1 Cor. iv. 7. Who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive ? noio if thou didst receive it, ivhy dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it ?
IF there are advantages derived from education, there are also disadvantages not unfrequently at- tached to it ; inasmuch as habit forms, as it were, a second nature ; and often both indisposes us to see what is good, and disqualifies us to a great extent for the prosecution of it. The Corinthian Christians, whilst in their unconverted state, had been habituated to much evil, both intellectual and moral. From the wealth that abounded in their city, and the vicious courses that were there pursued, and particularly from the idolatrous regard shewn there to the leaders of different sects, they were but ill-disposed towards the humbling doctrines of the Gospel, and but ill- fitted for the self-denying habits to which it called them. We wonder not, therefore, that they brought on themselves heavier censures than any other of the apostolic Churches : for, in truth, all things con- sidered, their piety seems to have been, in many respects, very low and questionable. The particular fault blamed in the passage before us was, their contentious disposition to exalt one teacher above another, and their readiness to range themselves under different heads or parties in the Church. The Apostle reproved their conduct with the utmost deli- cacy ; transferring to himself and his friend Apollos the evils of which he complained; lest, by mentioning the names of others, he should provoke their hostility, and defeat his own ends.
His reproof may be fitly applied,
I. To those who glory in others —
[Amongst the Corinthian converts, some preferred one preacher, and some another : and, not content with exalting each his own favourite, they poured contempt upon those who were of a different sentiment, and thus produced sad divisions
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in the Church. The same fault obtains more or less in the Church, wherever the Gospel is preached: and men justify their partiality upon the ground of their favourite's superior endowments, or on the ground of the benefits derived from him. But this supposes that the object of their attachment has something of his own, which may serve as a ground of boasting. But " what has any man, which he has not received" as a free gift from God? Supposing him to be possessed of gifts, have they not been conferred upon him by " God ; who dis- penses to men according to his own sovereign will " and plea- sure ; and, whatever the particular operations be, himself " worketh all in all^?" Or, supposing him to be made pre- eminently useful in converting souls to God, is it by any power of his own that he has thus prevailed ? Can any man open the eyes of the blind, or unstop the ears of the deaf, or deter- mine whom he will convert to Christ ? Paul himself could not effect these things. Had the conversion of souls been left to his disposal, he would have conferred that benefit on all: whereas, in every place, the great majority rejected his woi'd, and were enraged by it almost to madness. To glor)' then in any persons, as though they possessed these talents or powers independently of God, is as absurd as it would be to glory in a sword which had effected the slaughter of many enemies. Every one sees that it is not the sword which has effected any thing: all that it has eflfected was done by the hand that wielded it: and the person so using it might, if it had pleased him, have taken any other sword as well as that. This is what God himself said, in answer to the vauntings of Sennacherib : " Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it'' ? " True it was, that the Assyrian monarch had subdued many kingdoms : but he erred in supposing that it had been done by his own power. It was God who had made use of him, for the accomplishing of his own purposes ; and it was not in the power of the proud boaster to go an hair's breadth beyond the commission he had received. So, whatever a man has, he has it from " God, who is the Giver of every good and perfect gift'';" and whatever he does, it is not he that does it, but God, who does it by him : and to God alone must be given the glory, which, through our ignorance and folly, we are but too apt to ascribe to man.]