The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Corinthians — Section 131

lt is like the LRtin Nil conscfre Bibi. Tho with whom we have to do" (Heb. iv. 13; s11me phrnse occurs in the LXX. of Job comp. Eccles. xii. 14). God "shall illumi- xxvii. 6. St. Paul says, "The vordict of nate the crypts of the darkness which my own conscieuce 11cquits me of all in- naturally fills the self-deceiving heart." tentional unfaitl,fulnesB; '' but this is in- The counsela of the hearts. These may bear sufficient, because God sees witli clenrer no scrutiny, even when the RCtions of the eyes than ours. "Who can understand his life have been made to look plausible errors?" asks the psalmist (Ps. xix. 12); and enough. And then. God only "seeth in the "secret fa.nits" against which he prays secret" (Matt. vi. 4), and therefore the are not hidden vices, but sins of which he praise and blame of men may in this life was himself unconscious. It must be remem- be equally unjust. Shall enry man have bered that St. Pe.ul is here only speaking pro.ise of God ; rather, each ,me shall then with conscious integrity of his ministerial have hiB praise (i.e. such praise as he de- work, Nothing could he.ve been ful'lher serves) from God. Some of the Greek from the mind of one who ebewhl:re calls Fathers (e.g. Theophylact) here make himself " the chief of sinner~'' than to claim "praise" a "word of intermediate sense," an Rbsolute immunity from every form of involviog either praise or blame. But St. self-reproach. They who claim immaculate Paul says "pra.ise" for two reasons-partly holiness can as little quote the sanction of because he is thinking of faithful teacher• St. Paul (eh. ix. 27; xv. 9; Eph. iii. 8: like Cephe.s, Apollos, and hirnself, who were Phil. iii. 13, etc.) as of any other Sllint. The depreciated by rival factions; and p~rtly confessions of the holiest are ever the most hec,rnse he, like other apostles, shows au humble. Yet am I not hereby justified, invariable tendency to allude to tbo bright Because "every way of a man" is a.pt to be rather than t" the dark siJe of juu,;ment. " right in his own eyes," but God pon<lere.th 'I'hc "praise from God" -tile " Well do,ie, the hearts, llnd therefore in Uod's sight good and faithful serv.int "-is so infinitely "no man living is justified." St. Paul is precious that it reduces to insignifieanc~ here using the word in its legal r-.i.ther than tile comparative ve.lne of human praise or its theological sense. He that judgeth me blame. is the Lord, This is a reason for serious Vera. 6-13.-Contrast betiaeen the inflated awe and deep self-searching of hellrt (Ps. self-sufficiency of the Corinthians and the cxxx. 3; Job ix. 2). Yet lllao for hope earthly humiliation of the apostle,. and confidence when a man can, like tile Ver. G.-B1·ethl'an. The occasional uso -modern statesman, "look from the storm of this nnd similo.r expressions (" beloved." without to the sunshine of an approving etc.) often serves to strcn 6 tlien an appelll, comcience within." For God, being or, as here, to soften the sternness of u "greater than our hearts" (1 Jolin iii. 21), rebuke. I have in a figure transferred to may count "the long 'yes' of life" Rgo.inst myself and to Apolloe, The meaning seem, the one" no," or the single faithless minute. to be tllut St. Paul has prominently trans- Knowing whereof we are made, remembering ferre,1 to himself and to A polios, or rather that we a.re but dust, he looks on us to the p11,rties wlio chose their names llS "With lnrger other eyes tho.n ours, wo.tchwords, the proof o.s to the sin ,ind To make allowance for us e.11." futility of po.rti.anship wliieh app!ie,l equo.lly well to the parties which rang:c,i Ver. 5.-Judge nothing. St. Paul, in the them,el ves under other names. (For I '.le Epistle to the Romans, insists with some verb" tro.usrer ''-more often" trnn,form •· - iudigne.tion on this duty of checking the see 2 Cor. xi. 13, H, 15; Phil. iii. 21.) He tendency to vain deprecintion, both because abstuins purposely and generously rrom we have not tlie capacity for forming ade- publicly lllHning the fuglemen of tbc q uo.te j udgmen ts, o.nd because censorious- tmtngonistic factions. For your sakes. ll y llless is a vet·y common tliough thornughly rebuking po.rty spirit in his own partisan, unchristian vice (Rom. xiv. 4, 10, 13). and those of t .. c lcl\chor who w11s most cln,cl 1· :Before the time. The time is when God allied to himself, he robbed his remark• ,;:· shall" judge the secrets of men" (ltorn. ii. all eembliince of personality or bitterne,s. Hi), and when "tile day sho.ll try evc1·y It sliowed his generous delicacy not. t., man's work of what sort it i•" (eh. iii. 13). alllllle rolher to the u,lhcrente of C.!phas Until the Lord come, Tlie advent id Ct\lled e.nd the Ju,lmau emissary. Them yo migh, in tho New 'I'estumont sometimes the learn in us. I m11,do Apollns nrnl my,eH ·• epiphcrny," and sometime.; the parmtsia iustanccs of the un,les,rnbility of over- of Christ. 'l'he word used for " until" exlllting human teachers, that liy our casu (heiis a11) points to a time entirely imletiuite. you rnigl,t learn tlio gc11ornl priuci,,lc. Not lloth; rather. also; i.e. n111u11g oil,er thi11gs. to t:iilllt of 111c11 above that which s written. The hidden thiug. of darkness. " All things The trno rc<Ldiug is merely, ,wt above tit, 11.re naked auJ 01,e11e,I unto the eyes of hiw tll"iu!JS ·wl,1c/1 have been written, as though thij  THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE COJ:;-::~1'llIANS. [cu. iv. 1-:!1.