1 Corinthians 3:21

Here the apostle founds an exhortation against over-valuing their teachers on what he had just said, and on the consideration that they had an equal interest in all their ministers: Therefore let no man glory in men (Co1 3:21) - forget that their ministers are men, or pay that deference to them that is due only to God, set them at the head of parties, have them in immoderate esteem and admiration, and servilely and implicitly follow their directions and submit to their dictates, and especially in contradiction to God and the truths taught by his Holy Spirit. Mankind are very apt to make the mercies of God cross their intentions. The ministry is a very useful and very gracious institution, and faithful ministers are a great blessing to any people; yet the folly and weakness of people may do much mischief by what is in itself a blessing. They may fall into factions, side with particular ministers, and set them at their head, glory in their leaders, and be carried by them they know not whither. The only way to avoid this mischief is to have a modest opinion of ourselves, a due sense of the common weakness of human understanding, and an entire deference to the wisdom of God speaking in his word. Ministers are not to be set up in competition with one another. All faithful ministers are serving one Lord and pursuing one purpose. They were appointed of Christ, for the common benefit of the church: "Paul, and Apollos, and Cephas, are all yours. One is not to be set up against another, but all are to be valued and used for your own spiritual benefit." Upon this occasion also he gives in an inventory of the church's possessions, the spiritual riches of a true believer: "All is yours - ministers of all ranks, ordinary and extraordinary. Nay the world itself is yours." Not that saints are proprietors of the world, but it stands for their sake, they have as much of it as Infinite Wisdom sees to be fit for them, and they have all they have with the divine blessing. "Life is yours, that you may have season and opportunity to prepare for the life of heaven; and death is yours, that you may go to the possession of it. It is the kind messenger that will fetch you to your Father's house. Things present are yours, for your support on the road; things to come are yours, to enrich and regale you for ever at your journey's end." Note, If we belong to Christ, and are true to him, all good belongs to us, and is sure to us. All is ours, time and eternity, earth and heaven, life and death. We shall want no good thing, Psa 84:11. But it must be remembered, at the same time, that we are Christ's, the subjects of his kingdom, his property. He is Lord over us, and we must own his dominion, and cheerfully submit to his command and yield themselves to his pleasure, if we would have all things minister to our advantage. All things are ours, upon no other ground than our being Christ's. Out of him we are without just title or claim to any thing that is good. Note, Those that would be safe for time, and happy to eternity, must be Christ's. And Christ is God's. He is the Christ of God, anointed of God, and commissioned by him, to bear the office of a Mediator, and to act therein for the purposes of his glory. Note, All things are the believer's, that Christ might have honour in his great undertaking, and God in all might have the glory. God in Christ reconciling a sinful world to himself, and shedding abroad the riches of his grace on a reconciled world, is the sum and substance of the gospel.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

1Co_3:21-23

Therefore let no man glory in man.

That it is a great sin to glory in men

This sin is not often preached upon, yet no question political and civil idolatry, making men as gods to us, hath done a great deal of hurt, as well as religious idolatry. Now these ways we glory in men.

1. When we join them with Christ as mediators, and make them co-partners, as it were, in spiritual effects as well as temporal. This is to glory in men, even blasphemously.

2. We glory in men when we make our own, or other good works meritorious, and our sufferings satisfactory unto God. This Pharisee is a greater enemy to Christ, and further off from the kingdom of heaven than many publicans.

3. We glory in men when we rejoice in their favour, and are more glad of that than we are of Gods favour.

4. We glory in men when we desire to please them, and to accommodate ourselves to their humours more than to please God, and to walk according to His will. This sinful pleasing of men is not consistent with a servant of Christs (Gal_1:10; 1Co_7:13).

5. We, then, glory in men when we put our trust and confidence in them, resting and hoping in them, and not depending on God only. As the ground of Divine faith must be some Divine testimony and authority, so the motive of a Divine hope must be only the promise and power of God. It is a sin that all are very prone unto, to trust in earthly power and greatness, and not to eye God above all. Lastly, we glory in men when we boast in anything that is human or earthly, anything that belongs to man. Thus to boast of beauty, apparel, riches, nobility, parts, and learning; all this is a vain and sinful boasting (1Ti_6:15; Jer_9:23-24).

In the next place, we are not to glory in the doctors and teachers we have, which we do--

1. When we are affected more with their parts, and gifts, and earning, than with the powerful demonstration of Gods Spirit in them, and by them.

2. Then we glory in men when we rest on the ministry and their labours, thinking it enough to enjoy them, but never look up to God for success and a blessing. What is Paul or Apollos but ministers by whom ye believe? at the fifth verse. Therefore the principal work is from God.

3. Then we glory in men when we have the persons of some teachers in such admiration, that whatsoever they say or maintain, without any search or dispute, we believe. The disciples of Berea are commended for their noble disposition, that they would search the Scriptures, whether the things were so or not (Act_17:11).

4. Then we glory in men when we prefer one before the other, so as to make differences and schisms in the Church. He that glorieth let him glory in the Lord. Yea, saith Paul, God forbid I should glory in anything save in the Cross of Christ (Gal_6:14). (A. Burgess.)

For all things are yours.--

All things are yours

The one theme of the beginning of this Epistle is mans glorying, lost through sin and recovered in Christ. In chap. 1. Paul brings the human race with its wisdom, righteousness, and strength into the presence of the Cross, and shows that its boasting was vain, and bids them take salvation as the free gift of God, and give to Him alone the glory. But he is careful to add that mans ground of boasting is restored to himself: Let him glory. Whereas before he had denied everything to human nature, now he cries, All things are yours. Retrieved in Christ, the Church has an unlimited prerogative.

I. The prerogatives of Christs people are based upon their relation to Him. All things are yours because ye are of Christ.

1. The union between Christ and His people gives the highest illustration of our text. Whatever belongs to the Redeemer belongs to the redeemed. But this requires to be carefully guarded.

(1) These words apply only to the mystical company of the faithful, who are united to Christ by faith and have become one Spirit with Him. The spiritual body of Christ is distinguished both from the race and from the individuals of whom it is composed. And it is of the whole company that Paul speaks, not any separate member. It was for that mystical fellowship that our Lord prayed in words that give Paul his argument. Holy Father, keep through Thine own name those, &c.

(2) Now to this body united to Himself Christ gives an unlimited interest in all His prerogatives. All Mine are Thine and Thine are Mine, and for these He prays that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, &c. (Joh_17:1-26.). The answer to this is our text. As the husband and wife are one flesh and have all things common, so Christ and His Church have one Spirit, &c.

2. Our possession of all things in Christ may be referred to the mediatorial supremacy of the Head of the Church, making all things contribute to our welfare.

(1) When the apostle dilates upon the lordship of Christ he brings all the powers of the universe under His sway; sometimes to magnify Christs glory, but oftener to set forth the absoluteness of His supremacy over all things for the Church. He governs the principalities and powers of the other world for the accomplishment of His designs in this, and they become ministering spirits to the heirs of salvation. The hosts of evil with their prince are governed for our advantage. The world, with all things present, is under His sway for the well-being of His Church. This is the key to all history, and Christs mysterious but most certain sway is bringing politics, science, civilisation, into subordination to the spread of His kingdom.

(2) He is also the Head of a visible community which is governed for the salvation of its spiritual members. Paul, Apollos, and Cephas--the organised ministry of the visible Church is the servant of the Church invisible. The order has been inverted. The saints have been brought into bondage to the Church instead of the Church being the servant of the saints; and this error has produced a sad reaction--the visible Church has been sundered from its close connection with the Church invisible. But let both grow together. Believers are of Christ, not of the Church; but calling Him Lord they rejoice in the order and service of His Church as a rich inheritance.

3. All who are Christs have such a place in His heart, and such an interest in His resources, that in virtue of His special favour they possess all things.

(1) All things are yours is the charter of personal prerogative. Christ is the personal Friend of those who love Him, and gives the treasures of His grace to every individual believer. Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name I will do it.

(2) But here is a necessary limitation which only seems to restrict the privilege--the Redeemer reserves to Himself the decision how much of the all things shall be imparted, when the gift shall be bestowed and when desired. The spiritual position He is more willing to give than we are to ask: our other portion may be more slowly bestowed; reserved from us though our own, for reasons the wisdom of which we cannot always understand.

II. The apostle blends the high statement of Christian privileges with the practical exhortation to rejoice in them.

1. The starting-point of this exhibition is the warning to glory is nothing but our inheritance in Christ. Once before he had uttered it to claim for the crucified Redeemer His sole honour; now he repeats it to claim for the Christian inheritance its rights. The Son receives us into His Fathers house; and to each one He says, All that I have is thine. Henceforth we are servants to none but Himself in God. This leaves no room for self-complacency, for all is of Christ.

2. Paul literally brings the whole compass of things into the believers inheritance.

(1) Life is ours. In its deepest meaning none live but those who are in Christ. We know, indeed, that our life in the flesh will cease; but it is our own while it lasts, to be spent in the care of our souls and in the discharge of our duties; and then we shall pass into more abundant life.

(2) Things present.

(a) The creaturely world. So long as we are of the world, the world is our master; but when we become Christs free men, the whole economy of the creature pays us tribute. But possessing all things we must show that we are really masters of the creature, by our temperate, thankful, and spiritual use of all things.

(b) All the events that make up the course of this world. Not that Christ gives us control of passing affairs. He keeps the direction of our lives in His own hands, and does not always admit us into the reasons of His dealings. But He sanctions our freedom of action, allows large latitude to our prayers, gives us the discretion to make all events contribute to our welfare, and causes all things to work together for our good.

(3) Death and things to come. Christ has the keys of the other world, and our eternal destiny is in His ever faithful hands.

(a) Death, the last enemy, is translated into a ministering angel.

(b) Things to come--the disembodied waiting for the great day, the day itself, the resurrection, &c.

3. Let us hear the apostles exhortation, not expressed, but pervading the whole passage--He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. (W. B. Pope, D. D.)

All things are ours

It expresses richness--this All things are yours; a broad and confident hold on life: a large liberty of mind. To have all things ours; to have, as it were, the freedom of the universe; to feel nowhere hemmed in, excluded, limited, whether in the sphere of truth or of sympathy, is a magnificent prospect, a splendid promise. To a great extent, we are compelled to acknowledge, our primary needs are needs of limitation and restraint, and Christianity presents itself as limiting and restraining. We come out to make our way in the world with good intentions, and around us there are ringing in our ears numberless voices--theories of life--denunciations--schemes--hopes--fears--doctrines--denials--doubts, and we feel anything but the consciousness that all things are ours. We feel no sense of mastery, only of bewilderment. To be free--to give our sympathies on all sides--to trust all voices alike, is to leave our moorings, to be free to wander on a shoreless sea. Or again, careless indiscriminate sympathy, fellowship with human life in all its forms, may present itself to us as an ideal of conduct, Homo sum, humani nil a me alienum puto. But there is that at once must give us pause. For humanity as it is is a strangely mixed thing. To say that my pulses beat in sympathy with all that is human is to state a fact of my being, but it is a fact suggestive as much of horror as of self-congratulation. For it means that there is no disordered passion, however vile, of which I cannot trace at least in some horrible moment the capacity in my own blood; no craft, no guile to which I can claim to be by nature utterly a stranger. Thus out of the surging sea of conflicting theories--out of the seething of this common manhood which I cannot trust--out of this indiscriminate life which might indeed master me, but which certainly I do not master--in which certainly all things are not mine, I look up for some Hand from above to lift, some Voice to guide, some standard and criterion of life. And lo! there is One who knows lifes secret, One who loves my humanity, who believes in its capacities as none else ever did, and yet distrusts its impulses. One who in our flesh, in the likeness of flesh, of sin, yet restores life; sums it into Himself, and claims to purge it and to reconstruct it. I come to Him--I will be taught by Him. I would have the key to life--I would feel myself under His instruction. He turns upon me, He speaks to me. But it is not first of freedom. A secure life--a strong life, that is the first thing. It must be strong before it can be free--strong at the centre ere it can be free at the circumference, and to make it strong there must be concentration, and that means for the moment mutilation--the cutting off of occasions of sin, of whatever hinders the progress of the true self. If there is a theory which puzzles me, which I cannot refute, which perhaps has some attraction for me, yet seems to militate against my spiritual growth, which is to go--the spiritual growth or the intellectual? Thy intellectual interest, the answer of Christ seems to come, is not thy primary self. Behind thine intellect is thy will--thy spirit. The centre of thy being where conscience speaks, where will acts, where prayer rises and God is known--that is thyself. It conditions all else. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness--at all costs, limit thyself as you mayest to do so. Thus the first claim of Christ is a claim upon us for concentration of faculties upon the pursuit of holiness. All things are yours; but not till ye are Christs, then, as Christ is Gods. But so, if in blind surrender the sacrifice has been made and remade and made for ever,--is the reward sure. What is this vaunt of the Christian life? In what sense does the slave of Jesus Christ find that all things are his?

1. He finds it first in the moral sphere. Self has been cut at the roots, and it is selfishness which is the source of narrowness, the impoverishment of life. Party spirit (that is St. Pauls point) narrows your privileges. To make one great teacher of the Church your patron in such sense as that you exult exclusively in what he taught, exalt his special adherents and depreciate the work of others, is to narrow your Christian heritage. Yours is not what one teacher only was given to teach, but what all were given. All are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas. Argument, it has been said, is often most effective when it is most one-sided. The Christian Church in like manner may gain a certain sort of effectiveness by ignoring half her mission, and dealing with half human nature, but all things are ours. The heritage is not meant to be impoverished and narrowed into ever closer channels as it comes down the ages. Meant for Catholic humanity, it remains in its Catholicity. We believe in one holy Catholic Church, one in its Divine authority, one in the truth it teaches in common, one in the grace which flows in its channels and makes its inner life the same, one in its common organisation, one in its sacred books, and to no part of that one whole do I limit my faith. By no corporate self-assertion would I have a part of that society strive to be the whole. All things are ours.

2. But it is not only within the area of the Christian Church that the Spirit of Christ, by cutting the roots of self-assertion, realises in us the richness of our heritage. Not only Paul, and Apollos, and Cephas, but the world, the κοσμος, is ours. The Christian realises his freedom in all truth, his kinship with all nature. It is not only that the good man is at peace with nature, that he is in league with the slaves of the field and the beasts of the land are at peace with him; there is a deep ground for such kinship. He has learned to recognise in Christ (in the latter days Incarnate) the eternal Word of God, the expression and counterpart of his being. His mediation in grace is based upon an unceasing mediation in nature. Through Him all things were made. Without Him was not anything made. Whatever has been made, in Him was life. And as the Christian must lay his claim to be utterly at home in the modern scientific conception of nature, so must he also be in the world of universal humanity. The great Greek theologians of the epoch of the great general councils never let their students forget the largeness of the Christian claim. Gods special dealings with the Jews (St. Athanasius reminds us) are given only to prevent us forgetting His universal providence in all history and nature. For He who came into our territory (he tells us) in the Incarnation, came not as a stranger nor as having been far off before. For no part of creation had ever been left void of Him. He had filled all things through all. He was through all the ages coming into the world. He was the light which lighteneth every man--the same Jesus Christ. Dream not, says St. Justin (meeting a difficulty by anticipation), in his apology to the heathen, that persons who lived more than a century and a half ago, before Christ was born in the flesh, escape His judgment. For we have been taught (it is not a private opinion of his own) and have explained before that He is the Logos, in which the whole race of man shared. And those who lived with reason up to their lights, are Christians even though they are reckoned Atheists among men, as among the Greeks were Socrates and Heracleitus, and among the Barbarians Abraham and Elijah, and many others, and those who lived of old without reason, were ever the enemies of Christ and the murderers of those who lived with reason. But they who lived or live with reason (i.e., up to their lights)

are Christians and can live without fear. It ought to have been the instinct of Christianity always to recognise this. Christianity supersedes all other religions not by excluding but by including. In part indeed they represent merely mans bewilderment and ugly perversions of the truth. But in part they also represent that natural revelation of God which is involved in the light shining in darkness, so that the darkness could not suppress it. Everywhere there was something of a witness to God. And Christian faith stands to all other teachings, as that which supersedes them, by containing and elevating the truth they taught, and illuminating and satisfying the human need that they expressed. They become foes only when they become rivals, as even the good may ever be the enemy of the best, as the twilight is darkness by comparison with the sunlight. There are many noble things, says Origen, in the Oracles by those not of Christs part, but with us only are their Oracles complete and pure.

3. All things are yours--Life and death, the world of human nature. It is the privilege of Christian faith to give us the freest access to human hearts. For the wants that Christ came to evoke and to satisfy belong to man, as man, to men equally in every age and in every class. The capacity for prayer, the sense of sin, the need of pardon, the reality and force of temptation, the vicissitudes of spiritual feeling, the moral discouragements and encouragements of life, the moral perplexities from conflicting duties--these things belong to people of utterly different positions in life and with scarcely any reference to degrees of education.

4. All things are ours, whether things present or things to come. The great poet of human nature in our time constantly gives expression to the conviction that the problems of human character demand an immortality for their solution. Human characters he feels, in proportion to their worth, need an environment to develop them larger than this world; need a vaster field to work out their issues. On the earth the broken arcs: in the heaven the perfect round. Gods task to make the heavenly period--perfect the earthen. Now this conviction of immortality in which the Christian lives gives him a leverage for action, and makes him the minister of hope. He can believe in the small beginnings who believes in immortal growth. He can believe in the perfect victory for all who do not finally and obstinately cling by choice to evil. He again has a rational doctrine to hold out to man of human perfection--a doctrine rational because it takes account of experience. Make this world the only sphere of progress, obliterate from mens eyes what we heard of last week as the world as little like Whitechapel as possible, in which, after death men shall wake up, and you certainly have no rational doctrine of hope to present to mankind. Where is the experience that justifies us in expecting that the progress of knowledge and civilisation really means for the sacrificed classes the progress of happiness. Does not experience rather give us a doctrine that nations have their periods of climax, and then their periods of decay? and is there any real ground for believing the later period for a particular race, happier than the earlier? Or have great social convulsions (though they have taught great lessons to humanity at large) been (except under certain conditions not now existing in England) productive of happiness to the nations who were the subjects of them? Does civilisation or knowledge any way tend to minimise the selfishness which is the root of all social evils? Behind the veil, under the feet of the great Head of a redeeming humanity, the Christian knows that the race of man who will consent to have God when He is offered them in His love, is being gathered into an ever developing perfection. (C. Gore, M. A.)

Christs servants lords of all

I. How Christs servants are mens lords. Paul, Apollos, Cephas were all lights kindled at the central Light, and therefore shining. Each was but a part of the mighty whole, a little segment of the circle--

They are but broken lights of Thee.

And Thou, O Lord! art more than they.

And in the measure, therefore, in which men adhere to Christ, and have taken Him for theirs; in that measure are they delivered from all undue dependence on, still more, all slavish submission, to any single individual teacher or aspect of truth. If Christ be our Master, if we take our creed from Him, if we accept His words and His revelation of the Father as our faith and our objective religion, then all the slavery to favourite names, all the taking of truth second-hand from lips that we honour, all the partisanship for one against another which has been the shame and the ruin of the Christian Church, and is working untold mischiefs in it to-day, are ended at once. One is your Master, even Christ. Call no man Rabbi! upon earth; but bow before Him, the incarnate and the personal Truth. And in like manner they who are Christs are delivered from all temptations to make mens maxims and practices and approbation the law of their conduct. They say. What say they? Let them say. The envoy of some foreign power cares very little what the inhabitants of the land to which he is ambassador may think of him and his doings; it is his sovereigns good opinion that he seeks to secure. The soldiers reward is his commanders praise, the slaves joy is the masters smile, and for us it ought to be the law of our lives, and in the measure in which we belong to Christ really it will be the law of our lives, that we labour that whether present or absent we may be pleasing to Him.

