Page images
PDF
EPUB

you, and such fornication as is the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife.

And

not so much as named among 2 To be indifferent to sin, is virtually to share it.

ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you. For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, 5 to deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old

7

5 If we cast from us the aid of God's grace, we lay ourselves open to every evil which the fraud and malice of the devil or man can werk No state is more awful against us. than this. Happy for the soul, if trouble and sorrow lead to repent

ance.

7 One wicked individual tends to corrupt society, as a little leaven

gradually leaveneth the whole lump.

leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened.

8

8 Let us be pure, and holy, and just, and good. That is the appointed proof that "we are converted and

live."

For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world. "But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an ido

11 If any one professing to be a Christian brother thus offends, he adds sin to sin, and is tenfold guilty, Avoid his society. He stamps himself with infamy.

later, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such

12

an one no not to eat. For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within? But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.

12 St. Paul judges not the heathen. They, "being without" the knowledge of Christ's salvation, will not be judged by Christ's law. Leaving them therefore to be judged by the allwise judgment of their Creator, he judgeth only the Christian bre thren. They are his charge. For their souls he must give account,

CHAPTER VI.

JAN. 24, MAY 23, SEPT. 21.

1 He recommends that they should carry their lawsuits to christian, and not to heathen judges.

2 The time was near, when christian principles would be the basis of christian laws. Surely then they might now decide points of difference between fellow Christians.

3 This may refer to the future honour of the glorified saints. (Matt. xix. 28 *.)

things that pertain to this life. 4 St. Paul concedes that they should prefer to be judged by the simplest of Christians, rather than by the most famous of the heathens.

'DARE any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints? 2 Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church. I speak to your shame. a wise man among you? no, judge between his brethren? But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers. Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? Nay, ye do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren. 9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate,

Is it so, that there is not not one that shall be able to • When Christians wilfully err, they bring shame on their profession, as well as ruin upon themselves.

9 Some mere professors of the Gospel pretended, that because justification is by faith in Christ, holiness was unnecessary. St. Paul reprobates the delusion and exposes the fallacy.

nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. 11 How full and gracious this en"And such were some of couragement to the penitent! you but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are

* Here, the holy lives of the righteous do virtually judge and condemn a sinful world. Hereafter, the salvation of the redeemed shall be itself the condemnation of the wretched outcasts from heaven. To them also was the same Jesus offered as a Redeemer, but they received him not.

justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. 12 All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body. 14 And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power. Know ye not that your bo

12 The Apostle abstains from what may cause others to offend, even though it may be lawful.

of any.

14 Will God raise up our bodies! How earnestly must we wish to present them, at the resurrection, pure and undefiled.

dies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid, What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, 17 What more powerful motive for shall be one flesh. 17 But purity of conduct, than a conviction he that is joined unto the of this truth-that our spirit is with God! Lord is one spirit. Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body: but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. What? know ye not that your body is the temple a the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For 20 The blood of Christ was shed, a ye are bought with a price: the precious price of our redemption therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

20

The reasoning of St. Paul, as he argues for holiness and purity of life. is in his own peculiarly strong and forcible style. He is unsparing in condemning the sinner; he is unlimited in encouraging the penitent.

CHAPTER VII.

JAN. 26, MAY 24, SEPT. 22.

'Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me : It is good for a man not to touch a woman. Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband. Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence and likewise also the wife unto the husband. The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body,

1 The times were so full of trouble, that the Corinthians had expressed to St. Paul their doubts, as to the prudence of marrying, and so adding to their cares.

MAY 24, SEPT. 22. but the wife. Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency.

But

I speak this by permission, and not of commandment.

The Apostle signifies that the advice given here, did not carry the weight of divine authority *.

For I would that all men were even as I myself.

But every

10 This is spoken with divine authority; marriage being of divine institution +.

man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that. I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I. But if they cannot contain, let them marry for it is better to marry than to burn. 10 And unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband: but and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband: and let not the husband put away his wife. But to the rest, speak I, not the Lord: If any brother hath a wife that believeth not, and she be pleased to dwell with him, let him not put her away. And the woman 13 It often happened, in the early which hath an husband that days of the Church, that one part believeth not, and if he be only of a family were converted to pleased to dwell with her, let Christianity. her not leave him. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy. But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases: but God hath called us to peace.

16

13

16 How skilfully St. Paul teaches them to turn a difficulty to good account! What an affecting motive does he give for continual patienceeven the hope of saving the nearest and the dearest !

For what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband? or how knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife? But as God hath distributed to every man, as the Lord hath called every one, so let him walk. And so ordain I in all churches. Is any man called being circumcised? let him not become uncircumcised. Is any called in uncircumcision? let him not be circumcised. Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments

* Indeed the whole of this advice was, in its application, confined to the existing state of the Church, in the prospect of that persecution which soon afterwards took place, under the emperor Nero.

+ Gen. ii. 4.

of God. Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called. 21 Art thou called being a servant; care not for it: but if thou mayest be made free, use it rather. For he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the

21 What cannot a christian hope achieve! Even the slave "cares not" for his sad lot, but bears it patiently, looking to the hour which shall free him from a world of trouble, and bear him to a world of rest.

Lord's freeman likewise also he that is called, being free, is Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the

Christ's servant.
servants of men. 24 Brethren,
let every man, wherein he
is called, therein abide with
God. Now concerning vir-

24 Christianity does not confound the degrees of civil society, nor per mit discontent among her poor and afflicted followers.

26 This is the conclusion of St. Paul's counsel as to the prudence of marrying in the troublous times of the Church.

gins I have no commandment of the Lord: yet I give my judgment, as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful. 26 I suppose therefore that this is good for the present distress, I say, that it is good for a man so to be. Art thou bound unto a wife? seek not to be loosed. Art thou loosed from a wife? seek not a wife. But and if thou marry, thou hast not sinned; and if a virgin marry, she hath not sinned. Nevertheless such shall have trouble in the flesh: but I spare you. 29 But this 29 What a solemn admonition does I say, brethren, the time is he here interweave in his argument' short it remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none; and they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though 31 It is the secret of Christian life, they possessed not; and to use the world, yet not abuse it! they that use this world, as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away. But I would have you without carefulness. He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord: but he that is married careth for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife. There is difference also between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit: but she that is married careth for the things of the

31

* The condition of slaves-servants, as St. Paul calls them-was, generally speaking, very sad. Wherefore the Apostle cautions them, that though, if a master should offer them freedom, they were not to refuse it, yet that till freedom so came, they were not to be impatient under their present state.

« PreviousContinue »