1 Corinthians 1:1

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS.

Chronological Notes relative to this Epistle.

-Year of the Constantinopolitan era of the world, as used by the emperors of the east in their diplomata, c., and thence also called the "civil era of the Greeks," 5564

-Year of the Alexandrian era of the world, or Greek ecclesiastical epocha, 5558.

-Year of the Antiochian era of the world, 5548.

-Year of the Eusebian epocha of the creation, or that used in the Chronicon of Eusebius, and the Roman Martyrology, 4284.

-Year of the Julian period, 4764.

-Year of the Usherian era of the world, or that used in the English Bibles, 4060.

-Year of the minor Jewish era of the world, 3816.

-Year of the greater Rabbinical era of the world, 4415.

-Year since the Deluge, according to Archbishop Usher and the English Bible, 2404.

-Year of the Cali Yuga, or Indian era of the Deluge, 3158.

-Year of the Iphitus, or since the first commencement of the Olympic games, 996.

-Year of the two hundred and eighth Olympiad, 4.

-Year from the building of Rome, according to Fabius Pictor, who flourished in the time of the first Punic war, and who is styled by Dionysius of Halicarnassus an accurate writer, 803. (This epoch is used by Diodorus Siculus.)

-Year from the building of Rome, according to Polybius, 807.

-Year from the building of Rome, according to Cato and the Fasti Consulares and adopted by Solinus, Eusebius, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, c., 808.

-Year from the building of Rome according to Varro, which was that adopted by the Roman emperors in their proclamations, by Plutarch, Tacitus, Dio Cassius, Gellius, Censorinus, Onuphrius, Baronius, and by most modern chronologers, 809. N. B. Livy, Cicero, Pliny, and Vellcius Paterculus, fluctuate between the Varronian and Catonian computations.

-Year of the epocha of Nabonassar, king of Babylon, or that used by Hipparchus, by Ptolemy in his astronomical observations, by Censorinus and others, 803. (The years of this era constantly contained 365 days, so that 1460 Julian were equal to 1461 Nabonassarean years. This epoch began on Feb. 26th, B. C. 747 and consequently, the commencement of the 803d year of the era of Nabonassar corresponded to the IVth of the Ides of August, A. D. 55.)

-Year of the era of the Seleucidae, or since Seleucus, one of the generals of Alexander's army, took Babylon, and ascended the Asiatic throne; sometimes called the Grecian era, and the era of Principalities, in reference to the division of Alexander's empire, 368.

-Year of the Caesarean era of Antioch, 104.

-Year of the Julian era, or since the calendar of Numa Pompilius was reformed by Julius Caesar, 101.

-Year of the Spanish era, or since the second division of the Roman provinces among the Triumviri, 94. (This epoch continued in use among the Spaniards till A. D. 1383, and among the Portuguese till about A. D. 1422.)

-Year since the defeat of Pompey, by Julius Caesar, at Pharsalia in Thessaly, called by Catrou and Rouille, the commencement of the Roman empire, 104.

-Year of the Actiac, or Actian era, or proper epocha of the Roman empire, commencing with the defeat of Antony by Augustus at Actium, 80.

-Year from the birth of Jesus Christ, 60.

-Year of the vulgar era of Christ's nativity, 56.

-Year of the Dionysian period, or Easter Cycle, 57.

-Common Golden Number, or year of the Grecian or Metonic Cycle of 19 years, 19, or the seventh Embolismic.

-Jewish Golden Number, or year of the Rabbinical Cycle of 19 years, 16, or the second after the fifth Embolismic.

-Year of the Solar Cycle, 9.

-Dominical Letters, it being Bissextile or Leap-year, DC; D standing till the 24th of February, or the sixth of the Calends of March, (the two following days after Feb. 23rd, or the seventh of the Calends of March, being named the sixth of the same month,) and the other letter for the remainder of the year.

-Jewish passover, (15th of Nisan,) Saturday, April 17th, or the XVth of the Calends of May.

-Number of Direction, or number of days on which Easter Sunday happens after the 21st of March, 28.

-Mean time of the Paschal Full Moon at Corinth, (its longitude being twenty-three degrees to the east of London,) according to Ferguson's Tables, April 19th, or the XIIIth of the Calends of May, at fifteen minutes and fifty-eight seconds past eleven at night. (The reason of the discrepance of the fifteenth of Nisan, with the day of the mean Paschal Full Moon arises from the inaccuracy of the Metonic Cycle, which reckoned 235 mean lunations to be precisely equal to nineteen solar years, these lunations being actually performed in one hour and a half less time. The correspondence of the Passover with the mean Full Moon, according to the Julian account, was in A. D. 325.)

-True time of the Paschal Full Moon at Corinth, according to Ferguson's Tables, the XIIth of the Calends of May, (April 20th,) at fifty-seven minutes and forty-one seconds past five in the morning.

-Easter Sunday, April 18th, or the XIVth of the Calends of May.

-Epact, or moon's age on the twenty-second of March, or the XIth of the Calends of April, 18.

