their supports; but to glory in themselves is to be proud at once of meanness, impotence, and want. Note, Due attention to our obligations to divine grace would cure us of arrogance and self-conceit. II. He presses the duty of humility upon them by a very smart irony, or at least reproves them for their pride and self-conceit: "You are full, you are rich, you have reigned as kings without us. You ha…
Open source ↗4:7 Pride in a particular leader results from failure to realize that everything is a gift from God. There is no room for pride; humble gratitude is the only appropriate attitude.
Open source ↗Original language
The Hebrew and Greek words behind this passage, with Strong's numbers — from openscriptures (CC BY-SA).
Cross-references
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John replied, “A man can receive only what is given him from heaven.
As good stewards of the manifold grace of God, each of you should use whatever gift he has received to serve one another.
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, with whom there is no change or shifting shadow.
We have different gifts according to the grace given us. If one’s gift is prophecy, let him use it in proportion to his faith;
From His fullness we have all received grace upon grace.
For the LORD gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.
Beforehand, he called ten of his servants and gave them ten minas. ‘Conduct business with this until I return,’ he said.
But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace to me was not in vain. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.
I wish that all men were as I am. But each man has his own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that.
As for you, O king, the Most High God gave your father Nebuchadnezzar sovereignty and greatness, glory and honor.