What Does 1 Corinthians 3:21 Mean in the King James?

Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours;

1 Corinthians 3:21 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

THE KEY

The leader you treat as your source is already among the gifts; no human owns what is yours in Christ.

THE MEANING

You do not need to place your worth or belonging in a human leader. In Christ, the whole field of life is yours to receive, with human teachers among the gifts rather than made their source.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The lie that your access to God, truth, or belonging depends on allegiance to one human leader dissolves here.

THE ROOT

καυχάσθω

kauchastō

GROWS FROM

καυχ-

kauch-

To boast or exult; to take pride in something.

“glory” in this verse is kauchastō. The verse asks where your boast takes its stand: the Greek phrase places it “in” human beings. Related forms name both the boast itself and the act of boasting, exposing how a person can become the ground on which pride rests.

ALSO GROWS

kauchema: A boast or ground for boasting.

καύχημα

This branch makes the verse’s question concrete: a person can be treated as the basis for your pride.

kauchēsis: Boasting; the act of taking pride.

καύχησις

This branch names the act the verse redirects away from human beings.

THE PATTERN

The whole gift comes from God, so no person can become its ultimate source or the ground of boasting.

A Psalm of David. The earth is the LORD’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.

Psalm 24:1 · KJVThe earth and its fullness belong to the LORD, placing every human gift within a larger giving.

Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;

1 Corinthians 3:22 · KJVEven the named teachers belong within the whole gift rather than standing above it as its source.

He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

Romans 8:32 · KJVThe gift of all things flows from God’s giving, not from a human leader who controls access to it.

THE THREAD

That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

1 Corinthians 1:31 · KJV

Both verses use ⁨καυχάομαι⁩ (kauchaomai, to boast or exult), the same Greek word family. This verse removes human beings as the ground of boasting; the other names the Lord as its place.

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