Pride Catechised and Condemned

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1 Corinthians 4:7

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

Pride cannot endure honest questioning, and so Paul tried it by the Socratic method, and put it through a catechism. We have here —

I. A QUESTION TO BE ANSWERED WITH EASE. When we are asked, "Who maketh thee to differ from another?" the answer is," God": and if we are asked, "What hast thou that thou didst net receive?" we reply, "We have nothing but our sin." We are the more glad to hear Paul say this, because he was what is nowadays styled a "self-made" man. Yet though he was "not a whit behind the very chief of the apostles," he said, "I be nothing." "By the grace of God I am what I am." Our question is easy to answer, whether it be applied to natural gifts or to spiritual ones.

II. A QUESTION TO BE ANSWERED WITH SHAME. "If thou didst receive it," &c. When we glory in anything we have received —

1. We rob God of His honour. Every particle of praise we take to ourselves is so much stolen out of the revenues of the King of kings.

2. We leave our truthful position. When I confess myself to be weak, helpless, and ascribe all I have to grace, then I stand in the truth; but if I take the remotest praise to myself, I stand in a lie.

3. We are sure to esteem our Lord less. If Christ goes up self goes down; and if self rises Jesus falls in our esteem.

4. We undervalue our fellow Christians, and that is a great sin. "Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones"; but if we over-estimate ourselves we do so.

5. We miss the right course as to our gifts, and forget that they are only lent us to be used for our Master. It is required of stewards that they be found faithful, not that they vaunt themselves and deck themselves in their Master's goods. Some boast —

(1) Because God has placed them in office. What mighty airs some give themselves! "Honour to whom honour is due" — they have learned by heart, and seen a personal inference in it.

(2) About their experience. This also is vanity. Let the man who does this remember that he has gone nowhere except as the Lord's hand has borne him onward. Suppose a garden were proud, and boasted of its fruitfulness!

III. OTHER QUESTIONS WHICH THESE QUESTIONS SUGGEST.

1. Have I ever given to God His due place in the matter of my salvation?

2. Have I the spirit of humble gratitude?

3. Seeing I have been a receiver, what have I done towards giving out again? They make in the north of England earthenware saving boxes for the children. You can put what you like in, but you cannot get it out until you break the box; and there are persons of that sort among us. Some have died lately, and their estates have been reported in the Probate Court. We ought not to be as a stagnant pond, but like the great lakes of America which receive the mighty rivers and pour them out again, and consequently keep fresh and clear.

4. Since what I have had I have received by God's grace, might I not receive more? Covet earnestly the best gifts.

5. If all that Christians have they have received, sinner, why should not you receive as well as they?

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