II. Christs servants are the lords of the world. That phrase is used here, no doubt, as meaning the external material universe. He owns the world who turns it to the highest use of growing his soul by it. If I look out upon a fair landscape, and the man that draws the rents of it is standing by my side, and I suck more sweetness and deeper impulses and larger and loftier thoughts out of it than he does, it belongs to me far more than it does to him. The world is his who from it has learned to despise it, to know himself and to know God. He owns the world who uses it as the arena, or wrestling ground, on which, by labour, he may gain strength, and in which he may do service. Antagonism helps to develop muscle, and the best use of the outward frame of things is that we shall take it as the field upon which we can serve God.

III. Christian men who belong to Jesus Christ are the lords and masters of life and death.

1. The true ownership of life depends upon self-control, and self-control depends upon letting Jesus Christ govern us wholly. So the measure in which it is true of me that I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me is the measure in which our lower life of sense really belongs to us, and ministers to our highest good.

2. Animals expire; a Christian man may yield his soul to his Saviour, who is the Lord both of the dead and of the living. If thus we feel our dependence upon Him, and yield up our wills to Him, and can say, Living or dying we are the Lords, then we may be quite sure that Death, too, will be our servant, and that our wills will be concerned even in passing out of life. Still more, if you and I belong to Jesus Christ, then Death is our fellow-servant who comes to call us out of this ill-lighted workshop into the presence of the King.

IV. Christs servants are the lords of time and eternity, things present or things to come.

1. The whole mass of things present, including all the events and circumstances of our lives, over these we may exercise supreme control. If we are bowing in humble submission to Jesus Christ, they will all subserve our highest good. The howling tempests of winter and its white snows, the sharp winds of spring and its bursting sunshine; the calm, steady heat of June and the mellowing days of August, all serve to ripen the grain. And so all things present, the light and the dark, the hopes fulfilled and the hopes disappointed, the gains and the losses, the prayers answered and the prayers unanswered, they will all be recognised if we have the wisdom that comes from submission to Jesus Christs will as being ours, and ministering to our highest blessing. We shall be their lords, too, inasmuch as we shall be able to control them. We need not be like the mosses in the stream, that lie whichever way the current sets, nor like some poor little sailing boat that is at the mercy of the winds and the waves, but may carry an inward impulse like some great ocean-going steamer, the throb of whose power shall drive us straight forward on our course, what ever beats against us. That we may have this inward power and mastery over things present and not to be shaped and moulded and made by them, let us yield ourselves to Christ, and He will help us to rule them.

2. And then, all things to come; the dim, vague future shall be for each of us like some sunlit ocean stretching shoreless to the horizon; every little ripple flashing with its own bright sunshine, and all bearing us onwards to the great throne that stands on the sea of glass mingled with fire. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

That all things are for the spiritual good and advantage of the godly man

I. In how many respects all things may be said to be the godly mans, both in the Church and the world. And first, thus, in that there is nothing which would be for their good that God denieth them. Whatsoever is in all the world, if it be good for the godly man, he shall have it (Psa_84:11). There is no man that feareth God, though he may say, I want riches, I want health, I am without this or that, that can say he is without Christ, and justification, and the covenant of grace.

2. There is a limited good, that which in itself is good, but doth not make good those that have it, yea, it may be turned to evil. As wine is good, but give it to the feverish man you hurt him. And thus it is with all the temporal good things of the world; they do not make the possessors good, yea, they may be turned to sin, and increase thy corruption. And then it is no wonder if God, out of His love to thee, withhold these things from thee. If they were as necessary and as good as Christ is, and heaven is, thou wert sure to have them (Rom_8:32). Now this very particular should rebuke all the winds and waves of fears and discontent within thee. Art thou repining thou hast not this, thou hast not that ? Oh, look! Hast thou godliness? Hast thou the fear of God in thy heart, then thou hast all things, because there is nothing that is good for thee that God keeps from thee? Secondly, a godly man may be said to have all things, because he hath a right and a claim to the covenant of grace, wherein is a deed of gift of all things both spiritual and temporal. Therefore godliness is said to have the promise of this life and the life to come (1Ti_4:8). All heavenly and earthly things are by promise made to the godly, only heavenly things absolutely, earthly things conditionally and with subordination. So, then, it is with thee, as some man, who hath all his estate lying in bonds and covenants, though for the present he cannot command such a sum of money, yet he is rich in bonds. Thirdly, all things are the godly mans because he hath God for his God, who hath all things. He that hath the sun hath the light of all the stars; he that hath the ocean hath all the streams. Hence our happiness is said to be in this if we have the Lord for our God. David, in all his exigencies, supported himself with this, that God was his portion and his inheritance. Though a child hath not money and raiment at his command, yet because he hath a rich father, who can procure all these things, therefore he may be well said to have them all. Fourthly, a godly man may be said to have all things because godliness worketh such an holy contentation and satisfaction of spirit, that in what estate he is, he is as well pleased as if he had all things, as if he had the whole world (1Ti_6:6). Thus all things are theirs, because through contentation they have all things. Fifthly, all things are the godly mans because they were made finaliter for him. They are all for his spiritual use. Every gift is given to profit withal (1Co_12:7).

II. Let us now consider why God should make all heavenly and earthly things for the godly. First, we need not wonder at it, if we consider that Christ Himself took our nature upon Him, and did undergo that shameful death, and those terrible conflicts with Gods wrath for His Church, He gave Himself for His Church. So that Christ being theirs, no wonder if all things else be theirs. If ever God would have denied anything, would have withheld anything, it would have been His only Son, in whom He was so well pleased. Secondly, because all things in the world are ordered by His providence only; but the whole work of God about His children is the effect of His predestination.

III. Having asserted a comfortable doctrine out of these words for the godly, we proceed to make some objections or doubts about it. First, the doubt may be, How are all things the godly mans for his use and spiritual edification, when many times we see the godly man gets no good by these? To answer this, first, we must distinguish between Gods intention in giving these, and the godly mans actual improvement of them to that end. When the apostle saith, All things are yours, his meaning is, on Gods part. His love is so great that for the godly only all things in heaven and earth were created. If so be, therefore, at any time these things turn to thy hurt, blame thyself. The physician will tell the patient sometimes, all these potions and all these cordials, they are yours; you are to take them; you may expect much good and ease by them. But if the patient be wilful, and disorder himself, it is his fault, not the physicians, that they do hurt. Therefore, secondly, the godly man, through his weakness and sinfulness, not walking up to Gods order, may make that a hindrance which God intended a furtherance. Thirdly, though the godly may for a while make these things against their end, and not for it, yet this will not be always. Fourthly, when we say all things are the godly mans, you must take them in their collective cooperation, as Rom_8:1-39., All things work together. The next doubt is, If all things be the godlys, why, then, are they so uncomfortable, so dejected, complaining of wants, as if nothing were theirs? Answer: It is true it should be so, but we are weak in faith, we do not live upon Scripture principles and privileges. It is by faith only. A quiet resting and reposing of the soul upon Gods promise puts us into the possession of all these things. Secondly, as they want faith, so a heavenly prudence and skill how to improve them spiritually. Though all things be for their good, yet they must have wisdom to know how to use all things. What is a fountain sealed up, or a book that cannot be read, though it hath never such admirable matter? Thus are all things, though never so useful, if thou hast not Christian wisdom. There is no condition, affliction, or event, but thou mayest say, if I had heavenly wisdom I might make excellent use of it. The last doubt is, How are all things the godly mans, seeing for the most part they are most wanting, they are in the greatest necessities? Answer--

1. This place doth not so much speak of the possession of all things as the spiritual serviceableness of them. Those things which they have no possession of may yet serve for their souls good.

2. If the godly have not all things they would, that want is good for them. The want of any outward mercies may sometimes be better than the having of them.

3. Thou hast what is best for thee, and that according to the wise Gods ordering. Let this silence thee always. (A. Burgess.)

All things are yours

You remember the fable of the beautiful fairy who always appeared to turn evil into good, and you have sometimes wished it true. Paul believed that Jesus had power to make everything that happened turn out for the best welfare of His people. The apostle seems to say, If you serve God, everything in the world shall minister to you as much as if it were really your own. God did not make you for the earth; He made the earth for you. As a father values his children more than the house he has built for them, so the Lord values you more than the world in which you live. Do not think you are of secondary importance, created only as an offshoot of the earth, to grind away at your labour and care and pain for a number of years, and then die. No; the apostle believed that God made everything for us, and that as workmen are employed to construct a beautiful palace, so God employs the earth and life and death, and all things as workers and materials to build us. What more comforting doctrine can you imagine? Every tribulation, and all our worries, crosses, and losses are as workmen governed by the Lord for the good of His people. (W. Birch.)

Owned, but not explored

A dear uncle of mine, an Indian chaplain, made the acquaintance, at Singapore, in 1852, of a Christian widow lady, who told him her story. In 1848 her husbands death had left her, at Manilla, in much reduced circumstances. She owned a little land in Australia, and she now asked an Australian friend to sell it. He did his best; but one barren little field he could not sell, and the widow seemed the poorer for such a possession. Then, in 1851, gold was discovered in Australia; a mine was found in that rough field; and the widow was secured for life from poverty. What was, and had been, her position? In respect of provision, she had owned every nugget, all the fulness of the field, all along. In respect of fruition, she had it all to discover; it was all new wealth. So with you, so with me, in Jesus Christ. We have the fulness of the Spirit--in Him. Have we come to have it--in us? If not, let us be animated by the fact that the gold is in the field, is on the property. (H. C. G. Moule.)

All things are yours when you are Christs

A great gulf is fixed between God and man by sin. The Bible reveals a chain depending from the throne of God stretching across the void and holding up the dislocated world.

I. Christ is gods: that is the highest link. The Creator rejoices in all His works, but He has a special and peculiar interest in man.

1. When the work of creation, as to its bulk, was nearly done, the Creator was not yet satisfied. He found no point of sympathetic contact between Himself, a spirit, and the material world which He had made. Then was held that council in which humanity was planned. Let us make man in our own image. Allied to God by an intelligent mind and an immortal spirit, yet wedded to matter by his body, man was added to the upper edge of creation, a link of communion between the Maker and His work.

2. The mystery of the fall came on and the connecting link was broken. But Satan was not permitted to triumph. When the creature called into being as a son has become an alien, where shall God now find a man, holy as Himself, to be His companion and reciprocate His love?

3. Here is the mystery revealed: Christ is Gods. Behold the man! He dwells in the bosom of the Father, and yet is bound in brotherhood to the human family. This is the plan of redemption. The Father cometh to no man; no man cometh to the Father but by Him. The Fathers delight in the Son incarnate (Psa_42:1-11.; Mat_3:17) is the uppermost link of the chain whereon all our hope for eternity hangs. How strong and sure it is! Satan tried in the wilderness to separate between this Man and God, as in the garden he had separated between the first man and God. The Tempted triumphed and the tempter fled.

II. Ye are Christs: the next link. It is not that He is your portion, but that ye are His. In actual experience, however, the union is mutual. The vine holds the branch, and the branch holds the vine. My beloved is mine--there lies my present happiness; but I am His--there lies my everlasting safety. A very slight temptation may break asunder your love to Christ; but all the powers of darkness cannot overcome His love to you. Who shall separate? A British subject may be safe although surrounded by enemies in a distant land, and his confidence in his queen may rebuke the feeble faith of a Christian. Note--

1. How He obtains His property.

(1) By the sovereign gift of God. Thine they were, and Thou gavest them Me (Joh_17:1-26.).

(2) By the price of His own blood. Ye are not your own, ye are bought with a price.

(3) By the renewing of the Holy Spirit. God the Father gives you to Christ, and you give yourselves. This latter is the effect of the Spirit working repentance and faith in a human heart.

2. How He will use His property.

(1) As objects to exercise His kindness on. The good delight in doing good. Christ in giving grace to His people is getting delight for Himself.

(2) As servants to do His work. He desires your service and deserves it. To work willingly is a mark of a true disciple.

(3) As living epistles in which the world may read the riches of His grace.

(4) For company at His coming, and for portion evermore,

III. All things are yours: the lowest link. All the fulness of the Godhead bodily has been treasured up in Christ expressly that it may be within the reach of His people.

1. The ministry. The full-bodied doctrinal teaching of Paul, the melting and arousing eloquence of Apollos, and the abrupt, fiery energy of Peter--all are gladly recognised as a wisely mingled provision from the hand of that Father who paints the rose and the violet of different hues but equal loveliness. But, besides the bounty of the Giver, the liberty of the receivers also is signalised in this text. Paul and Apollos and Cephas are yours--not ye theirs. In Rome the ministers have the people; here the people have the ministers. The ministry is an article in the inventory of a Christians goods. They are the Lords gifts to the heirs, not lords over the heritage.

2. The world. The world, under direction of its god, wars against the soul. But our Father in heaven holds that enemy and compels it, in His own time and way, to serve His sons.

3. Life. The natural life is indeed corrupt, but over its corrupt root the new nature is engrafted, and so this lower earthly life becomes the root of a spiritual life in heaven.

4. Death. Through Christ it is only the dark, narrow door in the partition wall between time and eternity, through which the children are led from the place of exile into the mansions of the Fathers house.

5. Things present or things to come. All things are yours in virtue of your union to Christ, whether they lie within the horizon of time or beyond it in the unseen eternity. We have reached now those things that no ear hath heard, and no tongue can tell. I once heard a father tell that when he removed his family to a new and ampler residence his youngest son, yet a lisping infant, ran round every room and scanned every article with ecstacy, calling out in childish wonder at every new sight, Is this ours, father? and is this ours? The child did not say yours; and the father was not offended with the freedom. The infants confidence in appropriating as his own all that his father had was an important element in his satisfaction. Such, I suppose, will be the surprise and joy and appropriating confidence with which the child of our Fathers family will count all his own when he enters the infinite of things to come. (W. Arnot, D. D.)

All things ours

All things mine? Oh, how delightful that would be if only it were true! But it is true. All things mine that I may make them Christs? But that is hardly so delightful as having all things for my own. It is more delightful. Nay, to give all to Christ is the only way to make all things yours. So we might talk on this wonderful passage, finding much that seems incredible, but nothing so incredible as the assurance that all things are ours. Even this incredible assertion, however, may grow credible to you if only you approach it from the apostles point of view.

I. All things are yours.

1. All ministers are yours. Oh, yes, you say, that is true enough; but what are we the richer for that? But I am by no means sure that all ministers are yours. I am quite sure that, if they are, you are much the richer for it.

1. St. Pauls general principle is that the teachers are for the Church, not the Church for the teachers. But the intention of God is one thing and the intention of the Church, as shown by its conduct, is often another.

(1) God intended eloquent Apollos, learned Paul, and sagacious and enthusiastic Peter for the Church at Corinth; but some said, We are of Apollos. They were charmed with the eloquence of the mighty expositor of Scripture, but they did not care for the learned Paul or the plain Peter. Others attached themselves to Paul, but thought Apollos too rhetorical and Peter too rustic, &c. Thus this ancient Church flung away two-thirds of its treasure.

(2) All the ministers of the Church universal are yours in the design and intention of God; but do you permit them all to be yours? What, all the ministers of the Apostolic, Patristic, Mediaeval, Roman, Episcopal, Presbyterian, &c., branches of the one Catholic Church? All are yours, and yet how few of them are yours!

2. But here you may object: We have neither the means nor the opportunity of learning from many of Christs ministers. But do you learn as much, and from as many of them, as you might? Do you study the apostolic preachers with the devotion they deserve? When wise and holy men of other communions than your own publish a volume of choice discourses, do you take as much pains to get it as you take for the last new novel, and read it with even as much interest as you bestow on your daily newspaper? There are those in our Churches who so attach themselves to one minister that, like the Corinthians, they care to hear no one but him. Now I do not say that if you find a minister who can most effectually touch the springs of spiritual thought and emotion within you you are not to love and to addict yourselves to his ministry; but I do say that if you so addict yourselves to one that you can hear no other you are flinging away the greater part of your spiritual heritage. But not only all ministers, all things are yours, in precisely the same sense, viz., to use and to profit by.

2. The world. If a deed of gift were placed in your hand which made over a whole country, or even a whole cosmos to you as your private estate, you might be the worse and poorer for it. So vast an estate would entail responsibilities under which the strongest and wisest must faint. If you cared only to make a personal and selfish use of it, and if your possession of it robbed you of all stimulus to labour, to mental and moral culture, you would simply sink into the most astounding sot and sinner under heaven. Property is what we can appropriate. And what in the world is there of which, with due pains and trouble, you cannot get the best it has to give? The splendour of sunrise and sunset, the glory of the seasons, the beauty of flower and herb and spreading tree, the starry canopy of heaven, do they not become yours in proportion as you have power to appropriate their teaching, their value? Any house or piece of land that you have bought you may lose by a thousand accidents, and at the best you will soon have to leave it behind you; but the culture wrought into your very spirit by your love and admiration of the natural world, this will never leave you.

3. What is there in all the forms and varieties of human life which you may not so observe as to learn its highest lessons, as to work the very essence of it into the very substance of your mind? What have men ever done, what great and noble thoughts have they uttered, of which you may not so read as to make all that is so permanently valuable in them your own? Christ has thrown open to you the whole domain of history and of human life; and it rests with you to determine how far you will go up into it and possess yourselves of it.

4. And He has made death your friend and servant; for if you believe in Him what is death to you, or to those whom you love, but a transition to more life and fuller?

5. So with things present, with which we are so seldom content, and things to come which we are so apt to fear. All are yours in proportion as you make them yours.

II. All are yours because you are Christs, and that you may make them Christs and Gods. Nay, we can only make all things ours as we give them all to Christ and God.

1. All ministers are yours; but when do you make them all yours in fact? Only when you make the best use of the best that is in them, and suffer it to minister to your highest and most enduring welfare. And when you do that, do you not both take them as Gods gift to you and give them back to Him?

2. And in the same way you make life yours, viz., as you yield to its nobler influences and suffer them to mould and reform you. That is to say, all life becomes yours as you give your personal life to God.

3. So, again, with death. Only those who believe that Christ has overcome the sharpness and taken away the sting of death, only those know that death is a minister of God for their good. And who are these but those for whom to live is Christ and to die gain? Who but those for whom to depart is to be with the Lord? Death is ours only as we are Christs and Gods.

4. And only on the same terms are things present ours and things to come. (S. Cox, D. D.)

The Christians possessions

I. The general scope of the declaration. Of course all things are not the Christians in the sense of actual right or control. A man possesses that which he turns to his own account. A miser, though abounding in wealth, is a very poor man; although he has all things he possesses nothing. So all things in creation and providence shall as certainly minister to the Christians present and eternal welfare as if they were absolutely his own. All things work together for good to them that love God.

II. The several particulars.

1. All ministers are yours. Whatever their talents, zeal, piety, fruit, you have an interest in them all. Christ thought of you when He gave some apostles, &c. Feel that you have a personal property in your ministers, not only in their time, talents, prayers, but also in their spiritual prosperity and their growth in grace.

2. The world is yours. The world is created for the saints, and for their sakes is it preserved. It is a mere stage of action for them, and when of these the last has obtained his crown it shall be burned up, having fulfilled its mission in preparing man for a higher condition of existence. The earth hath God given to the children of men, but in an especial sense to the redeemed. It belongs not to men of the world to whom providential gifts are often a ruin.

3. Life is yours, i.e., as it is a blessing, as it serves us for doing the work of God. He lives twice who lives for lifes great end. Only use it rightly, and life is yours.

