/a impossible, for it reverses the sense of man deceive you" (l\latt. xxiv. 4; Luke xxi. the wor,.\ "aaverl ; " and mrtkes it eq ui valen t 8; 2 These. ii. 3; Eph. v. 6; 1 ,John iii. 7 !· lo "damnecl;" but the interpretntion is an We al'c so liable to selt'-<lcception (I John i. awful proof of the dislortions to which a 8; Gal. vi. 3), as well as to being deceived by merciless hum1m rigoriam anrl a hard, self- others (2 Tim. iii. 13), that there was nee,l styled orthodoxy have sometimes subjected to repeat this warning ince3santly. Seemeth tho Word of God. Yet so e.e by fire; rather, to be wise ; rather, thinketh that he i• wi,e. throHgh or by means of fire (6,a. ,rup6s). We He is referring specially to the Apollos may be, ns it were, "anntched ns a brand party, who vaunted their esoteric knowle<lgce, from the burning" (Zoch. iii. 2; Amos iv. and so were "wise in their own eyes, prudent 11; Jude 23), l\nd "scarcely'' saved (1 Pet. in their own conceits" (Isa. v. 21). iv. 18). Similarly it .is said in 1 Pet. iii. 20 Ver. 19.-The wisdom of this world. Here that Noah we.a saved "through water" the word for '' world " is kosmos, in the last (6,' ~6aTos). The ship is lost, the sailor versa it was aion. Kosmos is the world saved; the workman is saved, the work is regarded objectively; aion the world regardetl burned. in its moral and intellectual aspect. He Vere. 16-23.-The peril and folly of that taketh the wise in their craftiness. glorying in men. . This is one of the few references to the Book Ver. 16.-Know ye not. The phrase is of Job in the New Testament. It comes used by St. Paul in this Epistle to emphasize from the speech of Eliphaz in Job v. 13, bnt important truths, as in eh. v. 6 ; vi. 2,,9, 15; St. Paul substitutes the words "clutching" ix. 13, 24. Out of this Epistle it only occurs (drassomenos) and" craftiness" (panourgia'i in Rom. vi. 16; xi. 2. That ye a.re the for the milder katalabiin and phroniisei of temple of God. "Ye," both collectively theLXX. (Eph. ii. 21) and individually ; " God's Ver. 20.-The Lord knoweth, etc. A shriue;" not built for men's glory. The word quotation from Ps. xciv. 11. St. Paul sub- "temple " in the Old Testament always stitutes "the wise" for the "men" of tl:ie means the material temple; in the Gospels original, because the psalmist is referring our Lord "apake of the temple of his body;" to perverse despisers of God. Dialogismoi is in the rest of the New Testament the body rather "reasonings" than "thoughts." It of every baptized Christian is the temple of is used in a disparaging sense, as in Rom. God (eh. vi. 16), because "God dwelleth in i. 21; Eph. iv. 17. him" (1 John iv. 16; comp. John xiv. 23). Ver. 2l.-Wherefore. St. Paul, with this In another aspect Christians can be regarded word, concludes the u.rgument of warning of as "living stones in one spiritual house" the previous section, as in eh. iii. 7; iv. 5; (I Pet. ii. 5). The temple; rather, the shrine viii. 38; xi. 33; xiv. 39; xv. 58 (Words- (naos) wherein God dwells (naiei), and which worth). All things are yours. It is always is the holiest pal't of the temple (hieron). a tendency of Christians to underrate the gran- Ver. 17.-If any man defile the temple of deur of their privileges by exaggerating their God. The verb is the same as in the next supposed monopoly of some of them, while clause, e.nd should be l'endered, If any man many equally rich ad vantages are at their destroy the temple of God ; but the word is disposal. Instead of becoming partisans of perhaps too stl'ong, and the _word "mar" or special teachers, and champions of separate "injure" might better convey the meaning doctrines, thlly might enjoy all that was (Olshausen). The two verbs are brought good in the doctrines of all teachers, whetl.ier intovividjnxtaposition in the original: "God they were prophets, or pastors, or ernngelist~ shall ruin the ruiner of his temple." St. (Eph. iv. 11, 12). The true God gh·es us Paul was, perhaps, thinking of the penalty all things richly to enjoy (I Tim. vi. 17). of death attached to any one who desecrated Ver. 22.-Whether Paul, or Apollos, or the temple of Jerusalem. Inscriptions on the Cephas. All were their servants for Jes us' chel, or "middle wall of partition," threat- sake (2 Cor. iv. 5). Instead of becoming ened death to any Gentile who set foot partisans of either, they coulcl enjoy the within the sacred enclosure." Which temple greatness of all. Or the world. The sudden ye are; literally, the which are ye; i.e. ye are leap from Cephas to the world shows, as holy. St. Paul is here referring to the Chmch Bengel says, the impetuous leap of thought. of Corinth, and to the false teo.chers who There is a passage of similar eloquence in desecrated it by bringing in "factions of Rom. viii. 3S, 39. 'l'lie "hundredfoltl" is destruction" (2 Pet. ii. 1). Ideally the promised even in this world (l\Iurk x. 29, 30). Church was glorious, "not having spot, or Or life. Ilecause life in Christ is the only wrinkle, or nny such thing" (Eph. Y. 27). real lire, and Christ came that we might Ver. 18.-Let no me.n deceive himself. have life, and ha\'e it more abuncfautly (see Like the other fol'rnula, "De not deceived'' Rom. viii. 3~). Or death. To the Christian, (eh. vi. 9; xv. 33; Gal. vi. 7); "Deceive "to lirn is Christ, and to die is gain" (Phil. not yourselves" (Jer. xx:s:vii. D); "Let no i. 21). So that death is no more than 'l'llE FIHST EPISTLE 'l'O 'JI-IE CORINTHIANS. [cu. m. 1-~d.
"The lifting nf n lntch; 1 God our Fnther (Matt. xxiil. 10). And N"nnght bnt n Ft<·p intn tho npen air Christ is God's; becan,,o " Christ iR cq 1ml Out of R tc>nt nlrm,h luminous to the FRther as touching his Goclhcii<l but With light -which shines through its trans- inl'ori,,r to the F,,ther 11s touching his ~mu- parent folds." hoo,l." Hcnr.e in eh. xi. 3 he says, "'fhe Or things present, or things to oome. '' He henrl or Christ is God;" and iu eh. xv. 28. that overeometh shall inl,crit all things" we renrl of Christ resigning hie mediiitoriiil (Ilcv. xxi. 'i), because Christ has recei,•ed kingdom, that God may be iill in oil. Per- ull things from the Father. hnr~ St. Paul implies the thought thot Yer. 23.-And ye are Christ's (see eh. Chnst belongs, not to a pnrty, but to Go<l, tho Yi. 19; X\'. 23; Ilom. xiv. S; Gal. iii. 29). Father of us all. But the ultimate clim11x -Christ.inns possess been use they are possesserl from Christ to God is found also iuoh. iv. l; -by Christ (lllc)er). Christ is our Ma..ter, and Rom. xv. 5, etc. -