-Year of the reign of Nero Caesar, the Roman emperor, and fifth Caesar, 3.

-Year of Claudius Felix, the Jewish Governor, 4.

-Year of the reign of Vologesus, king of the Parthians, of the family of the Arsacidae, 7.

-Year of Caius Numidius Quadratus, governor of Syria, 6.

-Year of Ishmael, high priest of the Jews, 2.

-Year of the reign of Corbred I., king of the Scots, brother to the celebrated Caractacus, who was carried prisoner to Rome, but afterwards released by the emperor, 2.

-According to Struyk's catalogue of eclipses, which he collected from the Chinese chronology, the sun was eclipsed at Canton in China, on the 25th of December of this year, or on the VIIIth of the Calends of January, A. D. 57. The middle of the eclipse was at twenty-eight minutes past twelve at noon; the quantity eclipsed at this time being nine digits and twenty minutes. The day of this eclipse was the 19th of Tybi, in the 804th year of the Nabonassarean era, and on the 24th of Cisleu, of the minor Rabbinical or Jewish era of the world, 3817, or 4416 of their greater era.

-Roman Consuls, Q. Volusius Saturninus, and P. Cornelius Scipio.

CHAPTER I.

The salutation of Paul and Sosthenes, 1, 2.

The apostolical benediction, 3.

Thanksgiving for the prosperity of the Church at Corinth, 4.

In what that prosperity consisted, 5-9.

The apostle reproves their dissensions, and vindicates himself

from being any cause of them, 10-17.

States the simple means which God uses to convert sinners and

confound the wisdom of the wise, c., 18-21.

Why the Jews and Greeks did not believe, 22.

The matter of the apostle's preaching, and the reasons why that

preaching was effectual to the salvation of men, 23-29.

All should glory in God, because all blessings are dispensed by

Him through Christ Jesus, 30, 31.

NOTES ON CHAP. I.

Verse 1. Paul, called to be an apostle] Bishop Pearce contends that a comma should be placed after κλητος, called, which should not be joined to αποστολος, apostle: the first signifies being called to, the other sent from. He reads it, therefore, Paul the called the apostle of Jesus Christ. The word κλητος, called, may be here used, as in some other places, for constituted. For this, and the meaning of the word apostle, See Clarke on Ro 1:1.

As the apostle had many irregularities to reprehend in the Corinthian Church, it was necessary that he should be explicit in stating his authority. He was called-invited to the Gospel feast; had partaken of it, and, by the grace he received, was qualified to proclaim salvation to others: Jesus Christ therefore made him an apostle, that is, gave him a Divine commission to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles.

Through the will of God] By a particular appointment from God alone; for, being an extraordinary messenger, he derived no part of his authority from man.

Sosthenes our brother] Probably the same person mentioned Ac 18:17, where see the note.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ch. 1Co_1:1-9. Salutation and Introduction

1. called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God] St Paul here as elsewhere asserts his Divine commission. This was necessary because a party had arisen which was inclined to dispute it. We read in the Epistle to the Galatians of the ‘false brethren unawares brought in’ whose doctrine he was compelled to withstand and to assert the Divine origin of his own; and in the second Epistle to the Corinthians we find many allusions to those who rejected his authority, as in ch. 1Co_3:1, 1Co_5:12, 1Co_10:2; 1Co_10:7; 1Co_10:10, and the whole of chapters 11 and 12. They no doubt laid much stress on the fact that St Paul had not received the call of Christ as the Twelve had (see notes on ch. 9), and also on the different complexion his doctrine, though the same, necessarily bore, from the fact that it was mainly addressed to Gentiles and not to Jews. It is worthy of remark that in the two Epistles to the Thessalonians, written before the controversy arose, no such clause is found, while after the commencement of the dispute the words or some equivalent to them are only absent from one epistle addressed to a church.

Sosthenes our brother] Literally, the brother. He was probably not the Sosthenes mentioned in Act_18:17, who was an opponent of the faith, but some one well known to the churches in the Apostolic age.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Paul, called to be an apostle - See the notes at Rom 1:1.

Through the will of God - Not by human appointment, or authority, but in accordance with the will of God, and His command. That will was made known to him by the special revelation granted to him at his conversion, and call to the apostleship; Acts 9. Paul often refers to the fact that he had received a direct commission from God, and that he did not act on his own authority; compare Gal 1:11-12; 1Co 9:1-6; 2Co 11:22-33; 2Co 12:1-12. There was a special reason why he commenced this Epistle by referring to the fact that he was divinely called to the apostleship. It arose from the fact that his apostolic authority had been called in question by the false teachers at Corinth. That this was the case is apparent from the general strain of the Epistle, from some particular expressions 2Co 10:8-10; and from the fact that he is at so much pains throughout the two epistles to establish his divine commission.

