'By the grace of God I am what I am: and His grace
which was bestowed upon me was not in vain.'--1 COR. xv. 10.
The Apostle was, all his life, under the hateful necessity of
vindicating his character and Apostleship. Thus here, though his main
purpose in the context is simply to declare the Gospel which he
preached, he is obliged to turn aside in order to assert, and to back
up his assertion, that there was no sort of difference between him
and the other recognised teachers of Christian truth. He was forced
to do this by persistent endeavours in the Corinthian Church to deny
his Apostleship, and the faithfulness of his representation of the
Christian verities. The way in which he does it is eminently
beautiful and remarkable. He fires up in vindication of himself; and
then he checks himself. 'By the grace of God I am'--and he is going
to say what he is, but he bethinks himself, as if he had reflected;
'No! I will leave other people to say what that is. By the grace of
God I am--what I am, whatever that be. And all that I have to say is
that God made me, and that I helped Him. For the grace of God which
was bestowed upon me was not in vain. You Corinthians may judge what
the product is. I tell you how it has come about.' So there are
thoughts here, I think, well worth our pondering and taking into our
hearts and lives.