4. Death is yours; because to the Christian to die is gain.

III. The solid ground upon which these assurances rest: because ye are Christs. Ministers, &c., are not yours by any right of your own, not yours for your obedience, your prayers. And therefore remember that if you are not Christs, then none of these things are yours. Ministers are not yours, for they shall rise as a testimony against you; nor the world, for it is a master by whom you are held in bondage; nor life, for its things are not blessed to you; nor death, for he comes as Gods executioner, to drag you from your tenacious hold on things present, and to make you view your forfeited interest in all the joys of things to come. Oh, see to it, then, that ye are Christs by a good confession, by a choice of service, by faith, by love. (D. Moore, M. A.)

The Christians riches

I. Wherein do these riches consist?

1. It was not without intention that the apostle placed at the head the great apostolic personalities. For the highest of mans possessions is man. What would this whole creation be but for man, the image of God?

(1) But it is man who appears to be least of all ours. How many a man would have given thousands to rescue the life of a beloved child, or have cheerfully laid aside his dignities to lengthen a beloved partners life, or have sacrificed a portion of our own life to redeem that of a friend? How then can we say that men are ours, if we cannot hinder their being snatched away from us?

(2) It is true that what is earthly and perishable in man does not belong to us; of that we must be deprived. But all that is imperishable and holy in human nature is ours, and cannot be snatched from us. Centuries have passed since the great apostles passed away; but have they ceased to be ours? The word of repentance which they preached, has it not awakened us? The testimony they bore to the grace in Christ, has it not converted us? The example of love which they have set forth, has it not enlightened us? This Paul, this Peter, &c., are ours. And not only they, but all who walk in their footsteps. Yes, they too are ours who seem to be far removed from us. Paul had been a persecutor of the Church, and became its protector. Peter was a shaken reed, and became like a rock. Apollos was a disciple of the false Greek wisdom (Act_18:24), and became a scholar of Christ. We will not despair, then, of those whom we cannot call ours in reality.

2. All other created things.

(1) On few things do we seem so dependent. There is the lightning, the hailstorm, the flood, the pestilence, war. These forces, which neither the mind nor the will of man can tame or control--are they ours? That wonderful power that carries men across the country, as on the wings of the wind, that still more wonderful power which multiplies thought with lightning speed; that gold which rules the hearts of men; the spirit of inquiry--do these powers belong to us, Christians? Even the gentle gifts which summer scatters over the trees and fields, will not misuse desecrate them, will not sin poison them?

(2) But we must not be misled by appearances. The apostles statement is true. For can misfortune touch us when we know that all things work together for our good? When we know that we are not the sport of chance, but that an almighty and all-loving hand sends these trials to us; when we have the experience, too, that we are purified by them as gold by the fire? It is true that the commercial activity of the day may serve the purposes of sin; but does it fail to serve the purposes of the kingdom of God? It is true that a prolific press forges weapons of falsehood and ungodliness; but does it fail to forge the weapons of truth? It is true that gold enters many a house with a message of hatred and hostility; but does it cease to be an angel of love and comfort when we carry it into the dwellings of the poor and wretched? It is true that the spirit of inquiry kindles a fire-brand and casts it into the very sanctuary of God; but does it not also kindle the flame of wisdom and throw light into the sanctuary of Divine truth?

3. But, says the doubter, there is one thing you cannot make your own. It is all-embracing time with life and death, the past, the present, and the future.

(1) We will not dispute that there is nothing on which men seem so dependent as time.

(a) What are we to say of life--is this ours? We devise a plan of life to-day, to-morrow it lies in ruins at our feet. We build to-day on our health, to-morrow we are stretched on our bed.

(b) And how about death? When we shall die we do not know; that we shall die is certain. There are some who during life never cease to be in bondage to the fear of death (Heb_2:15).

(c) And is the past ours? What we have done, we have done and cannot recall.

(d) And how can the present or the future belong to us? At the present moment is not the future dark before us? What will happen in the next hour or day we cannot tell.

(2) Amid these apparent contradictions we hold immovably to the apostles word when he calls time ours.

(a) Of course the empty, perishing, earthly life is not ours. But what does this signify? On the other hand, eternal life, whose pledge for us is the resurrection of Christ, will after this life first attain its full perfection. This eternal life is ours, and death cannot rob us of it. For death is ours in Christ.

(b) The past, too, is ours. The centuries have swept away a hundred signs of human devotion; one is left, it is the Cross. Thousands of words of human wisdom have been forgotten; the Word of God remains. Names that once shone brightly in the firmament are now never mentioned; one name remains, it is the name Christ. Numberless hopes have vanished like the morning mist; one hope remains, is ours--the hope of eternal life. The past is ours: all that is worthy and imperishable in it.

(c) And therefore are the present and future ours too. Let men set up new signs, the Cross alone will remain. Let them utter wondrous words, they will all cease to be heard; the Divine Word will remain. Let new names rise into favour, they will all disappear like meteors, while the name of Christ will be like the sun. Let new hopes delude men, our hope is an anchor sure and steadfast.

II. The conditions to be fulfilled that this may be so. The natural man cannot inherit the kingdom of God; therefore, cannot say all things are mine, but must rather confess I belong to all things. The context shows how freedom may be gained, and with it the assurance that all things are ours. The apostle is not addressing the unbelieving, but (verse 16) those who have received the Holy Ghost. This is the condition. The way to become possessed of the Christians wealth is the way of repentance which leads us to the knowledge of what sin is before the Father; the way of faith which causes us to find in God the Son reconciliation and redemption from sin; the way of regeneration-we are renewed and sanctified by God the Holy Ghost. (D. Schenkel, D. D.)

Christian riches

Give me a great thought, that I may live upon it, said a noble man in his dying hour; but even in life there is often need of a great thought to expand and elevate the soul. Such a thought we have in our text.

I. The world has often used these words to deck out a gospel of the flesh. Do we not hear men calling out, All is yours? Lordship over the earth is yours; therefore seize, rule, and enjoy. And because all is yours, ye must all equally rule and enjoy; therefore demolish the old distinction between masters and servants, rich and poor. We know, indeed, that in the early Apostolic Church there was a short time when the word, All is yours, was quite literally fulfilled (Act_2:44), but this state of matters had of necessity very soon to disappear. The providence of God is not uniform, and in different ways will lead different men, setting some as stewards over much, others as stewards over little. But--

II. The highest good is common to all. In the sense of faith, and hope, and love, we say with the apostle, All is yours; for ye are Christs, and Christ is Gods. What can be more my own than what I possess in best thoughts and feelings? Name anything in the whole world, and I ask whether it is not mine if it may serve my inner man and serve me for growth in wisdom and grace. Wert thou ever so poor, art thou Christs, then the whole world must serve thee, for Christ is Gods; but wert thou so rich that thou wouldst have to pull down thy barns and build greater, &c., the days of thy riches are soon numbered. Here, however, are riches which moth and rust cannot corrupt and which cannot be counted. All is yours.

1. Paul, Apollos, and Cephas belong to thee, with their varying gifts. For thee the evangelists write, apostles preach, the sacred poets unfold the depths of their soul. For thee is the exhortation and the promise.

2. The world. Yes, not only the kingdom of grace, but also the kingdom of nature, and the lilies of the field and the birds of the air reveal to thee the glory of God.

3. Life or death. How poor would we be if death, too, did not belong to us. The gospel of the flesh leads its adherents up to the gates of death, and just there death, as it were, calls out, Nothing is yours! But art thou Christs, then to die is gain.

4. And whosoever can speak thus can also say, things present or things to come. Many perhaps will say, Yes, no doubt the present is ours--these misfortunes and sufferings--but where are our joy and peace? But art thou Christs, then these times contain a great wealth of Divine exhortations, warnings, appeals, which also belong to thee for doctrine, for reproof, for instruction in righteousness. And if thou yieldest to these, then also the great word belongs to thee: We are saved by hope, hope in the brighter morning of eternity, when all the children of God will reap with joy, for they bring in the fruits of righteousness.

III. If the Lord is to be able to give us all, then must we be able to give the Lord all. Lord, we have left all and followed Thee. Luther sang, Everything may go … To us the crown remaineth. This we too must learn if we would obtain the promise. Let all go that is now thine own; the earthly, selfish desires which hold thee back, because thou thyself holdest them so fast; and many a thing which, though it has had a noble origin, yet turns thee from the riches of God, if thou wilt hold it fast against the will of God. Let go, therefore, the vain dreams of a happiness which knows neither sufferings nor the cross. Perhaps thou hast thyself already experienced the disappointments of this life. There were perhaps some dear ones whom thou couldst truly call thine own! The grave covers them, and why wilt thou still cling to the earthly possession? In the name of Jesus, let it go. For in Him we know that we should not seek the living among the dead; we know that what is sown in corruption will be raised in incorruption, &c. And the better we learn to say from the heart, Let everything go, to us the crown remaineth, the freer, the more joyous, the richer will we be. For then that dies in us which ought to die, and then that lives in us which ought to live. And then we feel that all is ours. (Bp. Martensen.)

The Christians heritage

I. The believer may be said to possess all things in God.

1. The mind of a great author is more precious than his books, of a great artist than his pictures. To have the mind is better than to have merely the products of that mind. Give the fountain, and you virtually have the streams. But no earthly or finite mind can transfer its gifts to another. But there is a sense in which we may become sharers of the Infinite Mind from which all that is true and good and fair in the universe proceeds. As really as true, or noble, or holy thoughts become a portion of the mind which apprehends them, does God communicate Himself through the spirit of the believer.

2. The happiness of this mysterious nature of ours is never to be found merely in the possession of Gods gifts; the soul can find its true satisfaction only in rising beyond the gifts, and claiming the Giver as its own. When you covet the friendship or love of a fellow-man, it does not satisfy you that he bestows upon you only outward gifts; unless the man give you himself, the rest are but worthless boons. So the wealth of worlds would be, to the heart longing after Deity, a miserable substitute for one look of love from the Great Fathers eye.

3. Now, admitting the truth of the thought that God is the portion of the soul, then the argument of the text becomes obvious and conclusive. As the scattered rays of light are all included in the focus, as the fountain contains the streams, so all finite and created good is contained in Him who is the Supreme Good; all earthly excellence is but the partial emanation, the more or less bright reflection of the Great Original. The man who is in possession of some great masterpiece need not envy others who have only casts or copies of it.

II. Some of the special blessings here enumerated.

1. The world is yours. Not, obviously, in the literal sense. This earth is not the exclusive property of the good. It is not their Master, but another who, displaying all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, said, All these will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me. As often as otherwise the rich in faith are poor in this worlds possessions. The best of the sons of men had not where to lay His head; and even this last resting-place the hand of charity bestowed. But the world belongs to the Christian in that he only has a legitimate title to the benefits and blessings he enjoys in it. This earth was not meant to be the home of evil.

(1) Even mute and material things, the laws and agencies of nature, have in them something that asserts their Divine origin, and proclaims that wrong is done to them when forced into the service of sin. If, therefore, you are living a sinful life, you are out of harmony with the world in which you live. You are an intruder on its soil, a misappropriator of its benefits, a usurper and perverter of its laws. And so long as you continue in estrangement from God, it is as if His sun were unwilling to shine upon you, and His air to inspire you, and the fruits of His earth to nourish you, and that earth itself to hold you, and as if the whole creation, weary of a bondage so degrading, were groaning and travailing in pain.

(2) On the other hand, let your soul be brought back into living union with the Father of spirits through His Son, and thenceforward the world will become yours, because you are Gods. In harmony with the Great Centre, you will be in harmony with all things in His universe. Nature will serve him who serves her God. The earth will be fulfilling its proper function in yielding you bread, and the heavens in shedding their sweet influences on your path. You will be able to claim a peculiar property in the works of your Fathers hand, and the bounties of your Fathers providence. You will have served yourself heir to Him who is the Universal Proprietor, and become heir of God, and joint heir with Christ. And so the world and the fulness thereof will become yours, because ye are Christs, and Christ is Gods.

2. Life is yours.

(1) Of course, considered as mere existence or duration of being, life cannot be regarded as the peculiar property of the Christian. For though it is true that religion is really conducive to health and longevity, and that, in absence of its restraints, vicious excess often impairs the health and shortens life, yet it is not always the holiest men who live the longest.

(2) But if the good do not live longer, they live more in the same space of time than other men. Life is to be reckoned not only extensively, but also intensively. An oak lives for centuries; but who would exchange for it a single day of the existence of a living, conscious, thinking man? The briefest life of rationality, again, has more of real life in it than the longest of a mere animal. And, amongst rational beings, that life is longest, whether brief or protracted its outward term, into which the largest amount of mental and moral activity is condensed. We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths, &c. But if so, it is only the man who lives to God who can really be said to live at all. For in him alone the whole man lives--in him alone all the energies of mans being are called into fullest, noblest activity. The man who merely vegetates through existence, who rises day by day only to eat and drink and pursue the same unreflective round, without one lofty thought or pure spiritual emotion--surely, to such an one, life, in its real essence, its true significance, is lost. The man of property, who has an undiscovered gold mine on his estate, is no richer for his latent wealth; and whatever other men contrive to extract out of life--as comfort, honour, knowledge, power--they are, after all, possessors only of its surface wealth; the Christian alone, the man who has discovered and appropriated its hidden treasure of holy thought, feeling, energy, he alone can be said to be its true possessor. Confine a bird for life to a cage, and could it be said to be in reality possessor of the unexercised, unenjoyed power to soar and sweep the heavens? But within every human breast there are capabilities of heaven, folded wings of thought, aspiration, energy, which need only the liberating touch of the Spirit of God to call forth their hidden power, and bear the soul upward to the true region of its life. The true ideal of mans life is that of a heavenly life. To that man only who can say, To me to live is Christ, can we say, in the full significance of the words, Then life is yours.

3. Death is yours. Outwardly, indeed, death bears the same aspect to all. But yet, whilst of all other men it may be said that they are deaths, of the believer alone can it be averred that death is his.

(1) Sin renders a man, in a sense, the rightful property of death, so that, when the hour of dissolution arrives, it is but the lawful proprietor coming to claim his own. In human society, a man by the commission of a crime is by right, if not in fact, the property of the law. The criminal may elude for a while the hands of justice; but, go where he may, he has no right to liberty or life. And when at last, it may be in some unwary moment, he feels a stern hand laid upon his shoulder, and the terrible words, You are my prisoner, fall upon his ear, his guilty freedom is at an end. And though shrinking in dismay from the fate that awaits him, go he must with the officer of justice to meet it. Now, similar to this is the condition of the irreligious man in relation to that law which he has dishonoured, and that dread penalty which he has incurred.

(2) On the other hand, if you are Christs, then death is yours. His power over you is gone. For your condition will be analogous to that of the innocent man in the hands of the law. Over him the law has no power. All its authority, its sanctions, its penalties are on his side. And so, if ye be Christs, the stain of guilt no longer rests upon you, and- death has no longer any claim to your person. It may be still your mysterious fate to pass into the prison-house of the destroyer; but He to whom you belong will soon claim you as one who, like Himself, cannot be holden of death. And then when this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality, then shall the believer discover the full and blessed import of the words, Death is yours. (J. Caird, D. D.)

Christian dominion

In Gen_2:1-25. we learn that according to Gods creative ideal, man was designed to subject all things to his own will, to have the power of enjoying all things. But the realisation of that was subject to the condition that man should retain the form and spirit of that Divine life of which he was created. Therefore the truth of the text is that when man is restored to his true character, he recovers his original dominion. Now Christ is the image of God; therefore to be Christs is to recover the original character which God created in man. When it can be said of us, Ye are Christs, it can also be said, Ye are Gods, and all things are yours. Now the two main characteristics in the Divine life in Christ are light in the understanding, love in the will and the heart. And we shall find that progress in enlightenment, and sympathy makes man more and more capable of reducing all things to His service, and of drawing tribute from all things.

I. The gifts of men.

1. Paul, Apollos, and Cephas. Each had his own special power of setting forth some aspects of the Divine truth. To the narrow-minded and narrow-hearted these teachers were of no service; but to the enlightened and unselfish man the powers of thought, of feeling, and of spirit that existed in these men added to his inward wealth.

2. This is for ever the case. Our ability to make use, for our own good, of the splendid gifts of other men depends upon our own state of heart and mind. For instance, the soul of a great poet is a mine of mental and of moral wealth to those who can make him their own; but the coarse, the unintellectual man cannot grasp its treasures. When Pauls body was bound by Nero at Rome, the apostle was not possessed by the brutal emperor who could not enter into his ideas; but the humblest Christian slave in Neros household was able to make the genius of the great apostle contribute to the inward wealth of his own soul.

II. The world.

1. The material form of the world becomes ours not by virtue of our external position but of our inward state of heart and mind. The man of cultured mind and heart, who knows the inward life and the hidden history of the world, who looks at and loves the glorious landscape, who sees everywhere the signs of Gods wisdom and power, who sees the beauty of His works; and above all he who knows how to appreciate the greatest of all--the moral nature of man--is more truly the owner of wide provinces of the world than a king dark in mind and debased in heart.

2. So the wealth of the world does not belong to a man really until he has become renewed in mind and in heart. The narrow-minded, narrow-hearted churl may have countless hoards, but he is not the master of his money, but his money is the master of the man.

3. The callings, the social intercourse of the world, do not really belong to us in the sense of doing us any good until we are renewed in heart and mind. A selfish, Christless man may have a large practice, a lucrative business, a high social position, but he cannot derive from them any rich inward happiness; but the man who is animated by the spirit of Christ, finds in doing his every-day duty a resource that gives strength and satisfaction to the whole being, and he can say, My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me and to finish His work.

III. Life. The desire for life is innate in man. How shall I see life? is the cry of the young human heart. The only answer is, I am come that they might have life, and have it more abundantly. Mere animal existence is not the all of life. The enlightening of the mind by the rays, and the enlargement of the heart by the ardour of that fire of love that came down on Pentecost give the fulness of life. Sensual and worldly life as old age creeps upon us, becomes a burden, not a treasure. But if we are animated by the spirit of Christ we have an undecaying life that we realise day by day more and more our own possession. There are other masters who wish to supersede Christ, that tell us of life sensual and of life intellectual, but they admit that the life of which they speak is not to be our own, and that it is to become the spoil of the grave. Christ alone rescues our life from corruption and makes it ours, ours for ever. Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou alone hast the words of eternal life.

IV. Death. If we are living worldly, sensual, thoughtless lives, then death is not our possession but our enemy; but if we are deadening the lower life and giving ourselves to the life of the spirit in Christ day by day, then death is ours. As the exile welcomes the white-winged ship that is to bear him away from the strange land of his sojourn where he cannot find lasting rest, and to take him across the storm-tossed waves of the ocean to the calm shores where stands the home of his inheritance, so is the approach of death to those who are in Christ. As is the opening of the door to the guest that has long been wearily waiting in the ante-room of the outward existence to be ushered into the presence-chamber where he shall see the king in his beauty, and find the bounty of his favour, so is the approach of death to those who have been all through their life straining the gaze of the soul to catch the vision of the higher life. (Dean Edwards.)

A Christians portion

I. All things are yours.

1. Paul, Apollos, Cephas. Therefore Peter is not the head of the Church. He is named here in the third place. Peter is the Churchs, and therefore cannot be the head and commander.

2. The world.

(1) The world natural--the frame of heaven and earth. All things are made for man, and he is made for God. They have their happiness and misery together with men (Rom_8:21).

(2) The civil world. The commonwealth is for the Church. Therefore St. Paul bids us pray for kings and princes, &c. (1Ti_2:2). Commonwealths stand because the Church is mingled with them.

(3) The world of wicked men, all their plots, and the prince of the world are the Churchs. He and all his instruments are under the command of Him who turns all his designs contrary to his own intention.

