1 Corinthians · Chapter 6

V. 1. The unjust-The heathens. A Christian could expect no justice from these.

The saints-Who might easily decide these smaller differences in a private and friendly manner.

Verse 1. Dare any of you, &c.] From the many things that are here reprehended by the apostle, we learn that the Christian Church at Corinth was in a state of great imperfection, notwithstanding there were very many eminent characters among them. Divided as they were among themselves, there was no one person who possessed any public authority to settle differences between man and man; therefore, as one party would not submit to the decisions of another, they were obliged to carry their contentions before heathen magistrates; and probably these very subjects of litigations arose out of their ecclesiastical divisions. The thing, and this issue of it, the apostle strongly reprehends.

Before the unjust, and not before the saints?] The heathen judges were termed dikastai from their presumed righteousness in the administration of justice; here the apostle, by a paronomasia, calls them adikoi, unrighteous persons; and it is very likely that at Corinth, where such corruption of manners reigned, there was a great perversion of public justice; and it is not to be supposed that matters relative to the Christians were fairly decided. The Christians the apostle terms agioi saints, which they were all by profession; and doubtless many were so in spirit and in truth.

Verses 1-6. The apostle, having mentioned one very great irregularity among the professors of Christianity at Corinth, proceeds now to animadvert upon another, namely, their entering into suits of law with each other in heathen courts: Dare any of you — Have you so little regard for the glory of God, and the credit of Christianity, that, having a matter against another — Any controversy about civil affairs; you go to law before the unjust — Heathen judges, who generally were very corrupt, and from whom a Christian could expect no justice: and not before the saints — Who might easily decide these smaller differences in a private and friendly manner. Do ye not know — This expression occurs six times in this single chapter, and that with a peculiar force: for the Corinthians knew, and gloried in their knowledge, but their conduct was not consistent therewith. That the saints — After having been judged themselves; shall judge the world — Shall be assessors with Christ in the judgment wherein he shall condemn all the wicked, as well angels as men, Matthew 19:28; Revelation 20:4. And if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy — Unfit, unable for such a work; to judge the smallest matters — Differences about worldly affairs, which are of small moment, in comparison of spiritual and heavenly matters. Know ye not that we shall judge angels? — Namely, evil angels: as Christ is their judge, we shall be honoured to join with him in that judgment also, when all his enemies shall be put under his feet and ours. How much more are ye fit to decide in these low and transitory secular affairs? If then ye have judgments — Differences to be decided; of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church — Even the weakest among you might be adequate to that work, and certainly fitter for it than unjust heathen. I speak to your shame — To make you ashamed of your proceedings. The apostle certainly did not seriously design that they should set persons to judge in these matters, (though of little importance, in comparison of spiritual things,) who were the weakest and of least esteem among them, as appears from the next clause; but he spoke ironically. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you — Among you who are such admirers of wisdom, who is wise enough to decide in such causes? Not one able to judge between his brethren — In those disputes which they have about earthly things? But brother goeth to law with brother — One Christian with another; and that before the unbelievers — To the great discredit of the Christian name; yea, to the scandal of the whole Christian institution; for they cannot but take occasion, from your mutual quarrels and accusations, to brand the whole body of you as injurious and avaricious; who, while you pretend to be so far superior to secular views, are yet so strongly attached to them, that, with all your professions of universal benevolence and brotherly love, you cannot forbear wronging one another.

Verse 1. Dare any of you — go to law before the unjust? He whose cause is just appeals to equity, but he who does his neighbour wrong is vexatious. In England, our judges, after the cause is opened, finding it of small account, refer it frequently to an arbitrator. The litigious pay dear for legal decisions, which they might have had gratis at home; and what is worse, they expose religion to great contempt.

1. Dare—The word strikes a high keynote. However humble its externals, the Christian republic is, in Christ, far above all principalities and powers. It is, therefore, a flagrant and treasonable daring to bring it to the bar of heathendom. Litigation between Christian men is ever a scandal, because it is rightly expected that they will be just and peaceable. But in our Christian land, such often is the character of our courts, that a civil trial is, from their power of compelling the evidence, often surer of a just result than an ecclesiastical court can be. Unjust—He says unjust, rather than unbelieving, inasmuch as it is matter of judging and justice that is in discussion. Saints—Sancti, sanctified or holy ones. Note on 1 Corinthians 1:2.

Ver. 1. A new subject, viz. another disorder among church-members which Paul must deal with before he comes to the matters mentioned in the letter from Corinth. The suddenness and surprise of the question, Dares any one of you etc., suggest the peril of thus insulting the majesty of the Church of Christ. That no one person is mentioned as in 1 Corinthians 5:1-5, the earnest appeal to the whole church, the words of 1 Corinthians 6:4, “you appoint,” and perhaps the present tense in 1 Corinthians 6:6 noting a general practice “goes to law,” suggest that there were more cases than one.

Any of you] Even one case would be outrageous.

Go-to-law: same word in Romans 3:4.

Unrighteous: same word as unjust, used often both in this narrower sense, and in the wider sense of “not as it ought to be.” See note, Romans 1:17.

The unrighteous ones: heathen judges, who doubtless in many cases well merited this description. Cp. Galatians 2:15.

The saints: the church-members, whom God had claimed to be His own, and who professed to live for Him. In this contrast an argument lies. “Do you seek a settlement of your disputes from those whom you look upon as sinners under the anger of God rather than from those whom God has made specially His Own?”

V. 2. Know ye not-This expression occurs six times in this single chapter, and that with a peculiar force; for the Corinthians knew and gloried in it, but they did not practise.

That the saints-After having been judged themselves. Shall judge the world-Shall be assessors with Christ in the judgment wherein he shall condemn all the wicked, as well angels as men, Matthew 19:28; Revelation 20:4.

Verse 2. The saints shall judge the world?] Nothing can be more evident than that the writers of the New Testament often use o kosmov, the world, to signify the Jewish people; and sometimes the Roman empire, and the Jewish state; and in the former sense it is often used by our Lord. When, says he, the Son of man shall sit on the throne of his glory, then shall ye sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel, Matthew 19:28. It is supposed that he refers to the same subject as that mentioned here-the saints judging the world; and that St. Paul has his words in view in what he says here to the Corinthians. By judging the twelve tribes of Israel, some have imagined that having authority in the Church is merely intended; but Dr. Lightfoot contends that the words referred to the coming of our Lord to execute judgment on the Jews, and to destroy their state; and that the doctrine of the apostles, not themselves, was to judge and condemn that most disobedient people. The place before us is generally understood to imply, that the redeemed of the Lord shall be, on the great day, assessors with him in judgment; and shall give their award in the determinations of his justice. On reviewing this subject, I am fully of opinion that this cannot be the meaning of the words, and that no such assessorship as is contended for ever will take place; and that the interpretation is clogged with a multitude of absurdities.

1. The saints themselves are to appear before the judgment seat of Christ, and shall be judged by him, after which they shall reign with him; but it is never said in Scripture that they shall judge with him.

2. It would be absurd to suppose that thrones should be erected for the purpose of saints sitting on them to give their approbation in the condemnation of the wicked; of what use can such an approbation be? is it necessary to the validity of Christ’s decision? and will not even the damned themselves, without this, acknowledge the justice of their doom? I therefore think with Dr. Lightfoot, that these words of the apostle refer to the prediction of Daniel, Daniel 7:18, 27, and such like prophecies, where the kingdoms of the earth are promised to the saints of the Most High; that is, that a time shall come when Christianity shall so far prevail that the civil government of the world shall be administered by Christians, which, at that time, was administered by heathens. And this is even now true of all those parts of the earth which may be considered of the greatest political consequence. They profess Christianity, and the kings and other governors are Christians in this general sense of the term.

Verses 1-6. The apostle, having mentioned one very great irregularity among the professors of Christianity at Corinth, proceeds now to animadvert upon another, namely, their entering into suits of law with each other in heathen courts: Dare any of you — Have you so little regard for the glory of God, and the credit of Christianity, that, having a matter against another — Any controversy about civil affairs; you go to law before the unjust — Heathen judges, who generally were very corrupt, and from whom a Christian could expect no justice: and not before the saints — Who might easily decide these smaller differences in a private and friendly manner. Do ye not know — This expression occurs six times in this single chapter, and that with a peculiar force: for the Corinthians knew, and gloried in their knowledge, but their conduct was not consistent therewith. That the saints — After having been judged themselves; shall judge the world — Shall be assessors with Christ in the judgment wherein he shall condemn all the wicked, as well angels as men, Matthew 19:28; Revelation 20:4. And if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy — Unfit, unable for such a work; to judge the smallest matters — Differences about worldly affairs, which are of small moment, in comparison of spiritual and heavenly matters. Know ye not that we shall judge angels? — Namely, evil angels: as Christ is their judge, we shall be honoured to join with him in that judgment also, when all his enemies shall be put under his feet and ours. How much more are ye fit to decide in these low and transitory secular affairs? If then ye have judgments — Differences to be decided; of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church — Even the weakest among you might be adequate to that work, and certainly fitter for it than unjust heathen. I speak to your shame — To make you ashamed of your proceedings. The apostle certainly did not seriously design that they should set persons to judge in these matters, (though of little importance, in comparison of spiritual things,) who were the weakest and of least esteem among them, as appears from the next clause; but he spoke ironically. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you — Among you who are such admirers of wisdom, who is wise enough to decide in such causes? Not one able to judge between his brethren — In those disputes which they have about earthly things? But brother goeth to law with brother — One Christian with another; and that before the unbelievers — To the great discredit of the Christian name; yea, to the scandal of the whole Christian institution; for they cannot but take occasion, from your mutual quarrels and accusations, to brand the whole body of you as injurious and avaricious; who, while you pretend to be so far superior to secular views, are yet so strongly attached to them, that, with all your professions of universal benevolence and brotherly love, you cannot forbear wronging one another.

Ver. 2, 3. The saints shall judge the world — shall judge angels. The comments on this text are various. Some say ministers are here referred to, being the judges in the christian synagogue. Others say, as in Beza, that this refers to the time when the apostles shall sit on thrones as assessors with Christ, and judge the infidel world and fallen angels. Matthew 19:28.

Another comment is, that the apostle is not speaking of any thing future, but of the present, of something already begun, and actually going on; not the saints shall judge, but the saints judge; the world is being judged by you. He does not mean that eminent saints at the end of the world shall sit in judgment on the rest of mankind, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. The believing Corinthians, by embracing the gospel, judged; that is, condemned those who rejected it. Thus Nineveh shall rise up in judgment, and shall condemn the jews for their rejection of one greater than Jonah. The word is used in the same sense in Romans 2:3. John 12:31. Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out. It was through the influence of the Holy Spirit accompanying the gospel, that the domination of sin and Satan was condemned. — There is much propriety in this, because it is by the church that the world should be illuminated and converted: they stand condemned for not following light so clear, and examples so bright and interesting.

2. Not know—As they ought to know from Daniel 7:22, and other scriptures. Saints—The very saints to whom Daniel affirms that the kingdom shall be given. Judge—Or, rule. For in ancient times, as judges ruled much by discretion, and kings often held the judicial to be part of the royal office, to judge and to rule are very much the same thing. The Judges of the Book of Judges were executive as well as judicial rulers. Our final Judge, even in the act of sentencing, is also King. Matthew 24:34, 40. Nor does St. Paul’s argument require a literal judicial action by the saints over the world in order to show their superiority over pagan tribunals. In the two clearest pictorial presentations of the final judgment in the New Testament, namely, Matthew 25 and 26, and Revelation 20:11-15, the saints are depicted only as judged, and not as judges. Alford maintains that the saints will, at the advent, judge as assessors, or side judges, with Christ; but when he comes to the angels of verse 3 he confesses a break down. How or when, even as assessors with Christ, will saints judge angels? It is not, we think, as assessors with Christ merely that the saints will judge and reign, but as IN CHRIST; as mystically one with him (verse 15) and represented by him. Note, 1 Corinthians 3:22. Personally, though they have no subjects, yet are they kings in his royalty; though they perform no sacrifice, yet they are priests in his priesthood; though they arraign no criminal, yet they are judges in his judgment. They are one with him; their cause is his cause; and they suffer in all its defeats, triumph in all its triumphs, and rule in all its dominations, whether over men in time or over men and angels in eternity. If… world… be judged by you—In the sphere of the Spirit the apostle tells us that even now (1 Corinthians 2:15) “he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.” In the triumphs of the apostolic age the twelve sat upon twelve thrones judging (that is, ruling) the twelve tribes of Israel. If, then, the realm of the true Church is truly far above that of the world, certainly it ought not to be judged by the pagan world. Unworthy… smallest matters—As, comparatively, all worldly matters are.

