_TO ABSTAIN FROM MEATS OFFERED TO IDOLS. WE MUST NOT ABUSE OUR CHRISTIAN LIBERTY TO THE OFFENCE OF OUR BRETHREN; BUT MUST BRIDLE OUR KNOWLEDGE WITH CHARITY._ _Anno Domini 57._ WHEN the heathens offered sacrifices of such animals as were fit for food, a part of the carcase was burnt on the altar, a... [ Continue Reading ]
NOW AS TOUCHING THINGS, &C.— This chapter is concerning the eating of things offered to idols: wherein one may guess by St. Paul's answer, that they had written to him; that they knew their Christian liberty herein; that they knew that an idol was nothing, and therefore argued that they did well to... [ Continue Reading ]
THE SAME IS KNOWN OF HIM— That is _approved by him._ Such a man has attained the true knowledge of God, and will be sure of his approbation and favour. Mr. Locke would render it, _is made to know,_ or _is instructed by him;_ for the Apostle, says he, though writing in Greek, yet often uses the Greek... [ Continue Reading ]
WE KNOW THAT AN IDOL IS NOTHING— This was a common aphorism among the Jews, to which the word אלילים, _alilim,_ which signifies _idols,_ and _things of nothing,_ alluded. See Job 13:4; Job 14:12. Whitby, Hammond, Elsner, and Parkhurst's Lexicon.... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THOUGH THERE BE THAT ARE CALLED GODS, WHETHER IN HEAVEN OR IN EARTH, &C.— This is an allusion to the famed division of the heathen gods into _celestial_ and _terrestrial._ The former, whom they called Θεοι, gods, they supposed to reside generally in the heavens. The latter, whom they called Δαιμ... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT TO US THERE IS BUT ONE GOD, &C.— _One God_ is exclusive, not of the _one Lord,_ as though _he_ were an inferior Deity, but only of _the idols,_ to which _the one God_ is opposed: to think otherwise would be to destroy the Apostle's own argument for _the unity_ of God, and make him talk as incons... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR SOME WITH CONSCIENCE, &C.— _For there are some, who with notions still remaining that the idol may have some efficacy upon the victim, eat of it as a real victim, and their conscience,_ &c. Heylin. Dr. Doddridge reads it, _But some do, even until now, with consciousness of the idol, eat the thin... [ Continue Reading ]
MEAT COMMENDETH US NOT TO GOD— Ου παριστησι, _sets us not before God;_ that is, to be taken notice of by him. It cannot be supposed that St. Paul, in answer to a letter of the Corinthians, should tell them, that if they ate things offered to idols, they were not the better, or if they ate not, were... [ Continue Reading ]
SIT AT MEAT IN THE IDOL'S TEMPLE— Entertainments among the heathens commonlyconsistedofwhathadbeensacrificedtotheirfictitiousdeities;fromwhich, however, the truly pious among Christians religiously abstained, even when most rigorously imposed; and no doubt the Apostle's decision here had great weigh... [ Continue Reading ]
WHILE THE WORLD STANDETH— Εις τον αιωνα; that is, "as long as I live _INFERENCES.—_From this short, but excellent chapter, we may learn to estimate the true value of _knowledge,_ and to see how worthless and dangerous it is, when, instead of discovering to us our own ignorance and weakness, it serve... [ Continue Reading ]