The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Corinthians — Section 178

only that most please us. Christ and his cross as well as Christ and his crown. (8) Eaten with bitter herbs. So repentance should accompany faith. We should have bitter sorrow for bitter sins. Our sins were very bitter to him. \Ve have never tasted si11 folly-only a part of it, the sweeter part of it. He tasted the bitter part for us. 2. Identified with deliverance from wrath and bondage. (1) From wrath. The destroy- ing angel was abroad, and smote every house unprotected by the sprinkled blood. So the wrath of God falls upon the rejecters of Christ, but those upon whose hearts and consciences the blood of Christ is sprinkled are preserved from the stroke of Divine justice. At the cross "righteousness and peace have kissed each other" (Ps. lxxxv. 10). The blood of the Paschal lamb made the Israelite perfectly safe; we are made so by the blood of Christ. (2) From bondage. The Passover and the Exodus are indissolubly united. So in our spiritual history. When God pardons, the bondage of Satan is destroyed. We are no longer slaves of the devil, but children of God. And this becomes manifested; justification and sanctification, joined by God, are not put asunder. We begin a new life; we depart from our old master; we " spoil the Egyptians," for we bring everything with us out of the old life that is worth bringing; and our faces are set towards the new Jerusalem, the everlasting home of the redeemed. II. THE INFLUENCE OF OUR PASSOVER ON OUR LIFE. At the Passover the Jews were exceedingly anxious to get rid of every :particle of leaven (Deut. xvi. 4) ; so all who can call Christ their Passover should search and purify their hearts. As the Feast of Unleavened Bread followed the slaying of the Paschal lamb, so the unleaven of righteousness, of godly life, should abide wit,h all who have part in the great Passover. This is" keeping the feast." It is then a feast, a time of joy to the believer, when all leaven of " malice and wickedness" is excluded. The " unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" is not only wholesome, it is surprisingly sweet. The influence of Chri~t•s death is not only towards salvation, but towards holiness. If we are his we must depart from evil. We must have works as well as faith-the former a natural outcome of the latter. The one is not without the other-the Passover and unleavened bread go together. Profession by all means, but certainly practice as well. We must show that we are out of Egypt by a repudiation of Egyptian manners. "Christ our Passover;" "For to me to live is Christ."-H. Vere, 9-13.-0onverse with the ungodly. I. IN OUR ORDINARY LIFE WE MUST ASSOCIA'l'E MORE OR LESS WITH THE IMPURE AND GODLESS, Our legitimate business leads us among such, our duties as citizens and subjects ns well. If we kept ourselves entirely apart, we should have "to ,zo out of the world." 1. Christianity is not designctl to drive us "out of the world." We are to live among men righteously. Here w~ have an argument against monasticism, which is "going ont of the world" to escupe from its evils. 2. Our Lord and Mnster mixed freely amongst men. 3. ,ve hllvc many opportunities of witnessing for Christ when we come in contact with men of the world. This should never be lost 6ight of; private Christiuns thus may become ministers and missionaries. And they ml\y thus reach classes beyon,l the ordinllry aggressive means, Christians should live the gospel amidst a crooked and perverso generation. 4. Still, we must recognize the peril of such 1155ociation with ungodly men. Duty may call us to mix with worldlings, but duty will never call us to shut our eyes to the danger of doing this. The hunter may be right in running into peril, but he can't be right in refusing to recognize the peril, and in making no provision for it. When we go into the world we should go armed. " The whole armour of God" shoul,l be our panoply. We should not go alone; we may go with Christ if the path be the path of duty. Prayer, watchfulness, God-reliance, not self-reliance, should be remem-• bered. We are then not only in an enemy's country, but the enemy is around us and will soon attack. "Be ye also ready:" many have been unreacly, and have been sorely wounded of the archers. Go not further into the world than d·•ity bids yott. II, BUT WE ARE NOT TO ASSOCIATE WITH A PROFESSED CHRISTIAN WHO WALKS DIS- ORDERLY, The case is here altered, Those outside nre as strangers to us, though we mix among them; this one we know and have been identified witl.. Those outside nrc left to the judgmeut of God; we have no part in judging them. But we have in the case of an offending brother. As members of the Church, it is our duty to sit in judg- ment upon him (vers. 4, 5), and, if the offence be sufficiently serious, to expel hin Renee-  THE FinST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. [oH. v. 1-13.