And Sosthenes - Sosthenes is mentioned in Act 18:17, as “the chief ruler of the synagogue” at Corinth. He is there said to have been beaten by the Greeks before the judgment-seat of Gallio because he was a Jew, and because he had joined with the other Jews in arraigning Paul, and had thus produced disturbance in the city; see the note on this place. It is evident that at that time he was not a Christian. When he was converted, or why he left Corinth and was now with Paul at Ephesus, is unknown. Why Paul associated him with himself in writing this Epistle is not known. It is evident that Sosthenes was not an apostle, nor is there any reason to think that he was inspired. Some circumstances are known to have existed respecting Paul’s manner of writing to the churches, which may explain it:

(1) He was accustomed to employ an amanuensis (scribe) in writing his epistles, and the copyist frequently expressed his concurrence or approbation in what the apostle had indicted; see the note at Rom 16:22; compare Col 4:18. “The salutation by the hand of Paul,” 2Th 3:17; 1Co 16:21. It is possible that Sosthenes might have been employed by Paul for this purpose.

(2) Paul not unfrequently associated others with himself in writing his letters to the churches, himself claiming authority as an apostle; and the others expressing their concurrence; 2Co 1:1. Thus, in Gal 1:1, “all the brethren” which were with him, are mentioned as united with him in addressing the churches of Galatia; Phi 1:1; Col 1:1; 1Th 1:1.

(3) Sosthenes was well known at Corinth. He had been the chief ruler of the synagogue there. His conversion would, therefore, excite a deep interest, and it is not improbable that he had been conspicuous as a preacher. All these circumstances would render it proper that Paul should associate him with himself in writing this letter. It would be bringing in the testimony of one well known as concurring with the views of the apostle, and tend much to conciliate those who were disaffected toward him.

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1Co_1:1-9

Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God.

The salutation

I. The character of Paul.

1. There were two things the apostle knew confidently.

(1) That he was not meet to be called an apostle. The same humility should mark us. Our humility, however, must not weaken faith or enfeeble energy. For--

(2) Paul was an apostle. We are not meet to be saved, but we should never doubt our salvation when the Word of God assures us.

2. The strength and nobleness of Pauls character was based on the confidence that he was called of God to be and to do the work of an apostle. A little thing will not make us lose heart in our work if we believe we are called of God.

II. The character of the Corinthians.

1. They also were called of God to be saints--i.e., separated to God. They were not self-called, to be and to do what they liked. They were called of God to be like God, and to do His will; to be separated from their former selves.

2. They had been called out of a society--

(1) Where the Greeks sought for wisdom and the Jews for signs.

(2) That was morally corrupt.

3. The character given them by God should inspire them with jealous care against--

(1) The admission into the Church of the elements of Corinthian society.

(2) Religious bigotry and intolerance--the spirit of the Jew. They were but a part of the Church.

III. The benediction. Grace is essentially an element of peace. Its great dispensation was heralded in by peace on earth. Sinai and peace were not known; but Calvary and peace are one. They who build on anything but grace will not know peace. The Church, too, will be characterised by peace in the measure of the grace in the heart of its members. The peace-breaker is never a man full of grace. (The Study.)

The salutation

I. The designation of the writers.

1. An apostle means one sent, a missionary to teach the truth committed to him; and the authority of this apostolic mission St. Paul substantiates in 1Co_1:1, for it was questioned. In the firm conviction of his call by the will of God lay all his power. No man felt more strongly his own insignificance, but more deeply did he feel that he was Gods messenger. Imagine that conception dawning on him in the midst of his despondency, and his joyful boldness against the slander of his enemies, and the doubtfulness of his friends is natural. This should be our strength. Called to be a politician, a tradesman, a physician. Why should not each and all of us feel that? But we get rid of it by saying that God called the apostles, but does not speak to us. But observe the modesty of the apostolic claim. He did not wish that his people should receive his truth because he, the apostle, had said it, but because it was truth.

2. St. Pauls joining with himself brother Sosthenes is another proof of his desire to avoid lording it over Gods heritage. If Sosthenes be he of Act_18:1-28., what a conqueror St. Paul, or rather Christianity, had become. Like the apostle, Sosthenes now built up the faith which once he destroyed.

II. The persons addressed.

1. The Church, which, according to the derivation of the word, means the House of God. It is that body of men in whom the Spirit of God dwells, and who exist on earth for the purpose of exhibiting the Divine life, to penetrate and purify the world. It has an existence continuous throughout the ages, not on the principles of hereditary succession or of human election, but on the principle of spiritual similarity of character, just as the seed of Abraham are the inheritors of his faith.

2. There is, however, a Church visible and invisible; the latter consists of those spiritual persons who fulfil the notion of the ideal Church; the former embraces within it all who profess Christianity, whether they be proper or improper members of its body. Of the invisible Church St. Paul speaks as called to be saints, temples of the Holy Ghost. Of the visible as carnal, and walking as men, and when he reproves their errors Christ too speaks of the same in the parables of the draw-net and the tares. To illustrate the abstract conception of a river is that of a stream of pure water, but the actual river is the Rhine or the Thames, muddy and discoloured. So of the Church. Abstractedly and invisibly it is a kingdom of God in which no evil is; in the concrete, and actually, it is the Church of Corinth, Rome, or England, tainted with impurity; and yet just as the muddied Rhone is really the Rhone, and not mud and Rhone, so there are not two churches, the Church of Corinth and the false church within it, but one visible Church in which the invisible lies concealed (cf. the parable of the Vine)

.

