1 Corinthians 4:7

“For who maketh thee to differ? And what hast thou that thou didst not receive? And if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it?”

Here is the standard indicated by the It is written. For one of the fundamental truths of Scripture is that the creature possesses nothing which is not a gift of the Creator.

Sometimes the three questions of this verse have been applied solely to the party chiefs and not to the members of the Church. But the apostle does not distinguish so strictly between the admirers and the admired; for the line of demarcation between teachers and taught was not so exactly drawn then as it was afterwards.

The first question refers to the superiority claimed by each eminent member of a party relatively to those of the other parties. The apostle asks this man, who thinks himself superior to others, to whom he ascribes the honour of the privileged position he has gained. For this meaning of διακρίνειν, to distinguish, comp. 1 Corinthians 11:29; Acts 15:9. What is the answer expected? Some think it is: nobody. They rely on the fact that the answer to the second question is certainly: nothing. The apostle's object, on this view, is to deny even the superiority of which this individual boasts. But in this sense should not the apostle have written τί (what is it that?) rather than τίς (who is he that?)? Others think that the answer understood is God: “He that maketh thee differ from others by superiority of gifts, is not thyself, but God.” This sense is certainly better. But thereby the question becomes almost identical with the following one. Is it not better to state the answer thus: “ not thyself. ” There is thus in the following question a gradation indicated by the δέ. Indeed, this second question bears on the qualities which are matters of pride to the individual, his gifts, lights, eloquence, and the answer is: “absolutely nothing. ” The third question implies the conclusion to be drawn from the other two. The καί may be regarded as independent of εἰ : “If really ” (Hofmann, Holsten). But it may also form with εἰ a single conjunction in the sense of though: “How, though having received, dost thou boast as if thou hadst not received?” This is the most natural meaning; comp. Edwards.

In this interrogative form thrice repeated, and in the individual apostrophe, thou, the emotion, the indignation even, which fills the apostle, shows itself strongly. He is revolted at the thought of those empty pretensions, so contrary to the humility which faith should inspire. At this point the spectacle of the sin of the Church passes before his view with such liveliness that his discourse all at once takes the form of a long sarcasm. He thinks he sees before him the old Pharisaism raised again in the forms of the Christian life. His burning irony does not take end till 1 Corinthians 4:13, where it is extinguished in grief.