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… Why cannot we write poetry like John Milton, or paint like Raphael? One man seems to be good without an effort; another man says he cannot be good do what he will. We differ intellectually. There is Jedediah Buxton, a common ploughman; give him the size of a wheel, and he would tell you on the spot how many circumvolutions it would make in going round the globe. Of Streleczki, a Polish count, it is said that "from the colonial capacities of Australia to the diameter of an extinct crater in one of the Polynesian islands, from the details of an Irish poor taw to the chemical composition of malachite," he was perfectly at home. How different from ourselves! Let us come around this subject determined to find out what we can of its deep and holy meaning. Let me first address myself — I. TO THOSE WHO MAY BE INCLINED TO DESPAIR. They fix their eye upon brilliant examples, and say, "How is it that we are not glorious and powerful like these?" Now this thing is really not so bad as it looks. There are compensations. You wish to be like the great calculator I have named. Let me tell you that on almost every subject but numbers Jedediah Buxton was little better than an imbecile. His admirers once took him to the opera, and when he came back he said, "Wonderful, she took so many steps in so many minutes!" Now will you change with him? And as for the Polish count he knew everything, but he built nothing, was brilliant but not solid. You should set one thing over against another. Every daisy has its own little bit of colour. Remember the tortoise and the hare. Instead of dwelling on your defects dwell on your gifts. If you have little you might have had less. If you stammer you might have been dumb. Though you have no wings you have good strong limbs. II. TO THOSE WHO PRIDE THEMSELVES ON THEIR GIFTS AND POWERS. The apostle referred to these, and asks a question of those who are puffed up, which might well make them modest and thoughtful: "What hast thou that thou didst not receive?" He makes every man a debtor. Strength is from God, so is skill, so is opportunity. But one man has ten thousand a year, and another man can hardly live; what about such contrasts as these? Let me tell you. 1. A man may require a ladder ten thousand steps high before he can see any Providence at all, and another man can see God in the raiment of the lilies and the livelihood of birds. 2. One man may be able to bear the prosperity represented by ten thousand a year, and another might be crushed by the golden load. 3. And wholly apart from all such considerations, it still remains graciously true that "a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth." III. TO THOSE WHO WONDER HOW IT IS THAT ONE MAN IS SAVED, AND ANOTHER MAN IS LOST. 1. God is far more concerned for the salvation of the human family than it is possible for man to be. He will do all that can be done. Let me leave the awful problem in His good hands. 2. The judgments of God are founded upon the gifts of God. When much is given, much will be required; where little has been given, little will be required. 3. It is not for me to say who will be saved, and who will not. I may not ask, "Lord, are there few that be saved? "or He will instantly answer: Strive to enter in at the straight gate! He will throw me back on my own obligations, and withdraw me from problems too deep for my immature and presumptuous mind. (J. Parker, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: For who maketh thee to differ from another? and 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? |
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