Ver. 2. Or, do you not know: common phrase of Paul, Romans 6:3; 7:1; 11:2: see 1 Corinthians 3:16. By a second question he supports the argument implied in the first.

The saints will judge the world: a truth which the readers ought to know, but which their preference for heathen judges proves that they had strangely forgotten. Same teaching in Daniel 7:22, 27, “judgment (the right to pronounce sentence) was given to the saints of the Most High.” Cp. Wisdom 3:8. Christ's people will share His royalty, Romans 8:17; 2 Timothy 2:12; and therefore they will share the government which (John 5:22) the Father has committed to the Son. Cp. Matthew 19:28; Luke 22:30. In the great Day the saints will intelligently and cordially approve and endorse the sentence pronounced by Christ on the millions of earth. Possibly, this approval may be a divinely appointed and essential condition, without which sentence would not be pronounced. For, it may enter into God's plan that sentence be pronounced, not only by Man upon men, but by men, themselves redeemed from their own sins, upon those who have chosen death rather than life. (In Matthew 12:41; Romans 2:27, the words “condemn” and “judge” are differently used.) It may be that final sentence cannot, according to the principles of the Divine Government of the Universe, be pronounced upon the lost without the concurrence of the saved, i.e. without a revelation of the justice of the sentence so clear as to secure the full approbation of the saved. If so, the concurrence of the saved is an essential element in the final judgment; and they may truly be said to judge both men and angels. That the sentence which the saints will pronounce is put into their lips by Christ, does not make their part in the judgment less real: for even the Son says (John 5:30) “I cannot of myself do anything; as I hear, I judge.” The world: either all men, or (cp. 1 Corinthians 5:10) all unsaved men. But this latter limitation is not absolutely needful here. For as summoned by Christ to sit with Him, the saints will approve and endorse the measure of reward to be given to themselves. To appeal to human courts of law, was to appeal to men upon whom, as upon all men, they themselves, amid the splendor of the great assize, will pronounce an eternal sentence.

Smallest judgments: about earthly matters, and therefore, as compared with the awards of that Day, utterly insignificant. That they will judge, implies that already they are not unworthy etc. For, not only does designation to honor confer present dignity, but whatever we shall be in full degree and outward actuality we are already in some degree inwardly and spiritually. The light of eternity, which will enable us to estimate with infallible justice all actions done on earth and to approve and endorse the sentence of Christ, already shines in the hearts of those in whom the Spirit dwells. For His presence imparts (1 Corinthians 2:15f) the wisdom of Christ. Therefore, in proportion as we are influenced by the Spirit, we are able to estimate conduct so far as the facts are known to us: i.e. spiritual men are, other things being equal, most fit to decide the differences of their brethren.

Verse 3. Know ye not that we shall judge angels?] Dr. Lightfoot observes that “the apostle does not say here, as he said before, the saints shall judge the angels, but WE shall judge them. By angels, all confess that demons are intended; but certainly all saints, according to the latitude with which that word is understood, i.e. all who profess Christianity, shall not judge angels. Nor is this judging of angels to be understood of the last day; but the apostle speaks of the ministers of the Gospel, himself and others, who, by the preaching of the Gospel, through the power of Christ, should spoil the devils of their oracles and their idols, should deprive them of their worship, should drive them out of their seats, and strip them of their dominion. Thus would God subdue the whole world under the Christian power, so that Christian magistrates should judge men, and Christian ministers judge devils.”

Verses 1-6. The apostle, having mentioned one very great irregularity among the professors of Christianity at Corinth, proceeds now to animadvert upon another, namely, their entering into suits of law with each other in heathen courts: Dare any of you — Have you so little regard for the glory of God, and the credit of Christianity, that, having a matter against another — Any controversy about civil affairs; you go to law before the unjust — Heathen judges, who generally were very corrupt, and from whom a Christian could expect no justice: and not before the saints — Who might easily decide these smaller differences in a private and friendly manner. Do ye not know — This expression occurs six times in this single chapter, and that with a peculiar force: for the Corinthians knew, and gloried in their knowledge, but their conduct was not consistent therewith. That the saints — After having been judged themselves; shall judge the world — Shall be assessors with Christ in the judgment wherein he shall condemn all the wicked, as well angels as men, Matthew 19:28; Revelation 20:4. And if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy — Unfit, unable for such a work; to judge the smallest matters — Differences about worldly affairs, which are of small moment, in comparison of spiritual and heavenly matters. Know ye not that we shall judge angels? — Namely, evil angels: as Christ is their judge, we shall be honoured to join with him in that judgment also, when all his enemies shall be put under his feet and ours. How much more are ye fit to decide in these low and transitory secular affairs? If then ye have judgments — Differences to be decided; of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church — Even the weakest among you might be adequate to that work, and certainly fitter for it than unjust heathen. I speak to your shame — To make you ashamed of your proceedings. The apostle certainly did not seriously design that they should set persons to judge in these matters, (though of little importance, in comparison of spiritual things,) who were the weakest and of least esteem among them, as appears from the next clause; but he spoke ironically. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you — Among you who are such admirers of wisdom, who is wise enough to decide in such causes? Not one able to judge between his brethren — In those disputes which they have about earthly things? But brother goeth to law with brother — One Christian with another; and that before the unbelievers — To the great discredit of the Christian name; yea, to the scandal of the whole Christian institution; for they cannot but take occasion, from your mutual quarrels and accusations, to brand the whole body of you as injurious and avaricious; who, while you pretend to be so far superior to secular views, are yet so strongly attached to them, that, with all your professions of universal benevolence and brotherly love, you cannot forbear wronging one another.

Ver. 2, 3. The saints shall judge the world — shall judge angels. The comments on this text are various. Some say ministers are here referred to, being the judges in the christian synagogue. Others say, as in Beza, that this refers to the time when the apostles shall sit on thrones as assessors with Christ, and judge the infidel world and fallen angels. Matthew 19:28.

Another comment is, that the apostle is not speaking of any thing future, but of the present, of something already begun, and actually going on; not the saints shall judge, but the saints judge; the world is being judged by you. He does not mean that eminent saints at the end of the world shall sit in judgment on the rest of mankind, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. The believing Corinthians, by embracing the gospel, judged; that is, condemned those who rejected it. Thus Nineveh shall rise up in judgment, and shall condemn the jews for their rejection of one greater than Jonah. The word is used in the same sense in Romans 2:3. John 12:31. Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out. It was through the influence of the Holy Spirit accompanying the gospel, that the domination of sin and Satan was condemned. — There is much propriety in this, because it is by the church that the world should be illuminated and converted: they stand condemned for not following light so clear, and examples so bright and interesting.

3. Shall judge angels—Our interpretation dismisses the question so puzzling to some commentators, whether good or bad angels, or both, are meant. For Christ, truly, is Lord and Judge of both heaven and hell; of men and angels good and bad; and those who suffer and rejoice in union with his mystical body here will reign in him and with him through eternity. Hence Olshausen well says, “Angels themselves stand lower in the order of beings than those in whose hearts Christ is formed.”

This symbolism, of which Paul gives us an occasional glimpse, is unfolded in full volume by John in the Apocalypse. The suppression of the cause of Christ on earth is beautifully represented by the symbolical souls of the martyrs under the altar, (Revelation 14:4;) and its triumphs by the symbol of these same souls having attained to a first resurrection, and reigning in the spirit-world with Christ, over the evangelized earth. Revelation 20:4.

Ver. 3. Another known truth, forming with 1 Corinthians 6:2 a climax.

Angel, when not otherwise defined in the New Testament always a good angel. But here the word judge recalls at once the angels who sinned. This verse implies, as 2 Peter 2:4; Jude 1:6 plainly assert, that the sentence of the great Day will include at least the fallen angels. We cannot doubt that it will be pronounced by Christ. If so, 1 Corinthians 6:2 suggests that in this sentence His people will join. Thus Man and men will pronounce sentence on those mighty powers which have seduced men, but from whose grasp the saints have been saved. The condemnation of wicked angels suggests that in the great Day the faithful angels will receive reward. If so, they may be included here; as in 1 Corinthians 6:2, “the world” may include “the saints.” All this reveals a mysterious and wonderful connection (cp. Colossians 1:20) between the moral destiny of our race and that of other races.

The teaching of 1 Corinthians 6:2, 3 is implied in the great truth that whatever Christ is and does He calls His people to share; and therefore helps us to realize the infinite grandeur of our position. We cannot (1 Corinthians 4:5) pronounce judgment now: for the facts are not yet fully before us. But in view of the majesty of that great assize, before which even angels will tremble, matters of this life are unworthy of mention.

V. 4. Them who are of no esteem in the church-That is, heathens, who, as such, could be in no esteem with the Christians.

Verse 4. Things pertaining to this life] They could examine all civil cases among themselves, which they were permitted to determine without any hinderance from the heathen governments under which they lived. Who are least esteemed in the Church.] touv exouqenhmenouv, Those who were in the lowest order of judges; for the apostle may refer here to the order in the Jewish benches, as Dr. Lightfoot conjectures, of which there were five, viz:-

1. The great Sanhedrin, consisting of seventy-two elders, which presided in Jerusalem.

2. The little Sanhedrin of twenty-five, in large cities, out of Jerusalem.

3. The Bench of Three in every synagogue.

4. The Authorized, or Authentic Bench.

5. The Bench not authorized, exouqenhmenov.

This latter bench was so called because it received not its authority immediately from the Sanhedrin, but was chosen by the parties between whom the controversy depended. The apostle certainly does not mean persons of no repute, but such as these arbitrators, who were chosen for the purpose of settling private differences, and preventing them from going before the regular magistrates. The following verse makes it pretty evident that the apostle refers to this lower kind of tribunal; and hence he says,-

Verses 1-6. The apostle, having mentioned one very great irregularity among the professors of Christianity at Corinth, proceeds now to animadvert upon another, namely, their entering into suits of law with each other in heathen courts: Dare any of you — Have you so little regard for the glory of God, and the credit of Christianity, that, having a matter against another — Any controversy about civil affairs; you go to law before the unjust — Heathen judges, who generally were very corrupt, and from whom a Christian could expect no justice: and not before the saints — Who might easily decide these smaller differences in a private and friendly manner. Do ye not know — This expression occurs six times in this single chapter, and that with a peculiar force: for the Corinthians knew, and gloried in their knowledge, but their conduct was not consistent therewith. That the saints — After having been judged themselves; shall judge the world — Shall be assessors with Christ in the judgment wherein he shall condemn all the wicked, as well angels as men, Matthew 19:28; Revelation 20:4. And if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy — Unfit, unable for such a work; to judge the smallest matters — Differences about worldly affairs, which are of small moment, in comparison of spiritual and heavenly matters. Know ye not that we shall judge angels? — Namely, evil angels: as Christ is their judge, we shall be honoured to join with him in that judgment also, when all his enemies shall be put under his feet and ours. How much more are ye fit to decide in these low and transitory secular affairs? If then ye have judgments — Differences to be decided; of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church — Even the weakest among you might be adequate to that work, and certainly fitter for it than unjust heathen. I speak to your shame — To make you ashamed of your proceedings. The apostle certainly did not seriously design that they should set persons to judge in these matters, (though of little importance, in comparison of spiritual things,) who were the weakest and of least esteem among them, as appears from the next clause; but he spoke ironically. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you — Among you who are such admirers of wisdom, who is wise enough to decide in such causes? Not one able to judge between his brethren — In those disputes which they have about earthly things? But brother goeth to law with brother — One Christian with another; and that before the unbelievers — To the great discredit of the Christian name; yea, to the scandal of the whole Christian institution; for they cannot but take occasion, from your mutual quarrels and accusations, to brand the whole body of you as injurious and avaricious; who, while you pretend to be so far superior to secular views, are yet so strongly attached to them, that, with all your professions of universal benevolence and brotherly love, you cannot forbear wronging one another.

4. Least esteemed—Alford truly calls this “a lofty irony.” And yet it implies a divine truth. Earthly matters are comparatively trifles in the light of eternity; and he who is a priest and king, through Christ, unto God, might easily trust a trifle of time to be decided by the humblest brother king. Yet the next verse shows that St. Paul is not seriously advising them to trust their disputes to the arbitration of incompetent hands.

Ver. 4.-6. Those who are despised: heathen judges, who, as ignorant of the wisdom which the Corinthian Christians conceived that they had obtained through the Gospel, were, in the church, looked down upon with contempt. By taking their disputes into courts of law Christians practically appoint heathens to be their judges. Paul asks with bitter irony, “Is it because your matters of dispute are so small, as belonging merely to the present passing life, compared with the tremendous sentence yourselves will share in pronouncing-is it for this reason that you submit them to men on whom you look down with contempt as aliens from the kingdom of God and exposed to the condemnation of the great Day, to men worthy to decide only these trifling temporal matters?”

