1 Corinthians 4:7 Commentary and Bible Study

You have formed into groups at Corinth, he tells them, and you are very proud of your champion. You have selected your chosen name to admire, the one you are going to line up behind, and you boost that person, and say to yourselves, ‘I am pleased with myself because I have chosen this particular preacher to champion and to represent, and ignore the others. And what made me do this? Well, presumably my superior discernment and wisdom. So I'm proud to be in this party and representing this particular great name.’ Well who made you to differ from another, and what do you have that you did not receive? You think you have judgement. You think you have discernment. You think you are superior in some way to other believers, but anything that you have got, any understanding, any light, any virtues: they have all been given to you. You did not produce them or work them up yourself. ‘Now if thou didst receive it’ by the grace of God – salvation, light, life, everything – ‘why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it’, but given it to yourself? So pride is a problem with party spirit in Corinth. Well, how do differ from any other Christian? Doesn’t every other Christian have the same blessings? What have you that God didn’t give you, free and undeserved? So, why begin to think proudly, as though you obtained these things for yourself? Pride must be resisted to the very end of life.