The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Corinthians — Section 263

"chnrin,." The fondness for variation at all (Isa. xliv., etc.). That there is none which led King Jnmes's translators to do so other God but one. This belief is the signa- only obscures the identity of thought which ture of Judaism, according to their daily and prevails nmong nil the apostles respect- oft-repeated shema (Deut. vi. 4, etc.). ing the absolute primrtcy of lorn as the Ver. 5.-For though there be that are ehief sphere arnl test of the Christian life. called gods. The verse is a limitation of Ed(fieth. Helps to build us up as stones in the phrase which perhaps he had quoted the spiritual temple (eh. iii. 9; Rom. xiv. from their letter. There are, indeed, demons, l!l; E1,h. iv. 12). "If because of meat thy and there are created things, like the host of brother is grieved, thou wulkest no longer heaven and the powers of nature, which are in love" (Rom. xiv. 15). called gods nnd pass for gods. Gods many, Ver. 2.-If any man think th9.t he knoweth and lords ma.ny. Perbnps a passing allusion anything. Humility is the test of true to the use of elohim, gocls, for men in great knowledge, and lovo the inevitable factor in positions, and to the habitua.l deification of all Cl,ri;tian 1.-riowkdge. The conceit of Roma.n emperors even in their lifetime. 'fhe knowledge is usually the usurped self- title "Augustus," which they all had borne, assertion of nn imaginary infallibility. wa.s to Jewish ears" the name of blasphemy" "·e only know "in part," and our 1.,iow- (Rev. xiii. 1), implying thut they were to be ledge, hadng at the best a purely relative objects of reverence. Indeed, the worship rnlue, is destined to vo.nish nway (eh. xiii. 8). of the Crosnrs was, in that strange epoch of As he ought to know. True knowledge has mingled atheism and superstition, ulmost in it nn element of moral obligution, and the only sincere cult that was left. saintliness is knowledge and supersedes the Ver. 6.-But to us. 'fhe "but " means necessity for formal knowledge. Love is "nevertheless." ,ve Christians only regnrd knnwlerlge which has pussed into heavenly these "gods," " lords," and "idols " as non- wisdom. The student may say to the mystic, existent, exeept so far as they correspond to "All that vou see I know;" but the created and material things. The Father. mystic may retort, " All that you know, I Not only by creation and preservation, but see." much more by redemption and adoption, Ver. 3.-lf any man love God, the same is and as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ known of him. We should huve expected (Rom. viii. 15; Gat iii. 26). Of whom are the sente11ce to end "the same knowa him." all things. All thinga, even ineluding the St. Paul purposely alters the symmetry of gods of the, heathen, •• viijible ancl invisible, the phrase. He did not wish to use any whether they be thrones, or dominions, or terms which wonld foster the already over- principalities, or powers; all things were g-rown conceit of knowledge which was in- created by him and for him, . . . and by him flating the minds of his Corinthian converts. all thing, consist" (Col.i. 16, 17). And we Further than this, he felt that "God know- in him; rather, into or Joi· him. He is the eth them that are his" (2 Tim. iii. 19), End and Goal as well as the Author of our r)ut that, since we a.re finite and God is in- existence. One Lord. The only real "Lore[," finite, we cannot measure the arm of God though the Roman emperors often took tho by the finger of man. Hence, although it is title, and one of them-Domitian-insiatcd quite true that "E,-ery one that loveth is on the use of the expression, "Dominus begotten of God and lmowelh God" (I John Deu,que noster" (" Our Lord and God"), ns iv. 7), yet in writing to those whose love applied to himself (Suetonius, 'Domit.,' 13). was very imperfect, St. Paul deliberutely By whom are all things. "Ily whom," os chooses the passive form of expression as in the Agent of creation and redemption (John Gal. iv. 9, "Now that ve have known God i. 3, 10 ; Hcb. i. 2). And we by him. " By or are rather lrnornn of God." him," as the Mediator and the Giver of lire Ver. 4.-We know that an idol is nothing (Rom. xi. 36, "Of him, and to him, and in the world. After bis brief but pregnant through him nre o.11 things"). digression on the nature of true knowledge, Ver. 7.-There is not in every man that he returns to these questions, and prnbably knowledge. A 11orrection of the somew hcLt once more quotes their own words. They haughty assertion of the Corinthians in vcr. hacl g-lven this reason for open and public 1. With conscienco of the idol; litemlly, by indifference with respect to meat offered to their co11sciousnes8 of the idol. In eati111' idols. With respect to idols, three views meat offered to uny god whom they hl\d were possible to Christian8: c,ither (1) tlrnt been ac~ustomcd to worship, "being used thPy were "demon8 "-the spirits of deified to the idol," a~ the Revised Version renders ,!earl men; or (2) that they were evil spirits it (rending "by fomilio.rity with," cruv118df!- -a farnurite view among the Jews (eh. x. for crurnB~cr.,) cannot dismiss from their '.!O; Deut. xxxii. 17; 2 Cliron. xi. 15; Ps. mind• tho painful sense that, in eating the cvi. B7; Rev. ix. 20); or (3) that they were idol-sacrifice, they nro participating in tuo iw,rdy dcud images correspond in:,: to nothing idol-worship. Their conscience being weak orr. vm. 1-13.] THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. 265