The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Corinthians — Section 80

Yers. 9, 10, 14.-The revelation of the things of God. It may be that we have here- a free quotation of Isa. !xiv. 4. But whether a quotation or not, it expresses a principle true in every age. The great "things of God" have ever been beyond the reach of the unaided powers of man. What are these" things which God bath prepared for them thnt lo"l"e him "? To apply this expression, as is sometimes done, merely to the glories and joys of the heaven of the future, is to na1Tow its meaning. '!'hose heavenly things, indeed, are purely-matters of faith, above sense, above reason, above experience, above the lortiest flights of imagination. The most suggestive teachings of Scripture, even the grand apocalyptic visions, do not enable us in the remotest degree to conceive of them. "In vain our fancy strives to p11.int The moment after death." Bnt the "deep things of God" here spoken of, "the things freely given to us of God" (ver. 12), are matters of present realization, facts of consciousness, and not merely anticipations of faith. They are those great moral and spiritual truths of which the Kame of Christ is the symbol, and those privileges and joys which are the distinguishing marks of Christian life. Consider what is here asserted about them: (1) JXeyatively- that the eye a,,d the ear and the heart luwe not apprehended them; (2) positively-that they are revealed to us by the Spirit of God. I. THE :KATURAL POWERS OF MAN CANNOT APPREHEND THESE THINGS. We may take the eye and the ear and the heart as equivalent to the whole sum of our natural faculties. They are those of the "natural man" as contrasted with the "spiritual" (ver. 14). Every faculty of our nature has its own proper sphere, the "thing11" that belong to it and with which it is conversant. Sense perceives material things, and, accord- in~ to the delicacy of its organization, it appreciates the truth of these-beauty of form and colour, variety and harmony of sound, etc. Intellect moves in a region of abstract thought, entertains ideas, judges their relation~, etc. Conscience deals with moral questions, determines the dictates of duty, the distinctions of right and wrong. The heart is the seat and tribunal of the affections, love and hate, desire and aversion, hope and fear. Each faculty bas its particular part to play in the economy of our life. But when we •come to the higher region of the "things of God," we find that which lies bevond the range of these mere natural powers. 'l'hese Greeks of Corinth and .Athen~ with whom Paul had to do were many of them men of fine native capacity and high culture, men of subtle thought and delicate sensibility. '!'here were "princes" among them, men who had risen above their fellows in the particular departments of human interest for which nature qualified them. The ruler, the senator, the economist, could discern the exigencies of state, and judge matters of law and policy. The philosopher cu. 11. 1-16.] THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. 81