I have the privilege of interviewing the late A. Louis Patterson Jr., longtime pastor of the Mt. Corinth Missionary Baptist Church in Houston. In our conversation, I asked about his conversion experience. It happened after he had moved to Los Angeles for work. One Sunday, he visited Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church, pastored by his college classmate, E.V. Hill. After the service, Patterson asked an usher to let Hill know that he had been present.

Walking to his car, Patterson heard his name called. Hill had come out to the parking lot to greet him. Hill asked, “How are you doing?” Patterson told him about his new job, showed him his new car, and mentioned his new house. Hill replied, “That’s not what I asked you?” Patterson couldn’t sleep that night. Despite external success, he was miserable. It was that night that A. Louis Patterson gave his life to Christ. It was by a profound, eloquent, or compelling gospel presentation. It was after he was asked a personal question. 

May the personal questions in 1 Corinthians 4:7 have a life-changing effect on us: “For who sees anything different in you? And what do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?”

The church at Corinth was the most troubled church in the New Testament. Richard L. Ganz wrote a book on 1 Corinthians entitled, Twenty Controversies that Almost Killed a Church. Divisions are the most critical issue in Corinth. Paul addressed these divisions head-on in the opening chapters of this letter. His argument comes to a head in chapter 4. Verses 1-2 read: “This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.” Paul was an apostle. He was not a celebrity. He was a servant and a steward who would give an account to Christ. 

1 Corinthians 4:6 summarizes this section of the letter: “I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another.” This verse is hard to translate and interpret. The point of the verse is clear. None of you should be puffed up in favor of one against another. Why? 1 Corinthians 4:7 answers: “For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?” Paul uses singular personal pronouns in this verse. “You” is not “all of you.” It is “each of you.” What is the point of these questions? Grace should invoke praise, not pride. You should stop and think about these three personal questions: Who? What? Why?

Who?  

The first question of verse 7 asks, “For who seeks anything different in you?” The key term of this question is “different.” It translates a Greek term that literally means “to separate.”

By implication, it is to deem something as superior to something else. It is commonly translated “to judge.” It is not clear how Paul uses the term here. He could be asking, “Who are you to judge others?” Or he could be asking, “Who judges you as different from others?”

This question may be read negatively or positively. On the one hand, the question may assume a negative answer. “For who sees anything different in you?” Answer: No one. 

• What separates you from others? 
• What gives you status over others? 
• Why are you superior to others? 

A negative answer to these rhetorical questions forces us to recognize that we have no reason to be puffed up. There is good in the worst of us. And there is bad in the best of us. Thus, none of us has any right to think we are better than the rest of us. On the other hand, the question of verse 7 can assume a positive answer. From a human perspective, the answer is negative. From a divine perspective, the answer is positive. “For who sees anything different in you?” Answer: God. 1 Corinthians 4:7 helped shape Augustine’s understanding of the doctrines of human depravity, irresistible grace, and predestination. Admittedly, Augustine may have read more into this text than Paul intended. But he had a proper understanding of the fundamental premise of the verse. Anything that makes you different than others is all because of God. 

Paul was arguably the greatest Christian who ever lived. Yet 1 Timothy 1:15 says, “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.” In Ephesians 3:8, Paul calls himself “the very least of all the saints.” 1 Corinthians 15:9-10 says, “For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am.” This is why no one sees anything different in you. We are what we are by God’s grace. 

President Thomas Jefferson was riding horseback cross-country when he and his companions came to a swollen river. A wayfarer stood at the banks as the group passed by. When Jefferson approached, he hailed him and asked if Jefferson would carry him across the river on his horse. On the other side, one of the group asked why he selected the president to ask this favor of. “The president,” said the man. “I didn’t know he was the president. All I know is that on some of the faces is written the answer ‘no’ and on some faces is written the answer ‘yes.’ His was a ‘yes’ face.” 

That’s a good definition of grace. Grace is the smiling face of God to unworthy sinners. When others passed us by, grace stopped and stooped for us. If I may play on the wording of the text a little, let me pause here to say you can be different! You don’t have to be what you’ve been. If you turn from your sin and trust the bloody cross and empty tomb of Christ for salvation, you can change! 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

What?

