III. LAWSUITS. 6:1-11 The subject of discipline, though connected with the domain of ecclesiastical life, trenched on the sphere of moral questions. We come now to the subjects which belong exclusively to the latter sphere. As the apostle had dealt with discipline, first from the standpoint of the... [ Continue Reading ]
“Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints?” The word τολμᾶ, _dares he_, heads this passage, exactly because it appeals vigorously to Christian dignity: “What! there is one who has this miserable courage!” One needs courage to degrade h... [ Continue Reading ]
“Or 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? 3. Know ye not that we shall judge angels? much more things that pertain to this life.” The T. R. is mistaken in omitting the _or_ at the beginning of the... [ Continue Reading ]
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... [ Continue Reading ]
“If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them _to judge_ who are least esteemed in the Church!” Here is the practical conclusion from the foregoing argument; in its form there is a touch of irony. The μέν already suggests that after what Paul is about to say, he will have so... [ Continue Reading ]
“I speak to your shame: is it so that there is not a wise man among you, no not one, that shall be able to judge between his brethren! 6. But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers.” The first words of 1 Corinthians 6:5 may bear on what precedes; in that case they signify... [ Continue Reading ]
VV. 6 is the exclamatory conclusion of the foregoing development. The ἀλλά is not a particle of gradation; it is simply the _but_ adversative. To understand the contrast which it marks, we must take exact account of the difference in meaning and tense between the two verbs of 1 Corinthians 6:5 and 1... [ Continue Reading ]
“Nay, already it is altogether a defect in you that ye have lawsuits one with another. Why not rather take wrong? why not rather be defrauded? 8. Nay but ye yourselves do wrong and defraud, and that your brethren!” Here is the second charge which he brings against them, the fact of lawsuits in them... [ Continue Reading ]
Provisionally the apostle had passed over in silence the fact itself of the discussion of selfish interests between Christians, to condemn only their having recourse to the judicial intervention of heathen. In the first words of 1 Corinthians 6:6, only, he had touched the deeper evil, that of such d... [ Continue Reading ]
But there is more: to account for a lawsuit, there is needed something else than the lack of charity on the one hand; there must be a graver want still on the other, the want of justice. To speak of maltreated, robbed, is to speak of maltreating, robbing. Hence the gradation expressed by ἀλλά : _But... [ Continue Reading ]
“Or know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, 10. nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingd... [ Continue Reading ]
“And such were some of you, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit of our God.” Paul has been addressing the feeling of fear; he now appeals to the higher motive, that of Christian honour. He thus returns to the feeling... [ Continue Reading ]
“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 of any.” Paul himself had no doubt uttered this maxim at Corinth more than once: “All things are lawful to me,” applying it to acts indifferent in themselves, but... [ Continue Reading ]
IV. IMPURITY. 6:12-20. It has sometimes been imagined that the apostle was here resuming the subject of chap. 5, from which he had allowed himself to be diverted by the question of lawsuits. But we have seen that the subject of chap. 5 was not impurity at all, but discipline, treated in connection w... [ Continue Reading ]
“Meats are for the belly, and the belly for meats, and God shall destroy both it and them. But the body is not for fornication; but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14. Now God hath raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by His power.” Several commentators have thought that the contra... [ Continue Reading ]
“Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? Let it not be so!” Paul had just said that the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord. In the first proposition of this verse he justifies the _for the Lo... [ Continue Reading ]
“Or know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body [with her]; for the two, it is said, shall be one flesh. 17. And he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit [with Him].” The ἤ, _or_, is certainly authentic; as always it signifies, “Or indeed, if you deny what I have just said, are... [ Continue Reading ]
“Flee fornication! Every sin that a man doeth is without his body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his body.” Anselm has well expressed the meaning of the first sentence of the verse: “If we must _fight against_ other sins, we must _flee from_ fornication;” witness Joseph's exampl... [ Continue Reading ]
“Or know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, and which ye have of God? And ye are not your own; 20. for ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.” The ἤ, _or_, signifies, “Or if you deny the fatal violence done to your body by fornication, y... [ Continue Reading ]