3. Life. Why doth God prolong the life of good pastors and good people, but that they may be blessed instruments to convey truth to posterity? (Php_1:23-24). And so the life of good magistrates (Act_13:36). And then our own life is ours, in order to a better life, which is the only life. This present life is nothing but a shadow. Again, life is ours, because the time we live here is a seed time. This time is given us to do a great many good things in, the harvest of which is reserved for the world to come. And life is a special benefit, because by the advantage of life we further our reckonings after death. A good Christian, the longer he lives, the more he soweth to the Spirit.

4. Or death. Paul joins these together, for if life be not ours for good, death will never be ours. But if life be ours, and we have made a blessed improvement of it, then death also shall be ours (Rev_14:13). It tends to our benefit many ways.

(1) It unclothes us of these rags, these sick, weak bodies of ours, that occasion so much disquiet to our souls, and puts on a new robe of immortality, and garments of glory. It ends all that is ill.

(2) It ends labour in our callings, and the miseries and afflictions that accompany them. Death is ours because it is our resting-place.

(3) It frees us from wicked men, and sets us clear out of Satans reach.

(4) It is a passage to another world. It is the gate of glory. Our death is our birthday. For when we die, we begin to live, and we never live indeed till we die. Death is ours every way. It is our greatest friend under the mask of an enemy. It is a good messenger; it brings good tidings when it comes (Ecc_7:1). It is the best physician. It cures all diseases whatsoever of soul and body. And, indeed, death is the death of itself; for after death there is no more death (Rom_6:9).

5. Or things present.

(1) The good things present are ours, for our comfort in our pilgrimage and passage towards heaven (Tit_1:15; 1Ti_4:4).

(2) And as good things, so ill things. Afflictions are ours, because they fit us for a happier state; they exercise what is good in us, and mortify what is ill.

6. Things to come--whether they be good or evil.

(1) For good. The remainder of our life, that is ours to be good in. Death is to come, and that is ours. And judgment, that is ours; for our Brother and Saviour shall be our judge (1Co_6:2). And then after judgment heaven is ours. Indeed, the best is to come.

(2) And evil things to come are ours also. They cannot do us harm (Rom_8:35; Rom_8:38).

II. But we must understand this with some limits. We therefore answer some cases.

1. It may seem there is no distinction of property if all be a Christians. If every Christian may say, All is mine, then what is one mans is anothers, and there will be no property. Undoubtedly there is a distinction of properties in the things of this life. All is ours, to help us to heaven; in order to comfort and happiness.

2. If all is the Churchs, nothing belongs to the wicked. Therefore say the Jesuited papists, the pope may excommunicate ill princes. They are evil governors; nothing is theirs, all is the Churchs. But political government is not founded upon religion, but upon nature and free election, so that the heathen that have no religion may yet have a lawful government and governors. But it is further objected that they succeed Christ, &c., and He was the Lord of the world; and therefore they may dispossess and invest whom they will. But Christ as man had no government at all (Joh_18:36), only as God-man, Mediator; and so He hath no successor.

3. Doth not this hinder bounty? It is mine, and therefore I do not owe any bounty unto others (1Sa_25:11). However all that we possess is ours in law, yet the bonds of duty, both of humanity and religion, are larger than the bonds of law. Therefore all things are ours, not to possess all we have, but to use them as He will have them used, that gives them.

4. If all be ours, we may do what we choose in all things. Not so. There is difference between right, and the use of that right. Gods children have right to that which God gives them, but they have not the use of that right at all times. Again, though all be ours, yet we have not a sanctified use, but by the Word and prayer (1Ti_4:4). We must take them with Gods leave.

5. Again, all things are ours. Therefore truth, wheresoever we find it, is ours. (R. Sibbes, D. D.)

Glorious united property

I. Christ is Gods.

1. Gods Son.

2. Gods image.

3. Gods gift.

4. Gods great ordinance of salvation.

II. Ye are Christs.

1. Negatively.

(1) You are not the devils.

(2) You are not Moses. You are not the property of the law.

(3) You are not Adams. His headship was soon lost.

2. Positively, Ye are Christs. His property, His spouse, His members, His riches, His glory.

III. Having Christ, we have all things. I remember reading of a lady looking over certain treasures of the house. She says, this is mine, and this is mine, and this is mine. The husband very pleasantly smiled, and said, Yes, my dear, all this is yours, because you are mine. Now all belongs to the believer that belongs to Christ, officially, relatively, and by covenant, and by mediation.

1. All the fulness stored up in the person of Christ belongs to His people. It hath pleased the Father that in Him all fulness should dwell. Of His fulness we have received, and grace for grace.

2. All the merit of His work.

3. All the triumphs of His victories. (G. Murrell.)

A call to the utmost expansiveness in religious sympathy

The Church has not always treated its ministers rightly. The attendants on a Christian ministry may be divided into--

1. Those who esteem the doctrine because of the teacher. Paul seems to have had those in his eye when he wrote this chapter. This is a mistake, as bad as it is prevalent.

2. Those who esteem the teacher because of his doctrines. A man who preaches to them, they feel, is estimable only as he embodies and propounds the true doctrines of the gospel. The impropriety of glorying in teachers, rather than in their doctrines, is strikingly illustrated by three things in the text.

I. The universe is for the Church. All things--not some things.

1. The ministry. Whether Paul, or Apollos. In every way it serves man--intellectually, socially, materially. Rut its grand aim is to restore the human spirit to God. Now this ministry, in all its varieties, is the property of the Church. Why, then, should it glory in any one form?

2. The world. In the sense of legal possession the world of course is not the property of Christians, nor of others. Yet in the highest sense it is the property of the Christian. He feels an intense sympathy with God who created it; he rejoices in it as the workmanship of a Fathers hands, as the expression of a Fathers heart, the revelation of a Fathers wisdom and power. Spiritually he appropriates the world to himself, he gathers up its truths, he cherishes its impressions, he drinks in its Divine spirit.

3. Life. There are certain conditions in which men cannot be said to live. The prisoner under the sentence of death; his life belongs to the avenging justice of his country. There are others whose faculties are so paralysed they can neither speak nor move. Life is not theirs. Morally man is dead in trespasses and in sin; his life is not his. But life is the Christians. His sentence of death is removed; his moral infirmities are healed, and he is enjoying the right of life, he is prosecuting the mission of life, he is answering the grand purpose of life.

4. Death. It delivers from all that is incompatible with our peace, safety, and advancement; and introduces us into the scenes, the services, the society of a blessed immortality. It is ours; the last step in the pilgrimage, the last storm in the voyage, the last blow in the conflict.

5. General events. Things present, whatever their character--painful or pleasant--are ours. Things to come. What things come to us in a day! What things, therefore, are to come in eternity!

II. The Church is for the Redeemer. There are two very different senses in which Christian men are Christs. They are His--

1. By His relationship to them. He is the Creator of all. By Him were all things created, visible and invisible, &c. He is the Mediator of all. Ye are not your own; for ye are bought with a price, &c.

2. By their pledge to Him. They have pledged themselves to Him as their moral Leader.

III. The redeemer is for God. Christ is--

1. Gods Revealer. He reveals Him--

(1) In creation. Gods creative plan was wrought out by the hand of Christ; He, as the builder of the universe, revealed the mind of the infinite Architect.

(2) In His personal ministry. He was the Image of the invisible God, the brightness of His Fathers glory.

2. Gods Servant. He came here to work out Gods great plan of saving mercy. Christ is Gods Revealer and Servant in a sense in which no other being in the universe is, and therefore to Him men should give their undivided attention.

Conclusion: Learn--

1. The infinite worth of Christianity. It gives all things to its true disciples. None of the all things specified here are possessed by those who are not His genuine disciples.

2. The contemptibleness of religious sectarianism. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Co 3:21-23. Therefore — Upon the whole, considering all that has been advanced, and especially considering in what view the great God regards these things which we are so ready to value ourselves upon; let no man glory in men — So as to divide into parties on their account; for all things are yours — And we in particular. We are not your lords, but rather your servants: whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas — We are all equally yours, to serve you for Christ’s sake: or the world — This leap, from Peter to the world, greatly enlarges the thought, and argues a kind of impatience of enumerating the rest. Peter, and every one in the whole world, however excellent in gifts, or grace, or office, are also your servants for Christ’s sake; or life or death — These, with all their various circumstances, are disposed as will be most for your advantage; or things present — On earth, or things to come — In heaven. Contend therefore no more about these little things, but be ye united in love as ye are in blessings. And ye are Christ’s — His property, his subjects, his members; and Christ is God’s — As Mediator, he acted as his Father’s servant, and referred all his services to his Father’s glory. Others understand the passage thus: “All things are appointed for your good, and ye are appointed for Christ’s honour, and Christ for God’s glory.”

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CRITICAL NOTES

1Co_3:21-23.—See Homiletic Analysis. Note the unexpected turn of phrase; not “Christ is yours.” “Rise to the plane of His life and your relations to Him, then you are a possession, not owners. You are feudal holders of your estate, but the baron himself was the ‘king’s man.’ ”

HOMILETIC ANALYSIS.—1Co_3:21-23

Our Estate and our Title: “All things yours.”

I. Incidental illustration of this in the occasion of the paragraph.—

1. “All things work together for good to them that love God.” Corinthian Church a saddening spectacle to an observer, especially to one having Paul’s close personal interest in its welfare. Sad even at this distance of time to see the state of things in a Church hardly more than two or three years old, and endowed with gifts—many of them miraculous—beyond any other of that age. Members split into factions, party spirit running high. Some living in immorality “not even named amongst the heathen” around them (1Co_3:1); some defending such sin; others suffering “rationalising” scepticism to sap the foundations of their faith, and, which always follows, to eat away the vitality of their Christian life. One is sick at heart at the meanness and virulence of their personal feeling against Paul, the man to whom they owed their Church existence, who had “spent himself” for them, only to find that “the more he loved them the less he was loved” (2Co_12:15). Yet to this condition of things we owe these two letters to Corinth; of all his longer Epistles the most human in their interest, and coming nearest to the every-day life of house, market, citizen, church. 2. Especially do we owe to this the many passages, of which this is a specimen, of greatest weight and importance. How again and again, in the midst of passages of rebuke or direction concerning the temporary and sometimes trivial points submitted by the Corinthians to Paul for his decision, do we find his pen guided to such passages of solemn or glorious truth as, e.g., 1Co_7:29-31, or as this paragraph. As the casual blow of the pick of the lucky miner strikes upon the precious nugget embedded in the rock of quartz, or as many a fair flower grows so strong and so fair out of, and because of, the very corruption with which its roots are fed; so out of the foolish and wicked party spirit of the Corinthian Church grows this glorious title-deed to the Universe and its contents, the estate of the Christian. The very parties in Corinth are “ours”! [How is the preacher to put all the estate, “all things,” into one homily? He and his people can but walk over a part of it, noting the things which lie next the path on either hand, or can be seen afar off in large outline. No matter in what direction they strike out together a path over such an extent of possession, new “views” open on this side and that, new “finds” of pleasure and profit lie close to their way! Before starting across in even one direction, let them look over their Title. “All is God’s; all is Christ’s, His Son; all He has is yours, His brethren.”]

II. The title by which the estate is held by the Church and the Christian.—At each link in the above chain of successive “conveyance,” from God to Christ, from Christ to His people, the ground of possession, the nature of the ownership, varies.

1. “Of, through, unto, God are all things” (Rom_11:36). They have being because He willed it; they are what they are, and as they are, and they continue, at His will. All the creatures, and pre-eminently Man, find in His glory the aim and end of their being. Sin would destroy this order. The germ, not only of heathenism but of all sin, is that “they worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator” (Rom_1:25). The members of the Church have come again into harmony with the Creator’s design, and glory with David as he stood amidst his people’s offerings to God’s Temple on earth, bowing at our Creator’s feet with the homage, “All that is in the heaven,” etc. (1Ch_29:11). All the voices of the universe were meant to be and ought to be in harmony with the cry of the four “living ones” and the four-and-twenty elders who, self-discrowned, bow before the Lord God Almighty in the temple of heaven, saying, “Thou hast created,” etc. (Rev_4:11). He is Lawgiver to His universe. The “laws” which we laboriously make out, are nothing but expressions of His will, the ordinary, orderly methods according to which He is pleased to govern His great Kingdom. All is His, in virtue of His Creatorship; all is subject to Him; all at His disposal.

2. But there comes in between Him and His Created Universe His Son; between, not as a separation, but as a link; as a Mediator, not only between God and man in Redemption, but as between Creator and Creature in Creation and in Providence (Joh_1:1; Col_1:16). Even in the days of His veiled glory He once said: “All things that the Father hath are Mine”; and the writer of the Hebrews (1Co_1:1-3) allows us to see this “Son appointed Heir of all things, … sitting down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.” And “all things” are His, subject to His power and at His disposal.

3. Then comes in the astounding revelation that He is all this, and has all this, for the sake of the redeemed race of man. [Note the force of Heb_1:3-4, “Being the brightness, etc., … sat down … when He, who was all the while this, had by Himself purged our sins.” The “purging” of our sins and the after-session “on the right hand,” etc., are “projected,” as it were, on the background of His abiding, continuous dignity as “the Brightness” and “the Image.”] Whilst He thus has all things for Himself, He has linked Himself with man, has taken flesh and come down to us, that He might lift us up with Himself to God, and join us with Himself in a possession as wide as His own ownership. The very heart of the argument of Hebrews 2 is here. Yonder sits One Man in whom all the dominion of Psa_8:4-6, ascribed to man, is actually fulfilled; the only one wearing our nature in whom that dominion is as yet realised. But His enthronement and dominion carry the principle of Man’s restored dominion. His royalty is representative as well as personal. His people are so “partakers with Him” that they already enter into a life of rule rather than of subjection, and their ultimate and complete glory is sure. “Ye are Christ’s” carries with it an answer to the old question, “What is man?” such as was never dreamed of by him who asked it. The creature physically lost in the vastness of the universe, dwarfed into a point by the heavens, the work of God’s fingers, doomed to suffering and to death, in bondage all his life to the fear of death, and in that respect lower than the “cattle” and the humbler animated creation (Psalms 8), is already beginning, so our paragraph says, to realise that along with and like the Representative Man “he is crowned with glory and honour”; all things are put under his feet, and serve him; he is to become conqueror of death; angels are his servitors. Indeed, there is nothing, there is no being, in the whole contents of God’s creation-realm, that is not at His orders to serve the interests, and advance to its perfection the life, of those whom Christ has made His clients and His brethren. “He is head over all things to His Church” (Eph_1:22 [a paragraph thoroughly parallel to the thought of our present section]). Each member of His body—of His very Self—may say, “All things that the Son hath are mine.” The Lord of all that is or that begins to be, of all that happens in the unfolding of events, of all the forces and contents of the universe in all their capabilities and combinations, is making all ceaselessly contribute to and converge upon the interests of His people and of each single individual of their number. [May illustrate in homely fashion thus: The mere caller at a house is shown into one room; there stays, and only stays; takes nothing, uses nothing, of what is in it. The visitor in the family has the use, the “run,” of all in common use by the family, and of those set apart specially for him; but he feels that many are closed against him. In a very restricted way does he feel free to use what is at his disposal and service. But the child of the house has the free “run” of the house. Nothing is shut against him; in submission to his father’s wishes, all it contains may be called into requisition for his use and comfort and welfare.] The home belongs to the brethren of Christ. The estate is His; but, we may almost venture to say, not its smallest value to Him is that He can make His brethren sharers with Him in its possibilities of blessing.

III. The estate and its contents of good.—In a word, “everything.” There is nothing in the physical or the spiritual world; in the present, in the future; persons, circumstances, changes of condition,—nothing of which the Christian is not master instead of servant, and which cannot be made to issue in and contribute to the service and advancement of all his best interests.

1. The matter immediately in hand is the ministers and order of the Church: “Paul, Apollos, Cephas.” With fervid, slavish, personal devotion the Corinthians were ranging themselves very obediently as the adherents of this man and that. Indeed, they were fiercely contending for their favourite, under whose yoke they were eager to put the neck of their judgment and will and heart, almost as if their party-head had been crucified for them, or they had been baptized into his name and not Christ’s. No man contended more stoutly than did Paul (e.g. chap, 9) for his Apostolic rights and all due recognition of his status. But the place which some at Corinth would have given to him or to other apostles, was one which belonged to Christ (1Co_1:13). Such exaltation of an apostle into lordship over their own head and heart, was an inversion of the true order. As he looks at the humblest man in Corinth, ennobled by his brotherhood to Christ, he says: “Remember, the apostle is for your sake, not for his own glorification. The Church; its arrangements; its officers and their qualifications, exist for your salvation and sanctification, and not at all for their own advancement or glory. You are not theirs, not mine. Paul, Apollos, Cephas, we are yours!” There is no one pattern of “excellence” in the ministry, as there is no one pattern of need or character in the people. Every man is the “excellent” minister to somebody! The expositor of the Word, or the declaimer of theses on the topics of the day; the man who excels in pathos, or in historical word-painting, or in satire and shrewd analysis of character and its foibles; the man who “cannot preach,” and the man who can preach but who cannot organise; the man who is at his best in a sick-room, or that other who is a born ruler of men;—through all their infinite variety of gifts, there is no faithful minister of Christ who is not and has not something which somebody wants, or at some time will want. Each man will have his own aspect of truth to present and teach, the aspect which he sees most clearly, into which he enters most fully; and all are wanted, Paul and James, Cephas and John, Jude and Apollos, to give the whole round of truth. A many-sided, many-gifted ministry is not the smallest part of the wealth and rich heritage of the Church. Let the Christian man see what he can find for himself in each type of man. There is something. Let him not be so wedded to any one type, that he cannot enjoy, or find help from, or even think kindly of, a man who is not after the pattern of his own “best,” the style of minister who most helps him. And, similarly, first stands the interest of the individual soul, and next the form of Church organisation and administration. No form is worth anything which never was, or is no longer, of use towards helping those who belong to Christ. Any form, as any man, who does this, is to be recognised and to be utilised as part of the endowment of the people of God.

2. Then Paul’s view widens. His words grow broad in their range, even to indefiniteness. “World yours! Life yours! Death yours!” Then “the world”—and its predominantly ethical and evil significance need not be excluded from it—is no mere necessary evil, which must be endured and perhaps survived. There is no “must be” which ordains that life, with its business, its sorrows, its trials and conflicts, its unfriendly or uncongenial men and women, its strange perplexities and obstacles of circumstance, shall be of necessity a hindrance to growth in grace; putting the break on, even if it cannot quite stop all progress, as if a Christian could not hope to be thorough in service or enjoyment so long as life in “the world” lasts, and as if the one thing most to be desired was to “shuffle off this mortal coil” and be done with it all. Paul’s words in our paragraph say rather: “You are not to succumb beneath life’s burdens like that. You are not to acquiesce in a low type of spiritual life, because your circumstances and whole location in the world are not favourable to growth. The world is not to be master like that. Evil as it is, its evil is under the rule of your Christ. ‘God shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly’ (Rom_16:20), and you may begin to enter into your victory and have your foot even now upon the power of evil; and then all the good there is in life and in the world may be set in motion and utilised for your enjoyment and help. The trials, the difficulties, the very temptations, are not to be met simply as the bulrush bows its head before the storm, praying that the storm may soon be over, and that you may not be uprooted utterly by its passing violence. Rather, like your Master, ride the storm, in His strength. Every hurricane obeys laws—His laws—and blows as He listeth, towards His goal and for His purpose towards you. The water outside will carry the well-found ship; admitted within, it will sink it. Keep the world outside your heart, and the world is yours, to use and rule and lay under contribution to your growth in grace.” Trials may teach. Crosses may lift nearer. [“Even so,” and in no other way, “must” every “son of man be lifted up!”] The very necessity of the strife and of unremitting watchfulness against evil will drive a man so often and so near to Christ his Source of strength, that he emerges from every specially severe testing-time with new knowledge and a new power in prayer. The very weight of life’s burdens will have forced him to find a Friend in Christ, whose strength and faithfulness the world has forced him to test and experience, as he would never otherwise have had occasion to do. He is a fine specimen of manhood, who has taken his place in the world, and felt its storm, and fought it when it assailed him, and after all is not hardened or “secularised” or soured, but is trained to patience and sympathy with others, and to a more perfect reliance upon his God. The fire will brighten and purify what it cannot burn. In “the world” it is true that the soldier is in an unfriendly country; but even the enemy’s country can be requisitioned for what will enable him to carry on the campaign. [The darkest days of life have often been the most fruitful in permanent advancement to the soul. The cross has had a jewel hidden beneath it which has repaid for lifting the cross. A true parable in a German Legend: A famous egg of iron was given by a prince to his bride, who flung down in displeasure so unworthy a gift. The concussion started a spring in the iron case, and revealed a silver “white” to the egg. Curiosity examined this, and found again within a “yolk” of gold. In this lay hidden a tiny ruby-set crown, whose circlet concealed a marriage-ring for the union of bridegroom and bride! So, at the very heart of the most forbidding experiences of “the world” and “life,” the soul has many a time found the pledge of new love and a closer union with the Christ who rules “the world” and “life,” and who gave the painful and hard experience, etc.]

