VI. THE USE OF MEATS OFFERED TO IDOLS, AND PARTICIPATION IN THE SACRIFICIAL FEASTS. CHAPS. 8-10. The apostle passes to a new subject, which, like the preceding, seems to be suggested to him by the letter of the Corinthians, and belongs to the domain of Christian liberty. The believers of Corinth and... [ Continue Reading ]
“Indeed, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.” The connecting particle δέ, _then_, in the T. R. would indicate a gradation which the preceding re... [ Continue Reading ]
He begins by recalling the favours bestowed on the Jews in and after their deliverance from the Egyptian captivity, and he compares these favours with those enjoyed by Christians. For the salvation founded by the ministry of Moses in Israel is one and the same work with the salvation brought in by C... [ Continue Reading ]
2. THE EXAMPLE OF THE ISRAELITES. 10:1-11. This passage is the continuation of the foregoing. What the apostle has just indicated as a possibility for himself, he now points out as a reality in the history of the Jewish people. In them we have a nation who, after having been the object of the most a... [ Continue Reading ]
II. THE QUESTION CONSIDERED FROM THE VIEWPOINT OF THE SALVATION OF THE STRONG THEMSELVES. 9:23-10:22. As Paul concluded the preceding development by giving his own example, he introduces the following in the same way. In 1 Corinthians 9:23-27 he shows the danger which he himself ran, if he ventured... [ Continue Reading ]
“And did all eat the same spiritual meat; 4. And did all drink the same spiritual drink; for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them; and that Rock was Christ.” As the Holy Supper serves to maintain in salvation those who have entered into it by the faith professed in baptism, so the Is... [ Continue Reading ]
“But with most of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness.” ᾿Αλλά : notwithstanding so great favours. _They were overthrown_..., an allusion to Numbers 14:29: “Your carcases shall fall in the wilderness.” What a spectacle is that which is called up by the apostle be... [ Continue Reading ]
“Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.” _ These things:_ this rejection, this curse after such blessings. _Examples for us;_ strictly: _examples of us_, that is to say, of what will happen to ourselves if we follow their example... [ Continue Reading ]
From these facts the apostle derives this lesson: The greatest blessings may issue in the greatest judgments.... [ Continue Reading ]
“Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. 8. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand.” The μηδέ, _neither_, connects this proposition closely with t... [ Continue Reading ]
“Neither let us tempt the Christ as some of them tempted Him, and were destroyed of serpents; 10. Neither murmur ye as some of them murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer.” The first of the two sins against which the Corinthians are indirectly put on their guard in these verses, is evidently... [ Continue Reading ]
“Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the end of the world is come.” This verse is the summary of all the foregoing examples; a fact which leads us to prefer the reading of the _Sinaït._ and of the Greco-Lats., which preserves and... [ Continue Reading ]
3. THE APPLICATION OF THESE EXAMPLES TO THE CHURCH OF CORINTH. 1 CORINTHIANS 10:12-22. The parallel which the apostle had proposed to draw between the Israelites and Christians is closed. He now makes the practical application of it to the spiritual state of the Corinthians, an application which ha... [ Continue Reading ]
“Thus, then, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall! 13. There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able t... [ Continue Reading ]
“Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee far from idolatry. 15. I speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say.” The address so full of tenderness: _my dearly beloved_, expresses how much it costs him to be obliged to impose on them a sacrifice which he knows to be so painful. Διόπερ, _precisely on this a... [ Continue Reading ]
“The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? 17. Seeing that there is only one bread, we, being many, are one body: for we are all partakers of one bread.” The Holy Supper is, in the New... [ Continue Reading ]
“Behold Israel after the flesh: are not they which eat of the sacrifices in communion with the altar?” Israel is placed here by way of transition from the Church to the heathen. There were also among the Jews sacrificial feasts celebrated in the temple precincts, over which God Himself was held to p... [ Continue Reading ]
“What say I then? that the meat offered to the idol is anything? Or that an idol is anything?...20. But the things which they sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God. Now I would not that ye should be in communion with demons.” The way in which Paul had just cited the two previous exampl... [ Continue Reading ]
“Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of demons: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of demons; 22. or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than He?” Edwards thinks that the matter in question here is an impossibility in point of _fact._ The heart... [ Continue Reading ]
VV. 23 forms the transition to this third passage, which is, as it were, the recapitulation of the whole matter treated in these three Chapter s. VV. 23. “All things are lawful, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful, but all things edify not.” The apostle here repeats the adage al... [ Continue Reading ]
“Let no man seek his own, but each his neighbour's good.” It is the idea of οἰκοδομεῖν, _edifying_, which rules in this verse. It is not necessary to understand the adverb μόνον : “Let no man seek _only_...” The exclusion is absolute, because it condemns every pursuit of self-interest which is insp... [ Continue Reading ]
“Whatsoever is sold in the shambles, eat, asking no question for conscience sake: 26. for the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof.” A Christian whose conscience is free from every scruple as to the eating of offered meats, sends and buys meat at the shambles; he has not to ask whether it is... [ Continue Reading ]
“If any of them that believe not bid you, and ye be disposed to go; whatsoever is set before you, eat, asking no question for conscience sake.” The reading δέ, _but_, may be supported as contrasting this new case with the foregoing; but the two cases may also be simply put in juxtaposition without p... [ Continue Reading ]
“But if any man say unto you, This is offered in sacrifice, eat not, for his sake that showed it, and for conscience sake. 29. Conscience, I say, not thine own, but of the other: for to what purpose can my liberty be judged by another's conscience?” The τίς, _any one_, of 1 Corinthians 10:28 cannot,... [ Continue Reading ]
“If I with thanksgiving be a partaker, why am I evil spoken of for that for which I give thanks?” The asyndeton of itself proves that this verse reaffirms and explains the idea of the foregoing. It brings out still more forcibly the absurdity of the strong Christian's conduct by the revolting contr... [ Continue Reading ]
“Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. 32. Give none offence neither to the Jews, nor to the Greeks, nor to the Church of God;” Here again we have both the συμφέρειν and the οἰκοδομεῖν (the promotion of good in general, and our neighbour's edification i... [ Continue Reading ]
VV. 10:33-11:1. “even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of the many, that they may be saved. 1 Corinthians 11:1. Become imitators of me, as I am of Christ.” In chap. 9 the apostle had developed at length the example of self-denial, which he was constantl... [ Continue Reading ]