3. Rut beyond the limits of the visible is there no true Church? Are Plato, Socrates, Marcus Antoninus, and such as they, to be reckoned by us as lost? Surely not. The Church exists for the purpose of educating souls for heaven; but goodness is goodness, find it where we may. A vineyard exists for the purpose of nurturing vines, but he would be a strange vine-dresser who denied the reality of grapes because they had ripened under a less genial soil, and beyond the precincts of the vineyard.

4. The visible Church of which the Church of Corinth formed a part existed to exhibit what humanity should be to represent the Life Divine in

(1) Self-devotion. They were sanctified in Jesus Christ. When ecclesiastical dignity makes godliness a means of gain, or when priestcraft exercises lordship over Gods heritage, then it is falsifying its mission.

(2) Sanctity. The Corinthian converts came out of a factious and extremely corrupt society, and carried into the Church the savour of their old life, for the wine-skin will long retain the flavour of the wine. We find immorality existing, old philosophy colouring Christianity, the insolence of wealth at the Lords Supper, and spiritual gifts exhibited for ostentation. Such was the Church of Corinth, the Early Church so boasted of by some! Nevertheless all are called to be saints, and their mission is to put down all evil.

(3) Universality: With all who, in every place, &c. The Corinthian Church was only a part of the Church universal as a river is of the sea. Paul would not permit, it to think of itself as more spiritual or as possessing higher dignity than the Church at Jerusalem or Thessalonica. There is no centre of unity but Christ: We boast of our advantages over Dissenters and Romanists. Whereas the same God and the same Christ is theirs and ours.

(4) Unity. Christ was the Saviour of all, and His Spirit bound all together into a living and invisible unity. Each in their several ways contributed to fill up the same building on the same Foundation; each in their various ways were distinct members of Christs body, performing different offices, yet knit into one under the same Head; and the very variety produced a more perfect and abiding unity.

III. The benediction: Grace and peace, &c. The heathen commenced their letters with the salutation, Health! There is a life of the flesh, and there is a life of the spirit--a truer, more real, and higher life, and above and beyond all things the apostle wished them this. He wished them neither health nor happiness, but grace and peace, &c. And nosy comes the question, What is the use of this benediction? How could grace and peace be given as a blessing to those who rejected grace, and not believing fell no peace? Its validity depended on its reception by the hearts to whom it was addressed. If they received it they became in fact what they had been by right all along. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.)

The apostolic salutations

The praise here bestowed, though not greater than that with which other Epistles are opened, is remarkable as being addressed to a Church which is thought deserving of severe censures. But it is to be observed--

1. That the praise there bestowed on faith and holiness is here almost confined to gifts such as knowledge and wisdom, which were obviously not incompatible with the moral degradation into which some of the members of the Church had fallen. And it is in accordance with the apostles method to seize, in the first instance, on some point of sympathy and congratulation, not merely from a prudential policy, but from natural courtesy and generosity.

2. That this apostolic practice is an exemplification of the general rule, according to which Scripture presents strongly the ideal of the whole without describing the defects and sins of the parts. The visible society of Christians was to the apostles, in spite of its many imperfections, the representation of Messiahs kingdom. And then, although the Christian congregation in each city or country was distinct from the heathen community in which it was situated, it was, as it were, the Christian representative of that community. A Christian of Corinth or Ephesus might travel backwards and forwards from one to the other; but however great were the disorders of the one or the excellences of the other, there was no call upon him to exchange communions unless he actually ceased to reside in Corinth or Ephesus. The supposed duty of gaining proselytes from Christian communities different from our own, and the consequent division of Churches by any other than their local and national designations, are ideas alien from the apostolic age. Spartam nactus es; hanc exorna, was a maxim of apostolical, no less than of Grecian wisdom. No Church of later ages has presented a more striking example of corruption or laxity than was exhibited at Corinth, yet the apostle does not call on his converts to desert their city or their community; and he himself steadily fixes his view on the better and the redeeming side. (Dean Stanley.)

The Church in Corinth

I. The writer--Paul, an Apostle, &c.

1. An apostle is one sent, as Christ was sent by the Father (Joh_17:18). It was therefore an office no one could take to himself, nor was it promotion from previous service. This explains one of Pauls most prominent characteristics: the combination of humility and authority. He is not worthy to be called an apostle, yet he never hesitates to assert his claim to be listened to as the ambassador of Christ. And this is for us all the source of humility and confidence. It is altogether a new strength with which a man is inspired when he knows that God calls him to do this or that.

2. What share in the letter Sosthenes had we cannot say. He may have written it, and he may have suggested a point here and there. Paul did not stay to inquire whether Sosthenes was qualified to be the author of a canonical book; but knowing the authoritative position he had held among the Jews of Corinth, he naturally conjoins his name with his own.

