be lawful at all. — /ao/, to me) Paul often speaks in the first per- son singular, which has the force of a gnome [or moral maxim ], especially in this epistle, ver. 15, vii. 7, viii. 13, x. 23, 29, 30, xiv. 11. To me , i.e., the Corinthians ought to think as I do. — <ru(i<p6pei, are expedient) We must above all consider, what may be expedient. — s^senv — i^ouo'/a(T^o'o(aa/) Conjugate words. He, who does not freely use his legitimate power and liberty, steps aside from his own power, and passes into the power of another, for example, into that of a harlot , ver. 15 ; comp. vii. 4. He would be a stupid traveller, who, though his road lay in the middle of the plain, would always walk on the bank of the river and at the very edge of the stream. And yet many so live, who pass even for godly men. The Power ought to be in the hands of the believer, not in the things, which he uses. [ Liberty good in itself is destroyed by its abuse , Gal. v. 13; 1 Pet. ii. 16. — V. g.] The very expression I will not [ovx gyw, not i] has power , with application to the individual himself. Not I! another may venture it, so far as I am concerned. The believer establishes this principle in respect of himself : he says in respect of his neighbour, all things do not edify , x. 23. — nvoc) any thing Neuter, the same as cravra.
13. Ta fipufjyuru, meats) viz. JcW. The conclusion drawn from the lawfulness of meats to that of lust has no weight. — xai raurqv xai ravra, both it and them) Demonstrative, twice used concern- ing the present time ; the it precedes, inasmuch as food is for [on account of] the belly. — xarapyi\<su) shall destroy ; and that too, not merely in the same way as the body is destroyed at death ; 1 from the antithesis of the belly and the body, it may be inferred, that there will be a difference of sexes even in the state similar to that of the angels.2 Those things which shall be destroyed, considered in themselves, have their use unrestricted [free], Col. ii. 20, etc., Mark vii. 18, [whatsoever thing from without en- tereth a man] cannot [defile him]. Now [&, whereas\ is here and in the following verse elegantly put instead of for ; for a severer denunciation [“God shall destroy both it,” etc.] is subjoined to the concession [“meats for the belly,” etc.]; a joyful declaration [God
1 The destruction of meats and the belly will be a permanent destruction. — Ed.
2 For though the belly is to be for ever destroyed, not so the body. — Ed.