3. Nothing seems more utterly master than “Death.” The natural heart often stoically looked life in the face and defied it; or sometimes sullenly, doggedly, went onward to meet its changing fortunes and crushing sorrows as the Inevitable. But reckon death a possession, part of one’s wealth? No; it must be submitted to! In all literature, except what is Christian, or at least Christianised, Death is the great Conqueror; knocking impartially at the door of palace and hovel, calling as imperiously the king from his throne as the beggar from his rags and wretchedness, and calling them at his own caprice; playing havoc with all men’s plans and work, breaking these off at most unlooked-for and unfortunate times; mocking the tears of affection over sundered bonds; defying all efforts to arrest his progress or stay his hand. On the contrary, they who are Christ’s see that He has conquered death, and they share in His victory. They already “have everlasting life.” Death has become dying only, simply an incident—no more—in the course of an “eternal life” which began when faith united to Christ, and which stretches on in victorious continuity through the important, but still accidental, change of surroundings and abode and conditions which dissolution occasions. They do not tremble at any capricious shooting of His arrows. The Lord of Life makes every arrow of Death to carry His message attached to it. He “has the keys of Hell and of Death” (Rev_1:17). The realm of the “departed” is part of His dominion. His people enter it as possessors, not as prisoners. They are only advancing into another section of a life which is all theirs. Its doors are opened by Death when He wills, and at His bidding. And so far from putting an abrupt and inopportune end to the execution of their life’s purposes, or thwarting them, they are only by death advanced a stage nearer to their completion. Salvation is put out of peril; for the first time do the majority of His people then see their Lord. To wake up into the blessedness of that first moment, when their eyes at last see the Christ they have heard of, and trusted, and loved, and have tried to serve—Death which brings that is no dread, no enemy; it is a hope, it is their own.

4. Nor does anything seem less their own than the future. “Things to come” may unfold in such terrible possibilities, and may involve such unforeseen contingencies, as may set at nought all their wisest planning and blight all their brightest prospects. No dawn so clear but the noonday may be shadowed over with clouds which never lift again long as life’s day lasts. Men seem working life’s problem with a quantity unknown, incommensurable, when they must needs take the future into their reckoning. Masters of the future? No, not even its prophets! Rather its sport! “Things to come are yours.” What these shall be, He is deciding. They lie within the domain which is being ruled by the Son, and ruled by Him for His Church and for the individual Christian man. Even here He used to speak of the unseen world and its facts as one to whose foot the other side of the veil was as familiar ground as this side is to us. In like manner the future lies mapped out to His eye as clearly as, more clearly than, the past is to ours. For instance, some man will one day cross my path who will materially affect my whole after-life. Christ, the Ruler of the future, has His eye upon the point of convergence; and upon the path which that man, perhaps as yet altogether unknown to me, or far from me, in perhaps another hemisphere, is traversing, and which will bring him to the meeting-point by-and-by. When the moment arrives there is the man, just when, and just such as, my life needs. The present is being so guided into the future, and the future is being so fitted on to the present, as that the life of a man who is Christ’s, is in its whole stretch and extent one perfect harmonious whole (see Homily on 2Co_1:10). Somewhere in the whole round of His universal possession there is the very help and deliverance he will someday want; it will be brought out and forthcoming at the proper time, “in His times” (cf. 1Ti_6:15). As each stage of the earthly series of “things to come” is reached, relays of help [like the relays of fresh horses awaiting the travellers at each successive posting-station in the old “posting” days] will always be awaiting him. “My times are in” Christ’s “hand.”

HOMILETIC SUGGESTIONS FOR A COURSE ON 1Co_3:22

The World is Yours.

I. To lodge in.

II. To study.

III. To use.

IV. To enjoy.

V. To conquer.—[J. L.]

Life is Yours.

I. As a daily gift of God.

II. As a period of discipline and instruction.

III. As a season of enjoyment.

IV. As an earnest of a more glorious life.—[J. L.]

Death is Yours.

I. To consider.

II. To terminate your sorrows.

III. To effect an important change.

IV. To unfold the mysteries of eternity.

V. To introduce you to eternal happiness.—[J. L.]

Things Present are Yours.

I. The dispensations of providence.

II. The provisions and arrangements of the Gospel.

III. All the supplies, agencies, and experiences of time.—[J. L.]

Things to Come are Yours.

I. The future of time.

II. The coming of Christ.

III. The resurrection of the body.

IV. The day of judgment.

V. Heaven.

VI. Everlasting life.

VII. God, who was, and is, and is to come.—[J. L.]

APPENDED NOTES

1Co_3:11 sqq. Since it was by preaching and teaching that Paul laid the foundation of the Church of Corinth, the builders must be different kinds of teachers. Since the matter taught is the material the teacher uses, this must be the gold, silver, wood, straw, etc. The results produced by the teacher in the hearts and lives of his hearer are the building he erects. He may produce good results which will last for ever and be to him an eternal joy and glory. Since these results are altogether the work of God, and are revealed in their grandeur only in the great day, they are a “reward” given by God in that day for work done on earth. But a teacher may produce results which now appear great and substantial, but which will then be found utterly worthless. He may gather round him a large number of hearers, may interest them, and teach them much that is elegant and for this life useful, and yet fail to produce in or through them results which will abide for ever. If so, the great day will destroy his work and proclaim its worthlessness. But he may be said to build upon the one foundation, Jesus Christ. For he is a professed Christian teacher, and people go to hear him as such. He may be a sincere, though mistaken Christian believer, and therefore be himself saved. But his work, as a teacher, is a failure. Now the permanence of a teacher’s work depends upon the matter taught. The soul-saving truths of the Gospel enter into men’s hearts and lives, and produce abiding results. All other teaching will produce only temporary results. We understand, therefore, by the wood and straw whatever teaching does not impart or nourish spiritual life. The three terms suggest the various kinds of such teaching. It may be clever or foolish, new or old, true or false; but not subversive of the “foundation,” or it would come under the severer censure of 1Co_3:16 sq.… We have Christian examples in many of the trifling and speculative discussions which have been frequent in all ages. We also learn that even of the teaching which produces abiding results there are different degrees of worth; in proportion, no doubt, to the fulness and purity with which the teaching of Christ is reproduced. In both cases the results are the results, lasting or transitory, produced in the hearers’ hearts by the use of these materials; results which are in some sense a standing embodiment of the teaching.—Dr. Beet.

“By Fire.”—

1. It may be homiletically useful to cast into orderly shape the Bible use of “Fire.” Needless to say that the Bible is not pledged to any such unscientific piece of obsolete antiquity as that Fire is an Element—one of four. It is content to take the visible fact, and its palpable effects, as a serviceable illustration, apprehended readily by the child or the heathen, and perfectly good as an illustration, whatever be the scientific revision of our knowledge of the state of the case. For teaching purposes Fire is Heat and, still more, Flame. Flame is now understood to be gas so highly heated as to become in some degree luminous, and generally made more luminous by being loaded with incandescent particles, whether of carbon or other matter. That is nothing new to the Divine Author of Scripture and of Nature; nor was it unworthy of Him, or untrue, that what was to be the popularly apprehensible phenomenon should in the original planning of Nature be so adjusted and adapted as to lend itself well to teach moral truth. Indeed, the devout students of Nature find that both the superficial, phenomenal facts and the deep scientific “laws” are alike parabolic and didactic Nature is full of man, and of truth which man wants. Creation is didactic. “Creation is redemptive.”

2. A convenient starting-point is Heb_12:29 : “Our God is a consuming fire.” Closely connected with “God is Light.” The difference is here: Light is what God is in Himself; fire what He is in relation to (sinful) mankind. Hence frequently the chosen symbol of His self-manifestation,: the Bush, Exo_3:2; the Pillar, Exo_40:38; Tongues of Pentecost, Act_2:3; Sinai, Exo_19:8; Exo_24:17; Deu_4:36; Vision of God’s glory, Eze_1:4; Exo_24:9-11 (N.B. Nadab and Abihu), Dan_7:9; Rev_4:2. In Isa_4:5 we have three manifesting symbols of God combined—light, radiant splendour, burning fire. Still more frequently the accompaniment of His self-manifestation: e.g. “After the earthquake a fire,” 1Ki_19:12; “fire goeth before Him,” Psa_97:8. Loosely connected with all this are the fiery Chariot and Horses sent for Elijah, 2Ki_2:11; fiery Chariots round about Elisha, 2Ki_6:17. This last and the Pillar over Israel, or the Shekinah in its midst, are gathered up in Zec_2:5.

3. Hence when He accepted, “took,” “ate,” appropriated, a sacrifice, it was by a fiery manifestation. E.g. at the Ordination of Aaron and the Inauguration of the priestly system and ritual, Lev_9:24. So at the Dedication of Solomon’s Temple, 2Ch_7:1-3. And in less important instances: Carmel, 1 Kings 18; on Araunah’s threshing floor, 1Ch_21:26; Gideon’s sacrifice, Jdg_6:21. The Burnt Offering, as distinguished from the Sin and Peace Offerings, and as symbol of an entire surrender on man’s part and an entire appropriation on God’s part, was (as its name says) burnt with fire. And this links on the foregoing to the twofold employment of the symbol as exhibiting the active relation of a Holy God to sinful man.

4. All that could, so to say, be volatilised went up purified and in perfect acceptance; all that was gross and earthly was left behind, to be cast out. Hence, “Baptized with … fire,” Mat_3:11; Mal_3:2 brings out the action of the refiner’s fire upon metals. So Isa_4:4, “Purged Jerusalem by the Spirit of Judgment and the Spirit of Burning”; “in that day,” primarily the return of a purified remnant from Babylon, then the setting up of a Christian Zion, perhaps, by-and-by, a restored and purified Israel once more. Isa_30:23, and more remotely still Isa_29:6, perhaps may better come in later on. The same Holiness which is purifying to the man who desires to be purified, burns as a consuming fire against sin and the sinner who will not be parted from his sin. Hence fire frequently sets forth the holy, active antagonism to evil and evil men, in defence of His people. Isa_30:27, “His tongue a devouring fire; lips full of indignation.” “Fury like a fire,” Jer_4:4 (against unfaithful Judah and Jerusalem), Jer_21:2. So it proved, Lam_3:3. So against the heathen and Idumæa, Eze_36:5; against Gog, Eze_38:18-19. [Psa_83:14; Psa_140:10; Eze_24:9; Amo_5:6.] God and His people are so identified that they become a fire too, Oba_1:18; Zec_12:6. So in Isa_30:27-33 we have it again. Fire purging the faithful from the unfaithful, sifting the nations, then burning up the pile of Tophet. [But “the King” may (as Talmud) be the Eternal King, and Tophet the burning-place outside the purified, ideal Jerusalem, where all the refuse is to be cast (Mat_13:50).] Certainly the twofold action is seen in Isa_31:9, “Fire in Zion; furnace in Jerusalem”; Isa_33:14. As the Assyrian invasion approached, and the denunciations of holy wrath against sinners in and enemies of Zion, “sinners in Zion are afraid.” “Who can dwell with devouring fire?” cry they, “… with everlasting burnings?” i.e. with a God whose holy antagonism to sin never relaxes, never spares, never ends. 1Co_3:15 is the answer. But the principle is here which has occasioned and justified a very frequent use made of this text. God’s fierce, fiery antagonism to sin cannot cease unless sin cease—must last everlastingly if sinners live on everlastingly sinners still. Same connection appears in Nah_1:6. Indeed, the whole cycle of events connected with the Assyrian invasion seems the foundation of much Bible language concerning the punishment of wicked. Not only such as Psa_46:9 (usually [not in Speaker] connected with these events), but Isa_9:5, bring up the fires with which the dead bodies and the wreck of the host were cleared away (1Co_9:5 = no fighting, no blood, but simply burning of the litter and refuse and the dead), with, by the usual analogy, a future fulfilment. Isa_66:24 (foundation of Mar_9:44-46 [cf. Stier, Words of L. J., i. 156]; rather the figure of a holy Jerusalem with its Gehenna, its burning-place for all the refuse of the city [Mat_13:50]); here also the fires on the battle-field after Sennacherib’s defeat are evidently in the mind of the writer. The battle-field is one vast Gehinnom outside the city walls.

5. Many actual examples of God’s vengeance in which fire is the agent of punishment. N.B. these are all examples of sins very directly against His holiness and unique position and claims. Nadab and Abihu, Lev_10:2; Taberah, Num_11:2; Achan, Jos_7:25; Korah, Num_16:35; Elijah and the captains, 2Ki_1:10 (unless, indeed, this be, first and chiefly, God’s manifestation of Himself, appealing both to Elijah and to the witnesses and hearers of the event). Above all Sodom, Gen_19:24; referred to in Luk_17:29; and at least shaping the language of Psa_11:6; Eze_38:22; Rev_21:18. [Imagery of Mal_4:1-2 is anticipated by Gen_19:24; Gen_19:23.]

6. So, coming to the New Testament, we find three great cycles of type: (a) Sodom, (b) Gehinnom, (c) Assyrian invasion.

NEW TESTAMENT

1. General.—God’s vengeance against sin is fiery, Mat_3:10 (? primarily the Jewish nation), “Tree hewn down and cast into the fire”; Heb_6:8, the doom of the persistently barren ground. Also of individuals, Mat_7:19; Luk_3:9; Heb_10:27, “Judgment and fiery indignation; 2 These. 1Co_1:8, “In flaming fire taking vengeance.”

2. God’s holiness is testing.—1Co_3:13 [though there is here very little of all this typology; hardly more than the commonly observed action of fire]; 2Pe_3:7 (Luk_12:49-52 is connected).

3. Sodom.—Jud_1:7, “Suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.” Rev_19:20; Rev_20:10, “Lake of fire and brimstone, where the Beast and the False Prophet are” [Rev_18:9, Babylon; cf. Abraham beholding the ascending smoke of Sodom]; the Devil; Gog and Magog deceived by him (obvious ref. to Eze_38:22); who-soever “not found written in the book of life.” Rev_14:10, worshippers of the beast and his image, who have received his mark.

4. Gehenna.—Mat_18:9, “Worm dieth not,” etc.; Mar_9:44-46, referring to Isaiah 66. “Furnace of fire,” Mat_13:42; Mat_13:50, where the latter verse, having nothing in the parable connected with it to suggest it—the fish are cast into the water—shows that the phrase had become, or was now first made by Christ, a customary equivalent for the doom of the wicked.

5. The battle-field.—Linked with Mark 9, as above, but originating the phrase “everlasting burnings.” In Mat_25:41; figure (almost?) lost. So completely the revelation of the future that we must say: “Whatever be the nature of the punishment of a lost, embodied spirit, if we might ask him what he suffered, he would say, ‘Fire,’ as the only earthly analogy available.”

6. Mar_9:47. A difficult verse. Every man shall—must—come into contact with the holiness of God. Will a man let it (Him) burn away all impurity, and himself thus become a sacrifice salted with grace, and so accepted? Or, refusing this, will he simply meet and feel the fire which never burns itself out?

1Co_3:16-17. There were Hebrew converts in Corinth, and such would easily catch St. Paul’s allusion … to the national Temple. This national Temple in the Apostle’s mind clearly enlarges and transfigures itself into a Temple spiritual. This living Temple of the Catholic Church is one Temple; it is one, yet elastic; it grows and expands, associating to itself and assimilating, so to speak, many lateral chapels. It is, in fact, an organic unity of several organs, each it itself a unity; it is, in brief, a unity of many contained unities. Each several Church, therefore, of the Catholic Church is the Catholic Church in miniature, so that of the whole all the several parts are themselves wholes; each branch of the Tree is a tree planted in Christ.—Evans, in “Speaker.”

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

1 Corinthians

SERVANTS AND LORDS

DEATH, THE FRIEND

1Co 3:21 - 1Co 3:22.

What Jesus Christ is to a man settles what everything else is to Him. Our relation to Jesus determines our relation to the universe. If we belong to Him, everything belongs to us. If we are His servants, all things are our servants. The household of Jesus, which is the whole Creation, is not divided against itself, and the fellow-servants do not beat one another. Two bodies moving in the same direction, and under the impulse of the same force, cannot come into collision, and since ‘all things work together,’ according to the counsel of His will, ‘all things work together for good’ to His lovers. The triumphant words of my text are no piece of empty rhetoric, but the plain result of two facts-Christ’s rule and the Christian’s submission. ‘All things are yours, and ye are Christ’s,’ so the stars in their courses fight against those who fight against Him, and if we are at peace with Him we shall ‘make a league with the beasts of the field, and the stones of the field,’ which otherwise would be hindrances and stumbling-blocks, ‘shall be at peace with’ us.

The Apostle carries his confidence in the subservience of all things to Christ’s servants very far, and the words of my text, in which he dares to suggest that ‘the Shadow feared of man’ is, after all, a veiled friend, are hard to believe, when we are brought face to face with death, either when we meditate on our own end, or when our hearts are sore and our hands are empty. Then the question comes, and often is asked with tears of blood, Is it true that this awful force, which we cannot command, does indeed serve us? Did it serve those whom it dragged from our sides; and in serving them, did it serve us? Paul rings out his ‘Yes’; and if we have as firm a hold of Paul’s Lord as Paul had, our answer will be the same. Let me, then, deal with this great thought that lies here, of the conversion of the last enemy into a friend, the assurance that we may all have that death is ours, though not in the sense that we can command it, yet in the sense that it ministers to our highest good.

That thought may be true about ourselves when it comes to our turn to die, and, thank God, has been true about all those who have departed in His faith and fear. Some of you may have seen two very striking engravings by a great, though somewhat unknown artist, representing Death as the Destroyer, and Death as the Friend. In the one case he comes into a scene of wild revelry, and there at his feet lie, stark and stiff, corpses in their gay clothing and with garlands on their brows, and feasters and musicians are flying in terror from the cowled Skeleton. In the other he comes into a quiet church belfry, where an aged saint sits with folded arms and closed eyes, and an open Bible by his side, and endless peace upon the wearied face. The window is flung wide to the sunrise, and on its sill perches a bird that gives forth its morning song. The cowled figure has brought rest to the weary, and the glad dawning of a new life to the aged, and is a friend. The two pictures are better than all the poor words that I can say. It depends on the people to whom he comes, whether he comes as a destroyer or as a helper. Of course, for all of us the mere physical facts remain the same, the pangs and the pain, the slow torture of the loosing of the bond, or the sharp agony of its instantaneous rending apart. But we have gone but a very little way into life and its experiences, if we have not learnt that identity of circumstances may cover profound difference of essentials, and that the same experiences may have wholly different messages and meanings to two people who are equally implicated in them. Thus, while the physical fact remains the same for all, the whole bearing of it may so differ that Death to one man will be a Destroyer, while to another it is a Friend.