II. The persons to whom this letter is addressed (verse 2).

1. With them are joined all that in every place, &c. And therefore we may gather that Paul would have defined the Church as those who call upon the name of Jesus Christ. This implies trust in Him, and acknowledgment of Him as supreme Lord. It is this which brings men together as a Christian Church.

2. But at once we are confronted with the difficulty that many persons who call upon the name of the Lord do so with no conviction of their need, and with no real dependence upon Christ or allegiance to Him. Hence the distinction between the Church visible, which consists of all who nominally belong to the Christian community, and the Church invisible. Where the visible Church is its members can be counted, its property estimated, its history written. But of the invisible Church no man can fully write the history, or name the members, or appraise its properties, gifts, and service.

3. From the earliest times it has been said that the true Church must be one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. That is true if the Church invisible be meant. But it is not true of the Church visible. Paul here gives us four notes which must always be found in the true Church.

(1) It is composed of consecrated people. The word sanctify means that which is set apart to holy uses. The New Testament word for Church, ecclesia, a society called out, shows that it exists not for common purposes, but to witness for God and Christ and to maintain before men the ideal life realised in Christ.

(2) Its members are called to be saints. This Church was in danger of forgetting this. One of its members had been guilty of immorality; and of him Paul says, Put away from among yourselves that wicked person. Even with sinners of a less flagrant sort, no communion was to be held. No doubt there is risk and difficulty in administering this law. The graver hidden sin may be overlooked, the more obvious transgression be punished. But the duty of the Church to maintain its sanctity is undeniable, and those whose function it is to watch over the purity of the Church would be saved from all doubtful action were the individual members alive to the necessity of holy living.

(3) It is to be found not in one country or age, in this or that Church, whether it assume the title of Catholic or national, but is composed of all that in every place, &c. No visible Church can claim to be catholic on the ground of its being co-extensive with Christendom. Catholicity is not a matter of more or less; it cannot be determined by a majority. No Church which does not claim to contain the whole of Christs people without exception can claim to be catholic.

(4) The Lord of all the Churches is one Lord; in this allegiance they centre, and by it are held together in a true unity. Plainly this note can belong only to the Church invisible. It is doubtful whether a visible unity is desirable. Considering what human nature is and how liable men are to be imposed upon by what is large, it is probably quite as conducive to the spiritual well-being of the Church that she is broken up into parts. Outward divisions would sink into insignificance, and be no more bewailed than the division of an army into regiments, were there the real unity which springs from true allegiance to the common Lord and zeal for the common cause rather than for the interests of our own particular Church. And Christian people are beginning to see how much more important are those points on which the whole Church is agreed than those which split the Church into sects.

4. Paul, with his usual courtesy and tact, begins with a hearty acknowledgment of the distinctive excellences of the Corinthian Church (verses 4-6).

(1) Paul was one of those large-natured men who rejoice more in the prosperity of others than in any private good fortune. Pauls joy was to see the testimony he had borne to Christs goodness and power confirmed by the new energies and capacities in those who believed his testimony. The gifts of the Corinthian Christians made it manifest that the Divine presence and power proclaimed by Paul were real. And it is the new life of believers now which most strongly confirms the testimony regarding the risen Christ.

(2) It is somewhat ominous that the incorruptible honesty of Paul can only acknowledge their possession of gifts, not of those fine Christian graces which distinguished others. But the grace of God must always adjust itself to the nature of the recipient. The Greek nature was lacking in seriousness and moral robustness; but for many centuries it had been trained to excel in intellectual and oratorical displays. These natural gifts were quickened and directed by grace. Each race has its own contribution to make to complete the full-grown Christian manhood.

(a) Paul thanked God for their gift of utterance. Perhaps had he lived now he might have had a word to say in praise of silence. There is more than a risk nowadays that talk takes the place of thought and action. But this utterance was a great gift. In no other language could Christian ideas have found such adequate and beautiful expression. And in this Paul saw promise of a rapid and effective propagation of the gospel. Legitimately may we hope for the Church when she so apprehends her own wealth in Christ as to be stirred to invite all the world to share with her.

(b) But utterance is well backed by knowledge. Often has the determination to satisfy the intellect with Christian truth been reprehended as idle and even wicked. The faith which accepted testimony was a gift of God, but so also was the knowledge which sought to recommend the contents of this testimony to the human mind.

(3) But however rich in endowments the Corinthians must be made to feel that no endowment can dispense with the necessity of conflict with sin. Richly endowed men are often most exposed to temptation, and feel more keenly than others the real hazard of human life. Paul therefore assigns as the reason of his assurance that they will be blameless in the day of Christ, that God is faithful, &c. God calls us with a purpose in view, and is faithful to that purpose. He calls us to the fellowship of Christ that we may learn of Him and become suitable agents to carry out the whole will of Christ. (M. Dods, D. D.)