To put you to shame: 1 Corinthians 15:34. It states Paul's immediate aim; 1 Corinthians 4:14, his ultimate aim.

I say it: I ask the foregoing bitter question. Your conduct implies that to this degree your large church is destitute of wisdom, that there is not among you even one wise man who will be able as cases arise to judge etc. Between his brother: viz. the one man who brings the complaint. This question was most humiliating. Just as in 1 Corinthians 3:1ff Paul proves from the existence of the church-parties that they were incapable of the higher Christian teaching, so now from their lawsuits he infers that the whole church does not contain one wise man. 1 Corinthians 6:6 asserts as fact, in reply to Paul's own question, the matter which gave rise to the question of 1 Corinthians 6:1.

Unbelievers; explains “the unrighteous” in 1 Corinthians 6:1.

V. 5. Is there not one among you, who are such admirers of wisdom, that is wise enough to decide such causes?

Verse 5. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you?] Have you none among yourselves that can be arbitrators of the differences which arise, that you go to the heathen tribunals?

Verses 1-6. The apostle, having mentioned one very great irregularity among the professors of Christianity at Corinth, proceeds now to animadvert upon another, namely, their entering into suits of law with each other in heathen courts: Dare any of you — Have you so little regard for the glory of God, and the credit of Christianity, that, having a matter against another — Any controversy about civil affairs; you go to law before the unjust — Heathen judges, who generally were very corrupt, and from whom a Christian could expect no justice: and not before the saints — Who might easily decide these smaller differences in a private and friendly manner. Do ye not know — This expression occurs six times in this single chapter, and that with a peculiar force: for the Corinthians knew, and gloried in their knowledge, but their conduct was not consistent therewith. That the saints — After having been judged themselves; shall judge the world — Shall be assessors with Christ in the judgment wherein he shall condemn all the wicked, as well angels as men, Matthew 19:28; Revelation 20:4. And if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy — Unfit, unable for such a work; to judge the smallest matters — Differences about worldly affairs, which are of small moment, in comparison of spiritual and heavenly matters. Know ye not that we shall judge angels? — Namely, evil angels: as Christ is their judge, we shall be honoured to join with him in that judgment also, when all his enemies shall be put under his feet and ours. How much more are ye fit to decide in these low and transitory secular affairs? If then ye have judgments — Differences to be decided; of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church — Even the weakest among you might be adequate to that work, and certainly fitter for it than unjust heathen. I speak to your shame — To make you ashamed of your proceedings. The apostle certainly did not seriously design that they should set persons to judge in these matters, (though of little importance, in comparison of spiritual things,) who were the weakest and of least esteem among them, as appears from the next clause; but he spoke ironically. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you — Among you who are such admirers of wisdom, who is wise enough to decide in such causes? Not one able to judge between his brethren — In those disputes which they have about earthly things? But brother goeth to law with brother — One Christian with another; and that before the unbelievers — To the great discredit of the Christian name; yea, to the scandal of the whole Christian institution; for they cannot but take occasion, from your mutual quarrels and accusations, to brand the whole body of you as injurious and avaricious; who, while you pretend to be so far superior to secular views, are yet so strongly attached to them, that, with all your professions of universal benevolence and brotherly love, you cannot forbear wronging one another.

Ver. 5. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? This text was once cited by lord Kenyon in the court of king’s bench, when the aggrieved party in the society of Friends had brought a case before him. “Have you no wise man among you to settle these disputes, that you bring them before us?”

5. Your shame—He has shown them the high ideal of their state in Christ to humiliate them for debasing that ideal before heathen magistrates. Able to judge—On the level of plain, literal thought, St. Paul here advises them to place their disputes before some competent Christian arbiter.

Ver. 4.-6. Those who are despised: heathen judges, who, as ignorant of the wisdom which the Corinthian Christians conceived that they had obtained through the Gospel, were, in the church, looked down upon with contempt. By taking their disputes into courts of law Christians practically appoint heathens to be their judges. Paul asks with bitter irony, “Is it because your matters of dispute are so small, as belonging merely to the present passing life, compared with the tremendous sentence yourselves will share in pronouncing-is it for this reason that you submit them to men on whom you look down with contempt as aliens from the kingdom of God and exposed to the condemnation of the great Day, to men worthy to decide only these trifling temporal matters?”

To put you to shame: 1 Corinthians 15:34. It states Paul's immediate aim; 1 Corinthians 4:14, his ultimate aim.

I say it: I ask the foregoing bitter question. Your conduct implies that to this degree your large church is destitute of wisdom, that there is not among you even one wise man who will be able as cases arise to judge etc. Between his brother: viz. the one man who brings the complaint. This question was most humiliating. Just as in 1 Corinthians 3:1ff Paul proves from the existence of the church-parties that they were incapable of the higher Christian teaching, so now from their lawsuits he infers that the whole church does not contain one wise man. 1 Corinthians 6:6 asserts as fact, in reply to Paul's own question, the matter which gave rise to the question of 1 Corinthians 6:1.

Unbelievers; explains “the unrighteous” in 1 Corinthians 6:1.

Verse 6. Brother goeth to law with brother] One Christian sues another at law! This is almost as great a scandal as can exist in a Christian society. Those in a religious community who will not submit to a proper arbitration, made by persons among themselves, should be expelled from the Church of God.

Verses 1-6. The apostle, having mentioned one very great irregularity among the professors of Christianity at Corinth, proceeds now to animadvert upon another, namely, their entering into suits of law with each other in heathen courts: Dare any of you — Have you so little regard for the glory of God, and the credit of Christianity, that, having a matter against another — Any controversy about civil affairs; you go to law before the unjust — Heathen judges, who generally were very corrupt, and from whom a Christian could expect no justice: and not before the saints — Who might easily decide these smaller differences in a private and friendly manner. Do ye not know — This expression occurs six times in this single chapter, and that with a peculiar force: for the Corinthians knew, and gloried in their knowledge, but their conduct was not consistent therewith. That the saints — After having been judged themselves; shall judge the world — Shall be assessors with Christ in the judgment wherein he shall condemn all the wicked, as well angels as men, Matthew 19:28; Revelation 20:4. And if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy — Unfit, unable for such a work; to judge the smallest matters — Differences about worldly affairs, which are of small moment, in comparison of spiritual and heavenly matters. Know ye not that we shall judge angels? — Namely, evil angels: as Christ is their judge, we shall be honoured to join with him in that judgment also, when all his enemies shall be put under his feet and ours. How much more are ye fit to decide in these low and transitory secular affairs? If then ye have judgments — Differences to be decided; of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church — Even the weakest among you might be adequate to that work, and certainly fitter for it than unjust heathen. I speak to your shame — To make you ashamed of your proceedings. The apostle certainly did not seriously design that they should set persons to judge in these matters, (though of little importance, in comparison of spiritual things,) who were the weakest and of least esteem among them, as appears from the next clause; but he spoke ironically. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you — Among you who are such admirers of wisdom, who is wise enough to decide in such causes? Not one able to judge between his brethren — In those disputes which they have about earthly things? But brother goeth to law with brother — One Christian with another; and that before the unbelievers — To the great discredit of the Christian name; yea, to the scandal of the whole Christian institution; for they cannot but take occasion, from your mutual quarrels and accusations, to brand the whole body of you as injurious and avaricious; who, while you pretend to be so far superior to secular views, are yet so strongly attached to them, that, with all your professions of universal benevolence and brotherly love, you cannot forbear wronging one another.

6. Brother goeth to law—By favour of the Roman government (see note on Acts 9:2) the Jews were permitted to establish courts of their own for the trial of cases between Jew and Jew. And by a law of the Jews it was unlawful for a Jew to arraign a Jew before a Gentile court. Christian courts were early established by the Church for settling disputes between Christians. Stanley quotes from the Apostolic Constitution, a document of the middle of the second century, a striking passage to this effect. The Christian rule, however, did not forbid the prosecuting of a heathen by a Christian before a heathen tribunal. A narrative is related of St. Julitta, who, having prosecuted a pagan for theft, withdrew her suit when required by the court, as a condition of a verdict, to renounce her Christian faith. When, at length, Christianity became the established religion of the Roman empire, these courts gradually grew into powerful ecclesiastical courts, and became a stronghold of the popish hierarchy.

Ver. 4.-6. Those who are despised: heathen judges, who, as ignorant of the wisdom which the Corinthian Christians conceived that they had obtained through the Gospel, were, in the church, looked down upon with contempt. By taking their disputes into courts of law Christians practically appoint heathens to be their judges. Paul asks with bitter irony, “Is it because your matters of dispute are so small, as belonging merely to the present passing life, compared with the tremendous sentence yourselves will share in pronouncing-is it for this reason that you submit them to men on whom you look down with contempt as aliens from the kingdom of God and exposed to the condemnation of the great Day, to men worthy to decide only these trifling temporal matters?”

To put you to shame: 1 Corinthians 15:34. It states Paul's immediate aim; 1 Corinthians 4:14, his ultimate aim.

I say it: I ask the foregoing bitter question. Your conduct implies that to this degree your large church is destitute of wisdom, that there is not among you even one wise man who will be able as cases arise to judge etc. Between his brother: viz. the one man who brings the complaint. This question was most humiliating. Just as in 1 Corinthians 3:1ff Paul proves from the existence of the church-parties that they were incapable of the higher Christian teaching, so now from their lawsuits he infers that the whole church does not contain one wise man. 1 Corinthians 6:6 asserts as fact, in reply to Paul's own question, the matter which gave rise to the question of 1 Corinthians 6:1.

Unbelievers; explains “the unrighteous” in 1 Corinthians 6:1.

V. 7. Indeed there is a fault, that ye quarrel with each other at all, whether ye go to law or no.

Why do ye not rather suffer wrong-All men cannot or will not receive this saying. Many aim only at this, I will neither do wrong, nor suffer it. These are honest heathens, but no Christians.

Verse 7. There is utterly a fault among you] There is a most manifest defect among you, 1. Of peaceableness; 2. Of brotherly love; 3. Of mutual confidence; and 4. Of reverence for God, and concern for the honour of his cause.

Why do ye not rather take wrong?] Better suffer an injury than take a method of redressing yourselves which must injure your own peace, and greatly dishonour the cause of God.

Verses 7, 8. Now therefore — But, indeed, there is plainly a fault in you, whoever may have the right on his side; that ye go to law with one another — Or that ye quarrel with one another at all, whether ye go to law or not. Why do ye not rather take, or suffer, wrong — Endure it patiently, and sit down with the loss? Why do ye not suffer yourselves to be defrauded — Rather than seek a remedy in such a way as this? All men cannot, or will not, receive this saying. Many aim only at this, “I will neither do wrong nor suffer it.” These are honest heathen, but no Christians. Nay — Alla, but, ye are so far from bearing injuries and frauds, that ye do wrong to, or injure openly, and defraud — Privately, and that even your Christian brethren.

7. A fault—A shortcoming; a failure to attain the true high Christian level, requiring them to suffer wrong rather than to do wrong by abasing the Church before heathendom. Defrauded—To be deprived, that is, of rights or property. The spirit prescribed by the apostle would strike at the roots of all Church divisions. It is a favoured country where law is both just and supreme. But a diminution of litigation is a good proof of advancing civilization. It arises from a disposition to suffer rather than contend.

Ver. 7.-8. To go no further, than the fact that “brother goes to law with brother,” that you have judgments with yourselves. As in 1 Corinthians 6:1, Paul descends from fornication “generally” to a specially aggravated “kind of fornication,” so now he rises from lawsuits before unbelievers to all lawsuits between Christians.

Judgment: sentence pronounced by a judge, which, as being the culminating point, implies the whole process of the suit. Apart from the heathen judges, the lawsuits were themselves a spiritual injury; they tended to lessen and destroy the spiritual life of those concerned and of the church generally.

Damage: same word in Romans 11:12.

Why … ? why … ? solemn repetition and climax. It is better to suffer-injustice and fraud than spiritual damage. But their conduct was the precise opposite of this.

Injustice: that which is not right, 1 Corinthians 6:1. Fraud: taking, generally by guile, the known property of others. Of this, Paul must have known that some of them were guilty.

V. 8. Nay, ye do wrong-Openly.

And defraud-Privately. O how powerfully did the mystery of iniquity already work!

Verse 8. Nay, ye do wrong] Far from suffering, ye are the aggressors; and defraud your pious, long-suffering brethren, who submit to this wrong rather than take those methods of redressing their grievances which the spirit of Christianity forbids. Probably the apostle refers to him who had taken his father’s wife.

