Pride Distorts Everything (1 Cor. 4:6-13)

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Ps.138:6. ‘Nothing is more self-deceitful than pride,’ writes John MacArthur.

  1. Pride takes us beyond Scripture.
    • 4:6. Hans Conzelmann finds this verse ‘unintelligible’. Hardly! The formula ‘it is written’, meaning ‘it is written in the Old Testament’ e.g. read 1:19, 31; 2:9, 16; 3:19-20, etc. Calvin says Paul could be referring to the Old Testament or to his own writings. Chrysostom seems to imply that there were passages in Matthew’s Gospel that Paul had in mind.
    • 1 Cor.14:36; Deut.4:2; Prov.30:5-6. This Bible is God’s sufficient truth.
  2. Pride makes us think we are achievers, not receivers.
    • 4:7. Augustine: ‘What does a worm, which is due to die tomorrow, have to boast about?’ See John the Baptist in John 3:27. We are not achievers but receivers. See Eph.2:8-9.
      • I will not boast in anything,
      No gifts, no pow’r, no wisdom
      (Stuart Townend)
  3. Pride makes us think that we have arrived.
    • 4:8-13. Peter Naylor writes of Paul’s ‘lovingly sarcastic manner’. Yes, but there is real bite to it, and it is quite blistering. See Rev.3:17.
    • the bottom of the social heap yet on top of the world – remember 3:21- 23. Yet how does he respond? – 4:12b-13a; Matt.5:43-48. We are closest to God when we are weakest, when we realise our own sin, and when we walk humbly before Him. When we think we are something, we get it all wrong, like the rooster which thought the sun rose to hear him crow. James 4:6.