~ ~ A , - εὐάρεστος τῷ Θεῷ, καὶ δόκιμος τοῖς ἀνθρώποις.
19. dpa οὖν τὰ
Ιδιώκωµεν,ὶ καὶ τὰ τῆς οἰκοδομῆς τῆς εἰς ἀλλήλους. 20. Mh ἕνεκεν βρώματος κατάλυε τὸ ἔργον τοῦ Θεοῦ.
πάντα μὲν
in ith. 15. καθαρὰ, ἀλλὰ κακὸν τῷ ἀνθρώπῳω τῷ διὰ προσκόµµατος ἐσθίοντι.
n 1 Cor. viii. 13.
21. καλὸν τὸ μὴ Φαγεῖν " κρέα, μηδὲ πιεῖν οἶνον, μηδὲ ἐν ᾧ 6 ἀδελφός
1 διωκωµεν CDE, latt.; διωκοµεν NWABFLP. According to S. and H. διωκωµεν
is a “*somewhat obvious correction,’ and less expressive than διωκοµεν.
This is
also the view of Weiss and Tischdf. But W. and H. put διωκωµεν in text and διωκοµεν
in marg.
Ver. 10. ἄρα οὖν: seever.12. Ta THs εἰρήνης is not materially different from τὴν εἰρήνην: all that belongs to, makes for, peace: we cannot argue from its use here that the word must have exactly the same shade of meaning in ver. 17. διώκωµεν: the indicative διώκοµεν is very strongly supported, and would indicate the actual pursuit of all true Christians: ‘‘Our aim is peace,” and τὰ τῆς οἶκο- δοµῆς τῆς εἰς ἀλλήλους = mutual up- building. Cf. 1 Thess. ν. 11, 1 Cor. xiv. 26. The practical rule implied here is that, when anything is morally indifferent to me, before I act on that conviction, I must ask how such action will affect the peace of the Church, and the Christian growth of others.
Ver. 20. Paul repeats the rule of ver. 15. μὴ κατάλνε: the opposite of oiko- δομεῖν. See Matt. xxvi. 61, Gal. ii. 18. τὸ ἔργον τοῦ θεοῦ (x Cor. iii. 9) what God has wrought, i.e., the Christian Church (which is destroyed by such wanton conduct) or the Christian char- acter and standing of an individual (which may be ruined in the same way). πάντα μὲν καθαρὰ: this is the principle of the strong, which Paul concedes (μὲν) ; the difficulty is to get the enlightened to understand that an abstract principle can never be the rule of Christian conduct. The Christian, of course, admits the principle, but he must act from love. To know that all things are clean does not (as is often assumed) settle what the Christian has to do in any given case. It does not define his duty, but only makes clear his responsibility. Acknow- ledging that principle, and looking with love at other Christians, and the effect of any given line of conduct on them, he has to define his duty for himself. All meat is clean, but not all eating. On the contrary (ἀλλὰ), κακὸν τῷ ἀνθρώπῳφ τῷ διὰ προσκόµµατος ἐσθίοντι; sin is involved in the case of the man who eats with offence. Some take this as a warning to the weak; but the whole
tone of the passage, which is rather a warning to the strong, and the verse immediately following, which surely con- tinues the meaning and is also addressed to the strong, decide against this. The man who eats with offence is therefore the man by whose eating another is made to stumble. For διὰ προσκόµ- patos see ii. 27, Winer, p. 475.
Ver. 21. A maxim for the strong. For καλὸν cf. Mark xiv. 6. Abstinence in order that others may not be made to stumble is morally noble. ἐν ᾧ: usually προσκόπτειν takes the Dat., ix. 32, 1 Pet. ii. 8. That there were those in the Church at Rome who had scruples as to the use of flesh and wine, see on ver. 2. Paul would not have written the chapter at all unless there had been scruples of some kind; and he would not have taken these examples if the scruples had con- cerned something quite different.
Ver. 22. The true text is σὺ πίστιν ἣν ἔχεις: ‘the faith that thou hast, have thou to thyself in the sight, of God”. The verse is still addressed to the strong. The faith he has is the enlightened faith which enables him to see that all things are clean; such faith does not lose its value though it is not flaunted in reckless action. On κατὰ σεαυτὸν Wetstein quotes Heliod. vii. 16: κατὰ σαυτὸν ἔχε καὶ μηδενὶ φράζε Cf. 1 Cor. xiv. 25 (ἑαντῷ δὲ λαλείτω καὶ τῷ θεῷ). ἐνώπιον τοῦ θεοῦ reminds the strong once more (ver. 10) that the fullest freedom must be balanced by the fullest sense of vesponsi- bility to God. In another sense than that of 1 Cor. ix. 21 the Christian made free by faith must feel himself μὴ ἄνομος θεοῦ add’ ἔννομος Χριστοῦ. µακάριος 6 μὴ κρίνων ἑαυτὸν ἐν ᾧ δοκιμάζει: “a motive to charitable self-restraint ad- dressed to the strong in faith’’ (Gifford). It is a rare felicity (this is always what µακάριος denotes) to have a conscience untroubled by scruples—in Paul’s words, not to judge oneself in the matter which one approves (sc., by his own practice) ;