The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Corinthians — Section 239

I. HuMAN ENDOWMENTS ARE DIVINE GIFrs. It is characteristic of a religious and devout ruind to look up to the Source and Author of all. If to God we are to attrihnte- the providential favours we enjoy, shall we suppose that even higher gifts are to be traced to an inferior source? Inspiration enabled our great teachers to see the Giver in the gift. The word here used is indeed often used to denote those special super- natural powers, such as healing, tongues, prophecy, which were bestowed upon members of the primitive Church for a season and for a purpose. But the context shows that those gifts which are ordinary are as justly to be traced to the favour and bounty of Heaven as those which are extraordinary, Indeed, it may asked of every Christian, "·what bast thou that thou didst not receive?" II. DIVINE GIFTS ARE BESTOWED UPON MEN IN GREAT DIVERSITY AND VARIETY. "Every man bath bis proper gift of God." It is so in bodily constitution-one has. muscular strength, another constitutional endurance, a third manual dexterity, etc. It is so in temperament-one is calm and wise, another is tender and sympathetic, a third is impulsive and commanding. It is so in intellectual cbarac,ter-one reasons with force, another persuades with fervour, a third speaks with eloquence. Where are- two leaves of the forest alike, or two faces indistinguishable? So in the Church of Christ-one has the gift to rule, another the gift to teach, another the gift to console. One is fitted for a pastor, another for an evangelist. One is called to a public position. another is adapted to the service of the one Redeemer in private life. IJl. THESE GIFTS ARE COMPLEMENTARY TO ONE ANOTHER, AND IN THEIR EXERCISE CO-OPERATE TO THE GEJ\"'ERAL GOOD. Nooe can be spared. There is generosity, but no lavish waste, in the liberality of the Divine Giver. On the other hand, there is no deficiency, no grudging and withholding. Pray for the qualified workman, and the- work shall not be left undone for want of the necessary helper. Because all things- are Christ's, all things are ours. One supplies another's lack, and mutual sympathy and common ministrations subserve the general good. PRACTICAL LESSONS. 1. Gratitude should be cultivated as due to him who is Giver of all. 2. Pride should be repressed; for if one has his gift he has to remember that it is a gift bestowed in grace. 3. Forbearance and toleration are requisite. It is vain to expect all gifts to centre in the same person, to look for what God bas not bestowed, to complain because a man has "his proper gift" and only that.-T. Ver. 16.-Earthly relationships sanctified to heavenly uses. There were several obvious and powerful reasons why a Christian husband or wife should not leave a partner who was married in days when both were unbelievers, and who had not experienced con- version from heathenism or Judaism to Christianity. And to some extent the same reasons hold good when one has passed from merely nominal to real and spiritual Christianity. 1. An obligation has been undertaken from which only flagrant immo- rality can liberate either party. 2. Children may have been born during the union, whose welfare depends upon its continuance. 3. Affection may have sprung up which it would be a cruel outrage to suspend or check. And then, in addition, there is the reason given in the text. 4. The continuance of the union may make the Christian husband or wife the minister of spiritual blessing to the "unconverted" consort. I. AN ATTRACTIVE REPRESENTATION MAY DE FURNISHED OF THE CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. The standard of moral excellence presented in the Word of God is indeed sinaularly hio-h and admirable. But morality in a book is one thing, morality embodied in the lifo•is quite another thing. :Morality pro~laimed from a pulpit is far less impressive than morality speaking from the domestic hearth. There are such virtues as truth, meekness, pity, patience, and charity, which arc peculiarly Christian; and the exhibition of these is likely to lead to the inquiry-Whence come these traitB of character? What is the secret of a. life so different from the life of the selfish and the ungoverned? How many a husband has been won to Christ, beholding in his Christian wife a "a chaste conversation coupled with fear"! II. AN UNCONSCIOUS INFLUENCE IN FAVOUR OF '!'RUE RELIGION MAY DE EXERCISED BY ONE PRAYERFULLY SOLICITOUS FOR THE SALVATION m· A SPOUSE. Who can know, unmoved, that a dear consort is seeking his spiritual welfare? There is a tone impa(·ted to the intercourse of daily life by the habit of intercessory prayer. And there 1s a dignity, a gentleness, a spirituality, of manner and of lauguage, which cannot escape oH. vu. 1-40.] THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. 241