The substance of this closing portion of the digression may be thus expressed: ‘I have told you of the disastrous issue too sure to follow on a fearless, self-confident assertion of your Christian liberty, not only to the souls of your weaker brethren, but to your own souls as well; and, applying th... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 10:1. FOR I WOULD NOT, BRETHREN, HAVE YOU IGNORANT, HOW THAT OUR FATHERS. Though writing to a Church mainly Gentile, he calls the ancient Israel “our fathers,” not so much because some of them had been proselytes to the Jewish faith before their conversion, but because as he says to th... [ Continue Reading ]
It was impossible for Christians in almost any Greek or Roman colony, and least of all at Corinth, to avoid coming frequently in contact with idolatrous practices in various and ensnaring forms. In writing, therefore, for instruction and direction on various practical points, we can hardly suppose t... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 10:2. AND WERE ALL BAPTIZED INTO MOSES _i.e._ into the Mosaic economy. IN THE CLOUD AND IN THE SEA. even as the Christians had the starting-point of their new life when publicly “baptized into Christ.”... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 10:3. AND DID ALL EAT THE SAME SPIRITUAL MEAT the manna which, by a mysterious arrangement of heaven, fed them all their journey through.... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 10:4. AND DID ALL DRINK THE SAME SPIRITUAL DRINK the water that gushed for them out of the flinty rock (Psalms 105:41; Psalms 114:8). FOR THEY DRANK OF THE SPIRITUAL ROCK THAT FOLLOWED THEM: AND THE ROCK WAS CHRIST. This “meat” and “drink” are called “spiritual,” perhaps primarily, as... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 10:5. HOWBEIT WITH MOST OF THEM GOD WAS NOT WELL PLEASED in point of fact, with all that came out of Egypt by Moses, save Caleb and Joshua, because they “had another spirit with them, and followed the Lord fully” (Numbers 14:24). FOR (as the issue shewed) THEY WERE OVERTHROWN IN THE WI... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 10:6. NOW THESE THINGS WERE OUR EXAMPLES historical ‘types' or ‘figures' permitted to occur, as beacons divinely held forth for all time TO THE INTENT WE SHOULD NOT LUST AFTER EVIL THINGS, AS THEY ALSO LUSTED. Some of these “evil things,” fitted to come specially home to the Corinthian... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 10:7. NEITHER BE YE IDOLATERS, AS WERE SOME OF THEM; AS IT IS WRITTEN (Exodus 32:6), THE PEOPLE SAT DOWN TO EAT AND DRINK, AND ROSE UP TO PLAY. The word means to ‘play' anyhow; more especially to dance to the sound of music. Here it means to _dance religiously_ round an idol; the idol... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 10:8. NEITHER LET US COMMIT FORNICATION, AS SOME OF THEM COMMITTED, AND FELL IN ONE DAY THREE AND TWENTY THOUSAND. Four and twenty thousand, says NUMBERS 25:9; but as the actual number would probably be between the two, the thing is here stated in round numbers.... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 10:9. NEITHER LET US TEMPT THE LORD, [1] AS SOME OF THEM [2] TEMPTED, AND PERISHED BY THE SERPENTS. The fact referred to is that in Numbers 21:4-6. [1] We adopt this reading with some hesitation, in place of the received reading “Christ.” For this reading, though weakly supported by U... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 10:10. NEITHER MURMUR YE, AS SOME OF THEM [2] MURMURED, AND PERISHED BY THE DESTROYER. The reference here is not so much to the rebellion of Korah and Dathan (Numbers 16), as most critics think, for there was nothing in the Corinthian Church analogous to this, but rather to that rebell... [ Continue Reading ]
Now comes the application of all these cases. 1 Corinthians 10:11. NOW THESE THINGS [1] HAPPENED ONTO THEM BY WAY OF EXAMPLE _Gr. ‘_ typically' or ‘figuratively,' as historical facts designed to teach great lessons for all time. [1] Not “all,” as in the received text. AND THEY WERE WRITTEN FOR OU... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 10:12. WHEREFORE LET HIM THAT THINKETH HE STANDETH TAKE HEED LEST HE FALL for since our greatest danger lies in a presumptuous, confidence of our safety (of which Peter's fall is the great outstanding example), our true safety will be found to lie in a humble distrust of ourselves, and... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 10:13. THERE HATH NO TEMPTATION TAKEN YOU BUT SUCH AS MAN CAN BEAR _Gr. ‘_ but what is human.' BUT GOD IS FAITHFUL, WHO WILL NOT SUFFER YOU TO BE TEMPTED ABOVE THAT YE ARE ABLE to bear and overcome. BUT WITH THE TEMPTATION MAKE ALSO THE WAY OF ESCAPE. There seems here an evident re... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 10:14. WHEREFORE, MY BELOVED, FLEE FROM IDOLATRY,... [ Continue Reading ]