For, if we come to analyse the thoughts of humanity about the last act in human life on earth, what is it that makes the dread darkness of death, which all men know, though they so seldom think of it? I suppose, first of all, if we seek to question our feelings, that which makes Death a foe to the ordinary experience is, that it is like a step off the edge of a precipice in a fog; a step into a dim condition of which the imagination can form no conception, because it has no experience, and all imagination’s pictures are painted with pigments drawn from our past. Because it is impossible for a man to have any clear vision of what it is that is coming to meet him, and he cannot tell ‘in that sleep what dreams may come,’ he shrinks, as we all shrink, from a step into the vast Inane, the dim Unknown. But the Gospel comes and says, ‘It is a land of great darkness,’ but ‘To the people that sit in darkness a great light hath shined.’

‘Our knowledge of that life is small,

The eye of faith is dim.’

But faith has an eye, and there is light, and this we can see-One face whose brightness scatters all the gloom, One Person who has not ceased to be the Sun of Righteousness with healing in His beams, even in the darkness of the grave. Therefore, one at least of the repellent features which, to the timorous heart, makes Death a foe, is gone, when we know that the known Christ fills the Unknown.

Then, again, another of the elements, as I suppose, which constitute the hostile aspect that Death assumes to most of us, is that it apparently hales us away from all the wholesome activities and occupations of life, and bans us into a state of apparent inaction. The thought that death is rest does sometimes attract the weary or harassed, or they fancy it does, but that is a morbid feeling, and much more common in sentimental epitaphs than among the usual thoughts of men. To most of us there is no joy, but a chill, in the anticipation that all the forms of activity which have so occupied, and often enriched, our lives here, are to be cut off at once. ‘What am I to do if I have no books?’ says the student. ‘What am I to do if I have no mill?’ says the spinner. ‘What am I to do if I have no nursery or kitchen?’ say the women. What are you to do? There is only one quieting answer to such questions. It tells us that what we are doing here is learning our trade, and that we are to be moved into another workshop there, to practise it. Nothing can bereave us of the force we made our own, being here; and ‘there is nobler work for us to do’ when the Master of all the servants stoops from His Throne and says: ‘Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things; have thou authority over ten cities.’ Then the faithfulness of the steward will be exchanged for the authority of the ruler, and the toil of the servant for a share in the joy of the Lord.

So another of the elements which make Death an enemy is turned into an element which makes it a friend, and instead of the separation from this earthly body, the organ of our activity and the medium of our connection with the external universe being the condemnation of the naked spirit to inaction, it is the emancipation of the spirit into greater activity. For nothing drops away at death that does not make a man the richer for its loss, and when the dross is purged from the silver, there remains ‘a vessel unto honour, fit for the Master’s use.’ This mightier activity is the contribution to our blessedness, which Death makes to them who use their activities here in Christ’s service.

Then, still further, another of the elements which is converted from being a terror into a joy is that Death, the separator, becomes to Christ’s servants Death, the uniter. We all know how that function of death is perhaps the one that makes us shrink from it the most, dread it the most, and sometimes hate it the most. But it will be with us as it was with those who were to be initiated into ancient religious rites. Blindfolded, they were led by a hand that grasped theirs but was not seen, through dark, narrow, devious passages, but they were led into a great company in a mighty hall. Seen from this side, the ministry of Death parts a man from dear ones, but, oh! if we could see round the turn in the corridor, we should see that the solitude is but for a moment, and that the true office of Death is not so much to part from those beloved on earth as to carry to, and unite with, Him that is best Beloved in the heavens, and in Him with all His saints. They that are joined to Christ, as they who pass from earth are joined, are thereby joined to all who, in like manner, are knit to Him. Although other dear bonds are loosed by the bony fingers of the Skeleton, his very loosing of them ties more closely the bond that unites us to Jesus, and when the dull ear of the dying has ceased to hear the voices of earth that used to thrill it in their lowest whisper, I suppose it hears another Voice that says: ‘When thou passest through the fire I will be with thee, and through the waters they shall not overflow thee.’ Thus the Separator unites, first to Jesus, and then to ‘the general assembly and Church of the first-born,’ and leads into the city of the living God, the pilgrims who long have lived, often isolated, in the desert.

There is a last element in Death which is changed for the Christian, and that is that to men generally, when they think about it, there is an instinctive recoil from Death, because there is an instinctive suspicion that after Death is the Judgment, and that, somehow or other-never mind about the drapery in which the idea may be embodied for our weakness-when a man dies he passes to a state where he will reap the consequences of what he has sown here. But to Christ’s servant that last thought is robbed of its sting, and all the poison sucked out of it, for he can say: ‘He that died for me makes it possible for me to die undreading, and to pass thither, knowing that I shall meet as my Judge Him whom I have trusted as my Saviour, and so may have boldness before Him in the Day of Judgment.’

Knit these four contrasts together. Death as a step into a dim unknown versus Death as a step into a region lighted by Jesus; Death as the cessation of activity versus Death as the introduction to nobler opportunities, and the endowment with nobler capacities of service; Death as the separator and isolator versus Death as uniting to Jesus and all His lovers; Death as haling us to the judgment-seat of the adversary versus Death as bringing us to the tribunal of the Christ; and I think we can understand how Christians can venture to say, ‘All things are ours, whether life or death’ which leads to a better life.

And now let me add one word more. All this that I have been saying, and all the blessed strength for ourselves and calming in our sorrows which result therefrom, stand or fall with the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. There is nothing else that makes these things certain. There are, of course, instincts, peradventures, hopes, fears, doubts. But in this region, and in regard to all this cycle of truths, the same thing applies which applies round the whole horizon of Christian Revelation-if you want not speculations but certainties, you have to go to Jesus Christ for them. There were many men who thought that there were islands of the sea beyond the setting sun that dyed the western waves, but Columbus went and came back again, and brought their products-and then the thought became a fact. Unless you believe that Jesus Christ has come back from ‘the bourne from which no traveller returns,’ and has come laden with the gifts of ‘happy isles of Eden’ far beyond the sea, there is no certitude upon which a dying man can lay his head, or by which a bleeding heart can be staunched. But when He draws near, alive from the dead, and says to us, as He did to the disciples on the evening of the day of Resurrection, ‘Peace be unto you,’ and shows us His hands and His side, then we do not only speculate or think a future life possible or probable, or hesitate to deny it, or hope or fear, as the case may be, but we know, and we can say: ‘All things are ours . . . death’ amongst others. The fact that Jesus Christ has died changes the whole aspect of death to His servant, inasmuch as in that great solitude he has a companion, and in the valley of the shadow of death sees footsteps that tell him of One that went before.

Nor need I do more than remind you how the manner of our Lord’s death shows that He is Lord not only of the dead but of the Death that makes them dead. For His own tremendous assertion, ‘I have power to lay down My life, and I have power to take it again,’ was confirmed by His attitude and His words at the last, as is hinted at by the very expressions with which the Evangelists record the fact of His death: ‘He yielded up His spirit,’ ‘He gave up the ghost,’ ‘He breathed out His life.’ It is confirmed to us by such words as those remarkable ones of the Apocalypse, which speak of Him as ‘the Living One,’ who, by His own will, ‘became dead.’ He died because He would, and He would die because He loved you and me. And in dying, He showed Himself to be, not the Victim, but the Conqueror, of the Death to which He submitted. The Jewish king on the fatal field of Gilboa called his sword-bearer, and the servant came, and Saul bade him smite, and when his trembling hand shrank from such an act, the king fell on his own sword. The Lord of life and death summoned His servant Death, and He came obedient, but Jesus died not by Death’s stroke, but by His own act. So that Lord of Death, who died because He would, is the Lord who has the keys of death and the grave. In regard to one servant He says, ‘I will that he tarry till I come,’ and that man lives through a century, and in regard to another He says, ‘Follow thou Me,’ and that man dies on a cross. The dying Lord is Lord of Death, and the living Lord is for us all the Prince of Life.

Brethren, we have to take His yoke upon us by the act of faith which leads to a love that issues in an obedience which will become more and more complete, as we become more fully Christ’s. Then death will be ours, for then we shall count that the highest good for us will be fuller union with, a fuller possession of, and a completer conformity to, Jesus Christ our King, and that whatever brings us these, even though it brings also pain and sorrow and much from which we shrink, is all on our side. It is possible-may it be so with each of us!-that for us Death may be, not an enemy that bans us into darkness and inactivity, or hales us to a judgment-seat, but the Angel who wakes us, at whose touch the chains fall off, and who leads us through ‘the iron gate that opens of its own accord,’ and brings us into the City.

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3:21-23 As the privileged children of God, they may now lay claim to everything—the world, and life and death, and the present and the future (see Rom 8:38-39). So there is no point in claiming a particular human leader as their own.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

1Co 3:21. Ἐν ἀνθρώποις, in men) This appertains to [has the effect of] extenuation.[30]—πάντα, all things) not only all men.—ὑμῶν, yours) Those things are yours; not you theirs, 1Co 1:12; 2Co 4:5.

[30] See App., under the tit. Litotes. Using a weaker expression, when a strong one is meant.—T.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Co_3:21. Ὥστε] Hence, that is to say, because this worlds wisdom, this source of your καυχᾶσθαι ἐν ἀνθρώποις (see 1Co_3:18), is nothing but folly before God, 1Co_3:19-20. According to Hofmann, ὥστε draws its inference from the whole section, 1Co_3:10-20. But μηδεὶς καυχάσθω κ.τ.λ[564] manifestly corresponds to the warning μηδεὶς ἑαυτ. ἐξαπ. κ.τ.λ[565] in 1Co_3:18, from the discussion of which (1Co_3:19 f.) there is now deduced the parallel warning beginning with ὭΣΤΕ (1Co_3:21); and this again is finally confirmed by a sublime representation of the position held by a Christian (1Co_3:22 f.).

ἘΝ ἈΝΘΡΏΠΟΙς] id pertinet ad extenuandum, Bengel; the opposite of ἘΝ ΚΥΡΊῼ, 1Co_1:31. Human teachers are meant, upon whom the different parties prided themselves against each other (1Co_3:5; 1Co_1:12). Comp 1Co_4:6. Billroth renders wrongly: on account of men, whom he has subjected to himself and formed into a sect. Εἴτε Παῦλος … Κηφᾶς in 1Co_3:22 is decisive against this; for how strangely forced it is to make ΜΗΔΕΊς refer to the teachers, and ὑμῶν to the church!

The imperative after ὥστε (comp 1Co_4:5, 1Co_10:12; Php_2:12) is not governed by that word, but the dependent statement beginning with ὥστε changes to the direct. See Hermann, a[568] Viger. p. 852; Bremi, a[569] Dem. Phil. III. p. 276; Klotz, a[570] Devar. p. 776.

ΠΆΝΤΑ ΓᾺΡ ὙΜῶΝ ἘΣΤΙΝ] with the emphasis on ΠΆΝΤΑ: nothing excepted, all belongs to you as your property; so that to boast yourselves of men, consequently, who as party leaders are to be your property to the exclusion of others, is something quite foreign to your high position as Christians. Observe that we are not to explain as if it ran: ὑμῶν γὰρ πάντα ἐστιν (illa vestra sunt, non vos illorum, Bengel); but that the apostle has in view some form of party-confession, as, for example, Paul is mine, or Cephas is my man, and the like. It was thus that some boasted themselves of individual personages as their property, in opposition to the πάντα ὑμ. ἐ. It may be added that what is conveyed in this ΠΆΝΤΑ ὙΜῶΝ ἘΣΤΙΝ is not the miraculous nature of the love, which is shed abroad in the hearts of believers by the Spirit, in virtue of which the man embraces the whole world, and enjoys as his own possession whatever in it is beautiful and glorious (ΠΆΝΤΑ?), as is the view of Olshausen; but rather, in accordance with the diverse character of the objects thereafter enumerated, the twofold idea, that all things are destined in reality to serve the best interests of the Christians (comp Rom_8:28 ff.), and consequently to be in an ethical sense their possession,[572] and that the actual κληρονομία τοῦ κόσμου (Rom_4:13 f.) is allotted to them in the Messianic kingdom. Comp 4 Esdr 9:14. The saying of the philosophers: Omnia sapientis esse (see Wetstein), is a lower and imperfect analogue of this Christian idea.

[564] .τ.λ. καὶ τὰ λοιπά.

[565] .τ.λ. καὶ τὰ λοιπά.

[568] d refers to the note of the commentator or editor named on the particular passage.

[569] d refers to the note of the commentator or editor named on the particular passage.

[570] d refers to the note of the commentator or editor named on the particular passage.

[572] Hence Luther in his gloss rightly infers: Therefore no man hath power to make laws over Christians to bind their consciences.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Co 3:21 a . ὥστε μηδεὶς καυχάσθω ἐν ἀνθρώποις : “And so let no one glory in men”. ὥστε often, with P., introduces the impv [617] at the point where argument or explanation passes into exhortation; cf. note on 1Co 3:7 , and see 1Co 4:5 , 1Co 5:8 , etc. ἐν ἀνθρώποις states the forbidden ground of boasting (see parls.), supplying the negative counterpart of 1Co 1:31 . Paul condemns alike the self-laudation of clever teachers, hinted at in 1Co 3:18 , and the admiration rendered to them, along with all partisan applause.

[617] imperative mood.

1Co 3:21-23 form an unbroken chain, linking the Cor [618] and their teachers to the throne of God. Not till the last words of 1Co 3:23 do we find the full justification (sustaining the initial γάρ ) for the prohibition of 1Co 3:21 a ; “only when the other side to the πάντα ὑμῶν has been expressed, is the object presented in which alone the Church ought to glory” (Hf [619] ); standing by itself, “All things are yours” would be a reason in favour of , rather than against, glorying in human power. The saying of 1Co 3:21 b is, very possibly, taken from the lips of the Cor [620] δοκοῦντες (1Co 3:18 ), who talked in the high-flown Stoic style, affirming like Zeno (in Diog. Laert., vii., 1. 25), τῶν σοφῶν πάντα εἶναι , or daring with Seneca ( de Benef. , vii., 2 f.) “emittere hanc vocem, Haec omnia mea esse! ” similarly the Stoic in Horace ( Sat. I., iii., 125 133; Ep . I., i., 106 ff.): “Sapiens uno minor est Jove, dives, liber, honoratus, pulcher, rex denique regum!” Some such pretentious vein is hinted at in 1Co 4:7-10 , 1Co 6:12 and 1Co 10:22 f., 1Co 7:31 . ( οἱ χρώμενοι τ . κόσμον : see notes); the affecters of philosophy at Cor [621] made a “liberal” use of the world. As in 1Co 6:12 and 1Co 10:22 f., the Ap. adopts their motto, giving to it a grander scope than its authors dreamed of (1Co 3:22 ), but only to check and balance it, reproving the conceit of its vaunters by the contrasted principle ( δέ ) of the Divine dominion in Christ, which absorbs all human proprietorship (1Co 3:23 ).

[618] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

[619] J. C. K. von Hofmann’s Die heilige Schrift N.T. untersucht , ii. 2 (2te Auflage, 1874).

[620] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

[621] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

First amongst the “all things” that the Cor [622] may legitimately boast, there stand suggested by ἀνθρώποις , 21 “Paul, Apollos, Cephas,” the figureheads of the Church factions (1Co 1:12 ), enumerated with εἴτε … εἴτε ( whether P. or Ap. or Ceph.), since these chiefs belong to the Church alike , not P. to this section, Ap. to that, and so on. Christ (1Co 1:12 ) is not named in this series of “men”; a diff [623] place is His (1Co 3:23 ). From “Cephas” the enumeration passes per saltum to “the world” ( εἴτε κόσμος anarthrous, as thought of qualitatively; cf. Gal 6:14 ], understood in its largest sense, the existing order of material things; cf. note on 1Co 1:20 . The right to use worldly goods, asserted broadly by Greek Christians at Cor [624] ( 1Co 6:12 , 1Co 7:31 , 1Co 10:23 f.: see notes), is frankly admitted; the Church (represented by its three leaders) and the world both exist for “you,” are bound to serve you ( cf. 1Ti 2:2-4 ; 1Ti 4:8 ; 1Ti 6:17 ; Psa 8 , etc.); the Messianic kingdom makes the saints even the world’s judges (1Co 6:2 , Rom 4:13 ; Rev 5:10 , etc.). εἴτε ζωὴ εἴτε θάνατος , by another bold and sudden sweep, carries the Christian empire into the unseen. Not Life alone, but Death king of fears to a sinful world (Rom 5:17 ; Rom 5:21 , Heb 2:15 ) is the saints’ servant (1Co 15:26 , etc.). They hold a condominium (Rom 8:17 , 1Th 5:10 ) with Him who is “Lord of living and dead” (Rom 14:9 , etc.; Eph 4:9 f., Rev 1:18 ); cf. ἐμοὶ τὸ ζῇν Χριστός , καὶ τὸ ἀποθανεῖν κέρδος , Phi 1:21 . ζωὴ and θάνατος extend the Christian’s estate over all states of being ; εἴτε ἐνεστῶτα , εἴτε μέλλοντα , stretch it to all periods and possibilities of time . The former of these ptps. (pf. intransitive of ἐνίστημι ) denotes what has come to stand there ( instans ), is on the spot, in evidence; the latter what exists in intention , to be evolved out of the present: see the two pairs of antitheses in Rom 8:38 f.; these things cannot hurt the beloved of God (Rom.), nay, must help and serve them (1 Cor.). See other parls. for “things present” (esp. Gal 1:4 ) and “to come” (esp. Rom 8:17-25 ).

[622] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

[623] difference, different, differently.

[624] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

The Apostle repeats triumphantly his πάντα ὑμῶν , having gathered into it the totality of finite existence, to reverse it by the words ὑμεῖς δὲ Χριστοῦ , “but (not and ) you are Christ’s!” ( cf. 1Co 6:20 , Rom 12:1 f., 2Co 5:15 ). The Cor [625] readers, exalted to a height outsoaring Stoic pride, are in a moment laid low at the feet of Christ: “Lords of the universe you are His bondmen, your vast heritage in the present and future you gather as factors for Him ”. P. endorses the doctrine of the kingship of the spiritual man, dilating on it with an eloquence surpassing that of Stoicism; “but,” he reminds him, his wealth is that of a steward . Our property is immense, but we are Another’s; we rule, to be ruled. A man cannot own too much, provided that he recognises his Owner .

[625] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

Finally, Christ who demands our subordination, supplies in Himself its grand example: Χριστὸς δὲ Θεοῦ , “but Christ is God’s”. We are masters of everything, but Christ’s servants; He Master of us, but God’s Servant ( cf. Act 3:13 , etc.). For His filial submission, see 1Co 11:3 , 1Co 15:22 ff., Rom 6:10 , and notes; also Joh 8:29 ; Joh 10:29 , etc. We cannot accept Cv [626] ’s dilution of the sense, “Hæc subjectio ad Christi humanitatem refertur”; for the ὑμεῖς Χριστοῦ , just affirmed, raises Christ high over men. It is enough to say with Thd [627] , Χριστὸς Θεοῦ οὐχ ὡς κτίσμα Θεοῦ , ἀλλʼ ὡς Ὑιὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ : cf. Heb 5:8 . The sovereignty of the Father is the corner-stone of authority in the universe (1Co 11:3 , 1Co 15:28 ).

[626] Calvin’s In Nov. Testamentum Commentarii .

[627] Theodoret, Greek Commentator.

