1 Corinthians 3:21

“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 (1 Corinthians 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. 1 Corinthians 7:38; 1 Corinthians 11:33, 1 Corinthians 14:39, 1 Corinthians 15:58.

On the imperative after ὥστε, see on 1 Corinthians 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, Romans 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.