The second question explains the first: “What do you have that you did not receive?” The first question of this verse may be open to different answers. There is no debate about the proper answer to this second question. You have nothing that you did not receive. The personal question states two facts about everything you have received. 

God Supplies. John’s disciples were troubled that the crowds were leaving him to follow Jesus. John explained that he was the best man, not the groom. It was not his bride. It was not his wedding. John 3:30 says, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” However, before John made a specific statement about the role and relationship of his ministry to Christ, he made a general statement that applies to all. John 3:27 says, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven.” This is why you should not compare, compete, or complain. Whatever one has on earth was given from heaven.

That’s the point of the second personal question in 1 Corinthians 4:7: “What do you have that you did not receive?” There are two verbs in this sentence. The latter verb is the primary one. What you have, you received. You do not have it innately or inherently. It is not yours naturally, organically, or congenitally. You did not create, produce, or deserve it. You received what you have. The grammar points to a past event. There was a time when you did not have what you have. Then something changed. You went from being a have-not to being a haver. How did that happen? You received it. The object of the verb is not stated. But it can only refer to God. James 1:17 says, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”

Your natural blessings come from God. Acts 17:25 says that God “gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.” Acts 17:28 says, “In him we live and move and have our being.” 

• God gave you life, health, and strength. 
• God gave you food, clothing, and shelter. 
• God gave you family, friends, and loved ones. 
• God gave you those gifts, talents, and abilities. 
• God gave you that cash, career, and competence.  

 Your spiritual blessings come from God. Ephesians 1:3 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.” We were lost, bound, and dead in sin. By the blood and righteousness of Christ, we are found, free, and forgiven. That’s more than we can ask or think. But it’s not all! Romans 8:32 says, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”

A struggling mission finally raised enough money for a ticket overseas on a cruise ship. During every meal, he went to the deck and ate cheese and crackers. When asked about it, he explained that he barely had enough for the ticket. He couldn’t afford the fancy meals, too. The missionary was shocked to discover that when he got the ticket, the meals were included!  

God alone sustains. Again, there are two verbs here. “Receive” points to an event in the past. “Have” points to your present situation. 

• God is the reason you received it originally. 
• God is the reason you still have it presently. 

Matthew 6:19-20 says, “Do not lay up treasures for yourselves, treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.” Jesus here reveals three factors behind life’s losses. Moth, rust, and thieves.

• Moth represents nature. 
• Rust represents time. 
• Thieves represent people. 

The things of this life are eventually and inevitably lost. Babies are born with clenched fists. Old men die with their hands open. Hold what you have with an open hand before life snatches it from you. Remember that you only have and hold it now because of God’s goodness, mercy, and kindness. Some people are better by accident than you are on purpose, who do not have what you take for granted. In my first church, I would often ask Rev. Fred Steen to lead the prayer. In his prayers of thanksgiving, he would say, “And, Lord, we thank you that things are as well as they are.” Things are as well as they are because the Lord sustained you. 

How should you respond to the things you received but no longer have? Job 1:20-21 says, “Naked came I from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

Why? 

The third question explains the second: “If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?”“If” is in the first-class condition – since or because you have received it. This conditional clause bids us to acknowledge God as our source, supplier, and sustainer.

• What you have, God gave you. 
• What you are, God made you. 
• What you know, God taught you. 
• Where you are, God brought you. 
• Where you go, God will take you. 

When upon life's billows, you are tempest tossed; 
When you are discouraged, feeling all is lost; 
Count your many blessings, name them one by one; 
And you will be surprised at what the Lord has done. 

Paul asks, "If then you received it, why...?" That's not the whole question. But it is good question, nonetheless. We ask, "Why me?" when bad things happen. It is more appropriate to ask, "Why me?" when good things happen. Why has the Lor be so good to you? 

Verse 7 asks, “If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?” Paul here rebukes disunity and disharmony in the church at Corinth. There can be no unity where there is no humility. Division is a pride problem. Matthew Henry warned of four kinds of pride: 

• Pride of Race
• Price of Place
• Pride of Face
• Pride of Grace 

Sinful pride expresses itself in self-centered boasting. You have nothing to boast about in and of yourself! 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 says, “For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” 

The remedy for sinful boasting is grateful praise. Boast in the Lord! Psalm 34:1:3 says, “I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the Lord; let the humble hear and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together.”