The Ap. has now vindicated God’s rights in His Church (see Introd. to § 10), and recalled the Cor [628] from their carnal strife and pursuit of worldly wisdom to the unity, sanctity, and grandeur of their Christian calling, which makes them servants of God through Christ, and in His right the heirs of all things.

[628] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Co_3:21

Therefore let no one glory in men: for all things are yours.

To glory in any person or thing is to trust in him or it as the ground of confidence, or as the source of honor or blessedness. It is to regard ourselves as blessed because of our relation to it. Thus men are said to glory in the Lord, or in the cross; because God, or Christ as crucified, is regarded as the ground of confidence and the source of blessedness. Others are said to glory in the flesh, in the law, or even in themselves. The apostle having shown that ministers are mere servants, nothing in themselves, and that the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God, draws from these premises the inference that they are not the ground of the believers confidence. The Corinthians did glory in men, when they said, I am of Paul, I of Apollos, and I of Cephas. They forgot their own dignity when they regarded as masters those who were their servants.

For all things are yours. The amplification of these words, given in the next verse, shows that they are to be taken in their widest sense. The universe is yours. How unworthy men is it, that you should glory in men. Paul often appeals to the dignity and destiny of the church as a motive to right action. Know ye not that the saints shall judge the world? 1Co_6:2. There are two senses in which the declaration, All things are yours, may be understood. It means that all things are designed to promote the interests of the church. The consummation of the work of redemption is the great end to which all things are directed, and to which they are to be made subservient. And secondly, the church is the heir of the world, Rom_4:13. All things are given to Christ as the head of the church and to the church in him. For his people are to reign with him, Rom_8:17 and the glory which the Father gave him, he gives them, Joh_17:22. The church, which is to be thus exalted, is not any external society with its hierarchy, nor is it the body of poor, imperfect believers as they now are, who for their own good are despised and down-trodden. But it is the consummated church to be formed out of materials now so unpromising. The people of God, however, should not be unmindful of their high destiny, nor act unworthily of it.

Charles Hodge — Commentary on Romans (1835), First Corinthians (1857), and Ephesians (1856) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Helps, appointeth for your benefit.

Please himself.

He returneth to the proposition of verse 2, first warning the hearers, that henceforward they esteem not as lords, those whom God hath appointed to be ministers, and not lords of their salvation, which thing they do, that depend upon men, and not upon God, that speaketh by them.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

let no man glory in men--resuming the subject from Co1 3:4; compare Co1 1:12, Co1 1:31, where the true object of glorying is stated: "He that glorieth, let him glory in THE LORD." Also Co1 4:6, "That no one of you be puffed up for one against another."

For all things--not only all men. For you to glory thus in men, is lowering yourselves from your high position as heirs of all things. All men (including your teachers) belong to Christ, and therefore to you, by your union with Him; He makes them and all things work together for your good (Rom 8:28). Ye are not for the sake of them, but they for the sake of you (Co2 4:5, Co2 4:15). They belong to you, not you to them.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 21. Let no man glory in men] Let none suppose that he has any cause of exultation in any thing but God. All are yours; he that has God for his portion has every thing that can make him happy and glorious: all are his.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

21. Therefore let no man glory in men As there is nothing that is more vain than man, how little security there is in leaning upon an evanescent shadow! Hence he infers with propriety from the preceding statement, that we must not glory in men, inasmuch as the Lord thus takes away from mankind universally every ground of glorying. At the same time this inference depends on the whole of the foregoing doctrine, as will appear ere long. For as we belong to Christ alone, it is with good reason that he teaches us, that any supremacy of man, by which the glory of Christ is impaired, involves sacrilege.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(21) Therefore.—Not because of what has been mentioned, but introducing what he is about to mention. Let party-spirit cease. Do not degrade yourselves by calling yourselves after the names of any man, for everything is yours—then teachers only exist for you. The enthusiasm of the Apostle, as he speaks of the privileges of Christians, leads him on beyond the bare assertion necessary to the logical conclusion of the argument, and enlarging the idea he dwells, in a few brief and impressive utterances, on the limitless possessions—in life and in death, in the present life and that which is future—which belong to those who are united with Christ. But they must remember that all this is theirs because they “are Christ’s.” They are possessors because possessed by Him. “His service is their perfect freedom” as the Collect in the English Prayer Book puts it, or, more strikingly, as it occurs in the Latin version, “Whom to serve, is to reign.”

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

21. Therefore let no man glory in men] We are to regard men as nothing in themselves, but in reference to their fellow-men solely as the instruments of a divine purpose, like all other things God has suffered to exist (1Co_3:22), a purpose beginning and ending with God, Whose we are, and for Whom alone we have been called into being. Even death itself has a part in that purpose, since through Christ it has become the gateway to everlasting life. See Collect for Easter Eve.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Therefore let no man glory in men,.... The apostle means ministers, who are but men, even the best of them, and therefore not to be gloried in; and has chiefly respect to the false teachers, whose wisdom, learning, and eloquence, the Corinthians were greatly taken with, and boasted of; it was so ensnaring to them, that they even idolized them for it, called them their masters, pinned their faith on their sleeve, gave up themselves to them, and were greatly under their authority, influence, and direction, which is here condemned; and which was so far from being right, that they ought not to behave in such manner to the best of ministers, nor to glory in anyone above another; no, not in Paul, nor Apollos, nor Cephas;

for all things are yours; all the ministers, and all they are endowed with; these were all for their use and service, for their benefit and advantage; wherefore it was very wrong to set up one above, or against another, or for any party to engross anyone minister, when he belonged to them all; and great weakness to reject others, when they had a common right and property in them.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

21 Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours;

Ver. 21. Let no man glory in men] That is, that they are such a one’s scholars or followers, seeing the Church is not made for them, but they for the Church.

For all things are yours, &c.] Haec est magnae nostrae Chartulae Epitome, saith Sam. Ward. This is an epitome of the Church’s grand grant or charter. A Christian hath interest in, and right to, all these things, 1. Entirely, Eph 1:23; Eph 2:10; Col 3:11. 2. Refinedly, the curse is removed, Gal 3:13; Pro 10:22. 3. Really, 1Co 7:31; Eph 1:23. 4. Safely, Pro 1:33; Pro 5:1-23. Serviceably, Rom 8:28. 6. Satisfyingly, Psa 22:26. So that the poor Christian, saith one, is like the usurer, who goes meanly and fares hard, but hath thousands out at use.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Therefore ... - Paul here proceeds to apply the principles which he had stated above. Since all were ministers or servants of God; since God was the source of all good influences; since, whatever might be the pretensions to wisdom among people, it was all foolishness in the sight of God, the inference was clear, that no man should glory in man. They were all alike poor, frail, ignorant, erring, dependent beings. And hence, also, as all wisdom came from God, and as Christians partook Alike of the benefits of the instruction of the most eminent apostles, they ought to regard this as belonging to them in common, and not to form parties with these names at the head.

Let no man glory in men; - See 1Co 1:29; compare Jer 9:23-24. It was common among the Jews to range themselves under different leaders - as Hillel and Shammai; and for the Greeks, also, to boast themselves to be the followers of Pythagoras, Zeno, Plato, etc. The same thing began to be manifest in the Christian church; and Paul here rebukes and opposes it.

For all things are yours - This is a reason why they should not range themselves in parties or factions under different leaders. Paul specifies what he means by “all things” in the following verses. The sense is, that since they had an interest in all that could go to promote their welfare; as they were common partakers of the benefits of the talents and labors of the apostles; and as they belonged to Christ, and all to God, it was improper to be split up into factions, as if they derived any special benefit; from one set of persons, or one set of objects. In Paul, in Apollos, in life, death, etc. they had a common interest, and no one should boast that he had any special proprietorship in any of these things.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Seeing, therefore, that Christ is but one, his ministers but one, and no more than ministers by whom ye believed, 1Co 3:5; and the principal efficiency of any saving work begun, or carried on in your souls to any degree of perfection, is from God, and the minister’s work in that effect nothing compared with his; seeing you are God’s husbandry, God’s building, not merely man’s, and the temple of God, not men’s temple; leave your glorying in men, and saying l am of Paul, or I am of Apollos; glory only in this, that ye are Christ’s: besides, all things are yours; why do you glory in a particular minister, when all is yours? As if two joint-heirs in an estate should glory in this or that particular house or enclosure, when the whole estate is jointly theirs, all theirs.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

21. Glory in men—As the Corinthians were so zealously doing. 1Co_1:11-16; and 1Co_3:4-5.

Let no man be fascinated by, and proud of, some partisan leader.

All things—Why greedily snatch for particular favouritisms and special leaders when you may comprehensively claim all as your own?

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Wherefore. St. Paul, with this word, concludes the argument of warning of the previous section, as in. 1Co_3:7 1Co_4:5 1Co 8:38 1Co_11:33 1Co_14:39 1Co_15:58 (Wordsworth) All things are yours. It is always a tendency of Christians to underrate the grandeur of their privileges by exaggerating their supposed monopoly of some of them, while many equally rich advantages are at their disposal. Instead of becoming partisans of special teachers, and champions of separate doctrines, they might enjoy all that was good in the doctrine of all teachers, whether they were prophets, or pastors, or evangelists. (Eph_4:11, Eph_4:12) The true God gives us all things richly to enjoy. (1Ti_6:17)

Vers. 21-23.

A call to the utmost expansiveness in religious sympathy.

let no man glory in men. For all things are yours," etc. The attendants on a Christian ministry may be divided into two classes.

1. Those who esteem the doctrine because of the teacher. There are not a few in all congregations who accept doctrines simply because of the strong sympathies they have with the preacher. Paul seems to have thought of these when he wrote this chapter. He alludes to the men in the Church at Corinth who had been taken more with the teachers than with their doctrines. The other class of attendants on a Christian ministry are:

2. Those who esteem the teacher because of his doctrines. A man who preaches to them they feel is estimable only as he embodies and propounds the true doctrines of the gospel. The impropriety of glorying in teachers rather than in their doctrines is strikingly illustrated in these verses by three things.

I THE UNIVERSE IS FOR THE CHURCH. "All things are yours." "All things," not some things.

1. The ministry is for the Church. "Whether Paul, or Apollos." There is no agency more valuable on earth than the Christian ministry; in every way it serves man intellectually, socially, materially. But its grand aim is to restore the human spirit to the knowledge, image, and fellowship of its God. Why, then, should it glory in one form? Let those who like Paul take Paul, and be thankful, and not find fault with those who regard Apollos as the most effective preacher.

2. The world is for the Church. By the world we mean the earth, with all its beauties and blessings. In the sense of legal possession the world, of course, is not the property of Christians, nor is it the property of others. For he who claims the largest number of acres has but a handbreadth compared with its numerous islands and vast continents. Yet in the highest sense it is the property of the Christian. He feels an intense sympathy and oneness with God who created it.

3. Life is the property of the Church. "Or life." There are certain conditions in which we find men on this earth, in which they cannot be said to live. There are some chained in their cell, under the sentence of death; they have forfeited their life. There are others whose limbs are so paralyzed that they can neither speak nor move; life is not theirs. Morally, sinful man is as a criminal; he is under the sentence of death; he is dead in trespasses. But life is the Christian"s; his sentence of death is removed; his moral infirmities are healed, and all his faculties and powers are alive unto God.

1. Death is the property of the Church. "Or death," What is death? Who shall define it? Who shall penetrate its meaning? The word has

2. unfathomable depths of the wonderful and the terrible. But it is for the Christian; it is his. It delivers him from the imperfections of the present state; it frees him from all that is incompatible with his peace, his safety, and his advancement; it introduces him into the scenes, the services, the society, of a blessed immortality. It is his; it is the last step in the pilgrimage.

3. General events are the property of the Church. "Things present, or things to come an expression including all the circumstances of existence. "Things present," whatever their character, are ours. "Things to come:" what things are those? Now, if all these things are for the Church, why should any of its members give themselves up to any one particular ministry to the disparagement of others?

II THE CHURCH IS FOR THE REDEEMER. "Ye are Christ"s." There are two very different senses in which Christian men are Christ"s. They are his:

1. By his relationship to them. He is the Creator of all. "By him were all things created." He is the Mediator of all.

2. By their pledge to him. They have pledged themselves to him as their moral Leader. They have vowed unqualified obedience to his teaching. If they have thus consecrated themselves to him as their great Teacher, how absurd to glory in subordinate and fallible teachers! Why live under the rays of the rushlight, when you can bask under the beams of the sun? Follow a Plato in philosophy, a Solon in law, a Demosthenes in eloquence, a Bacon in sciences, but no one but Christ in religion. Value the Calvins, the Luthers, the Wesleys, for what they are worth, but disclaim them as leaders.

III THE REDEEMER IS FOR GOD. "And Christ is God"s." Jesus, as a Mediator, is the Messenger and Servant of the Eternal.

1. Christ is God"s Revealer. He is the Word of God, the Logos.

1. He reveals him in creation;

2. he reveals him in his personal ministry.

3. Christ is God"s Servant. He came here to work out God"s great plan of saving mercy.

Learn from this subject:

1. The infinite worth of Christianity. It gives all things to its true disciples. None of the "all things" specified here are possessed by those who are not his genuine disciples. The ministry is not theirs. If they attend preaching they are mere instruments in the hands of the preacher; they are carried away by the emotions of the hour. The world is not theirs, however large a portion of it they claim legally; the world uses them as its tools. Life is not theirs; it is forfeited to justice. They have no true enjoyment in it. Death is not theirs; they are its. "Through fear of death they are all their lifetime subject to bondage." "Things present and things to come" are not theirs; they are the mere creatures of circumstances. It is Christianity alone that makes all these things man"s. It attunes the soul to the influences of God, as the Aeolian harp is attuned to the winds; and every passing breeze in its history strikes out in music the anthem, "The Lord is my Portion, saith my soul.

2. The contemptibleness of religious sectarianism. How wretchedly mean and base does sectarianism appear in the light of this subject! The men who glory in their own theological peculiarities, ecclesiastical sect, and religious teachers, have never felt the grandeur contained in the text, that the universe is for the Church, the Church is for Christ, and that Christ is for God.

Vers. 21-23.

All things are yours.

These are great words; but if they were not so great they would here be out of place. Men are given to boast of their possessions; but the Christian"s boast is in this respect larger and grander than any man"s beside. Men are wont to glory in belonging to some select society, some great nation, some illustrious king; but the Christian glories in belonging to a greater than the greatest who owes his honour to this world. "All things" are his; and he is "Christ"s.

I OUR PROPERTY IN ALL THINGS. To Christians it may be said it was said by the inspired apostle:

1. All ministries are yours; the dead and the living, the speaking and the writing, the official and the unrecognized.

(1) The ministry of doctrine and of conversion, such as that of Paul, who planted.

(2) The ministry of eloquence and of edification, such as that of Apollos, who watered.

(3) The ministry of morality and zeal, such as that of Cephas. Each has his gift, and the Church is not for the ministry, but the ministry for the Church.

2. All circumstances are yours.

(1) The world, which is ours by the gift of God and by the redemption of Christ.

(2) Life is yours, in its opportunities and its manifold blessings.

(3) Death is yours not your master, but your servant and your friend.

3. All times are yours.

(1) The present, in enjoyment, which is more the Christian"s than it is the worldling"s.

(2) The future, in reversion, which has for him brightness, glory, and joy. The future can deprive the Christian of no real good; it must bring him advantages unnumbered.

II CHRIST"S PROPERTY IN US. To Christians it may be said, "Ye are Christ"s:

1. By the purchase of his blood. For, "Ye are not your own; ye are bought with a price.

2. By his choice and ours. "I," says he, "have chosen you." And, "We love him because he first loved us.

3. By the inhabiting of his Spirit, whose gracious presence makes us his. It is not a case of mere property, but of spiritual affinity: "The Lord knoweth them that are his.

4. By our grateful and affectionate service. That Christians are his, it is their daily aim to prove, by their delight in his Word, their devotion to his cause, their obedience to his commands. T.

Vers. 21-23.

The believer"s possessions.

I WHAT THESE ARE.

1. Ministers. The Corinthians had made a strange mistake; they had been regarding ministers as masters, and choosing which they preferred to serve. In a singular loss of dignity (singular because many of them were not a little afflicted with pride) they had become ambitious of belonging to ministers, forgetting that ministers, as such belonged to them. Ministers are the servants of the Church, and thus among the believer"s possessions; instead of quarrelling over them, he should use and enjoy them. God has greatly enriched his people by sending to them many able and faithful ministers. Whilst these should be highly esteemed for their work"s sake,

2. their true relation to the Church should never be lost sight of. They should bear it in mind, and thus check any tendencies towards lordship.

3. The world. It is generally thought that the world belongs to the Wicked One and his children, seeing that it appears to be largely in their hands. This is a popular blunder. The world was made and is kept for the people of God. Unbelievers have no right to the things which they grasp. The ungodly hold their possessions upon a precarious tenure. They are very short leaseholders, or rather they are tenants at will. Believers are the freeholders, and at last "the meek shall inherit the earth." The child of God has not yet "come of age;" but his title is good, and now he enjoys as much of his inheritance as is good for him in his present state. But as believers look at the world they can say, "It is ours all of it, and all things in it work together for our good." Cowper says

The Christian looks abroad into the varied field Of nature, and, though poor perhaps compar"d With those whose mansions glitter in his sight, Calls the delightful scenery all his own. His are the mountains, and the valleys his, And the resplendent rivers; his t" enjoy With a propriety that none can feel But who, with filial confidence inspir"d, Can lift to heaven an unpresumptuous eye, And smiling say, "My Father made them all.

1. Life. Without Christ there is nothing worthy of the name of life. Life is emphatically the believer"s. What possibilities it has for him! how vast are his opportunities! Pity it is that some believers seem only half alive to this. The child of God has in life the experience most likely to benefit him: mercies, joys, trials, temptations, pains all his, to do him good. The lives of others are also controlled for the welfare of the redeemed.

2. Death. Death, a precious possession. The entrance to the life immortal. Death conquered has become the believer"s servant. Death, the dire loss of the impenitent, the great gain of the saints. The death of those outside the Church is ordered for the well being of those within. God strikes down the foes of his people when the right hour has come.

3. Things present. The present order and movement in the world; all governments and powers; the march of the ages; all these things are made subservient to the great work of redemption. "God moves in a mysterious way," but always moves for his people.

4. Things to come. Not only the present order of the world, but the future. Believers often tremble for what is coming; the Church quakes, for she dreads some future movement, glimmerings of which she can discern, perhaps, in the present. But God is in the future, giving that future to his people. All discoveries, all increase of knowledge, all progress, shall be for the weal of Zion: "The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." And the believer reckons amongst things to come, the heavenly world, the life immortal, the higher service, the perfected nature, the unsullied joy. All these are his. How rich, how blessed, is he!

5. All things. Marvellous truth, that there is nothing of which he can say, "It is not mine.

II SECURED BY THE BELIEVER"S CONNECTION WITH CHRIST. Believers are Christ"s. His servants? yes; his friends? yes; but his "brethren," and thus "heirs" with him heirs with Christ". (Rom_8:17) Christ is God"s. All that the Father hath is the Son"s. All that the Son hath belongs to those that are his; and this is "all things." What an amazing transformation, then, there is in conversion! The unsaved has nothing; the saved, "all things." Are we unutterably poor or infinitely rich? The question is answered when another is: "Are we Christ"s? H.

Vers. 21-23.

The Christian"s heritage.

Since the wisdom of men is foolishness, and even the ministers of Divine wisdom are but servants, all glorying in men is to be avoided. Boast not in this one or that, however eminent; for all such boasting is a degradation to one who is possessed of so rich an inheritance.