Verses 7, 8. Now therefore — But, indeed, there is plainly a fault in you, whoever may have the right on his side; that ye go to law with one another — Or that ye quarrel with one another at all, whether ye go to law or not. Why do ye not rather take, or suffer, wrong — Endure it patiently, and sit down with the loss? Why do ye not suffer yourselves to be defrauded — Rather than seek a remedy in such a way as this? All men cannot, or will not, receive this saying. Many aim only at this, “I will neither do wrong nor suffer it.” These are honest heathen, but no Christians. Nay — Alla, but, ye are so far from bearing injuries and frauds, that ye do wrong to, or injure openly, and defraud — Privately, and that even your Christian brethren.

8. Nay—You follow the reverse of the Christian course, and are, therefore, in need of the following warning of failing at last of the kingdom of God. b. Sensualities and other vices exclude from the kingdom of God, 9-11. St. Paul has just been holding up the highest ideal of the kingdom of God—the glorious judgeship [rulership] of the saints—as reason why his Corinthians should not humble each other before pagan courts. Their tendency to do so directs his thoughts to that cluster of vices, especially sensuality, by which, amid the dissoluteness of Corinth, they were in imminent danger of forfeiting their title to God’s glorious kingdom. Hence these words of earnest warning are pervaded throughout with a secret reference to their easy remissness in regard to the fornicator.

Ver. 7.-8. To go no further, than the fact that “brother goes to law with brother,” that you have judgments with yourselves. As in 1 Corinthians 6:1, Paul descends from fornication “generally” to a specially aggravated “kind of fornication,” so now he rises from lawsuits before unbelievers to all lawsuits between Christians.

Judgment: sentence pronounced by a judge, which, as being the culminating point, implies the whole process of the suit. Apart from the heathen judges, the lawsuits were themselves a spiritual injury; they tended to lessen and destroy the spiritual life of those concerned and of the church generally.

Damage: same word in Romans 11:12.

Why … ? why … ? solemn repetition and climax. It is better to suffer-injustice and fraud than spiritual damage. But their conduct was the precise opposite of this.

Injustice: that which is not right, 1 Corinthians 6:1. Fraud: taking, generally by guile, the known property of others. Of this, Paul must have known that some of them were guilty.

V. 9. Idolatry is here placed between fornication and adultery, because they generally accompanied it.

Nor the effeminate-Who live in an easy, indolent way; taking up no cross, enduring no hardship.

But how is this? These good-natured, harmless people are ranked with idolaters and sodomites! We may learn hence, that we are never secure from the greatest sins, till we guard against those which are thought the least; nor, indeed, till we think no sin is little, since every one is a step toward hell.

Verse 9. The unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom] The unrighteous, adikoi, those who act contrary to right, cannot inherit, for the inheritance is by right. He who is not a child of God has no right to the family inheritance, for that inheritance is for the children. If children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, Romans 8:17. There are here ten classes of transgressors which the apostle excludes from the kingdom of God; and any man who is guilty of any one of the evils mentioned above is thereby excluded from this kingdom, whether it imply the Church of Christ here below, or the state of glory hereafter. Several of the evils here enumerated will not bear to be particularly explained; they are, however, sufficiently plain of themselves, and show us what abominations were commonly practised among the Corinthians.

Verses 9-11. Know ye not — With all your boasted knowledge; that the unrighteous — That is, not only the unjust, but those destitute of true righteousness and holiness, comprehending the various classes of sinners afterward mentioned, the term unrighteous here including them all: shall not inherit the kingdom of God — Namely, the kingdom of eternal glory. And can you contentedly sacrifice this great and glorious hope which the gospel gives you, for the sake of those pleasures of sin which are but for a short season? Be not deceived — By a vain imagination that the Christian name and privileges will save you, while you continue in the practice of your vices. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, &c. — Idolatry is here placed between fornication and adultery, because these things generally accompanied it. Indeed, among the heathen idolatry was not only a great crime in itself, but was the parent of many other crimes. For the heathen were encouraged in the commission of fornication, adultery, sodomy, drunkenness, theft, &c., by the example of their gods. Nor effeminate — Who live in an easy, indolent way, taking up no cross, enduring no hardship. But how is this, that these good-natured, harmless people are ranked with idolaters and sodomites, those infamous degraders of human nature? We may learn hence, that we are never secure from the greatest sins, till we guard against those which are thought to be the least; nor indeed till we think no sin is little, since every one is a step toward hell. And such were some of you — Namely, in some kind or other; but ye are washed — Delivered from the guilt and power of those gross abominations. Ye are sanctified — Renewed in the spirit of your minds, dedicated to, and employed in the service of God; conformed, at least in a measure, to his image, and possessed of his divine nature, and this not before, but in consequence of your being justified. Or, Ye are regenerated and purified, as well as discharged, from the condemnation to which ye were justly obnoxious. See the nature of justification explained in the notes on Romans 3:21, 22; and its fruits, on Romans 5:1-5. In the name of the Lord Jesus — Through his merits, or his sacrifice and intercession; and by the Spirit of our God — Creating you anew, and inspiring you with all those blessed graces which are the genuine fruits of his divine influences, Galatians 5:22, 23. You ought therefore, as if he had said, to maintain the most grateful sense of these important blessings which God hath conferred upon you, to stand at the utmost distance from sin, and to be tender of the peace and honour of a society which God hath founded by his extraordinary interposition, and into which he hath been pleased in so wonderful a manner to bring even you, who were in a most infamous and deplorable state.

9. Kingdom of God—In which the holy do, through Christ, overrule the unholy. Be not deceived—Middle voice, Deceive not yourselves. Neither your past rich experience nor your membership in Christ’s Church can save you in your sensuality and other vices. Idolaters—A large share of whose ritual is sensual indulgence. Effeminate—Pathics. Abusers—Sodomites. Romans 1:26, 27.

Ver. 9.-10. Do you not know] This conduct, like all sin, arose from ignorance.

Unrighteousness, or unjust, refers specifically to 1 Corinthians 6:8; but includes the sin of 1 Corinthians 6:1 and all other sin. For, against all sin equally this solemn warning is valid.

Inherit God's kingdom: 1 Corinthians 15:50; Galatians 5:21; Ephesians 5:5: become, in virtue of filial relation to God, citizens of the future and glorious realm over which, in a royalty which His children will share, He will reign for ever.

Be not deceived etc.: solemn repetition, and exposition in its wider sense, of 1 Corinthians 6:9a. Cp. Galatians 5:21. Fornicators; recalls 1 Corinthians 5:1ff.

Idolaters; see 1 Corinthians 5:11.

Verses 9-11. Know ye not — With all your boasted knowledge; that the unrighteous — That is, not only the unjust, but those destitute of true righteousness and holiness, comprehending the various classes of sinners afterward mentioned, the term unrighteous here including them all: shall not inherit the kingdom of God — Namely, the kingdom of eternal glory. And can you contentedly sacrifice this great and glorious hope which the gospel gives you, for the sake of those pleasures of sin which are but for a short season? Be not deceived — By a vain imagination that the Christian name and privileges will save you, while you continue in the practice of your vices. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, &c. — Idolatry is here placed between fornication and adultery, because these things generally accompanied it. Indeed, among the heathen idolatry was not only a great crime in itself, but was the parent of many other crimes. For the heathen were encouraged in the commission of fornication, adultery, sodomy, drunkenness, theft, &c., by the example of their gods. Nor effeminate — Who live in an easy, indolent way, taking up no cross, enduring no hardship. But how is this, that these good-natured, harmless people are ranked with idolaters and sodomites, those infamous degraders of human nature? We may learn hence, that we are never secure from the greatest sins, till we guard against those which are thought to be the least; nor indeed till we think no sin is little, since every one is a step toward hell. And such were some of you — Namely, in some kind or other; but ye are washed — Delivered from the guilt and power of those gross abominations. Ye are sanctified — Renewed in the spirit of your minds, dedicated to, and employed in the service of God; conformed, at least in a measure, to his image, and possessed of his divine nature, and this not before, but in consequence of your being justified. Or, Ye are regenerated and purified, as well as discharged, from the condemnation to which ye were justly obnoxious. See the nature of justification explained in the notes on Romans 3:21, 22; and its fruits, on Romans 5:1-5. In the name of the Lord Jesus — Through his merits, or his sacrifice and intercession; and by the Spirit of our God — Creating you anew, and inspiring you with all those blessed graces which are the genuine fruits of his divine influences, Galatians 5:22, 23. You ought therefore, as if he had said, to maintain the most grateful sense of these important blessings which God hath conferred upon you, to stand at the utmost distance from sin, and to be tender of the peace and honour of a society which God hath founded by his extraordinary interposition, and into which he hath been pleased in so wonderful a manner to bring even you, who were in a most infamous and deplorable state.

Ver. 9.-10. Do you not know] This conduct, like all sin, arose from ignorance.

Unrighteousness, or unjust, refers specifically to 1 Corinthians 6:8; but includes the sin of 1 Corinthians 6:1 and all other sin. For, against all sin equally this solemn warning is valid.

Inherit God's kingdom: 1 Corinthians 15:50; Galatians 5:21; Ephesians 5:5: become, in virtue of filial relation to God, citizens of the future and glorious realm over which, in a royalty which His children will share, He will reign for ever.

Be not deceived etc.: solemn repetition, and exposition in its wider sense, of 1 Corinthians 6:9a. Cp. Galatians 5:21. Fornicators; recalls 1 Corinthians 5:1ff.

Idolaters; see 1 Corinthians 5:11.

V. 11. And such were some of you: but ye are washed-From those gross abominations; nay, and ye are inwardly sanctified; not before, but in consequence of, your being justified in the name-That is, by the merits, of the Lord Jesus, through which your sins are forgiven. And by the Spirit of our God-By whom ye are thus washed and sanctified.

Verse 11. And such were some of you] It was not with the prospect of collecting saints that the apostles went about preaching the Gospel of the kingdom. None but sinners were to be found over the face of the earth; they preached that sinners might be converted unto God, made saints, and constituted into a Church; and this was the effect as well as the object of their preaching.

But ye are washed] Several suppose that the order in which the operations of the grace of God take place in the soul is here inverted; but I am of a very different mind. Every thing will appear here in its order, when we understand the terms used by the apostle.

Ye are washed, apelousasqe; ye have been baptized into the Christian faith, and ye have promised in this baptism to put off all filthiness of the flesh and spirit: and the washing of your bodies is emblematical of the purification of your souls.

Ye are sanctified] hJgiasqhte; from a, privative, and gh, the earth; ye are separated from earthly things to be connected with spiritual. Ye are separated from time to be connected with eternity. Ye are separated from idols to be joined to the living God. Separation from common, earthly, or sinful uses, to be wholly employed in the service of the true God, is the ideal meaning of this word, both in the Old and New Testaments. It was in consequence of their being separated from the world that they became a Church of God. Ye were formerly workers of iniquity, and associated with workers of iniquity; but now ye are separated from them, and united together to work out your salvation with fear and trembling before God. Ye are justified] edikaiwqhte. Ye have been brought into a state of favour with God; your sins having been blotted out through Christ Jesus, the Spirit of God witnessing the same to your conscience, and carrying on by his energy the great work of regeneration in your hearts. The process here is plain and simple:—1. Paul and his brother apostles preached the Gospel at Corinth, and besought the people to turn from darkness to light-from idol vanities to the living God, and to believe in the Lord Jesus for the remission of sins. 2. The people who heard were convinced of the Divine truths delivered by the apostle, and flocked to baptism. 3. They were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, and thus took upon them the public profession of the Gospel. 4. Being now baptized into the Christian faith, they were separated from idols and idolaters, and became incorporated with the Church of God. 5. As penitents, they were led to the Lord Jesus for justification, which they received through faith in his blood.

6. Being justified freely-having their sins forgiven through the redemption that is in Jesus, they received the Spirit of God to attest this glorious work of grace to their consciences; and thus became possessed of that principle of righteousness, that true leaven which was to leaven the whole lump, producing that universal holiness without which none can see the Lord.