The call of God is

1. The ground of ministerial authority.

2. The motive to ministerial usefulness. (J. Lyth, D. D.)

The authority of the Christian minister

He is--

1. The messenger of Christ.

2. Divinely called.

3. Set apart by the will of God as indicated by His Providence. (J. Lyth, D. D.)

And Sosthenes our brother.--

Sosthenes a brother

I. Who was Sosthenes?

1. After Paul began work at Corinth, Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, was converted; and that Paul considered his a notable case is proved by the fact that he personally baptized him. But as Paul was compelled to leave the synagogue, it is probable that Crispus would also have to leave; and the fact that Sosthenes is afterwards mentioned as chief ruler implies that Crispus was deposed. Paul continued his lectures next door to the synagogue, and its success would naturally enrage Sosthenes, who was doubtless the head of the conspiracy which led Paul before Gallio. We know the result. The Jews had risen in insurrection; it was now the turn of the Greeks, who made Sosthenes the special object of their attack.

2. That the Sosthenes of the text is the same as he of Act_18:1-28, seems likely.

(1) It is probable that if converted he would leave Corinth. His conversion would create deeper resentment than that of Crispus, for he had been not only chief ruler of the synagogue, but the persecutor of the new religion.

(2) If Crispus had to leave Corinth he would naturally take a deep interest in the Church there, as we do in the home of our first birth and of our second.

(3) Paul would surely regard Sosthenes with special interest. He had himself been a bitter persecutor. And if he had to flee from Corinth it is natural that he should have clung to Paul and Paul to him.

(4) Paul would pray and strive for his conversion. After his acquittal Paul tarried yet a good while at Corinth, and would deeply regret the onslaught on Sosthenes, some of whose assaulters, if not Corinthians, were doubtless attached to Paul, which would lead to an expression of regret on the part of the apostle. And who can tell what such an apology would lead to? Perhaps Paul would, during the interview, refer to his own conversion, and lead his listener to see in it a reflection of his own case. And then, Paul would see in Sosthenes one who was so like what he had been.

(5) Unless this Sosthenes is he of Act_18:1-28. it is difficult to understand why Paul should have here introduced his name, which is not found elsewhere; but if the two are the same nothing is more natural.

II. The lessons.

1. How wonderful in its operations is the grace of God! Here is a man the very last one would expect to become a Christian.

2. Do not be hopeless over any case. Sosthenes was in office, and officials are always difficult to move, and the indignities he suffered would exasperate him against Christianity.

3. Cherish a forgiving spirit. How fully Paul forgave his enemy and admitted him into his friendship.

4. Cultivate kindly feelings towards the Christian friends with whom we have been or are associated. The first Christians Sosthenes knew were at Corinth. At first he hated them, but afterwards he loved them as he had never loved friends before; but the brotherliness was on both sides. (A. Scott.)

To the Church of God.

The term, ἐκκλήσια (church), formed of the two words out of and to call, denotes in ordinary Greek language an assembly of citizens called out of their dwellings by an official summons (cf. Act_19:41)

. Applied to the religious domain in the New Testament, the word preserves essentially the same meaning. Here, too, there is a summoner--God, who calls sinners to salvation by the preaching of the gospel (Gal_1:6). There are the summoned--sinners, called to faith thenceforth to form the new society of which Christ is the Head. The complement of God indicates at once Him who has summoned the assembly, and Him to whom it belongs. The term, the Church of God, thus corresponds to the Old Testament phrase, the congregation of the Lord; but there is this difference, that the latter was recruited by way of filiation, while in the new covenant the Church is formed and recruited by the personal adherence of faith. (Prof. Godet.)

Threefold sanctification

(Jud_1:1, text, and 1Pe_1:2):--Mark the union of the three Divine Persons in all their gracious acts. How unwise all those who make preferences in the Persons of the Trinity. In their love, and in the actions which flow from it, they are one. Specially is this in the case of sanctification. This being the case, what value God must set upon holiness! God could as soon cease to be as cease to be holy, and sooner renounce the sovereignty of the world than tolerate anything unholy. Sanctification means--

I. Setting apart--the taking of something which might legitimately have been put to ordinary uses for Gods service alone.

1. E.g., in Exo_13:2 God claimed the firstborn of men and cattle. The tribe of Levi was set apart to be the representatives of the firstborn. In Gen_2:3, God set apart for His own service what had been an ordinary portion of time before. So Lev_27:14 was meant as a direction to devout Jews, who intended that the produce of the field or the occupation of the house should be wholly given to God. So in Exo_29:44 we read that God said, I will sanctify the tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar. To the same effect are the sanctification of the altar, instruments, and vessels (Num_7:1), the setting apart of Eleazer to keep the ark (1Sa_7:1), and the establishment of cities of refuge (Jos_20:7). This Old Testament use of the word explains Joh_10:26. Immaculately conceived and preserved from all stain of evil, Christ needed no sanctifying work within Him. All that is here intended is that He was set apart (Joh_17:19). You understand now the text in Jude. God the Father has specially set apart His people.

2. What suggestive and solemn thoughts are here.

(1) If we are sanctified by God we ought never to be used for any purpose but for Him. Ye are not your own; ye are bought with a price. But must we not work and earn our own bread? Yes! but still as serving the Lord. If any man say, I have an occupation in which I cannot serve the Lord, leave it, you have no right in it; but there is no lawful calling in which you will not be able to say, I do all to the glory of God. The Christian is no more a common man than was the altar a common place. It is as great a sacrilege for Christians to live to the world as it would have been for the Jews to use the holy fire for their own kitchen.

