The Originator?

Who owns our knowledge and understanding of Truth from God? Who really owns our gifts, our talents, our abilities, our physical traits, or material goods? Would God have Christians copyright their God given knowledge and understanding or the work of their gifts, abilities, and material goods? The key Scripture I am studying is:1 Cor 4:7

"For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?" nkjv

I found this to good and personally too convicting too avoid sharing. The following is credited to "The Believers Bible Commentary" regarding 1 Cor 4:5-10...

4:5 In view of this, we should be extremely careful in our appraisal of Christian service. We tend to exalt the spectacular and sensational, and depreciate that which is menial or inconspicuous. The safe policy is to judge nothing before the time, but to wait until the Lord comes. He will be able to judge, not only what is seen by the eye, but also the motives of the hearts—not only what was done, but why it was done. He will reveal the counsels of the hearts, and, needless to say, anything that was done for self-display or self-glory will fail to receive a reward.
That each one’s praise will come from God is not to be taken as a flat promise that every believer’s service will show up in a favorable way in that day. The meaning is that everyone who deserves praise will receive praise from God and not from men.
In the next eight verses, the apostle states quite clearly that pride is the cause of the divisions that have come into the church at Corinth.
4:6 He first explains that in speaking about the Christian ministry and the tendency to follow human leaders (3:5–4:5), he used himself and Apollos as the examples. The Corinthians were not forming parties around Paul and Apollos alone, but also around other men who were then in their church. However, out of a sense of Christian courtesy and delicacy, Paul transferred the entire matter to himself and Apollos so that by their example the saints would learn not to have exaggerated opinions of their leaders or to gratify their pride by the formation of parties. He wanted the saints to evaluate everything and everyone by the Scriptures.
4:7 If one Christian teacher is more gifted than another, it is because God made him so. Everything he has, he received from the Lord. In fact it is true of all of us that everything we have has been given to us by God. That being the case, why should we be proud or puffed up? Our talents and gifts are not the result of our own cleverness.
4:8 The Corinthians had become self-sufficient; they were already full. They prided themselves on the abundance of spiritual gifts in their midst; they were already rich. They were living in luxury, comfort, and ease. There was no sense of need. They acted as if they were already reigning, but they were doing so without the apostles. Paul states that he could wish that the time to reign had already come so that he might reign with them! But in the meantime, "lifetime is training time for reigning time," as someone has said. Christians will reign with the Lord Jesus Christ when He comes back and sets up His kingdom on earth. In the meantime, their privilege is to share the reproach of a rejected Savior. H. P. Barker warns:
It is positive disloyalty to seek our crown before the King gets his. Yet this is what some of the Christians at Corinth were doing. The apostles themselves were bearing the reproach of Christ. But the Corinthian Christians were "rich" and "honorable." They were seeking a good time where their Lord and Master had such a hard time.
At coronations, peers and peeresses never put on their coronets until the sovereign has been crowned. The Corinthians were reversing this; they were already reigning while the Lord was still in rejection!
4:9 In contrast to the self-satisfaction of the Corinthians, Paul describes the lot of the apostles. He pictures them as thrown into the arena with wild beasts while men and angels look on. As Godet has said: "It was not time for the Corinthians to be self-complacent and boasting, while the church was on the throne and the apostles were under the sword."
4:10 While the apostles were treated as fools for Christ’s sake, the saints enjoyed prestige in the community as wise Christians. The apostles were weak, but the Corinthians suffered no infirmity. In contrast to the dishonor of the apostles was the eminence of the saints. -end quote-

This, to me, is both convicting and relieving. Convicting because it is clear to me that I have not known suffering for the Lord Jesus as have so many in our history and many in this very hour throughout the world today. God has used what an abusive pastor said to me one time in his office before others. After I questioned him according to the Scriptures he said to me in a derogatory voice: "Who are you?!... You’re NOTHING!" As I remember this, this may sound odd, but it is refreshingly comforting to my soul. Why? Because it really doesn’t matter to me what he thinks, you think, or frankly even what I think about myself. Jesus is my Judge and yours and not one of us humans will make any difference about this Truth. This statement from the quote above is what makes all the difference to me:

"He (Apostle Paul) wanted the saints to evaluate everything and everyone by the Scriptures."

Thoughts have been going through my head that I wish to share and open up to those that this text reaches. And some of it is as follows... I fully trust in the Sovereignty of God! He does reign over all the affairs of mankind. I am nothing, He is everything. I must decrease, He must increase. I do not want to strive to get glory for myself. I wish to be motivated by the Holy Spirit in all that I share here on this blog or by any other means directly or indirectly as God sees fit. I, by the merciful grace of God’s conviction, was able to find that I have fail in this matter, as at times I’m caught by my conscience of the wrong motives in the "why?" of what I am doing. This is good. For to know conviction this way confirms to me that I am passing the test commanded in Scripture to "Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified." (2 cor 13:5) And "If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us." (1 John 1:10) nkjv

I have sinned with wrong motives and ideas contrary to the "good and acceptable and perfect will of God". God is the only witness to this and only He knows the reality or severity of it. It is comforting to know His promise that I am being transformed by the renewing of my mind (Rom 12:2) through faithful conviction of the Holy Spirit. But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:4-6). nkjv

In light of the Creator and Sovereign Almighty God and Jesus Christ His only Son born from Eternity, I own nothing , you own nothing, and anything good we have or have done is always a result of the doings of God, most importantly our Eternal Life in Him.

Is 26:12
"Lord, You will establish peace for us,
For You have also done all our works in us." nkjv

And getting to the copyright question after seeing God’s Word regarding Who is the Originator of all or any good thing, do we go by this worlds view or God’s? I’ll first look at the definition for copyright:

copyright >noun: the exclusive legal right, given to the originator or their assignee for a fixed number of years, to publish, perform, film, or record literary, artistic, or musical material, and to authorize others to do the same.

Isn’t the question here Who is the Originator? The answer for all Christian believers is in the Scripture reference above. If God is the Originator of any and all that we have then we are the temporary stewards or the assignees accountable to the Originator in the End. A definition for assignee near in line with the Scriptures might be:

assignee >noun:
one appointed to act for another; a deputy or agent

Just something to think about before being to possessive or proud of any copyright we are responsible for. Give because it was all given unto you and yet accept within honest reason the temporary rewards for your labor. If you let the world give you glory and material gain as your motives are greed and pride then your rewards stop there according to God’s Word. If you let God use you and your talents solely for His purposes and glory then He may use those talents to supply your needs while living in this body and give you the greater reward for sincerely giving Him all the glory due the Originator. This is the conviction I get from this matter. How about you?