Verses 9-11. Know ye not — With all your boasted knowledge; that the unrighteous — That is, not only the unjust, but those destitute of true righteousness and holiness, comprehending the various classes of sinners afterward mentioned, the term unrighteous here including them all: shall not inherit the kingdom of God — Namely, the kingdom of eternal glory. And can you contentedly sacrifice this great and glorious hope which the gospel gives you, for the sake of those pleasures of sin which are but for a short season? Be not deceived — By a vain imagination that the Christian name and privileges will save you, while you continue in the practice of your vices. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, &c. — Idolatry is here placed between fornication and adultery, because these things generally accompanied it. Indeed, among the heathen idolatry was not only a great crime in itself, but was the parent of many other crimes. For the heathen were encouraged in the commission of fornication, adultery, sodomy, drunkenness, theft, &c., by the example of their gods. Nor effeminate — Who live in an easy, indolent way, taking up no cross, enduring no hardship. But how is this, that these good-natured, harmless people are ranked with idolaters and sodomites, those infamous degraders of human nature? We may learn hence, that we are never secure from the greatest sins, till we guard against those which are thought to be the least; nor indeed till we think no sin is little, since every one is a step toward hell. And such were some of you — Namely, in some kind or other; but ye are washed — Delivered from the guilt and power of those gross abominations. Ye are sanctified — Renewed in the spirit of your minds, dedicated to, and employed in the service of God; conformed, at least in a measure, to his image, and possessed of his divine nature, and this not before, but in consequence of your being justified. Or, Ye are regenerated and purified, as well as discharged, from the condemnation to which ye were justly obnoxious. See the nature of justification explained in the notes on Romans 3:21, 22; and its fruits, on Romans 5:1-5. In the name of the Lord Jesus — Through his merits, or his sacrifice and intercession; and by the Spirit of our God — Creating you anew, and inspiring you with all those blessed graces which are the genuine fruits of his divine influences, Galatians 5:22, 23. You ought therefore, as if he had said, to maintain the most grateful sense of these important blessings which God hath conferred upon you, to stand at the utmost distance from sin, and to be tender of the peace and honour of a society which God hath founded by his extraordinary interposition, and into which he hath been pleased in so wonderful a manner to bring even you, who were in a most infamous and deplorable state.

Ver. 11. Such were some of you — guilty of crimes for which many have suffered by the hand of justice. But ye are washed, ye are justified; and let not such forget what they owe to grace. And even those who have been guilty of them only in heart, have no reason to boast over another. Dr. John Bradford, minister of Lutterworth, a blessed martyr, used to say, on seeing men go to the gallows, “There goes John Bradford, had not grace prevented.” — Ye are washed by the baptism of the new birth, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost; and yet not so but men through life should blush for sins so foul. Yea, they should repair errors to the utmost of their power, and cautiously keep the flesh in subjection.

11. Washed—Greek middle voice, Ye have washed yourselves; that is, by regeneration internally, symbolized by baptism, externally. Sanctified— And, therefore, these sensualities are the opposite of your character. Justified—And so such practices must forfeit your justification, and exclude you from the kingdom of God.

This paragraph condemns, 1. All idea that the being once justified insures, in spite of relapse into vice, a secured inheritance of God’s glorified kingdom; and, 2. All Antinomianism; that is, the doctrine that a Christian’s professional holiness renders his sin and vice righteous and safe, so that he may transgress with impunity.

c. Nor can sensualities be excused by the lawfulness of all natural gratification, 12-20.

A doctrine by which the Corinthian Antinomians, whose views of Christian ethics were yet unshaped, were deceiving themselves, (verse 9,) is now stated and explained. God has given internal appetites and external objects to gratify them. This is the divine constitution. He has given, for instance, the stomach and the food, (verse 13;) so he has given the sexual instincts and the sex; the desire for wealth and external property, etc. St. Paul replies, that all those external objects are truly lawful sources of gratification; yet the unrestrained gratification is limited by the law of the expedient, and that limits the right. The injurious is wrong, the truly beneficial alone is right. And so we are truly restricted not only to the right object, but also to that object in the right degree.

The interpretation given by the great body of commentators—”all indifferent things are lawful”—seems not only itself an empty truism, but involves perplexity in carrying a consistent meaning through the paragraph. Our interpretation perhaps justifies itself by its clear results.

Ver. 11. Supports the foregoing solemn warning by the contrast of their entrance to the Christian life. When Paul speaks of sin in the abstract, he says, “There is no difference: for all have sinned,” Romans 3:22; 5:8ff. But, when speaking of gross and open sins, he says some of you. For there may have been at Corinth men who, like Paul, (Acts 26:5,) were outwardly moral from their youth.

You washed yourselves: close coincidence with Acts 22:16, “Baptize thyself (or, have thyself baptized) and wash away thy sin.” God designs the Christian life to be one of purity, i.e. free from the inward conscious defilement, causing shame, which always accompanies sin. To this life of purity, Baptism, as a public confession of Christ and formal union with His people, was the divinely appointed outward entrance. Only thus, in ordinary cases, could men obtain salvation: Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38. And the use of water set forth in outward symbol the inward purity which God requires, and is ready to give. Therefore by voluntarily receiving Baptism, not only did the early converts profess their desire for the purity promised in the Gospel, but, by fulfilling the divinely ordained condition, they actually obtained it in proportion to their faith. Consequently, by coming to baptism, they practically washed themselves from the stain of their sin. Cp. Titus 3:5, “He saved us by means of the laver of regeneration.” This does not imply purification in the moment of baptism, or apart from the converts' faith and steadfast resolve to forsake sin. But these words reminded the readers that, unless it was a meaningless and an empty form, their baptism was a renouncing of all sin. The allusion here is similar to the mention of baptism in Romans 6:2ff: see notes. You were sanctified: as in 1 Corinthians 1:2. “When God rescued you from sin and joined you to His people, He claimed you for His Own, and thus placed you in a new and solemn relation to Himself.” Justified: a solitary instance probably in the New Testament of the simplest sense, “made righteous.” For Paul is dealing here (cp. 1 Corinthians 6:9a) with practical unrighteousness: and with him the justification of pardon always precedes (e.g. 1 Corinthians 1:30) sanctification. But we have the opposite order here, because practical conformity with the Law is an outflow and consequence of devotion to God. Therefore, by claiming us for His Own, and by breathing into us the devotion He claims, God makes us righteous. You washed yourselves, reminds the readers that by their own act they renounced sin: therefore to continue in sin is to retrace their own act. You were sanctified etc., reminds “them that by One greater than themselves they were devoted to the service of God and made righteous: therefore, to sin is to resist God.” Thus the change of expression sets before us two sides of the Christian life. In the Name etc.; belongs probably to all three verbs. Their baptism was an acknowledgment that Jesus claimed to be their Anointed Master, whose Name they were henceforth to bear. Cp. Acts 2:38; 8:16; 10:48; 19:5. They were “sanctified in Christ,” 1 Corinthians 1:2. And moral uprightness was imparted to them in view of their confession of the Name of Christ, and for the honor of that Name.

The Spirit of God: the inward and immediate source, as the Name of Christ is the outward professed source, of the Christian life. This Spirit they received at Baptism, 1 Corinthians 12:13: Acts 2:38; 19:5f: (though not by mechanical necessity but by faith, Galatians 3:14, 26f: Galatians 4:6: Ephesians 1:13; and therefore not necessarily in the moment of Baptism:) and He was the source of (Romans 15:16; 2 Thessalonians 2:13) their loyalty to God; and of (Romans 8:4) their conformity to the Law.

In this section, as frequently, Paul deals with matters of detail by appealing to great principles of wide application. Not only are there at Corinth legal disputes, but these are carried into the common law-courts. The litigants insult the majesty of the church, forgetful of the dignity awaiting its members, by submitting their disputes to the decision of men on whom they themselves look down with contempt as aliens from God, as though the church did not contain even one man wise enough to decide them. That there are lawsuits at all, is a spiritual injury to them, an injury they would do well to avoid, even at the cost of submitting to injustice. It is needful to warn them against the error of expecting that bad men will enter the kingdom of God; and to remind them that, when they entered the church and so far as their profession was genuine, they renounced sin, became the people of God, and therefore righteous men.

The above does not imply that in that early day there were regularly constituted Christian law-courts. The readers are simply urged to settle their disputes privately by Christian arbitration rather than by a public legal process. A century later there were regular, though private, Christian courts; in which the bishops gave judgment between church-members. To us, the argument of 1 Corinthians 6:1-6 is modified by the fact that our public courts are for the more part presided over by excellent Christian men. But the injury inflicted upon a church by lawsuits between members, and the spirit of unscrupulous grasping, in one or both parties, which lies at the root of nearly all lawsuits, are the same in all ages. And, in proportion as men are moved by the Spirit of God, disputes about property will become rare; and the disputants will decide them, not in a public court, but by private arbitration, and by arbiters who themselves are guided by the same Spirit. Whether, in any one case it be more for the advancement of the kingdom of God that we defend our property or submit to injustice, must be determined by that spiritual wisdom which God has promised to give. From 1 Corinthians 6:8 we learn that there are cases in which we shall do well to choose the latter alternative.

V. 12. All things-Which are lawful for you.

Are lawful for me, but all things are not always expedient-Particularly when anything would offend my weak brother; or when it would enslave my own soul. For though

all things are lawful for me, yet I will not be brought under the power of any-So as to be uneasy when I abstain from it; for, if so, then I am under the power of it.

Verse 12. All things are lawful unto me] It is likely that some of the Corinthians had pleaded that the offence of the man who had his father’s wife, as well as the eating the things offered to idols, was not contrary to the law, as it then stood. To this the apostle answers: Though such a thing be lawful, yet the case of fornication, mentioned 1 Corinthians 5:1, is not expedient, ou sumferei-it is not agreeable to propriety, decency, order, and purity. It is contrary to the established usages of the best and most enlightened nations, and should not be tolerated in the Church of Christ.

They might also be led to argue in favour of their eating things offered to idols, and attending idol feasts, thus:-that an idol was nothing in the world; and as food was provided by the bounty of God, a man might partake of it any where without defiling his conscience, or committing sin against the Creator. This excuse also the apostle refers to. All these things are lawful, taken up merely in the light that none of your laws is against the first; and that, on the ground that an idol is nothing in the world, there can be no reason against the last;

But I will not be brought under the power of any.] Allowing that they are all lawful, or at least that there is no law against them, yet they are not expedient; there is no necessity for them; and some of them are abominable, and forbidden by the law of God and nature, whether forbidden by yours or not; while others, such as eating meats offered to idols, will almost necessarily lead to bad moral consequences: and who, that is a Christian, would obey his appetite so far as to do these things for the sake of gratification? A man is brought under the power of any thing which he cannot give up. He is the slave of that thing, whatsoever it be, which he cannot relinquish; and then, to him, it is sin.

Verses 12-14. All things — That are indifferent in their own nature, and neither commanded nor forbidden; are lawful unto me — Or, as some paraphrase the clause, All things which are lawful for you are lawful for me. Since the apostle could not say, in any sense, that absolutely all things were lawful for him, the sentence must be considered as elliptical, and what is wanting to complete it must be supplied, according to the apostle’s manner, from the subsequent verse. But all things are not expedient — Proper to be used, in regard of circumstances; as when they would offend our weak brethren, or when they would enslave our own souls. Although all things — Of the above description; are lawful for me, yet I will not be brought under the power of any — So enslaved to any thing, as to be uneasy when I abstain from it, for in that case I should be under the power of it. Meats for the belly, &c. — As if he had said, I speak this chiefly with regard to meats; particularly with regard to those offered to idols, and those forbidden in the Mosaic law. These, I grant, are all indifferent, and have their use, but it is only for a time, for soon, meats, and the organs which receive them, will together moulder into dust. For God will destroy both it and them — Namely, when the earth, and the things which it contains, are burned. From this it is evident, that at the resurrection, the parts of the body which minister to its nutrition are not to be restored; or, if they are to be restored, that their use will be abolished. Now — Or rather but; the body is not for fornication — As if he had said, The case is quite otherwise with fornication; this is not a thing indifferent, but at all times evil; for the body is for the Lord — Designed only for his service: and the Lord — In an important sense; is for the body — Being the Saviour of this as well as of the soul, and consequently must rule and employ it. And as a further proof that the body was made for glorifying the Lord, God hath both raised up the body of the Lord, and will also raise up our bodies, and render them immortal like his.

Ver. 12. All things are lawful to me, in regard of eating with certain characters when occasion seems to require it, but all things are not expedient. The Corinthian feasts were carnal and profane, and God would destroy both them and their feasts. Self-denial is the hallowed road to glory. How can a christian dine with a profane character, without reminding him of his sin! The Spirit constrained John to reprove Herod.

12. All things—All gratifying objects. We are endowed with natural appetites, desires, and preferences by our very constitution. Innumerable objects are, correspondently, endowed with the quality to gratify and satiate all those our internal appetences. The world is thus to us a storehouse of enjoyments. And this, being God’s own constitution, is lawful. Unto me—St. Paul, as a fellow-Christian with those using this reasoning, uses it as applicable to himself. Not expedient—However gratifying to our appetences many of these objects, yet most of them, unless rightly used, become injurious to body or mind. So that the universality becomes immensely reduced. Under the power—As we may sin, and ruin ourselves by selecting the wrong object, so we may do the same by accepting and using the right object in excess. And that excess often enslaves us to the power of the object. Food is lawful for the stomach, but gluttony is unlawful.

