Dec 26, 2010

Commentaries on I Cor. 4; 7

"For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?" (I Cor. 4: 7)

Charles Hodge

"It is here assumed that every thing, whether natural or gracious, by which one man is favorably distinguished from another, is due to God; and being thus due to him and not to the possessor, is a cause of gratitude, but not of self-complacency or of self-applause. This is true even of those things which are acquired by great self-denial and exertion."

Notice that Hodge does not limit "what you have" to a certain category of persons or gifts. He applies it broadly as I did in my discussion with Peter Lumpkins.

Matthew Henry

"We have no reason to be proud; all we have, or are, or do, that is good, is owing to the free and rich grace of God. A sinner snatched from destruction by sovereign grace alone, must be very absurd and inconsistent, if proud of the free gifts of God."

Matthew Henry saw "what you have" very broadly also, as universalistic language, a thing Peter Lumpkins refused to do in the passage.

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