[The Apostle next cautions us against self-deception. We are apt to extenuate these crimes, and to conceal their enormity by some specious name. Fornication and adultery are youthful indiscretions : drunkenness is conviviality : covetousness and extortion are prudence, and the common licence of trade. Thieving is confined to one species of dishonesty ; whilst a defrauding of the revenue, and a neglect of paying one's debts, and many other kinds of theft, are practised without remorse. As for " reviling," the conversation of many consists of little else than speaking against their neighbour ; and especially when they have received from him any real or fancied injury: yet that is considered as nothing more than a proper token of their contempt for such conduct as they disapprove. And a soft, easy, indolent, " effeminate" manner of life, such as indi- cates an aversion to do any thing or suffer any thing for Christ, is reputed innocent, as though a Christian had nothing to do but to please himself. Moreover, if men be free from the grosser acts of sin, they pay no attention to the dispositions of their minds ; though, in reality, dispositions are as hateful to God, and as much reprobated in the text, as overt acts. But, however they may hide from their own eyes their guilt and danger, God's decree is irreversible, and his threatened ven- geance shall assuredly be executed upon them.]
But, notwithstanding the danger to which sinners are exposed, the text informs us of,
II. The blessed state to which they may yet be exalted by the Gospel —
Many of the Corinthians had, while in their heathen state, been guilty of all the abominations mentioned in the text. But at their conversion,
1. They were received into the Christian cove- nant—
[The word " washed" seems to refer to their initiation into the Christian Church by the ordinance of baptism ; and therefore imports, that they had been admitted into the Chris- tian covenant. We indeed, at our conversion, are not to repeat the rite of baptism ; because the baptism administered to us in our infancy was in all respects as available for us as circumci- sion was for the Jews; yet, since we are brought only into the outward bond of the covenant in our baptism, we need to be made partakers of its saving benefits : and, however abandoned we may have been in our unregenerate state, we shall be re- ceived to a full participation of its blessings, as soon as ever we repent and believe in Christ.]
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2. " They were justified ia the name of the Lord Jesus" —
[Justification includes not merely a remission of sins, but a being dealt with by God as innocent persons, or, in other words, an exaltation to eternal happiness and glory. Now this the Corinthians enjoyed as soon as they embraced the Gospel. They were not left to expect it after death : it was already vouchsafed unto them. For the sake of Christ all their sins were blotted out as a morning cloud. And we also, as soon as we " believe in him, shall, for his sake, be justified from all things," however abominable our past lives may have been, and however much we may have deserved to be abhorred both by God and man.]
3. " They were sanctified by the Spirit of our God"—
[The Apostle, speaking in the fulness of his heart, did not observe any particular order in the arrangement of his words ; and therefore no conclusion is to be drawn from the order of them : for, in strictness of speech, our sanctification does not precede, but follows, and flows from, our justification. But what a triumph of Divine grace was here ! these people, who had been sunk beneath the very beasts by their iniquities, were renewed by the Holy Ghost, and transformed into the image of their God. Surely then none of us need despair ! What- ever we have been, or whatever we may yet be, we still may look to that Divine Agent, who will renew and sanctify us wholly, provided we seek his operations in the name, and for the sake, of Jesus Christ.]