{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-335","native_reference":{"book_number":530,"chapter_from":4,"chapter_to":4,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":7,"verse_to":7},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Ambrosiaster</b>: Paul wrote this to people who thought that it was better to be baptized by some people rather than by others, who had been led astray by their eloquence and who by some trick believed that perverse teachings were right. In fact, everything these people had they had received from the apostle.<br/><i>— COMMENTARY ON PAUL'S EPISTLES</i></p><p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: The people who boast imagine that they are justified by their own efforts, and therefore they glory in themselves, not in the Lord.<br/><i>— LETTER TO VALENTINE</i></p><p><b>Cyprian</b>: That we must boast in nothing, since nothing is our own. In the Gospel according to John: \"No one can receive anything, except it were given him from heaven.\" Also in the first Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians: \"For what hast thou that thou hast not received? But if thou hast received it, why boastest thou, as if thou hadst not received it? \" Also in the first of Kings: \"Boast not, neither speak lofty things, and let not great speeches proceed out of your mouth, for the Lord is a God of knowledge.\" Also in the same place: \"The bow of the mighty men has been made weak, and the weak are girt about with strength.\" Of this same thing in the Maccabees: \"It is just to be subjected to God, and that a mortal should not think things equal to God.\" Also in the same place: \"And fear not the words of a man that is a sinner, because his glory shall be filth and worms. Today he shall be lifted up, and to-morrow he shall not be found; because he is turned into his earth, and his thought has perished.\"<br/><i>— Treatise XII Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: \"For who maketh thee to differ? For what hast thou which thou didst not receive?\"</p><p>From this point, dismissing the governed, he turns to the governors. What he saith comes to this: From whence is evident that thou art worthy of being praised? Why, hath any judgment taken place? any inquiry proceeded? any essay? any severe testing? Nay, thou canst not say it: and if men give their votes, their judgment is not upright. But let us suppose that thou really art worthy of praise and hast indeed the gracious gift, and that the judgment of men is not corrupt: yet not even in this case were it right to be high-minded; for thou hast nothing of thyself but from God didst receive it. Why then dost thou pretend to have that which thou hast not? Thou wilt say, \"thou hast it:\" and others have it with thee: well then, thou hast it upon receiving it: not merely this thing or that, but all things whatsoever thou hast.</p><p>For not to thee belong these excellencies, but to the grace of God. Whether you name faith, it came of His calling; or whether it be the forgiveness of sins which you speak of, or spiritual gifts, or the word of teaching, or the miracles; thou didst receive all from thence. Now what hast thou, tell me, which thou hast not received, but hast rather achieved of thine own self? Thou hast nothing to say. Well: thou hast received; and does that make thee high-minded? Nay, it ought to make thee shrink back into thyself. For it is not thine, what hath been given, but the giver's. What if thou didst receive it? thou receivedst it of him. And if thou receivedst of him, it was not thine which thou receivedst: and if thou didst but receive what was not thine own, why art thou exalted as if thou hadst something of thine own? Wherefore he added also, \"Now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?\"</p><p>Thus having made good his argument by concession, he indicates that they have their deficiencies; and those not a few: and saith, \"In the first place, though ye had received all things, it were not meet to glory, for nothing is your own; but as the case really stands there are many things of which ye are destitute.\" And in the beginning he did but hint at this, saying, \"I could not speak unto you as unto spiritual:\" and, \"I determined to know nothing among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.\" But here he doth it in a way to abash them.<br/><i>— Homily on 1 Corinthians 12</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: Why do you denude before God what you cover before men? Will you be more modest in public than in the church? If your self-devotion is a grace of God, and you have received it, \"why do you boast,\" saith he, \"as if you have not received it? \" Why, by your ostentation of yourself, do you judge others? Is it that, by your boasting, you invite others unto good? Nay, but even you yourself run the risk of losing, if you boast; and you drive others unto the same perils What is assumed from love of boasting is easily destroyed.<br/><i>— On Prayer</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: And if it is by God that the virtue of continence is conferred, \"why gloriest thou, as if thou have not received? \" If, however, you have not received it, \"what hast thou which has not been given thee? \"But by this very fact it is plain that it has not been given you by God-that it is not to God alone that you offer it.<br/><i>— On the Veiling of Virgins</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: \"Know ye not that we are to judge angels? \" Again, of how open censure (does) the free expression (find utterance), how manifest the edge of the spiritual sword, (in words like these): \"Ye are already enriched! ye are already satiated! ye are already reigning!\" and, \"If any thinks himself to know, he knoweth not yet how it behaves him to know I\" Is he not even then \"smiting some one's face,\" in saying, \"For who maketh thee to differ? What, moreover, hast thou which thou hast not received? Why gloriest thou as if thou have not received? \" Is he not withal \"smiting them upon the mouth,\" (in saying): \"But some, in (their) conscience, even until now eat (it) as if (it were) an idol-sacrifice.<br/><i>— On Modesty</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"2093a47d795101aee202eef3aefbe72bbd940c05344ceeb1f1a29b35b88b9991","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":335,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"8091ec5e444c96b285229666e113eff319609b4609f4af9da63c3796843e837e","translator":null,"work":null}