Pride catechized and condemned
‘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?’ 1 Corinthians 4:7
SUGGESTED
FURTHER READING: Obadiah 3–12
Pride grows
apace like other ill weeds. It will live on any soil. In the natural heart it
flourishes, springing up without sowing and growing without watering; even in
the renewed heart it all too readily takes root when Satan casts abroad a
handful of its seed.
Of all
creatures in the world the Christian is the last who ought to be proud; and
yet, alas, we have had mournful evidence both in past history and in our own observation,
and worst of all in our own personal experience, that Christians may become
lifted up to their own shame. Paul set himself very earnestly to deal with this
disease when he saw it raging among the Corinthians. He felt it needful to do so,
for it was leading to other mischiefs of the most disgraceful kind. Pride and
self-conceit had led the members of the church in Corinth to choose for
themselves distinct leaders and to arrange themselves under separate banners,
the followers of this man thinking themselves better than the followers of
that.
Thus the body
of Christ was divided, and all sorts of ill-feeling, jealousy, emulation and
envy sprang up in the church of God where all ought to have been mutual
helpfulness and loving unity. Paul, therefore, earnestly and with great wisdom
assailed the spirit of pride. He was well aware that pride is shallow and
superficial. It cannot endure honest questioning and so he tried it by the
Socratic method and put it through a catechism.
He puts three
questions to it in this verse, which all called upon his friends to go a little
lower in their contemplation of themselves than their pride had before allowed
them to go. Pride said, ‘I have such and such gifts’, but Paul replied, ‘What
hast thou that thou didst not receive?’ Thus he digged deeper and undermined
pride.
‘All that I was, my sin, my guilt, my
death, was all mine own;
All that I am, I owe to Thee, my gracious
God, alone.’
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