I IT IS UNIVERSAL. "All things are yours." Man"s original lordship over creation (Psa_8:6) has been lost by sin, but is now restored in Christ. All things exist for the Christian; all things cooperate for his good. (Rom_8:28)

For us the winds do blow; The earth doth rest, heaven move, and fountains flow. No thing we see but means our good, As our delight, or as our treasure: The whole is, either our cupboard of food, Or cabinet of pleasure.

Oh, mighty love! Man is one world, and hath Another to attend him. (George Herbert.)

1. All teachers belong to the Christian. The Church was not made for Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas; but these have been given to the Church for its planting and watering and culture. The ministers of Christ are workmen employed in erecting God"s temple. One lays the foundation, another hews the stones, another carves the ornaments, another does the carpenter work, etc. All are working for the same end, each in his own department. Why should we set the one against the other, as if the mason were everything and the carpenter nothing? You have your favourite apostle: do not neglect the practical James, because you delight in the fervid, argumentative Paul; or the dogmatic Peter, because you love the calm, intuitive John. Learn from Christian men of various schools and denominations, whom God sends with a message to their generation. All are yours.

2. The world. This denotes the material universe and all its providential arrangements. However evil men may usurp possession meanwhile, it is the saints that inherit the earth. (Mat_5:5) It is maintained for their use, ordered with a view to their welfare, and in the end they shall be its sole possessors. The world, with all its forces and all its treasures, lies at their feet. All has been given to make life happier and better, and to help us to glorify our Father in heaven.

3. Life and death. The term of our sojourn on the earth, with all that it brings, is ours. Life is a mighty gift a great field in which to sow eternal seed. It is ours for two great purposes for being and doing. The culture of the new life within us, and the promotion of our neighbour"s well being, in these two directions life is our opportunity. "To me to live is Christ."There are ways of promoting God"s glory which are peculiar to this life, and which can never come to us again. Death also is ours as well as life. That grim, horrid thing, whose face strikes terror to the stoutest heart, and whose icy grasp freezes the fountains of life, that, too, becomes our servant. As the sailor conquers the winds by making them propel his vessel, so death ministers to our advancement. "To die is gain." It releases from the pains, and toils, and conflicts, and limitations of this mortal state, and ushers us into the enjoyment of our inheritance.

4. Things present and things to come. The present and the future in the most comprehensive sense. Our actual lot is ours, whether it be easy or hard, pleasant or distressing. It is ours to serve us, if we will only let it do its work and turn it to the best account. The future is still hid from us, but it can bring us nothing which shall not work for our good. Whatever form the things to come may take, we are assured that they are ours.

II THE TITLE IS GOOD. "Ye are Christ"s; and Christ is God"s." All things are ours only because we belong to Christ. He has recovered for man his lost sovereignty, and in him we receive what he has won for us. The crown is again placed on our heads; we become joint heirs with Christ, (Rom_8:17) who is Heir of all things. (Heb_1:2) Apart from him we have no title. And belonging to Christ, we belong to God; for "Christ is God"s." As the Son of God manifest in flesh for the redemption of his people, he is the Father"s Servant, delighting to do his will; whilst at the same time he is the Father"s equal. (Mark 1Co_11:3 1Co_15:28) the successive steps of this great ladder of being. All things are subject to the saints; the saints are subject to Christ their Head; Christ as Mediator is subject to the Father,

LESSONS.

Be not subject to men; Christ is your Head.

1. How valid is the believer"s title to his glorious heritage!

2. Reckon up your possessions in Christ; claim them as your own; and all earthly wealth and dignity will fail to dazzle you. B.

Vers. 21-23.

A Christian"s possessions.

It is a folly under the sun to live above one"s means. It is the folly of very many Christians that they live spiritually far below their means of grace and godliness. They are like poor people who have come into a large estate, and cannot for some time adapt themselves to their altered position or comport themselves as befits their fortune. They still betray the narrow ideas and awkward manners of their former condition. So Christians are assured that they have unsearchable riches in Christ, but cannot elevate their ideas and modes of life to the high level of their spiritual privilege. They still betray the narrow estimates and unworthy habits of their time of unregeneracy and unbelief. To correct this tendency and raise the standard of Christian sentiment and conduct, let us look into this inventory of a believer"s possessions, and the right or charter by which they are his.

I THE PROPERTY. "All things are yours." It is at once real and movable estate. It has the most permanent character; and yet it may be taken by the Christian whithersoever he goes, and enjoyed anywhere. A man rich in this world"s goods has necessary limits to his possessions. His real estate is irremovable and his personality or movable wealth is perishable. But he whose riches are intellectual and spiritual has property everywhere. Cast him naked and shipwrecked on an unknown coast; yet he is rich. Spoil him of all earthly goods; reduce him to the very almshouse; and yet he is rich. When he has nothing, he still possesses all things.

1. The Christian ministry, represented by Paul, Apollos, and Cephas. The Church is not for the ministry, but the ministry for the Church. The

2. Corinthian Christians did not belong to the great preachers here named, but the great preachers belonged to them. Often the isolation of particular flocks under their own pastors is carried to an extent which virtually brings the doctrine to nought, and gives them no enjoyment of other gifts bestowed by the Head of the Church for the perfecting of his saints. But some are best for planting, others for watering. Let ministers and teachers of the Word, variously qualified, be welcomed and cherished. All of them are yours.

3. The world. It is a bad master, but a useful servant. All things in it that are not sinful may be made serviceable to the happiness and progress of the Christian, and to the glory of God. "Use this world as not abusing it.

1. Life, with all its vicissitudes and possibilities, sorrow and joy, trial and success. It is quite different to the Christian from what it is to the non Christian. He is never helpless, and need never be in despair; for he may be sure that the circumstances of his life are ordered by his heavenly Friend, the lines of his life are drawn according to the plan of his loving Saviour.

2. Death; which comes, not as a grisly terror, but to do a kindly office. Death, like life, just because it is not in the Christian"s power, serves his best interests. "Whether we live or die, we are the Lord"s." We may add The death of friends is yours, softening your heart. The death of enemies is yours, delivering you out of their hand. And as for yourself, Boston has said, "Death comes to the godly man as Haman to Mordecai, with royal apparel and the horse, and commission to do him honour, though with a sullen voice and unkind countenance.

3. Things present. The Christian has a promise that he will lack no good thing, and things that seem evil, wounds, losses, disappointments, all tend by the Divine blessing to exercise his faith and patience, and so to strengthen his soul.

4. Things to come. Of these we cannot speak. The sights we may see, the feelings we may experience, the changes we may witness, within a year or two, who can tell? How much less can we descant on things beyond? But enough to know that the future is ours. There will be no power among things to come which can separate us from the love of God.

II THE SECURITY FOR ALL THIS PROPERTY. The Christian holds all through his relation to Christ, "the Heir of all things." "Ye are Christ"s; and Christ is God"s." Believers belong to Christ, as given to him by the Father, redeemed by him on the cross, effectually called and mystically united to him by the Holy Spirit. And Christ is God"s, as the well beloved of the Father, to whom all things are made subject both in heaven and earth. Now believers inherit through Christ, are co-heirs with him. It is because he is Heir and Lord of all, that all things are theirs. To quote an old divine: "The saints have nothing but through Christ; and whatsoever is his, is theirs. His God is their God; his Father, their Father; his blood, his merits, his Spirit, his victories, all the spoil he hath gotten, all the revenue and income of his life and death, all is theirs." If men only believed that these things are so, that Christians have such treasures, and hold them by such a tenure, surely a motive of enlightened self interest would urge them to the feet of Christ. Alas! all men have not faith. The current ideas of wealth and substance are quite unconnected with religion, which seems to many a good thing to die with, but rather a hindrance than otherwise in life. St. Paul"s teaching tells a different tale. It is the Christless who, being without God in the world, are poor and indigent. It is those who are Christ"s who, however poor in this world, are rich towards God. F.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Therefore - Upon the whole. Let none glory in men - So as to divide into parties on their account. For all things are yours - and we in particular. We are not your lords, but rather your servants.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

The conclusion:

v. 21. Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours

v. 22. whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;

v. 23. and ye are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.

This being true, that the world’s wisdom is foolishness before God, let therefore no one glory in men. Both the self-praise of the world’s wise men and the foolish adoration given to them is here condemned; and this all the more so, since everything is to serve the Christians in the Church, in their faith. So closely is the Church, so intimately are all believers, connected with Christ that they partake of His wonderful glory, Eph 1:19-23. They are no longer in any way dependent upon men, upon the wisdom of this world, but have a direct claim upon the service of everything which belongs to God and Christ. At the service of the believers, by the grace of God, stand Paul and Apollos and Cephas, all the apostles and ministers whom He has sent to proclaim the glorious truths of salvation. At their service stands the world itself, the whole world with all its forces and resources; the right use of them all is in furthering the cause of Christ. In the service of the believers stand both life and death; whether they live, they live to the Lord, and whether they die, they die to the Lord, Rom 14:8. In their service stand both things present and things to come; all states, conditions, offices, trades, professions, everything should aid in the spread of the Gospel, of the Christian faith. "Everything in the wide world belongs to Christ the Ruler. What emperors, kings, princes, government, and subjects have and possess, that is all Christ’s. It has all been subjected to Him. All men must be under this King and Ruler, either in grace or in disgrace. Christ has everything in His hand and power. " And so Paul concludes in a burst of confident triumph: But you are Christ’s, but Christ is God’s. Since the believers belong to Christ by faith, in and through Him their royal power is exercised. In this relation, therefore, there is praise for no one but Christ. And Christ is God’s, the believers thus, through the Son, being united also with the Father and partaking of His eternal power. God, therefore, is all in all, and it behooves all Christians, instead of spending valuable time in petty bickerings, in forming factions, and in boasting in men, to devote the energy of faith to the spread of His honor and glory. God’s field of tillage, God’s building, God’s temple, we Christians are, because we belong to Christ. And this great honor, on whose account we fall down before God in humble adoration, teaches us to deny the ungodliness of the praise of men and to glory in the Lord alone.

Summary.The apostle reproves the Corinthians for their carnal behavior in forming factions, shows the equality of all ministers, points to Christ as the only Foundation of the Church, predicts that the fiery test of the last day will burn away everything but the substance of the works done in the Church, and warns against the desecrating of the temple of God.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Here the apostle closes his discourse with an inference not to glory in any teacher whatsoever, either in Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, seeing they were all theirs; that is, all the apostles and ministers of Christ, from the highest to the lowest, from the greatest to the least, and all their ministerial gifts and labours, are all ordained and appointed by God for their use and service: All things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas.

Learn hence, That all ministers, and ministerial abilities, are wholly for the church’s service, and spiritual advantage: all their power is for the church’s preservation, all their gifts are for the church’s edification. Their message is for the church’s comfort and consolation: thus all things, in and belonging to the church, are ours.

Next he mentions the things of the world are ours. Or the world, that is, all the good things in the world are ours, houses, lands, honours, friends, relations so far as God sees them good for us.

But are there not many that are Christ’s who want houses and friends, and other comforts; how then can they be said to have them?

Ans. 1. They have all things eminently and transcendently in God and Christ, by whom they have a title to all things, Rev 21:7.

2. They have all things virtually, in their contentment and satisfaction of mind which they do enjoy.

3. They have all things eventually: they have the good of all things, when they have not the actual possession of all things; their very wants, in the event, work for good.

Or life; this is ours two ways; the comfort of life is ours, and the end of life is ours, with the true use of it; for the sincere Christian only lives to purpose, by answering the great end of life, which is the promoting God’s glory, and securing his own salvation.

Or death; that which is in itself so terrible is for the believer’s advantage, their friend, their privilege, their passage to heaven, their deliverer from sin, the perfecter of their grace; when we come at heaven, and not till then, we shall fully understand what this meaneth, Death is ours.

Or things present: that is, all the events of providence which befall us, whether prosperity or adversity, health or sickness, riches or poverty, they are all sanctified to us, and are instrumental for the sanctifying of us. They are covenant blessings, and dispensed in love to us.

Or things to come; that is, all future things which may befall us in this world, and in the world to come, shall be to our abundant advantage; whether they be merciful or good things, or grievous and sad things: particularly death is to come, but to die is gain.

Christ’s death was the death of death; he has disarmed death of its sting; the believer fears not its dart; it is not an hurting, but an healing serpent: there is no venom or malignity in it, but that which was before in the number of threatenings, is now brought within the compass of the gospel promises: all things are ours, life or death, things present and things to come.

And ye are Christ’s: that is, not Paul’s or Apollo’s disciples or servants, but only Christ’s, therefore glory only in him, and in him only.

And Christ is God’s: that is, as you are Christ’s, and for his glory; so Christ, as Mediator, is God’s, and for his glory. He is God’s servant, to do his will, to execute his pleasure. he was begotten of his Father before all time. He sought not his own, but his Father’s glory, in the doctrine which he preached, in the miracles which he wrought; but lived in an entire resignation to his Father’s pleasure.

Lord! how will it shame us thy servants, to follow thy servant Christ, and to be called by his name, if we seek not his glory and exalt not his will, and live not to his praise, who died for us and rose again!

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

21. “So let no one boast among men.” Vainly do the millionaires, scholars and aristocrats of this world boast over the Lord’s poor ignoramuses. They know not what they are doing. We have all things and they are our slaves. “For all things are yours.”

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Wherefore let no one glory in men . [A returning upon the thought at 1Co_1:31 ] For all things are yours [why, then, grasp a paltry part and forego the glorious whole?];

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

21. Wherefore, let no man glory in men. In preachers like Paul, and Apollos, and Cephas. Above all, let them not form parties around human leaders. For all things are yours. All, the preachers as well as all beside, are ordained to prepare you for eternal glory.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

you are Christ's, and Christ is God's

"you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God"

translationWords

boast

Paul

Apollos

Peter

world

life

die

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

21. ὥστε μηδεὶς καυχάσθω ἐν ἀνθρώποις. We are to regard men as nothing in themselves, but in reference to their fellow men solely as the instruments of a Divine purpose, like all other things God has suffered to exist (1Co 3:22), a purpose beginning and ending with God, Whose we are, and for Whom alone we have been called into being. Even death itself has a part in that purpose, since through Christ it has become the gateway to everlasting life. See Collect for Easter Eve.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

21-23.] A warning to them in general, not to boast themselves in human teachers.

21.] ὥστε, viz. seeing that this world’s wisdom is folly with God: or perhaps as a more general inference from what has gone before since ch. i., that as the conclusion there was, ὁ καυχώμενος, ἐν κυρίῳ καυχάσθω,—so now, having gone into the matter more at length, he concludes, μηδεὶς καυχάσθω ἐν ἀνθρώποις. This boasting in men is explained in ch. 4:6 to mean μὴ εἷς ὑπὲρ τοῦ ἑνὸς φυσιοῦσθαι κατὰ τοῦ ἑτέρου.

καυχάσθω after ὥστε is a change of construction. A somewhat similar change occurred in the parallel ch. 1:31, ἵνα … καυχάσθω: but there, by the citation being adduced in its existing form.

πάντα γὰρ ὑμ. ἐστ.] ‘For such boasting is a degradation to those who are heirs of all things, and for whom all, whether ministers, or events, or the world itself, are working together: see Rom 8:28: and 4:13.

22,

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

21. ὥστε μηδεὶς καυχάσθω. Conclusion from vv. 18-20. The connexion presupposes an affinity between conceit in one’s own wisdom and a readiness to make over much of a human leader. The latter implies much confidence in one’s own estimate of the leader. Consequently, the spirit of party has in it a subtle element of shallow arrogance. We have ὥστε, ‘so then,’ with an imperative, 4:5, 10:12, 11:33, 14:39, 15:58. Outside this argumentative and practical Epistle the combination is not very common; very rare, except in Paul. It seems to involve an abrupt change from the oratio obliqua into the oratio recta. It marks the transition from explanation to exhortation.

ἐν ἀνθρώποις. To ‘glory in men’ is the opposite of ‘glorying in the Lord’ (1:31). The Apostle is referring to their wrong-headed estimation of himself, Apollos, and others (as in 4:6), not to party-leaders boasting of their large following. Leaders might glory in the patience and faith of their disciples (2Th 1:4), but not in that as any credit to the leaders themselves. All partizan laudation is wrong.

πάντα γὰρ ὑμῶν ἐστίν. ‘You say, I belong to Paul, or, I belong to Apollos. So far from that being true, it is Paul and Apollos who belong to you, for all things belong to you.’ Instead of contenting himself with saying ‘We are yours,’ he asserts that and a very great deal more; not merely πάντες, ‘all servants of God,’ but πάντα, ‘all God’s creatures,’ belong to them. Yet his aim is, not merely to proclaim how wide their heritage is, but to show them that they have got the facts by the wrong end. They want to make him a chieftain; he is really their servant. The Church is not the property of Apostles; Apostles are ministers of the Church. Quia omnia vestra sunt, nolite in singulis gloriari; nolite speciales vobis magistros defendere, quoniam omnibus utimini (Atto). Omnia propter sanctos creata sunt, tanquam nihil habentes et omnia possidentes (Primasius).

The thought is profound and far-reaching. The believer in God through Christ is a member of Christ and shares in His universal lordship, all things being subservient to the Kingdom of God, and therefore to his eternal welfare (7:31; Rom 8:28; Joh 16:33; 1Jn 5:4, 1Jn 5:5), as means to an end. The Christian loses this birthright by treating the world or its interests as ends in themselves, i.e. by becoming enslaved to persons (7:23; 2Co 11:20) or things (6:12; Php 3:19). Without God, we should be the sport of circumstances, and ‘the world’ would crush us, if not in ‘life,’ at least in ‘death.’ As it is, all these things alike ‘are ours.’ We meet them as members of Christ, rooted in God’s love (Rom 8:37). The Corinthians, by boasting in men, were forgetting, and thereby imperilling, their prerogative in Christ. There is perhaps a touch of Stoic language in these verses; see on 4:8. Origen points out that the Greeks had a saying, Πάντα τοῦ σοφοῦ ἐστίν, but St Paul was the first to say, Πάντα τοῦ ἁγίου ἐστίν.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

All things are yours. The categories which follow form an inventory of the possessions of the Church and of the individual Christian. This includes : the christian teachers with different gifts; the world, life, and things present; death and things to come. In Christ, death becomes a possession, as the right of way between things present and things to come.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Vv. 21. “So then, let no man glory in men, for all things are yours.”

The apostle began by reminding the Corinthians of what preachers are in relation to the Church: servants (ministers) of the one Lord; then, in a passage which may be regarded as an episode, he put before the eyes of the Church and of ministers themselves the grave responsibility incurred by the latter (1Co 3:10-20). Now he concludes; this is shown by the particle of transition ὥστε, so that; we can only translate it here by so then, because of the following imperative. We shall see that this same conjunction is ordinarily used in this Epistle to announce the practical conclusion to be drawn from a foregoing statement of doctrine; comp. 1Co 7:38, 1Co 11:33, 1Co 14:39, 1Co 15:58.

On the imperative after ὥστε, see on 1Co 1:31.

To glory in a person can only mean: to boast of one’s relation to him, to take honour from belonging to him, as a servant or a disciple takes glory from the name of an illustrious master. It is an allusion to the formulas: “I am of Paul,...Apollos,...” etc. Far from its being believers who belong to their teachers, it is much rather these who belong to them; and not only their teachers, but all things. Stoic wisdom had said: Omnia sapientis sunt, because the wise man can make use of everything, even of what is adverse to him. The believer can say so with a yet loftier and surer title, because he belongs to God, who puts all things at the service of His own. It is in this sense that Paul says, Rom 8:28 : “All things work together for good to them that love God.” As he develops it in the same passage, God, in His eternal plan, has disposed all things with a view to the salvation and glory of those who He knew beforehand would believe on His Son. The contents of this πάντα, all things, are detailed in the following enumeration, which has been called, not without reason, “the inventory of the possessions of the child of God,” and in which death itself figures.

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.