1 Corinthians 4:6-7
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. 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?
Tag: Arrogance
Being proud and arrogant ("puffed up" in the above verses) is the sin that Satan appealed to in the Garden of Eden. It is the earliest, if not the first sin. The Corinthian believers were full of arrogance. Note what Paul will say in a few verses:
1 Corinthians 4:16-18
I urge you, then, be imitators of me. That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church. Some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you.
Some of the Corinthian believers were so puffed up they diminished the power of the gospel. God uses humble people. Note:
Abraham - Genesis 18:27
Jacob - Genesis 32:10
Moses - Exodus 3:11
Gideon - Judges 6:15
John the Baptist - Matthew 3:14; John 1:26-27
Peter - Luke 5:8
Paul - Acts 20:19; Ephesians 3:8
Paul is trying to correct the arrogance of the believers in this church. Their arrogance had limited their growth (1 Corinthians 3:1). It had divided the church (1 Corinthians 1:11-13). When we are "puffed up" we hinder God's working in our lives and God's blessing in our lives. We are what we are because God made us such!!! Claiming anything else is arrogance and a cause to lose God's grace in our lives.
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