Who Makes You to Differ 1 Corinthians 4:7

Paul the apostle told the Corinthian church members that he knew “nothing by” himself, and he questioned, “am I not hereby justified?” He concluded, “he that judges” him “is the Lord”, and in chapter four and verse seven of First Corinthians, Paul asks the church members in Corinth, “who makes you to differ from another” where we read:

For who makes you to differ from another? and what do you have that you did not receive? now if you did receive it, why do you glory, as if you had not received it?

The verse begins, “For who makes you to differ from another? and what do you have that you did not receive?” Paul began with the word, “For” which means “even as, indeed, no doubt, seeing then and therefore” “who makes you to differ” which means “what person separates, makes a distinction, discriminates and withdraws the church members” “from another” or “other people”? “and what do you have” which means “what do the church members hold, possess or own” “that you” which refers to the Corinthian church members “did not receive” or “did not take with the hand, lay hold of, carry or take away”? Paul wanted to know who made the Corinthian church members “distinct and separate” from other people, and what did they have that had not been given to them?

The verse goes on to say, “now if you did receive it, why do you glory, as if you had not received it?”. Paul continued with the word, “now if” which means “even and although” “you did receive it” or “took with the hand, laid hold of, carried and took away”, “why do you glory” or “what is the reason that you vaunt or boast” “as if you had not” which means “as though the church members had not” “received it” or “ took with the hand, laid hold of, carried and took away”. Since the Corinthian church members “received” what they had, Paul wanted to know why they were “taking credit and boasting” as though they did not gain it from an outside source.

When we think through these words from Paul, we see how he made all the church members in Corinth in a same group of people. They were no “different” than other people, and they did not have anything they had not “received” from an outside source. In the New Testament book of James, chapter one and verse seventeen, it says, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning”. This idea was true for the Corinthians. God gave them what they “received”, and they should have only “gloried” in God for it. The “gospel of Jesus Christ” was given to the Corinthians, and it was provided for everyone else as well. We should remember the “gospel of Jesus Christ” is available to “whosoever” will, and there is no special “difference” between anyone “receives” it.

Next time Paul tells the Corinthians, “you are full, now you are rich, you have reigned as kings without us”, so read ahead, and we shall join together then.

Until tomorrow…there is more…

Look for the daily devotional book “Equipped for Battle – From Generation to Generation”, the marriage book “So, You Want to Be Married”, and the new devotional “One Year in the Sermon on the Mount” in all major bookstore sites, http://www.amazon.com ; http://www.barnesandnobles.com ; download to e-books, and find it locally at www.mrzlc.com/bookstore.