The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Corinthians — Section 294

HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vers. 1-14.-How St. I'aul regarded his apostleship and Us rights. To induce the Corinthians to deny themselves the exercise of a liberty they had in things indifferent, St. Paul had made the argument in the eighth chapter. Liberty was amenable to conscience, knowledge secondary to love, and love was the constructin?; or building-up power of the new spiritual edifice. Not one of these could be spared, for they were all constituents of manhood in Christ; but they must be adjusted to one another under the supremacy of love. If one had a true reverence for his own con- ~cience, be would reverence conscience in others. The conscience of another might be weak, and he might pity the weakness, and yet this pity, if genuine, would not allow scorn or contempt. 'l.'he argument was a lesson in patience and forbearance, a lesson in self-abnegation, and a lesson, furthermore, in responsibility for our example. So far as the immediate issue is concerned (meats offered to idols and participating in feasts held in heathen temples), the logic is direct and conclusive. At no moment docs the apostle confine himself to individual rights on the part of such as had enlightened views as to the nothingness of idols. He looks also at community-rights and discusses a special duty on the ground of general interests. Here, as in the former chapters, the community-man, the commucity-Christian, is before him; and he shows the great characteristic of a teacher in the fact that his business is to mould a body of ruen into unity. Of what value are minds of large endowments, in their social relations, if they stand for a narrow and cramped individualism? If a mnn bas a finer eye than otners, it is that he may see further into the needs of the race. If he has more nrdent sympathies, it is for their wider outgoing. Genius is nature's protest, not agninst ordinary talents, but against the littleness and selfish absorption of individuality. And so far, genius is an instinctive yearning in the direction of a world-wide appre- ciation and love, and is one of those innumerable parables in which Christi:mity lies imbedded till the human mind can be prepared to receive it. Now, St. Paul was the foremost representative, in a certain sense, of this community-idea, and, unquestionnbly, Corinth put its strength and compass to a very severe test. At his time of life, at that era in his ministry, and from just such o. mixed people, this grand sentiment of universality was destined by Providence-so we may conjecture-to undergo a thorough ,liscipline. Each truth hns its own peculiar test. Somo truths need o. hotter furnace thnn others to separate the human dross and bring out the refined gold. If, then, St. l'aul was experiencing o. special mental acd spiritual training in respect to this trans- cendent doctrine; we have an insight into his mode of argument, and even into the style of his illustrations and enforcement. Identified with his doctrine, he himself merging, as it were, his personality in its nature and operations, his own fortunes bound up inseparably with its fortunes,-how could he avoid citing his own exnmple to confirm the views be so fervently advocated? One paragraph, at least, must be given to bis individual portraiture as a community-man, a race-man, intent with his whole benrt on bringing a world to the Lord Jesus. And he had sprung to this high level of his own experience and history when he said in the thirteenth verso of the previous chapter, "I will eat no flesh," etc. On that ground, remote as it was from that occupied by some of his Corinthian friends, he was perfectly at home; he knew his strength in God; be snw precisely what to say of grace nud its workings in his soul, and how to say it with unanswerable force-straightforward, vivid, incisive. The mornmcnt of thought, even for him, is uncommonly rapid. Sentcuces arc short; the words simple, intense, an,\  THE FmST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. [cu. rx. l-2i.