I CORINTHIANS

SECTION 10 — ALL LICENTIOUSNESS IS

CONTRARY TO THE CHRISTIAN LIFE CH. 6:12-20

All things to me are allowable: but not all things are profitable. All things to me are allowable: but not I will be mastered by any. The food-stuffs are for the belly, and the belly for the food-stuffs: but God will bring to nought both it and them. But the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body. And God both raised the Lord and will raise up us through His power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of the body of Christ? Shall I then, having taken away the members of the body of Christ, make them members of a harlot's body? Far from it. Or, do you not know that he who joins himself to the harlot is one body? For, says he, “The two will become one flesh.” (Genesis 2:24.) But he who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit. Fly from fornication. Every act of sin, whatever a man may commit, is outside the body. But he who commits fornication sins against his own body. Or, do you know not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which you have from God; and you do not belong to yourselves? For, you were bought with a price. Then glorify God in your body. After various matters of detail, viz. the incestuous church-member, intercourse with such men, and lawsuits, Paul asserted in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 a negative and a positive truth condemning all kinds of sin. He now takes up one sin, which, because of its prevalence at Corinth even (2 Corinthians 12:21) in the church, he has already placed first in the dark catalogue of 1 Corinthians 6:9, 10; and brings to bear against it, in addition to the general truths of 1 Corinthians 6:10, 11, special and weighty arguments.

Ver. 12. The subject is introduced by a startling assertion, which is immediately repeated,

All things to me are allowable. The repetition of these words, and their occurrence, similarly repeated, in 1 Corinthians 10:23, suggest that they had been spoken before, by Paul or others. But whatever be their origin Paul makes them his own, thus admitting their correctness; and guards them from abuse. That in both places they are spoken in connection with food, and the abrupt and transitory mention of food in 1 Corinthians 6:13, suggest that this was their original reference, and that they are equivalent to Paul's own words in Romans 14:20, “All things are clean.” If so, they may have come originally from his lips, touching food offered to idols or forbidden in the Mosaic Law. Cp. 1 Timothy 4:3. We notice that these words are here carefully guarded against abuse, and that the broad difference between food and the intercourse of the sexes is argued at length. This suggests that, though true and important within their own limits, these words had been perverted into an excuse for inchastity; and that some professed to infer from them that all restrictions on the intercourse of the sexes, as on food, had been set aside by the Gospel. This misuse of words which he does not hesitate to reassert, Paul meets at once by showing in 1 Corinthians 6:12 that they contain in themselves a limit to their practical application, and (1 Corinthians 6:13, 14) that the cases of food and of intercourse of the sexes are so altogether different that we cannot argue from the one to the other. To me: who have been set free by Christ from the Mosaic Law. Cp. Romans 14:14.

Profitable: helpful to ourselves or others. In all matters, and especially about food, we ask not only whether it is lawful but whether it will do us good or harm.

Be mastered by anything: be put under its rule; one case in which an action may be allowable but not profitable. Some actions (e.g. the use of stimulants) tend to create in some persons an irresistible habit. Now whatever deprives us of self-control does us harm; and must therefore be avoided, even though in itself lawful. In this case, in order to preserve our liberty we put a limit to its exercise. Paul says, “All things are in my power: but over me nothing shall have power.” He leaves his readers to apply these principles to the matter of fornication; to determine whether it is profitable to them, or whether it brings them into humiliating bondage. This verse is a good guide of conduct in matters not expressly forbidden. By experience and observation, guided by the Spirit of wisdom and love, we must discover the effect of various actions upon our own inner life and through us on those influenced by our example, and act accordingly. For no intelligent man will do a thing, without considering its results, merely because it is lawful. A beautiful development of this principle is found in 1 Corinthians 10:23-33; 8:9-13; Romans 14:13-21.

V. 13. As if he had said, I speak this chiefly with regard to meats; (and would to God all Christians would consider it!) particularly with regard to those offered to idols, and those forbidden in the Mosaic law. These, I grant, are all indifferent, and have their use, though it is only for a time: then meats, and the organs which receive them, will together moulder into dust. But the case is quite otherwise with fornication. This is not indifferent, but at all times evil.

For the body is for the Lord-Designed only for his service. And the Lord, in an important sense, for the body-Being the Saviour of this, as well as of the soul; in proof of which God hath already raised him from the dead.

Verse 13. Meats for the belly] I suppose that koilia means the animal appetite, or propensity to food, &c., and we may conceive the apostle to reason thus: I acknowledge that God has provided different kinds of aliments for the appetite of man, and among others those which are generally offered to idols; and he has adapted the appetite to these aliments, and the aliments to the appetite: but God shall destroy both it and them; none of these is eternal; all these lower appetites and sensations will be destroyed by death, and have no existence in the resurrection body; and the earth and its productions shall be burnt up.

Now the body is not for fornication] Though God made an appetite for food, and provided food for that appetite, yet he has not made the body for any uncleanness, nor indulgence in sensuality; but he has made it for Christ; and Christ was provided to be a sacrifice for this body as well as for the soul, by taking our nature upon him; so that now, as human beings, we have an intimate relationship to the Lord; and our bodies are made not only for his service, but to be his temples.

Verses 12-14. All things — That are indifferent in their own nature, and neither commanded nor forbidden; are lawful unto me — Or, as some paraphrase the clause, All things which are lawful for you are lawful for me. Since the apostle could not say, in any sense, that absolutely all things were lawful for him, the sentence must be considered as elliptical, and what is wanting to complete it must be supplied, according to the apostle’s manner, from the subsequent verse. But all things are not expedient — Proper to be used, in regard of circumstances; as when they would offend our weak brethren, or when they would enslave our own souls. Although all things — Of the above description; are lawful for me, yet I will not be brought under the power of any — So enslaved to any thing, as to be uneasy when I abstain from it, for in that case I should be under the power of it. Meats for the belly, &c. — As if he had said, I speak this chiefly with regard to meats; particularly with regard to those offered to idols, and those forbidden in the Mosaic law. These, I grant, are all indifferent, and have their use, but it is only for a time, for soon, meats, and the organs which receive them, will together moulder into dust. For God will destroy both it and them — Namely, when the earth, and the things which it contains, are burned. From this it is evident, that at the resurrection, the parts of the body which minister to its nutrition are not to be restored; or, if they are to be restored, that their use will be abolished. Now — Or rather but; the body is not for fornication — As if he had said, The case is quite otherwise with fornication; this is not a thing indifferent, but at all times evil; for the body is for the Lord — Designed only for his service: and the Lord — In an important sense; is for the body — Being the Saviour of this as well as of the soul, and consequently must rule and employ it. And as a further proof that the body was made for glorifying the Lord, God hath both raised up the body of the Lord, and will also raise up our bodies, and render them immortal like his.

13. Meat… belly—An instance of the above mentioned correspondence or correlation between the internal appetite and the external object. Food and the stomach were made for each other. God shall destroy—This correlation between appetite and supply, the stomach and the food, though divinely established, is transient. Death will demolish it; and in the reorganization at the resurrection it will be omitted from the glorified body. Body… fornication—If there are correlations there are also repugnances. The stomach and the due food are rightly correlated; the body and the harlot are fearfully opposite and repugnant. For the Lord—The true transcendent, spiritual, eternal correlation is between the sanctified body and the Lord. Lord for the body—The correlation between the appetite and the food is earthly and transient; the correlation between our body and the Lord is heavenly and eternal, being, as shown in verse 14, carried up into the resurrection. It springs from the fact that our glorious Lord will glorify our bodies. Here, as in chapter xv, Paul bases our hope of a future life, not distinctly on the immortality of the soul, but upon the resurrection through Christ.

Verse 13b.-14. In the rest of § 10, Paul sets forth the dignity of the body: and thus makes us feel instinctively how altogether different from food is the intercourse of the sexes. The body was not created in order that we might use it for fornication. That it was created for this end, not one, probably, of Paul's readers, and few others, would venture to assert. Thus the two cases differ. Whoever eats food, of whatever kind, puts it to its designed use: whoever commits fornication uses his body in a way for which it was never designed.

But for the Lord: that it may belong to Christ, as a means by which He will work out His purposes and a medium through which He will reveal Himself to men. Cp. Philippians 1:20. And for this end our bodies were created. This infinite contrast supports strongly the foregoing negative, not for fornication.

For the body: to save it from vanity and sin and corruption, and to make it His own for ever. This is an essential part of the purpose Christ came to accomplish.

And God etc., corresponds with “but God etc.” in 1 Corinthians 6:13: as does but the body etc. with “the food-stuffs etc.” Both Christ … and us: an inseparable connection. So Romans 8:11. Through His power; suggests the difficulty of breaking the barrier of the tomb, and the solemnity of the resurrection as a manifestation of the power of God.

Verse 14. And God hath both raised up the Lord] He has raised up the human nature of Christ from the grave, as a pledge of our resurrection; and will also raise us up by his own power, that we may dwell with him in glory for ever.

Verses 12-14. All things — That are indifferent in their own nature, and neither commanded nor forbidden; are lawful unto me — Or, as some paraphrase the clause, All things which are lawful for you are lawful for me. Since the apostle could not say, in any sense, that absolutely all things were lawful for him, the sentence must be considered as elliptical, and what is wanting to complete it must be supplied, according to the apostle’s manner, from the subsequent verse. But all things are not expedient — Proper to be used, in regard of circumstances; as when they would offend our weak brethren, or when they would enslave our own souls. Although all things — Of the above description; are lawful for me, yet I will not be brought under the power of any — So enslaved to any thing, as to be uneasy when I abstain from it, for in that case I should be under the power of it. Meats for the belly, &c. — As if he had said, I speak this chiefly with regard to meats; particularly with regard to those offered to idols, and those forbidden in the Mosaic law. These, I grant, are all indifferent, and have their use, but it is only for a time, for soon, meats, and the organs which receive them, will together moulder into dust. For God will destroy both it and them — Namely, when the earth, and the things which it contains, are burned. From this it is evident, that at the resurrection, the parts of the body which minister to its nutrition are not to be restored; or, if they are to be restored, that their use will be abolished. Now — Or rather but; the body is not for fornication — As if he had said, The case is quite otherwise with fornication; this is not a thing indifferent, but at all times evil; for the body is for the Lord — Designed only for his service: and the Lord — In an important sense; is for the body — Being the Saviour of this as well as of the soul, and consequently must rule and employ it. And as a further proof that the body was made for glorifying the Lord, God hath both raised up the body of the Lord, and will also raise up our bodies, and render them immortal like his.

14. And—In accordance with this correlation between our bodies and the Lord. Raise up us—So that while the correlation between the stomach and the food God will destroy at death, the correlation between our body and the Lord, God will renew in the resurrection.

Verse 13b.-14. In the rest of § 10, Paul sets forth the dignity of the body: and thus makes us feel instinctively how altogether different from food is the intercourse of the sexes. The body was not created in order that we might use it for fornication. That it was created for this end, not one, probably, of Paul's readers, and few others, would venture to assert. Thus the two cases differ. Whoever eats food, of whatever kind, puts it to its designed use: whoever commits fornication uses his body in a way for which it was never designed.

But for the Lord: that it may belong to Christ, as a means by which He will work out His purposes and a medium through which He will reveal Himself to men. Cp. Philippians 1:20. And for this end our bodies were created. This infinite contrast supports strongly the foregoing negative, not for fornication.

For the body: to save it from vanity and sin and corruption, and to make it His own for ever. This is an essential part of the purpose Christ came to accomplish.

And God etc., corresponds with “but God etc.” in 1 Corinthians 6:13: as does but the body etc. with “the food-stuffs etc.” Both Christ … and us: an inseparable connection. So Romans 8:11. Through His power; suggests the difficulty of breaking the barrier of the tomb, and the solemnity of the resurrection as a manifestation of the power of God.

Verse 15. Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ?] Because he has taken your nature upon him, and thus, as believers in him, ye are the members of Christ.

Shall I then take, &c.] Shall we, who profess to be members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones, connect ourselves with harlots, and thus dishonour and pollute the bodies which are members of Christ? God forbid! These passages admit of a more literal interpretation. This, if given at all, I must give in a strange language.

Membra humana, ad generationem pertinentia, vocantur Membra Christi, quia mysterium conjunctionis Christi et Ecclesiæ per conjunctionem maris et fæminæ indigitatur, Ephesians 5:32. In Vet. Test. idem valebat de membRomans masculino, guippe quod circumcisione, tanquam signo fæderis, honoratum est. Vide Schoettgen, Hor. Hebr.

