(upbeat music) - Pastor John, we as humans like to share things. We're wired to share and rejoice in great things, but what would you say to someone who has a favorite Bible teacher and they love to boast and brag about that certain Bible teacher? What would you say to someone who has this tendency?

- 1 Corinthians 3, 21 to 23, stopped me dead in my tracks or alive in my tracks. Again, as I was meditating the other day, it's simply staggering. I mean, I don't think, well, there may be, but I can't think of another passage of the Bible concerning the standing or the position or the wealth or the privilege of the children of God in the universe than this one.

But before I read it, let me set the stage that I was reading it in. I know and am reminded every time I read through 1 Corinthians, which I am again right now, that what got this book started was that the church was being divided by boasting in their favorite teachers.

Chapter one, verse 12, I follow Paul, I follow Apollos, I follow Cephas, I follow Christ, I'm better than all you jerks who only look at human teachers. And Paul spends the first four chapters at least working against this boasting, this pride that he sees in these factions that are breaking out.

And he gives numerous arguments. For example, chapter three, verse six, I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything but only God who gives the growth. So why are you picking up on Apollos and Paul and exalting us and yourselves in us when God is the one who's giving the growth?

And if we have any fruitfulness or effectiveness that's different from the other, then it's owing to God and not to us. So that's the kind of argument he's giving here in these chapters. And then the most amazing argument of all, the one that stopped me in my tracks, was chapter 321, where he says, let no one boast in men for all things are yours.

I mean, just ponder that argument. And then he fills it out. Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, so you know he's relating to that issue again, or the world or life or death or the present or the future, all are yours and you are Christ's and Christ is God's.

So Paul must have felt that the reason, one of the reasons at least, that we boast in men, that we grab ahold of our favorite teacher and have a vicarious self-exaltation in his primacy, one of the reasons we do that sort of thing is because we have a needy ego that's trying to shore up its significance, shore up its power, its shrewdness, its intelligence, some kind of lack we feel in our significance.

And Paul is saying, look, consider for a moment who you are. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God. And what does God own? Everything. And so why would you boast in men when all things are yours?

So it's a paradoxical kind of argument because you might think if a person starts to think that they're the child of God and that they're coming into the possession of the whole world as their rightful inheritance, that they would be proud and therefore boast. And he said, no, it doesn't have that effect.

It removes the need to boast among men. And in fact, it produces humility and servanthood. All things are yours. The world is yours. Life and death are yours. Everything is yours. And what does it do? Chapter three, verse five. What is Paul? What is Paul's? Servants through whom you believe.

In other words, the life we can live, Tony, that I see in this verse is an utter, amazed, peaceful, confident life that everything in the universe is coming to us. It's coming very soon, soon for John Piper. So let's join Jesus as servants of all. No boasting in man, trusting Jesus, savoring our reward that's coming, serving all.

It's just an incredible way to live. - Yes, it is. Thank you, Pastor John. And thank you for listening to this podcast. Email your questions to us at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org. Visit us online at desiringgod.org to find thousands of books, articles, sermons, and other resources from John Piper, all free of charge.

I'm your host, Tony Reinke. Thanks for listening. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)