The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Corinthians — Section 125

-all destroy interest in Divine thing9, and take from us the very possibility of appre- hending the higher mysteries of the kingdom. 2. A spirit of strife and division. It is never the best people in a. Christian community who are the ea.use of strife. Contention .and controversy a.re only interesting to those who a.re not really growing in likeness to and nearness to Christ. Schism and strife ar!l sure signs of carnality. Men who get soul-visions of the truth never can want to contend over W()rds. It would seem that St. Paul recognized signs of remaining carnality in the regenerate members of the ·Church, and found this to be a principal hindrance to the advance of his teachin~. Such signs of the "carnal mind" are still observed by Christian pastors, and are the occasions of their deepest depressions and constant grief. II. THE FOOD FOR 'l'HE CARNAL MIND. St. Paul does not neglect it or refuse to consider it. And it is remarkable that he does not deal with it by warnin"S or threatenings, but by food, and that of a kind carefully appropriated and adapted~ So the physician deals with some classes of disease; he gives no medicine, but nourishes the general health, with a full expectancy that the renewed vitality will throw off, out of the system, the specific disease. St. Paul evidently thinks the real cause of carnality to be low spiritual vitality, want of capacity to digest and assimilate good .strong food of truth. These religious men were, in regard to religious truths and principles, really only babes, and religious food suited to babes, to beginners, must be provided for them. 'l'hey must have t.he "milk" of gospel simplicities until they are .strong enough to take the " meat" of gospel mysteries. Only the milk was to be -given with the purpose of nourishing the powers for better food. First principles -duly apprehended would prepare the way for higher teachings. lmpress that in Christian congregations there is always a call for the gospel simplicities, but that call should not be continually made, as it so often a.nd so sadly is, by the same persons. Milk prepares the wa.y for meat. It may be earnestly urged that, after a.11 these centuries of Christian teaching in the home and in the Church, there ought to be a.u earnest and a. mighty cry for advanced and spiritual preaching of the great revealed mysteries of God in Christ. We ought to be" men."-R. T. Vers. 5-7.-Man's wMk and God's. Explain the agricultural figure used iu ver. G. In the production of the year's harvest many different agencies a.re employed. Each man has work a.nd his time for work, a.nd upon man's labour the harvest in large measure depends. Yet sun, and wind, and ra.in, a.nd atmosphere, and soil, are things quite as essential as man's work, but absolutely out of man's control. Yea.r by year man ploughs, ma.n plants, man tends, but God gives the increase. So in spiritual things, there is a.n important sphere for man's agency, but efficiency and result depen-i on the co-operating grace a.nd blessing of God. I. MAN NEVER 0AN GET BEYOND MINISTRY. That is his duty, a.nd that is his dignity. Even Pa.ul a.nd Apollos ca.n be but "ministers by whom we believe." Man cannot control the pla.n into which his work may fit, or the issues which his work should reach. Man never can be independent, so a.s to take up anything a.nd do it completely. He never ha.s entrusted to him more than a. piece or part, which, if well done, fits into other pieces and parts, entrusted to other men, and goes to complete the whole purpose that wa.s in God's thought. And so no honour of results ca.n ever attach to man the agent. Servants only ask praise for fai_thfulness, the honour of the work belongs wholl_,· to the master whose thought and plan are thus wrought out. 'l'his feeling shoul,l ensure tha sincere humility of all Christian teachers. II. BEHIND MINISTRY IS ALWAYS MASTERSHIP. Wo serve somebody. "We serve the Lord Christ." But in the case of spiritual work, we may say that in God is morn tha.n mastership, there is presidency over a.nd use of more important agencies than man's, though agencies related to man's, and working in with his. Spiritual agencies are as much out of our control as sun, or wind, or rain; yet God uses them, with ours, to win the increase. Man can never, by himself, accomplish any moral or spiritual service. Paul and A polios could do much for the Church at Corinth, but th~y stauJ aside, a.nd let meu see how gloriously and eITectively Goel works.-R. 'l'. Vers. 9-12.-Foundations and buildings. A curious and interesting blending of metaphors is found in vcr. 9. "Ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building." 'l'he l'.:!8 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE COnINTHI.ANt:l. [oH. m. 1-23.