(2) It was a crime which brought destruction upon Babylon when Belshazzar had brought forth the cups of the Lord, the goodly spoil of the temple at Jerusalem. Just as the sacred vessel touched the sacrilegious lip, a hand was seen mysteriously writing out his doom. Oh, take heed, ye that profess to be sanctified by the blood of the covenant, that you reckon it not to be an unholy thing. See to it that ye make not your bodies which ye profess to be set apart to Gods service, slaves of sin. If you and I are tempted to sin, we must reply, No, let another man do that, but I cannot; I am Gods man. When Antiochus Epiphanes offered a sow on the altar, his awful death might have been easily foretold. Oh! how many there are who make a high profession, who have offered unclean flesh upon the altars of God; have made religion a stalking-horse to their own emolument.

II. That the thing set apart for holy uses is to be regarded, treated, and declared holy.

1. E.g., in Isa_8:13, it is said, Sanctify the Lord of Hosts, Himself. Now the Lord does not need to be set apart for holy uses, nor to be purified, for He is holiness itself. When Nadab and Abihu (Lev_10:1-20.) put strange fire on the altar, and the fire of the Lord consumed them, the reason was--I will be sanctified in them that come nigh Me; by which He meant that He would be treated as a most Holy Being with whom such liberties were not to be taken (see also Num_10:12, and hallowed be Thy name in the Lords Prayer).

2. Have we not some light here concerning our second text--Sanctified in Christ Jesus ? In Christ Jesus the saints are regarded by God as being holy, and treated as such, i.e., are justified. A holy God cannot have dealings with unholy men; but He views us, not in ourselves, but in our federal Head, the Second Adam. We may boldly enter into the Holiest, where no unholy thing may come, because God views us as holy in Christ Jesus. We now come to--

III. Actually to purify or make holy.

1. In Exo_19:10-12 sanctification consisted in certain outward deeds by which they were put into a cleanly state and their souls were brought into reverential awe. In Jos_3:1-17., when Israel were about to pass the Jordan, they were to prepare themselves to be beholders of a scene so august. Men in the old times were sprinkled with blood, and thus sanctified from defilement and considered to be pure in the sight of God. This is the sense in which we view our third text, Sanctification through the Spirit, the sense in which it is generally understood.

2. Sanctification begins in regeneration, and is carried on in two ways--by mortification, whereby the lusts of the flesh are subdued, and vivification, by which the life which God has put within us is made to spring up into everlasting life. This is carried on every day in what we call perseverance, and it comes to perfection in glory. Now this work, though we commonly speak of it as being the work of the Spirit, is quite as much the work of Christ. There are two agents: one is the worker who works this sanctification effectually--that is the Spirit; and the other, the agent, the efficacious means by which the Spirit works this sanctification is--Jesus Christ and His most precious blood. There is a garment which needs to be washed. Here is a person to wash it, and there is a bath in which it is to be washed--the Person is the Holy Spirit, but the bath is the precious blood of Christ.

3. The Spirit of God as the Author of sanctification employs a visible agent. Sanctify them through Thy truth. Thy Word is truth. How important then that the truth should be preached.

4. In another sense we are sanctified through Christ Jesus, because it is His blood and the water which flowed from His side in which the Spirit washes our heart from the defilement and propensity of sin (Eph_5:25). There is no being sanctified by the law; the Spirit does not use legal precepts to sanctify us. No; just as when Marahs waters were bitter, Moses had a tree cast in, and they were sweet, so the Spirit of God, finding our natures bitter, takes the tree of Calvary, casts it into the stream, and everything is made pure. He finds us lepers, and to make us clean He dips the hyssop of faith in the precious blood, and sprinkles it upon us and we are clean. The blood of Christ not merely makes satisfaction for sin, but works the death of sin. The blood appears before God and He is well pleased; it falls on us--lusts wither, and old corruptions feel the death-stroke.

5. Just as the Spirit only works through the truth, so the blood of Christ only works through faith. Our faith lays hold on the atonement, sees Jesus suffering on the tree, and says, I vow revenge against the sins which nailed Him there; and thus His precious blood works in us a detestation of all sin. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Three notes of the Church

I. It is Gods--but to distinguish it from the heathen ἐκκλησίαι--a name never used in profane Greek to denote a religious assembly--but to distinguish it from the κόσμος, which is the antagonist of the kingdom and out of which the Church is called. Though the name ecclesia was borrowed from the clubs or associations of the time, the apostle discovers in it a Christian idea--that of separation from the world. To say that the Church is an ecclesia is to say it is Gods.

II. As a result of its being an ecclesia, the Church is sanctified (cf. Joh_17:16-19). The primary meaning is consecration. The Christian enters into the place hitherto occupied by the Jewish Church. But consecration in its Christian form resolves itself into holiness. Christ takes possession of every morality and raises it into spirituality. All goodness becomes a religion, binding the soul to God. In means that believers are not only sanctified through the offering of Christ (Heb_10:10), but also continue holy in virtue of union with Christ (cf. Rom_15:16)

.

