The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Corinthians — Section 181

Yers. 9-13.-The interconrse of Christians with the world. In a former letter now lost, 1'.aul had given t?eCoi:inthian~ instructions not_to mix themselves up with p;rsons of e,11 character. 'lhese mstruct10ns had been nnsunderstood, and the apostle now explains what his meaning was. I. (!HRISTIANS ARE KOT TO AVOID ~ECESSARY IN'l'ERCOURSE WITH THE WORLD. Society at <?onnth was corrupt. Every law m_ both ~bles was habitually transgressed, and to avoid meetrng such transgressors was 1mposs1ble. And this is true of the world as it now is outside the Church. You have to do business in it. and to deal often with men w~ose char_acter i~ immora~. You cannot help fo:ming relationships with them, and ~emg ~ssociated vnth them ~n ~any ~ays. But while this is a necessity of our situation rn a wicked w·orld, true Chnst1ans will not make companions of such sinners. Duty may take you into unpleasant and dangerous localities, but you do not remain there of choice. Whilst you are in the world, as the followers of Christ you are not of it. II. PROFESSIKG CHRISTIAKS OF EVIL CHARACTElt ABE TO DE SHUKNED. Remember- ing the condition of Corinthian society, we are not astonished to find such sins as Paul here mentions appearing in the Churcl:l. A so-called Christian living in the practice of these or similar iniquities, thereby proves himse!f to be no Christian at all. There must be no fellowship with such persons, no eating and drinking with them as if they Lelonged to the Church. They are to be put out of the Christian society. 'l'his applies, not only to the judicial act of the Church, but also to the conduct of individual members towards offenders. There must be a holy abhorrence of the sin as defiling the body of Christ, and a careful keeping of our garments clean. Not, however, with the mistaken aim of having a perfectly pure Church; for discipline can take cognizance only of open and scandalous sins. Nor are we to act in a censorious or Pharisaic spirit. Along with hatred of the sin let there be a Christ-like compassion for the sinner.-B. · Vers. 7, 8.-" Cfhrist our Passover." .At no point is the relation between Christianity a::id the old economy of the Law more profoundly interesting and significant than at that which is indicated in this passage. Of the Passover it is emphatically true that it was as a "shadow," of which the substance, the body, is in Christ. The memorial of that grand Divine interposition by whlch the Hebrews passed out of their primitive state of miserable subjection to a foreign power into that of a free and independent people with Jehovah as their King, it also foreshadowed the great redemption of the Ch,,rch, and the establishment of that eternal kingdom of which Christ is the living Lord. Consider--(!) The anafogy; (2) the exhortation based on it. I. THE ANALOGY. "Christ our Passover." Both in the type and in the antitype we have: 1. .A vicarious sacrifice. The slaying of the Paschal lamb, which was the leading feature in the whole Passover festival, was clearly of this nature. The lamb was a blameless creature, the very emblem of simple, guileless innocence. It had no share in the sins and sorrows of the people. Unlike them, it needed no redemption. It was the victim of their necessities. It suffered death for their sakes, died to serve the interests of their life. The broad mark of resemblance, in this respect, between the lamb and Christ is the very heart and core of the meaning of the text. In him we see the highest expression of that great law of self-sacrifice which pervades the universe, and of which the slaying of the Paschal lamb (as, indeed, the slaying of every lamb) was one of the lower forms. "Not for himself was he cut off;" "\Vounded for our transgressions;" "Slain for us." The innocence of the lamb, and especially the fact that it was "without blemish," the very flower of the flock, was typical of his sinless perfection, his absolute exemption from the evil that belongs to us. While its patient yielding up of its life dimly imaged forth the sublime self-surrender of his love, when, for our sakes, he "offered himself without spot unto God." 2. The instrument of a great delivetance. The sprinkling of the blood on the door-posts of the Israelites was both the condition of their safety and the sign and pledge to them that they were safe (Heb. xi. 2i). There could be no fitness in the phrase, "Christ our Passover," except as meaning that the blood of Christ is to us the means of an <:II. v. 1-13.] 'THE FlHST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. 185