1 Corinthians 3:21-23

‘Wherefore let no one glory in men. For all things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come. All are yours, and you are Christ's and Christ is God's.'

So their eyes are not to be turned on men and their supposed wisdom, nor must they glory in men. They are but passing. Indeed such things are not of real importance. They are merely the possessions of those who are God's. Rather they are to glory in the Lord (1 Corinthians 1:31). They are to recognise that because they belong to Christ, and Christ is God's, they possess all things (John 16:15; John 17:10). They actually possess Paul, Apollos and Cephas because they are but God's servants. They actually possess the world which is God's creation. They possess life which is under the control of Christ their Master (John 5:21; John 5:24; John 5:28), and they possess death which He has conquered (Hebrews 2:14; Revelation 1:18). And they possess things present and things to come. For both the present and the future are under His control, because He is the On Who is, and Who was and Who is to come, the Almighty (Revelation 1:8), the One Who is all in all (1 Corinthians 15:28).

‘Or life, or death, or things present, or things to come.' For this compare Romans 8:38 where such phrases are linked with creatures in the heavenly world, angels, principalities and powers. Men's destinies are controlled by greater powers than they know, but they Who are Christ's need not be afraid for He controls all and all are subject to Him (see also Ephesians 1:21).

‘All things are yours.' Not because they had an intrinsic right to them but because they belong to Christ, to Whom all else belongs. Thus in Christ they are above both earthly and heavenly creatures and teachers, and need and should look to none but Him (Ephesians 1:19 to Ephesians 2:10).

‘And you are Christ's, and Christ is God's.' Here is the nub of the matter. They belong to Christ and are in Him (see John 17:9). They are His own treasured possession (Titus 2:14; 1 Peter 2:9). That is why they share all that is His. Why then look to men's wisdom when they can know Christ Who is the wisdom of God, and indeed belong to Him? And not only that but they share with Him in the glory of His presence, dwelling in Him and He in them. They are His body, the fullness of Him Who fills all in all (Ephesians 1:23).

And what is more He is of the Godhead and dwells in God and God in Him (John 14:11). He belongs wholly to God. And as He is in the Father so we are in Him and He in us (John 14:20). And God is supreme over all things.

‘And Christ is God's.' Here we reach the ultimate of existence. Christ is the connection between God and men, not only because He is the supreme Man, the Spiritual One (1 Corinthians 2:15) but also because he belongs to God. He is of God and He is the mediator between God and men (1 Timothy 2:5). For the new revelation is that He can only be this because He is both God and Man. He is enveloped in the Godhead. In the beginning He already existed as God in full communion with the Father (Jonah 1:1). Before creation was, He was. But in His manhood He took the form of a servant, thrusting aside His equality with God (Philippians 2:6).

In His Godhood (to the manifestation of which God restored Him - John 17:5), He is Lord over all, Yahweh (‘kurios' - ‘the Lord'), to Whom every knee shall bow (Philippians 2:9). Yet in His manhood He could say in His humiliation as man, ‘My Father is greater than I' (John 14:28).

In His Godhood He is One with the Father, in such a way that he who has seen Him has seen the Father (John 14:9), so that He has essentially the right to equal honour with the Father (John 5:23). Thus He and the Father are One in all things (John 10:30). Indeed in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead in bodily form (Colossians 2:9), a fullness revealed as He tabernacled among us (John 1:14; John 1:18).

Thus when He, having become man and representing man, has finally gathered all together to reconcile them with the Father, He Himself as representing Man and creation will subject Himself to the Godhead, and God will be all in all (1 Corinthians 15:27). The Triune God will, as it were, have taken all to Himself.

So how foolish it would be to glory in men and the puny wisdom that they teach. And this now leads on to the final reminder that all such men will have to give account of themselves to God.