ness. HovrjpLa^ mckedness, is a stronger word than Ka/cta, badness. Any one who does wrong is Kaxos, bad ; but he who does evil with delight and with persistency, is novqpo^. Hence Satan is called 6 irov-qpos, " The evil one." JBut with the unleavened bread of si7icerity and truth. Sincerity and truth are the unleavened bread with which the Christian's life- long feast should be celebrated. Sincerity^ (dXiKpivua^) is purity^ transparent clearness ; something through which the sun may shine without revealing any flaw. Truth is in scrip- ture far more than veracity. In its subjective sense, it means that inward state which answers to the truth ; that moral con- dition which is conformed to the law and character of God.
9. I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators :
This may be understood to refer to what he had written above in this epistle. Comp. Rom. 16, 22. 1 Thess. 5, 27. Col. 4, 16, where the epistle, 17 i-maroXr}, means the epistle he was then writing. Calvin, Beza, and almost all the modem commentators, understand it to refer to an epistle no longer extant. This is obviously the more natural interpretation, first, because the words (iv rfi lina-ToXfD, in the epistle^ would otherwise be altogether unnecessary. And, secondly, because this epistle does not contain the general direction not to com- pany with fornicators ; which, it would seem from what fol- lows, the Corinthians had misunderstood. There is, indeed, a natural indisposition in Christians to admit that any of the inspired writings are lost. But nothing is more natural than the assumption that the apostles wrote many short letters, not intended as pastoral epistles designed for the church in all ages, but simply to answer some question, or to give some direction relative to the peculiar circumstances of some indi- vidual or congregation. ' I wrote to you in the epistle,' natu- rally means here as in 2 Cor. 7, 8, the epistle which you have already received, and not the one which he was then writing ; and it is not wise to depart from the natural meaning of the words simply to avoid a conclusion we are unwilling to admit. The church has all the inspired writings which God designed for her edification; and we should be therewith content. Not to company icith, {fir} crvi/ava/xtyrucr^at), not to be mixed up together with. That is, not to associate with. See 2 Thess. 3, 14. This may have reference either to social in-