_Attendance at Idolatrous Feasts, 1 Corinthians 10:14_ to 1 Corinthians 11:1 When the first love of the converts began to cool, and, as a natural consequence, they drew closer to their heathen acquaintances and fellow-citizens, invitations would be given them, in the first instance, to the private... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 10:15. I SPEAK AS TO WISE MEN; JUDGE YE WHAT I SAY: ‘Apostolic authority I have no need to urge; to your own judgment as wise men I appeal.'... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 10:16. The cup of blessing. This was the name given by the Jews to the last and most sacred of those cups of wine which were partaken of at the Paschal feast, and from that the expression was transferred to the Lord's Supper. IS IT NOT A COMMUNION OF (or ‘participation in') THE BLOOD... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 10:17. SEEING THAT WE, WHO ARE MANY, ARE ONE BREAD, ONE BODY: FOR WE ALL PARTAKE OF THE ONE BREAD. In all ancient times friends were made one over a common meal; much more is this oneness manifested when, on some festal occasion, great principles are represented and celebrated by those... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 10:18. BEHOLD ISRAEL AFTER THE FLESH: HAVE NOT THEY WHICH EAT THE SACRIFICES COMMUNION WITH THE ALTAR? Part of the animal was consumed on the altar, and the rest was divided between the priest and the offerer (Leviticus 7:15; Leviticus 8:31). Thus both “had communion with the altar,” t... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 10:19. WHAT SAY I THEN? THAT A THING SACRIFICED TO IDOLS IS ANY THING, OR THAT AN IDOL IS ANY THING? [1] That such an inference might be drawn from the strain of the apostle's reasoning, is only conceivable on supposition of a pretext being wanted to justify attendance on idolatrous fe... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 10:20. BUT _I SAY, _ THAT THE THINGS WHICH THE GENTILES SACRIFICE, THEY SACRIFICE TO DEVILS (_Gr._ ‘demons'), and not to God. But has not the apostle been insisting that an idol is nothing in the world? and how (it may be asked) could they sacrifice to nothing? The obvious answer is, t... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 10:21. YE CANNOT DRINK THE CUP OF THE LORD, AND THE CUP OF THE DEVILS. Even the rabbins laid it down as a fixed principle, that to drink the wine of a libation to idols was to apostatise from the true faith. It is not only an incongruous and abhorrent fellowship, but it is an impossibl... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 10:22. WHAT? DO WE PROVOKE THE LORD TO JEALOUSY? ARE WE STRONGER THAN HE? The allusion is to Deuteronomy 32:21, and almost the words are from it. The word “jealousy,” as applied to God, seems to express the sense of slighted love in one of two wedded parties towards the other; an idea... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 10:23. All things are lawful; but all things edify not (see on 1 Corinthians 6:12 and ch. 8).... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 10:24. Let no man seek his own, but _each_ his neighbour's _goodGr._ ‘his neighbour's things,' meaning his benefit, in the widest sense. As this is God's own design in all His works, but pre-eminently in redemption, so it is the grand law of the Christian life, and the chiefest ornamen... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 10:25. WHATSOEVER IS SOLD IN THE SHAMBLES THE FLESH-MARKET EAT, ASKING NO QUESTION FOR CONSCIENCE SAKE not another's conscience, as in 1 Corinthians 10:29. Bengel, De Wette, and others so take it; but that would yield no proper sense here. The meaning is, ‘ _for your own_ conscience sa... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 10:26. FOR THE EARTH IS THE LORD'S, AND THE FULNESS THEREOF (Psalms 24:1) its contents, therefore, created for use, are free to all who gratefully own Him in it (1 TIMOTHY 4:4-5).... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 10:27. IF ONE OF THEM THAT BELIEVE NOT BIDDETH YOU TO A FEAST not an idolatrous festival, but a social feast. AND YE ARE DISPOSED TO GO. Strange to say, this is understood by some (as Grotius and Alford) as a tacit way of dissuading them from going. Clearly it is a tacit permission t... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 10:28. BUT IF ANY MAN SAY UNTO YOU, THIS HATH BEEN OFFERED IN SACRIFICE, EAT NOT, FOR HIS SAKE THAT SHEWED IT for your informant's sake. AND FOR CONSCIENCE SAKE: CONSCIENCE, I SAY, NOT THINE OWN, BUT THE OTHER'S the conscience of some WEAK brother who might be present. [1] [1] The w... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 10:30. IF I BY GRACE PARTAKE, WHY AM I EVIL SPOKEN OF FOR THAT FOR WHICH I GIVE THANKS? In short,... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 10:31. WHETHER THEREFORE YE EAT, OR DRINK, OR WHATSOEVER YE DO, DO ALL TO THE GLORY OF GOD. ‘To give specific directions for every supposable case is neither needful nor possible, for what is proper in one case may in another be the reverse; but, if only guided by the great principle o... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 10:32. GIVE NO OCCASION OF STUMBLING EITHER TO JEWS OR TO GREEKS to prejudice them against the Gospel. OR TO THE CHURCH OF GOD or your Christian brethren.... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 10:33. EVEN AS I ALSO PLEASE ALL MEN IN ALL THINGS all things indifferent (as the next verse makes plain). NOT SEEKING MINE OWN PROFIT, BUT THE _PROFIT _ OF THE MANY, THAT THEY MAY BE SAVED. (See on 1 Corinthians 9:22.) Within the limits of Christian consistency, and so far as was fi... [ Continue Reading ]