Paul, called to be an apostle — There is great propriety in every clause of the salutation, particularly in this, as there were some in the church of Corinth who called the authority of his mission in question. Through the will of God — Called "the commandment of God," 1 Timothy 1:1 This was to the... [ Continue Reading ]
To the church of God which is in Corinth — St. Paul, writing in a familiar manner to the Corinthians, as also to the Thessalonians and Galatians, uses this plain appellation. To the other churches he uses a more solemn address. Sanctified through Jesus Christ — And so undoubtedly they were in genera... [ Continue Reading ]
Always — Whenever I mention you to God in prayer.... [ Continue Reading ]
In all utterance and knowledge — Of divine things. These gifts the Corinthians particularly admired. Therefore this congratulation naturally tended to soften their spirits, and I make way for the reproofs which follow.... [ Continue Reading ]
The testimony of Christ — The gospel. Was confirmed among you — By these gifts attending it. They knew they had received these by the hand of Paul: and this consideration was highly proper, to revive in them their former reverence and affection for their spiritual father.... [ Continue Reading ]
Waiting — With earnest desire. For the glorious revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ — A sure mark of a true or false Christian, to long for, or dread, this revelation.... [ Continue Reading ]
Who will also — if you faithfully apply to him. Confirm you to the end. In the day of Christ — Now it is our day, wherein we are to work out our salvation; then it will be eminently the day of Christ, and of his glory in the saints.... [ Continue Reading ]
God is faithful — To all his promises; and therefore "to him that hath shall be given." By whom ye are called — A pledge of his willingness to save you unto the uttermost.... [ Continue Reading ]
Now I exhort you — Ye have faith and hope; secure love also. By the endearing name of our Lord Jesus Christ — lnfinitely preferable to all the human names in which ye glory. That ye all speak the same thing — They now spoke different things, 1 Corinthians 1:12 And that there be no schisms among you... [ Continue Reading ]
It hath been declared to me by them of the family of Chloe — Whom some suppose to have been the wife of Stephanas, and the mother of Fortunatus and Achaicus. By these three the Corinthians had sent their letter to St. Paul, 1 Corinthians 16:17. That there are contentions — A word equivalent with sch... [ Continue Reading ]
Now this I say — That is, what I mean is this: there are various parties among you, who set themselves, one against an other, in behalf of the several teachers they admire. And I of Christ — They spoke well, if they had not on this pretence despised their teachers, 1 Corinthians 4:8 Perhaps they val... [ Continue Reading ]
Is Christ divided — Are not all the members still under one head? Was not he alone crucified for you all; and were ye not all baptized in his name? The glory of Christ then is not to be divided between him and his servants; neither is the unity of the body to be torn asunder, seeing Christ is one st... [ Continue Reading ]
I thank God — (A pious phrase for the common one, "I rejoice,") that, in the course of his providence, I baptized none of you, but Crispus, once the ruler of the synagogue, and Caius.... [ Continue Reading ]
Lest any should say that I had baptized in my own name — In order to attach them to myself.... [ Continue Reading ]
I know not — That is, it does not at present occur to my memory, that I baptized any other.... [ Continue Reading ]
For God did not send me to baptize — That was not my chief errand: those of inferior rank and abilities could do it: though all the apostles were sent to baptize also, Matthew 28:19 But to preach the gospel — So the apostle slides into his general proposition: but not with wisdom of speech — With th... [ Continue Reading ]
To them that perish — By obstinately rejecting the only name whereby they can be saved. But to us who are saved — Now saved from our sins, and in the way to everlasting salvation, it is the great instrument of the power of God.... [ Continue Reading ]
For it is written — And the words are remarkably applicable to this great event. Isaiah 29:14... [ Continue Reading ]
Where is the wise? &c. — The deliverance of Judea from Sennacherib is what Isaiah refers to in these words; in a bold and beautiful allusion to which, the apostle in the clause that follows triumphs over all the opposition of human wisdom to the victorious gospel of Christ. What could the wise men o... [ Continue Reading ]
For since in the wisdom of God — According to his wise disposals, leaving them to make the trial. The world — Whether Jewish or gentile, by all its boasted wisdom knew not God — Though the whole creation declared its Creator, and though he declared himself by all the prophets; it pleased God, by a w... [ Continue Reading ]
For whereas the Jews demand of the apostles, as they did of their Lord, more signs still, after all they have seen already; and the Greeks, or gentiles, seek wisdom — The depths of philosophy, and the charms of eloquence.... [ Continue Reading ]
We go on to preach, in a plain and historical, not rhetorical or philosophical, manner, Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumblingblock — Just opposite to the "signs" they demand. And to the Greeks foolishness — A silly tale, just opposite to the wisdom they seek.... [ Continue Reading ]
But to them that are called — And obey the heavenly calling. Christ — With his cross, his death, his life, his kingdom. And they experience, first, that he is the power, then, that he is the wisdom, of God.... [ Continue Reading ]
Because the foolishness of God — The gospel scheme, which the world judge to be mere foolishness, is wiser than the wisdom of men; and, weak as they account it, stronger than all the strength of men.... [ Continue Reading ]
Behold your calling — What manner of men they are whom God calls. That not many wise men after the flesh — In the account of the world. Not many mighty — Men of power and authority.... [ Continue Reading ]
Things that are not — The Jews frequently called the gentiles, "Them that are not," 2 Esdras vi. 56, 57. In so supreme contempt did they hold them. The things that are — In high esteem.... [ Continue Reading ]
That no flesh — A fit appellation. Flesh is fair, but withering as grass. May glory before God — In God we ought to glory.... [ Continue Reading ]
Of him — Out of his free grace and mercy. Are ye Engrafted into Christ Jesus, who is made unto us that believe wisdom, who were before utterly foolish and ignorant. Righteousness — The sole ground of our justification, who were before under the wrath and curse of God. Sanctification — A principle of... [ Continue Reading ]
Let him glory in the Lord — Not in himself, not in the flesh, not in the world. Jeremiah 9:23... [ Continue Reading ]