Verses 15-18. Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ — Mystically united to him, as well as your souls, if you are his true disciples, as you profess to be. Shall I then take the members of Christ — My body, which is united to him, with its members; and make them the members of a harlot — United to her, and used to gratify her sinful inclinations? Know ye not — Need I inform you; that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? But he that is joined unto the Lord — By faith and love; is one spirit with him. And shall he make himself one flesh with a harlot? Flee fornication — All unlawful commerce with women, with speed, with abhorrence, with all your might. Every sin that a man doeth — Every other sin, except gluttony and drunkenness, or every other sin that a man commits against his neighbour; is without the body — Terminates in an object out of himself, and does not so immediately pollute his body, though it does his soul. But he that committeth fornication — Or any kind of lewdness; sinneth against his own body — Pollutes, dishonours, and degrades it to a level with brute beasts; and perhaps infects and enfeebles, wastes and consumes it, which these vices have a manifest tendency to do. Inasmuch as the person who is addicted to gluttony and drunkenness sins against his own body, as well as a fornicator, and debilitates it by introducing into it many painful and deadly diseases: in this prohibition of fornication, those vices likewise are comprehended, being indeed the ordinary concomitants of it. And the way to flee whoredom, is to banish out of the mind all lascivious imaginations, and to avoid carefully the objects and occasions of committing that vice, and to maintain habitual temperance in the use of meat and drink.

15. The nature of this last blessed correlation he will now declare. Know ye not—As you seem, by your easy dealing with the fornicator, not to know. Members of the mystical body of Christ—A oneness

foreshadowed in the Church below, but to be gloriously disclosed in the Church of the resurrection. Members of a harlot—Under this awful conception (explained in next verse) St. Paul opens to his Corinthians the intense opposition of Christianity to the characteristic vice of their city.

Ver. 15.-17. develop and support “for the Lord.” 1 Corinthians 6:13; in order to strengthen the instinctive feeling, already evoked by the contrast between food and intercourse of the sexes, that fornication is utterly opposed to the purpose for which our body was created.

Members of the body of Christ: see under 1 Corinthians 12:12, 27; Romans 12:4. The bodies of believers stand in a relation to Christ similar to that of the various members of a man's own body to the spirit within. For they are the visible and material and variously endowed organs through which He shows Himself to, and acts upon, the world. So that, as far as God's purpose is now attained in us, the presence of our bodies in a place is the presence of Christ there, who smiles through our face, speaks His own words of wisdom and love and life through our lips, and through our hands perform His works of mercy. In this sense “the body” exists “for the Lord.”

Shall I then etc.: intense reality of Paul's thought. Cp. Romans 3:7. If to do this is right, it is right for Paul to do it. But how inconceivable! Having taken away etc.; shows what the foregoing question practically involves. To be unchaste is to rob Christ of the members of His own body, to deprive Him of the use of them as organs of His self-manifestation to the world.

A harlot: whom Paul assumes, and no one will deny, to be absolutely opposed to Christ.

V. 16. Genesis 2:24.

Verse 16. He that is joined to a harlot is one body] In Sohar Genes., fol. 19, we have these remarkable words: Whosoever connects himself with another man’s wife, does in effect renounce the holy blessed God, and the Church of the Israelites.

Verses 15-18. Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ — Mystically united to him, as well as your souls, if you are his true disciples, as you profess to be. Shall I then take the members of Christ — My body, which is united to him, with its members; and make them the members of a harlot — United to her, and used to gratify her sinful inclinations? Know ye not — Need I inform you; that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? But he that is joined unto the Lord — By faith and love; is one spirit with him. And shall he make himself one flesh with a harlot? Flee fornication — All unlawful commerce with women, with speed, with abhorrence, with all your might. Every sin that a man doeth — Every other sin, except gluttony and drunkenness, or every other sin that a man commits against his neighbour; is without the body — Terminates in an object out of himself, and does not so immediately pollute his body, though it does his soul. But he that committeth fornication — Or any kind of lewdness; sinneth against his own body — Pollutes, dishonours, and degrades it to a level with brute beasts; and perhaps infects and enfeebles, wastes and consumes it, which these vices have a manifest tendency to do. Inasmuch as the person who is addicted to gluttony and drunkenness sins against his own body, as well as a fornicator, and debilitates it by introducing into it many painful and deadly diseases: in this prohibition of fornication, those vices likewise are comprehended, being indeed the ordinary concomitants of it. And the way to flee whoredom, is to banish out of the mind all lascivious imaginations, and to avoid carefully the objects and occasions of committing that vice, and to maintain habitual temperance in the use of meat and drink.

Ver. 16. He who is joined to a harlot is one body, as those who are united in matrimony. In like manner, he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit. Here is the distinction: heaven is open to the family of God, while the horrors of darkness await the wicked. See the note on 1 Corinthians 3:17.

16. One body—He holds the transient union to be, as it were, a brief Satanic marriage, in which the whole being of the guilty pair is lawlessly identified, and the members of each are members of both. Saith he—Saith God. St. Paul quotes words originally applied to holy marriage.

Ver. 16. A truth which the readers ought to know, justifying the foregoing words.

Is one body: therefore, he who commits fornication makes his body a part, or member, of a harlot's body.

For etc.: proof of is one body.

The two etc.: word for word from Genesis 2:24, LXX. Says he: Adam, or the author of Genesis. Probably the former, moved by prophetic impulse on seeing Eve. But to Paul both were invested with divine authority. So Romans 3:19. That these words refer originally to marriage, does not lessen their appropriateness here. For they teach that the marriage relation was divinely instituted at the creation of the race, in order to unite husband and wife so closely that in them even personal distinction should in some respects cease. Intercourse with harlots desecrates this divine ordinance to a means of sin. Therefore, in a Christian, it robs Christ of a member of His own body in order to place it in union with one utterly opposed to Christ, a union so close that it implies a cessation in some sense of personal distinction.

V. 17. But he that is joined to the Lord-By faith. Is one spirit with him-And shall he make himself one flesh with an harlot?

Verse 17. Is one spirit.] He who is united to God, by faith in Christ Jesus, receives his Spirit, and becomes a partaker of the Divine nature. Who can change such a relationship for communion with a harlot; or for any kind of sensual gratification? He who can must be far and deeply fallen!

Verses 15-18. Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ — Mystically united to him, as well as your souls, if you are his true disciples, as you profess to be. Shall I then take the members of Christ — My body, which is united to him, with its members; and make them the members of a harlot — United to her, and used to gratify her sinful inclinations? Know ye not — Need I inform you; that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? But he that is joined unto the Lord — By faith and love; is one spirit with him. And shall he make himself one flesh with a harlot? Flee fornication — All unlawful commerce with women, with speed, with abhorrence, with all your might. Every sin that a man doeth — Every other sin, except gluttony and drunkenness, or every other sin that a man commits against his neighbour; is without the body — Terminates in an object out of himself, and does not so immediately pollute his body, though it does his soul. But he that committeth fornication — Or any kind of lewdness; sinneth against his own body — Pollutes, dishonours, and degrades it to a level with brute beasts; and perhaps infects and enfeebles, wastes and consumes it, which these vices have a manifest tendency to do. Inasmuch as the person who is addicted to gluttony and drunkenness sins against his own body, as well as a fornicator, and debilitates it by introducing into it many painful and deadly diseases: in this prohibition of fornication, those vices likewise are comprehended, being indeed the ordinary concomitants of it. And the way to flee whoredom, is to banish out of the mind all lascivious imaginations, and to avoid carefully the objects and occasions of committing that vice, and to maintain habitual temperance in the use of meat and drink.

17. One spirit—With the Lord.

Ver. 17. Increases the force of the foregoing, by showing how exalted is the fellowship with Christ of which fornication is a renunciation. Joined to the Lord: to Christ. Same words, in reference to God, in Deuteronomy 10:20; 11:22; 2 Kings 18:6; Jeremiah 13:11. They denote here that spiritual contact with Christ by which we abide in Him and He in us.

Is one spirit. In proportion as we are joined to the Lord are the thoughts, purposes, efforts, and entire activity, of our spirit an outflow of the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us and moving us. Thus in Him and in us one Spirit dwells, moves, and manifests itself. This oneness of spirit with Christ is the source of the mutual oneness (John 17:11, 21ff) of His people. This union with Christ, for which we were created, which comes to us through the noblest element of our nature, even our spirit, and permeates our whole being, making even our mortal bodies to be members of the body of Christ, reveals the infinite indignity of intercourse with a harlot; an intercourse prompted only by the lower and material side of our nature, and preventing absolutely all union with Christ.

V. 18. Flee fornication-All unlawful commerce with women, with speed, with abhorrence, with all your might.

Every sin that a man commits against his neighbour terminates upon an object out of himself, and does not so immediately pollute his body, though it does his soul.

But he that committeth fornication, sinneth against his own body-Pollutes, dishonours, and degrades it to a level with brute beasts.

Verse 18. Flee fornication.] Abominate, detest, and escape from every kind of uncleanness. Some sins, or solicitations to sin, may be reasoned with; in the above cases, if you parley you are undone; reason not, but FLY!

Sinneth against his own body.] Though sin of every species has a tendency to destroy life, yet none are so mortal as those to which the apostle refers; they strike immediately at the basis of the constitution. By the just judgment of God, all these irregular and sinful connections are married to death. Neither prostitutes, whoremongers, nor unclean persons of any description, can live out half their days. It would be easy to show, and prove also, how the end of these things, even with respect to the body, is death; but I forbear, and shall finish the subject with the words of the prophet: The show of their countenance doth witness against them, and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not; wo unto their soul, for they have rewarded evil unto themselves.

Verses 15-18. Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ — Mystically united to him, as well as your souls, if you are his true disciples, as you profess to be. Shall I then take the members of Christ — My body, which is united to him, with its members; and make them the members of a harlot — United to her, and used to gratify her sinful inclinations? Know ye not — Need I inform you; that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? But he that is joined unto the Lord — By faith and love; is one spirit with him. And shall he make himself one flesh with a harlot? Flee fornication — All unlawful commerce with women, with speed, with abhorrence, with all your might. Every sin that a man doeth — Every other sin, except gluttony and drunkenness, or every other sin that a man commits against his neighbour; is without the body — Terminates in an object out of himself, and does not so immediately pollute his body, though it does his soul. But he that committeth fornication — Or any kind of lewdness; sinneth against his own body — Pollutes, dishonours, and degrades it to a level with brute beasts; and perhaps infects and enfeebles, wastes and consumes it, which these vices have a manifest tendency to do. Inasmuch as the person who is addicted to gluttony and drunkenness sins against his own body, as well as a fornicator, and debilitates it by introducing into it many painful and deadly diseases: in this prohibition of fornication, those vices likewise are comprehended, being indeed the ordinary concomitants of it. And the way to flee whoredom, is to banish out of the mind all lascivious imaginations, and to avoid carefully the objects and occasions of committing that vice, and to maintain habitual temperance in the use of meat and drink.

18. The apostle now breaks out in direct address, Flee, O ye Corinthians, your destroying vice, fornication. Flee—As Joseph fled from the wife of his master; for, as St. Anselm says, “other vices are best conquered by fighting, this by running away.” Without the body—Extra of the body. That is, every sin is really committed by the soul, through the will, and the body is only the instrument. Against—Rather, into. Fornication differs not from other sins touching its being committed by the soul; but pre-eminently of all it pours the sin into and throughout the body. And this striking of this sin through the whole body consists not merely in its withering, and wasting, and destroying power upon the body, but in something deeper, more awful, and more truly eternal. As the whole being is satanically unified with the harlot, so the whole body becomes, in its uncleanness, the perfect opposite of the pure person of Jesus the pure. How awfully incapable, then, of coming into mystic oneness with him. And from these views it would seem to follow that lawless love is really more truly opposite to Christ than even lawless hate. Our Corinthians may now infer how detestable is that religion with which their city so abounded, and of which debauchery was one of the consecrated rites.

Ver. 18. Fly from fornication: direct exhortation, carrying the force of the foregoing arguments, and further supported by those following. Outside the body: they require some motive or weapon other than the body. But this sin stands alone in making the human body, the chosen medium of Christ's self-manifestation to the world, to be itself a sufficient motive and instrument of sin. Therefore, as a unique dishonor (Romans 1:24) to the body, it is in a unique sense a sin against (1 Corinthians 8:12; Luke 15:18) our own body.

