“For who maketh thee to differ from another? 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?”
The full verse · 1 Corinthians 4:7 · KJV
to from another? hast thou ? now thou didst it, dost thou , if thou it?
Asked by
Paul: the apostle who first planted the church at Corinth (1 Corinthians 3:6, 10), now writing to correct its divisions
Asked to
Corinthians: believers at Corinth who were "puffed up for one against another" over their teachers (1 Corinthians 4:6)
The Scene
Paul has just explained that he applied his teaching to himself and Apollos so that none of the Corinthians would "be puffed up for one against another" (1 Corinthians 4:6).
Why It Was Asked
The purpose behind the questionPaul aims three short questions at pride. The first asks who made you different from anyone else. Barnes answers, "It is God who makes one, in any of these respects, to differ from others"; he says Paul "doubtless" has in mind the gifts that made one teacher seem more eminent than another. Gill takes the questions as put to the church members who were glorying in the ministers under whom they were converted. The second question asks what you have that was not given to you. The third presses the point home: if it was all received, why boast as if you made it yourself? Gill says such glorying "betrays wretched vanity."
The Response
What Scripture recordsThe answers are plain: God made the difference, nothing was not received, and there is no reason to boast. Paul then turns to irony: "Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us" (1 Corinthians 4:8). He sets their self-satisfaction beside the apostles' lives: "We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ" (1 Corinthians 4:10). Then he softens: "I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you" (1 Corinthians 4:14).
Historical Context
The world behind the wordsBeing "puffed up" is a running problem in this letter: the KJV uses the phrase in 1 Corinthians 4:6, 4:18, 4:19, and 5:2, and later says love "is not puffed up" (1 Corinthians 13:4). Paul had already reminded them, "He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord" (1 Corinthians 1:31). In Greek, "maketh thee to differ" is diakrinei, to distinguish or make different, and "glory" is kauchasai, "you boast." The singular "thee" and "thou" make the question personal: Paul speaks to each reader, not just to the church as a crowd.
The Bigger Picture
Where this fits in God's storyThese questions reach far beyond Corinth. Barnes calls the verse a general truth: "the reason why one man differs from another is to be traced to God." Matthew Henry draws the conclusion that "those who receive all should be proud of nothing." Every gift, ability, and grace is received, so the only fitting response is thanks.
The chapter shows the contrast. The proud Corinthians acted as if they already reigned (1 Corinthians 4:8). The apostles lived as "the offscouring of all things" (1 Corinthians 4:13). Grace does not make people proud. It makes them grateful servants.
Look Closer
What was the Corinthians' boasting really about, according to the context?
Carry the question into prayer and conversation.
Father, what have I been treating as my own achievement that was really Your gift to me?
A prayer to carry into the day.
- What gifts or strengths are you most tempted to compare with others? What happens in you when you remember they were given?
- Tell about a time you saw someone use a gift humbly. What made their humility stand out?
For you, a small group, a friend, or the dinner table.
Everything good you have was received: your life, your abilities, your faith, the people who taught you. When you notice yourself feeling above someone else, ask Paul's three questions. They do not crush you; they turn pride into gratitude.
This does not mean effort is pointless. Barnes notes that this truth "should not operate to discourage, but should prompt to human effort." Work hard with what you have received, and give God the credit for the gift and the growth. Scripture's own application: 1 Corinthians 1:31
Built from the biblical text and checked against trusted commentaries and lexicons. References & Sources
Keep questioning
“Are ye not carnal?”
“Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?”
“What will ye? Shall I come unto you with a rod, or in love, and in the spirit of meekness?”
“Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?”