NOTES for Co1 4:7
These words of the apostle immediately make us come to our senses; they serve as an antidote to self-exaltation and to judging other people. If only we would always remember them!
My very existence is a gift, and how many beautiful things I have in addition to the bare fact of life! I have a heart, a mind, feelings, a will, a body, the love of parents and other people - for no reason at all! Simply because I am myself! I have the loyalty of friends and the love of animals, I have knowledge, a home, possessions, and many other things... I have the sun and stars, clouds and trees, I have heaven and earth, I have God! Everything I have has been given to me, and all of it was created by God for me!
Against this background, boasting before others, and all the more being proud, exalting oneself, and judging, is simply foolish. If one is to boast, then only in God, who gave me everything! The awareness that everything I have has been received as a gift not only helps me avoid self-exaltation, but also truly sets me free. For when I try to take possession of something - whether spiritual qualities or a material thing - I become unfree: what I have claimed is "clenched in the hand," and in that very way I "lose the hand," in the words of Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh. Life with such awareness gives true peace - humility - and gives rise to gratitude toward those through whom I received all this: toward God and people.