V. 19. And even your body is not, strictly speaking, your own even this is the temple of the Holy Ghost-Dedicated to him, and inhabited by him. What the apostle calls elsewhere the temple of God, 1 Corinthians 3:16, 17, and the temple of the living God, 2 Corinthians 6:16, he here styles the temple of the Holy Ghost; plainly showing that the Holy Ghost is the living God.

Verse 19. Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost] What an astonishing saying is this! As truly as the living God dwelt in the Mosaic tabernacle, and in the temple of Solomon, so truly does the Holy Ghost dwell in the souls of genuine Christians; and as the temple and all its utensils were holy, separated from all common and profane uses, and dedicated alone to the service of God, so the bodies of genuine Christians are holy, and all their members should be employed in the service of God alone.

And ye are not your own?] Ye have no right over yourselves, to dispose either of your body, or any of its members, as you may think proper or lawful; you are bound to God, and to him you are accountable.

Verses 19, 20. Know ye not, &c. — As if he had said, There is another view in which the baseness of this crime must appear to you, Christians, in consequence of your relation to that blessed agent, the Spirit of God. For your body is the temple of God — Dedicated to him, and inhabited by him; even by that Spirit which is in you — As true believers in Jesus, John 7:37, 38; Ephesians 1:13. Which ye have — Which you receive; of God — As a most important, most necessary gift, without which you could not be Christ’s, Romans 8:9. What the apostle calls elsewhere, the temple of God, (chap. 3:16, 17,) and the temple of the living God, (2 Corinthians 6:16,) he here styles the temple of the Holy Ghost; plainly showing that the Holy Ghost is the living God. The two things, as Whitby observes, necessary to constitute a temple of God, belong to the bodies of believers: they are consecrated to God, and he resides in them. “Excellent, therefore,” says he, “is the inference of Tertullian; that since all Christians are become the temple of God, by virtue of his Holy Spirit sent into their hearts, and consecrating their bodies to his service, we should make chastity the keeper of this sacred house, and suffer nothing unclean or profane to enter into it, lest the God who dwells in it, being displeased, should desert his habitation thus defiled.” And ye are not your own — Even as to your bodies, any more than your souls. Both are God’s, not only by creation and preservation, but by redemption, being bought with a price; and that infinitely beyond what you can pretend to be worth, even the precious blood of Christ, by which you have been redeemed out of the hands of divine justice, and through which, being put in possession of the Holy Spirit, you are rescued from the bondage of sin and Satan, and have become subjects and servants of Christ, who has thus obtained an eternal dominion over you: whose you are too by a voluntary donation of yourselves to him, and a mystical union with him as his temples. Therefore glorify God in your body — By temperance, chastity, purity; and in your spirit — By faith, hope, and love; humility, resignation, patience; by meekness, gentleness, long-suffering, and universal benevolence. Or, as the words may with equal propriety be rendered, Glorify him with your body and your spirit; that is, yield your bodies and all your members, as well as your souls and all their faculties, as instruments of righteousness to God: or devote and employ all you have, and all you are, entirely, unreservedly, and for ever, to his glory.

Ver. 19, 20. Ye are not your own. He that made you, and has fed you as his children, has every claim of grateful obedience. Nay more, the Redeemer who ransomed your life with his own requires that you should henceforth be the temples of the living God. What grace is this to sinners of the gentiles, that they should now be as holy as they had been polluted and profane. This is the only way in which those trophies of mercy can glorify God in body and mind.

19. What!—A term of indignant surprise at his Corinthians not having realized this in their easiness with the fornicator. Body—Your soul is the resident of the body as its home; while the Holy Ghost consecrates it as his temple. Materialistic philosophers of the present day have reproached Christianity with endeavouring, in its effort for exalting the soul, to depreciate the real worth and dignity of the body. Popish monasticism has, indeed, done so. The macerations, and flagellations, and other cruelties inflicted by Romish monkery on the body of its devotees are not drawn from the New Testament, but borrowed from the Buddhisms and Brahmanisms of the East. On the contrary, true Christianity, by its doctrines of the incarnation and resurrection, puts an honour upon the body of which materialistic philosophy knows nothing. Not your own—Ye walk on earth as beings belonging to the holy God, pervaded by his indwelling Spirit.

Ver. 19.-20. Known truths which greatly aggravate this unique sin against the body.

Your body, not bodies: see Romans 1:21.

Temple etc.: exactly parallel of 1 Corinthians 3:16. Holy Spirit: appropriate designation of that inward, personal, divine, animating principle, whose every impulse is towards God and away from sin. See note, Romans 8:17. That the Spirit comes to us from God, makes dishonor to the Spirit a dishonor to the Father. This verse claims for the believer's body, as 1 Corinthians 3:16 claims for the church generally, the dread solemnity associated with the temple at Jerusalem. The Christian's body is the most sacred spot on earth. And every dishonor to it is an insult to the Great Spirit who has chosen it to be His dwelling place on earth, and to the Father who gave Him to us.

Not belong to yourselves: another thought suggested at once by temple. For God's presence there removed it, as the palace of the heavenly King, from all human ownership. For where the King is, He is both ruler and owner. Therefore, the presence of the Spirit in our bodies has made them no longer our own.

V. 20. Glorify God with your body, and your spirit-Yield your bodies and all their members, as well as your souls and all their faculties, as instruments of righteousness to God. Devote and employ all ye have, and all ye are, entirely, unreservedly, and for ever, to his glory.

Verse 20. Ye are bought with a price] As the slave who is purchased by his master for a sum of money is the sole property of that master, so ye, being bought with the price of the blood of Christ, are not your own, you are his property. As the slave is bound to use all his skill and diligence for the emolument of his master, so you should employ body, soul, and spirit in the service of your Lord; promoting, by every means in your power, the honour and glory of your God, whom you must also consider as your Lord and Master.

There are strange discordances in MSS., versions, and fathers, on the conclusion of this verse; and the clauses kai en tw pneumati umwn, atina esti tou qeou, and in your spirit, which is God’s, is wanting in ABC*D*EFG, some others, Coptic, Æthiopic, Vulgate, and Itala, and in several of the primitive fathers. Almost every critic of note considers them to be spurious. Whether retained or expunged the sense is the same. Instead of price simply, the Vulgate and some of the Latin fathers, read, pretio magno, with a great price; and instead of glorify, simply, they read glorificate et portate, glorify and carry God in your bodies. These readings appear to be glosses intended to explain the text. Litigious Christians, who will have recourse to law for every little difference, as well as the impure, may read this chapter either to their conviction or confusion. I CORINTHIANS

Verses 19, 20. Know ye not, &c. — As if he had said, There is another view in which the baseness of this crime must appear to you, Christians, in consequence of your relation to that blessed agent, the Spirit of God. For your body is the temple of God — Dedicated to him, and inhabited by him; even by that Spirit which is in you — As true believers in Jesus, John 7:37, 38; Ephesians 1:13. Which ye have — Which you receive; of God — As a most important, most necessary gift, without which you could not be Christ’s, Romans 8:9. What the apostle calls elsewhere, the temple of God, (chap. 3:16, 17,) and the temple of the living God, (2 Corinthians 6:16,) he here styles the temple of the Holy Ghost; plainly showing that the Holy Ghost is the living God. The two things, as Whitby observes, necessary to constitute a temple of God, belong to the bodies of believers: they are consecrated to God, and he resides in them. “Excellent, therefore,” says he, “is the inference of Tertullian; that since all Christians are become the temple of God, by virtue of his Holy Spirit sent into their hearts, and consecrating their bodies to his service, we should make chastity the keeper of this sacred house, and suffer nothing unclean or profane to enter into it, lest the God who dwells in it, being displeased, should desert his habitation thus defiled.” And ye are not your own — Even as to your bodies, any more than your souls. Both are God’s, not only by creation and preservation, but by redemption, being bought with a price; and that infinitely beyond what you can pretend to be worth, even the precious blood of Christ, by which you have been redeemed out of the hands of divine justice, and through which, being put in possession of the Holy Spirit, you are rescued from the bondage of sin and Satan, and have become subjects and servants of Christ, who has thus obtained an eternal dominion over you: whose you are too by a voluntary donation of yourselves to him, and a mystical union with him as his temples. Therefore glorify God in your body — By temperance, chastity, purity; and in your spirit — By faith, hope, and love; humility, resignation, patience; by meekness, gentleness, long-suffering, and universal benevolence. Or, as the words may with equal propriety be rendered, Glorify him with your body and your spirit; that is, yield your bodies and all your members, as well as your souls and all their faculties, as instruments of righteousness to God: or devote and employ all you have, and all you are, entirely, unreservedly, and for ever, to his glory.

Ver. 19, 20. Ye are not your own. He that made you, and has fed you as his children, has every claim of grateful obedience. Nay more, the Redeemer who ransomed your life with his own requires that you should henceforth be the temples of the living God. What grace is this to sinners of the gentiles, that they should now be as holy as they had been polluted and profane. This is the only way in which those trophies of mercy can glorify God in body and mind.

20. With a price—Directing their thoughts to the blood of the atonement. Therefore glorify God—Honour, and spread the honour, of the holy God by the spirit of purity in your body. So that holiness is not confined to the soul. It must reign in the body and act forth in its actions.

Ver. 20. For you were bought etc.: 1 Corinthians 7:23; ground of the foregoing, and another argument in support of 1 Corinthians 6:18a. Christ died in order (Romans 14:9) that we may live a life of which He is the one aim. Therefore He died that we may be His: and His blood was the price with which He bought us for Himself. Cp. 1 Peter 1:18. Consequently, all inchastity is, not only dishonor to that dread Spirit whom God has put within us, but resistance to Him who so earnestly desired us for His own that to gain us He poured out His blood. Then glorify God: positive and general exhortation, including the negative and specific one in 1 Corinthians 6:18a. We glorify God when we receive Him as an object of our admiration; and when, by words or works, we make Him known to others to be an object of their admiration. See under Romans 1:21.

In your body: Philippians 1:20. “So act that your bodily presence may he a display of the grandeur of God, and may call forth admiration for God in those who have intercourse with you.”

SECTION 10 is the one New Testament passage which deals professedly and fully with this one sin. Paul begins by quoting with approval a maxim used by some as a cloak for it. He shows that this maxim contains its own limits, even in these matters to which it properly refers; and, after indicating these limits, leaves his readers to apply them to the matter in hand. But indiscriminate food, to which the maxim really refers is altogether different from promiscuous intercourse of the sexes, to which some would apply it. For the one is according to, the other opposed to, God's original design; and the one pertains to time, the other to eternity. The dignity of the human body, which Paul refers to first as a contrast, he then uses further as a direct dissuasive. To commit fornication, is to rob Christ of the members of His own body, in order to place then, by desecrating God's ordinance, in closest fellowship with a harlot; whereas it is our privilege to have spiritual fellowship with Christ. It is a dishonor to our own sacred bodies, and to the divine inhabitant whom God has placed to dwell therein; and an invasion of a right which Christ has acquired at the cost of His own blood.

It is not Paul's purpose to prove that fornication is wrong; (for this, in their heart of hearts, all men know;) but to show how terribly wrong it is, how utterly opposed to God's glorious purpose about our body, how insulting to the Great Spirit who dwells within us, and how hostile to the earnestness of Him who made us His own at the cost of His life. From 1 Corinthians 5:1; 2 Corinthians 12:21, we learn how much this teaching was needed at Corinth.

The teaching of this section implies, and flows directly from the fundamental doctrines assumed in the Epistle to the Romans. 1 Corinthians 6:20a is explained by Doctrine 2, Romans 3:24ff; “for the Lord” in 1 Corinthians 6:13, by Doctrine 3, Romans 6:3-11; 1 Corinthians 6:19, by Doctrine 5, Romans 8:4-11. “Members of Christ” is a development of Doctrines 3 and 5.

DIVISION II., which deals with the gross misconduct of some church-members, is now complete. Paul has pronounced a severe sentence on one conspicuous offender, and has supported it by referring to the paschal sacrifice of Christ, 1 Corinthians 5:1-4; and has urged his readers to separate themselves, not from all bad men, but from all bad Christians, 1 Corinthians 5:9-13. He has shown the impropriety of their lawsuits between church members, and against all other sins, 1 Corinthians 6:1-11; and especially against inchastity. 1 Corinthians 6:12-20.

Paul has thus completed his discussion of those more pressing matters which demanded his first attention before he could reply to the questions in the letter from Corinth He dealt first, and at greatest length, in DIV. I., with the church-parties. For these had spread over the entire church; whereas only a part, probably a small part, was guilty of the misconduct mentioned in DIV. II.; and because these church-parties, and the overweening self-conceit from which they sprang, were weakening the spiritual life of the whole church and thus opening a way for the immoralities mentioned immediately afterwards.