Vers. 3-8. The duties of members of the Church as such: avoidance of self- exaltation, and mutual service in the measure of the gift bestowed on each. λέγω γάρ: the yap indicates that ‘‘ humi- lity is the immediate effect of self-sur- render to God” (Gifford). διὰ τῆς χάριτος κ.τ.λ. Paul illustrates in his own person, in giving this advice, the
2---6.
689
τὸ "σωφρονεῖν, ἑκάστῳ ὡς 6 Θεὸς ἐμέρισε {μέτρον πίότεως. 4. Καθάπερ ε 2 Cor.v.13
it. 1, 6.
γὰρ ἐν ἑνὶ σώµατι µέλη πολλὰ ] ἔχομεν, τὰ δὲ µέλη πάντα οὗ τὴν { Eph. iv. 7,
αὐτὴν ἔχει πρᾶξιν ' 5. οὕτως ot πολλοὶ ἓν σῶμά ἐσμεν ἐν Χριστῷ,
13, 16.
62 δὲ καθ eis ἀλλήλων µέλη, 6. ἔχοντες δὲ Χαρίσµατα κατὰ τὴν
χάριν τὴν δοθεῖσαν ἡμῖν διάφορα ᾽ ein
, ‘ S προφητείαν, κατὰ THY
1 For µελη πολλα ALP read πολλα µελη with ΒΡΕ latt. and most edd; but W. and H. give µελη πολλα a place in marg.
2 For
rule he is laying down for the Church, He speaks “through the grace given him,’ and therefore without presumption ; but he does speak, and so puts his wisdom and love at the service of the Church. παντὶ τῷ ὄντι ἐν ὑμῖν: every- body in the Church needed this word. To himself, every man is in a sense the most important person in the world, and it always needs much grace to see what other people are, and to keep a sense of moral proportion. μὴ ὑπερφρονεῖν: ὑπερφρονεῖν here only in N.T., but a common word. wap ὃ Set φρονεῖν: beyond the mind or habit of thought one ought to have. For this use of παρὰ see xiv. 5, Lc. xiii. 2, Heb. i, 9. φρονεῖν cis TO σωφρονεῖν: to cherish a habit of thought tending to sobriety of mind. σωφροσύνη is described by Jos., Macc. 2 f., as giving man dominion not only over bodily ἐπιθυμίαι but also over those of the soul, such as φιλαρχία, κενοδοξία, ἀλαζονεία, peyadavyia, βασ- κανία. These are precisely the qualities to which Paul opposes it here. Φρονεῖν and its cognates are favourite words with Paul: what they all suggest is the import- ance to character, especially to Christian character, of the prevailing mood of the mind—the moral temper, as it might be called, It should always tend to sobriety ; but he gives a special rule for it in ἑκάστῳ ὡς 6 Beds ἐμέρισεν µέτρον πίστεως. ἑκάστῳ is governed by ἐμέ- Ρρισεν : its place makes it emphatic. Cf. 1 Cor. iii. 5. Whatever the character- istic of any individual may be, it is due to the discriminating act of God in measuring out faith to him in greater or less degree. Taken in connection with what precedes, the idea seems to be: There are various degrees of self-estima- tion proper, for God gives one more and another less; but all are fundamentally regulated by humility, for no one has anything that he has not received. 1
oe (altered to agree with ets?) read το δε NABD'F gr, P. 47.
and figure cf. 1 Cor. xii. 12. Also Eph. iv. 15 f., Col. i, 18. The comparison of the community to a body—the social organism—is very common in classical writers: see Wetstein and Jowett here. πρᾶξιν: viii, 13. It is that at which the member works—in modern language, its function. Every member has its gift, but it is limited by the fact that it is no more than a member: it is not the whole body. 1 Cor. xii. 17. οἱ πολλοὶ ἓν σῶμά ἐσμεν ἐν Χριστῷ: many as we are, we are one body in Christ; it is the common rela- tion to Him which unites us. In the later passages in which Paul uses this figure (Eph., Col.), Christ is spoken of as the Head of the body; but both here and in 1 Cor. xii. it would agree better with our in$tinctive use of the figure to speak of Him as its soul. His own figure of the vine and the branches combines the advantages of both. τὸ δὲ καθ’ els ἀλλήλων µέλη: this qualifies the unity asserted in ἓν σῶμά éopev. It is not a unity in which individuality is lost; on the contrary, the individuals retain their value, only not as indepen- dent wholes, but as members one of another. Each and all exist only in each other. 1 Cor. xii. 27. For τὸ καθ’ ets see Winer, 312.