The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Corinthians — Section 192

le.id down to the Thessnlonians (1 These. of sanctification, bnt the consecration to God iv. 6), and incurred God's anger. by baptism (Wickliffe, "halowed "). (For Ver. 9.-Know ye not; rather, Or know what St. Paul meant by justification, see ye not, 11s before. .A.re you defying God, or Rom. iii. 24-26.) In the Ne.me of the Lord does your sin a.rise from mere ignorance? J'esus, etc. This clause and the next belon"s The unrighteous; better, that wrong-doers, to all the three previous verbs. Of our G;d. the verb being the same as "ye do wrong" In the word "our" is involved that appeal in ,·er. 8. Perhaps the Corinthians thought to Christian unity of which he never loses that they would be saved by the me1·e fact sight thruughou t the letter. ol' having been admitted into God's king- Vere. 12-20.-The inezcusable Bin and dom (the Christian Church in all its highest shame of fornication. privileges) by baptism. St. Paul here lays Ver. l~.-All things are le.wful unto me. down, as distinctly ns St. James does, that The abruptness with which the phrase is faith without works is dead, e.nd privileges introduced perhaps shows that, in the letter without holiness are abrogated. The spirit of the Corinthians to St. Paul, they had of his warning is the same e.s the.t of J er. used some such expression by way of pal- vii. 4, "Trust ye not in lying words, saying, liating their lo.x tolerance of violations of The temple of the Lord . . . a.re these;" the law of purity. By "a.II things," of or the.I of St. John the Baptist, "Say not course, is only meant "all things which are unto yourselves, We be Abraham's sons." indifferent in themselves." They erro- Christians hn.ve often been Jio.ble to the temp- neously applied this maxim of Christian tation of underrating the peril which re- liberty to thot which was inherently sinful, sults from the falling asunder of action from and thus were tempted to "make their knowledge. There ce.n be no greater danger liberty a cloak of viciousness." St. P1J.u 1, than that of talking slightingly of "mere ns Dengel observes, often, and especi1J.1ly in morality." Religion is not e.n outwn.rd this Epistle, uses the first person generally service, but a spiritual life manifested by in gnomic or semi-proverbi11l sentences a holy living. Be not deceived. So our (eh. vi. 15; vii. 7; x. 23, 29, 30; xiv. 11). Lord says," Let no man deceive you" (Ma1·k But. This is St. Paul's correction of too xiii. 5; comp. 1 John iii. 7). St. Paul uses brood a formulo.. Are not expedient. St. the warning very solemnly again in eh. xv. Paul illustrates this in eh. viii. 8-10. We 33 o.nd Gal. vi. 7, and St. James in Jas. i. 16. ho.ve no right to do even that which is 'fhe slllf-deception of merely verbal ortho- innocent, if it be dise.dvnntageous to the doxy is the most dangerous of all. Neither highest interests of ourselves or others. fornicators. The first four classes of sinners "He alone," says St. Augustine, "does not were specially prevalent at Corinth, where, fall into unlawful things who sometimes indeed, impurity formed part of the recog- o.bsto.ius by way of caution even from lawful nized cult of the local Aphrodite ( comp. ones.'' Will not be brought under the 2 Cor. xii. 21). Lists of these "works of power. The play of words in the origint1l the flesh," which were the all but universal might be imitated by saying, "All things curse and stain of heathendom, occur also o.re in my power, but I will not be brought in Gal. v, 19-21; 1 Tim. i. 10, etc.; Col. under the power of any." In other words, iii. 5-7. "boundless intemperance" may become I\ Ver. 10.-Nor thiev88, eto. (see Rev. tyranny. The pretence of moral freedom xxii. 15). may end in a more.I bondage. • Ver. 11.-And suoh were some of you ; "Obedience is better than freedom? What's Ii terally, and these things some of you were. free? As Gentiles, many of them had been "dead The vexed foam on the wave, the tossetl in trespo.sses and sins" (Eph. ii. 1). (For straw on the sea; e. similar contrast of the cho.nge wrought by The ocean itsolf, as it rages and swells, the Spirit of God, see Titus iii. 3-7.) But In the bontls of a boundless obedience ye a.re we.shed. The voice and tense in the dwells." original differ from those of the following wor,ls. This cannot be e.cciclentul. It is i ,viii be maslor even over my liberty bv better, therefore, to render, But ye washed keeping it un,ler the beneficent control of away your sins; i.e. ye, by your baptism, law and of ch11rity. we.shed away those stains (Acts xxii. 16). Ver. 13.-Meats for the belly, etc. The The very object of Christ's death had been argument of the Corinthiims about thu that ho might cleanse his Church "by the indifference of enting "meats" which wern washing of wo.ter by the Word." But ye are merely ceremonially unclean was quite ee.notiied, but ye a.re justified; rather, but tenable. Things Le\·itico.11.v unolcon might ye were sanctified, but ye 1oere justified, be essentio.lly pure, anti both food and t_ho namely, at your conversion. By "sanc- body which lives theroby are things" wlncb tified" is meant, not the progrrssi ve course perish in the using" (Col. ii. 22). Shall I. CORINTHIANS. 0 104 TllE FIHST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. [cu. vi.1-20,