and idolatry, is more obvious and more distinctly re- cognized in Scripture than between idolatry and any other of the sins mentioned. It is well that this should be understood, that men should know, that the most common of all sins, is the most heinous in the sight of God. For idolatry, which consists in putting the crea- ture in the place of God, is every where in his word denounced as the greatest of all sins in his sight. The fact that it is compatible with outward decorum and with the respect of men, does not alter its nature. It is the permanent and controlling principle of an irreligious heart and life, turning the soul away from God. There is no cure for this destructive love of money, but using it for other than selfish purposes. Riches, therefore, must ruin their possessor, unless he employs them for the good of others and for the glory of God.
It is of the covetous man no less than of the forni- cator, the apostle says, he has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ. That is, in that kingdom which Christ came to establish—which consists of all the re- deemed, washed in his blood, sanctified by his Spirit, and made perfectly blessed in the full enjoyment of God to all eternity. This kingdom is sometimes called the kingdom of Christ, and sometimes the kingdom of God; for where Christ reigns, God reigns. Here it is designated the βασιλεία τοῦ Χριστοῦ καὶ Θεοῦ, that is, of him who is at once Χριστός and Θεός ; Christ and God. This is certainly the most natural interpretation. As every one admits that τῷ Θεῷ καὶ πατρί means “ to
CHAP. Υ. vs. 5. 6. 287
him who is at once God and Father.” There is no reason why the same rule should not be applied in this ease. Compare Titus 2,13. This view of the passage, which makes it a direct assertion of the divinity of our Lord, is strenuously insisted upon by some of the most eminent of modern interpreters, as Harless and Riickert, the one orthodox and the other rationalistic. Others, however, say that Christ here designates the Redeemer, and God, the divine Being; and that the kingdom is called not only the kingdom of Christ, but also the king- dom of God. This is the view more commonly adopted, though in violation of a general rule of grammar, the article being omitted before Θεοῦ. If, in Titus 2, 13, ἐπιφάνεια τῆς δόξης τοῦ μεγάλου Θεοῦ Kal σωτῆρος ἡμῶν ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ, means that Jesus Christ is at once the great God and our Saviour, and Winer admits (Gram. p- 148) that it is for doctrinal reasons only he dissents from that interpretation ; then there can be no reason- able doubt in the present case, where the form of ex- pression is so similar, the writer being the same, that the idea is the same. If it were a rare or uncertain thing for Paul to recognize Christ as God, it would be wrong to press rules of grammar to make him teach that doctrine. But since every page almost of his epistles teems with evidence that Christ was his God, it is wrong to depart from those rules in order to pre- vent his teaching it.
Υ. 6. It is not only among the heathen, but among the mass of men in all ages and nations, a common thing to extenuate the particular sins to which the