1 Corinthians 6:3

Vv. 3 does not present a new argument; it is the previous one raised to its culminating point. For the angels also, according to Paul, form part of the κόσμος, the world (see on 1 Corinthians 4:9). Again we have the phrase: Do ye not know? but without the particle ἤ, or, precisely because here is the continuation of 1 Corinthians 6:2. The more striking the fact indicated in this verse, the judgment of angels by the saints, the more entitled is the apostle to express his wonder that his readers can be ignorant of it or can act as if they were in ignorance.

Meyer maintains that the word angels, used simply, denotes in the New Testament only good angels. It is one of those statutes which this excellent commentator loves to set up as a barrier against the caprice of exegetes, but the yoke of which need not be taken up without check. I think that the explanation of the idea contained in the first part of this verse is found in our Epistle itself, 1 Corinthians 15:24. If it is so, Paul can only be speaking here of higher powers of wickedness. This meaning is also that which best accords with the meaning of the word the world (1 Corinthians 6:2). According to Meyer and Hofmann (who applies the word at once to good and bad angels), the judgment to which good angels shall be subjected will bear on the degree of fidelity with which they have discharged their office as ministering spirits to believers (Hebrews 1:14); but nowhere in Scripture is there mention of a judgment of the elect angels. And in any case, we must not overlook the absence of the article before the word angels: “beings belonging to the category angel.” Paul does not mean to designate these or those angels; he wishes to awake within the Church the feeling of its competency and dignity by reminding it that beings of so exalted a nature shall one day be subjected to its jurisdiction.

It is remarkable that in the parables of the tares and of the drag-net, it is the angels who effect the division between men (wheat and tares, good and bad fishes); while in our passage, it is sanctified believers who judge angels. It seems as if God would glorify Himself in each of these orders of His creatures by means of the other.

Let it also be borne in mind that in Daniel's description (chap. 7) there is not a word said of the judgment of the angels by the saints; this is a detail absolutely peculiar to Paul, and which, like that mentioned 1 Thessalonians 4:15, rests no doubt on a personal revelation.

The last words, much more things of this life, need not be regarded as the continuation of the previous question, as is done by Tischendorf; it is the conclusion in the form of an exclamation. The form μήτι γε is found nowhere else in the New Testament. The simplest way of explaining it is to understand the verb λέγωμεν; ne (μή) ullo quidem (γε) modo (τι) de rebus ad vitam pertinentibus (βιωτικά) loquamur; “Not to speak even of earthly things; they follow as a matter of course, after what has been said of angels!” So far as sense is concerned, this is very much the same as our rendering: “much more.” The γέ has here, as usually, the effect of emphasizing the preceding word (μήτι), so as to set aside every other supposition.