III. It consists of men called to be saints. They are saints by reason of a Divine call from without as well as of a Divine operation from within (cf. Rom_1:6; Lev_23:2)

. The notion of saintship is in Scripture inseparable from that of being reckoned, of being allotted a place by God. (Principal Edwards.)

Grace be unto you, and peace.--

Grace and peace

Grace is favour, and peace its fruits. The former includes all that is comprehended in the love of God as exercised towards sinners; and the latter all the benefits which flow from that love. All good, therefore, whether providential or spiritual, whether temporal or eternal, is comprehended in these terms--justification, adoption, and sanctification, with all the benefits which either accompany or flow from them. These infinite blessings suppose an infinite source; and as they are sought no less from Christ than from God the Father, Christ must be a Divine person. It is to be remarked that God is called our Father, and Christ our Lord. God as God has not only created us, but renewed and adopted us. God in Christ has redeemed us. He is our owner and sovereign, to whom our allegiance is immediately due; who reigns in and rules over us, defending us from all His and our enemies. This is the peculiar form which piety assumes under the gospel. All Christians regard God as their Father and Christ as their Lord. His person they love, His voice they obey, and in His protection they trust. (C. Hodge, D. D.)

The peace of the Christian

Trust God and thy soul shall no longer be like the sea that cannot rest, full of turbulent wishes, full of passionate desires that come to nothing, full of endless meanings, like the homeless ocean that is ever working, and never flings up any product of its work but foam and broken weeds; but thine heart shall become still, like some land-locked lake, where no winds or tempests ruffle, and on its calm surface there shall be mirrored the clear shining of the unclouded blue, and the perpetual light of the sun that never goes down.

No peace without Christ

The vessel in which we are passing over the sea of life is always driven by contrary winds till the Lord embarks. (J. Pulsford.)

Divine blessings

Observe--

I. The blessing we announce.

1. Grace and peace.

2. Needed by all.

3. Offered to all.

II. Their source.

1. God.

2. Our Father.

3. Through Christ.

4. Hence the supply is inexhaustible. (J. Lyth, D. D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Co 1:1. Paul, called to be an apostle — There is great propriety in every clause of the salutation, particularly in this, as there was a faction at this time in the church at Corinth, which pretended to entertain doubts of his apostleship, 1Co 9:1; probably in consequence of insinuations thrown out against it by the Judaizing teacher, or teachers, who had come thither after his departure. The apostle, therefore, begins his letter by informing them, “that he was not, like Matthias, an apostle made by men, neither did he assume the office by his own authority, but he was called to it by Christ himself, who for that purpose appeared to him from heaven.” The original expression, κλητος αποστολος Ιησου Χριστου, is literally, a called apostle of Jesus Christ, or Jesus Christ’s called apostle. Through the will of God — Termed the commandment of God, 1Ti 1:1. This was, to the churches, the ground of his authority; to Paul himself, of an humble and ready mind. By the mention of God, the authority of man is excluded, Gal 1:1; by the mention of the will of God, the merit of Paul, 1Co 15:8, &c. And Sosthenes — If, as most commentators think, this person be that chief ruler of the synagogue at Corinth, mentioned Act 18:17, as active in persecuting Paul, we must suppose that he was afterward converted, and became an eminent preacher of the gospel. And as it seems he had considerable influence among the Corinthians, it was prudence, as well as humility, in the apostle, thus to join his name with his own, in an epistle where he was to reprove so many irregularities. Sosthenes our brother — Probably this word is emphatical; as if he had said, Who, from a Jewish opposer of the gospel, became a faithful brother.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Greeting and Thanksgiving. Partisanship in the Church

St. Paul, after greeting the Church and giving thanks for its spiritual gifts, rebukes the preference for various teachers which was prevalent among them; such a spirit lost sight of Christ crucified, the one subject of all Christian teachers.

1-9. Greeting and Thanksgiving.

1. Called to be an apostle] chosen by God, not self-appointed: see Act_22:17-21. Sosthenes] This may be the ruler of the synagogue of Act_18:17, converted since that time.

2. Sanctified in Christ Jesus] consecrated to God through faith in Christ, having Christ living in them and His influence moulding them. Called to be saints] lit. 'called saints'; because consecrated to Christ. They bore the name and should also show the nature of saints. The holiness of the Church is continually suggested in this Epistle. With all that in every place call] The greeting is extended to include all Christians in the neighbourhood. There was a branch of the Church at Cenchrem, the eastern port of Corinth (2Co_1:1; Rom_16:1). Call upon the name] Prayer was offered to Christ by all Christians from the time of the Ascension, and this is one of the clearest proofs that He was regarded as truly divine (Act_7:59; Act_9:21).

3. Grace be unto you, and peace] St. Paul's invariable greeting to the Churches. Grace is the favour of God, and peace the result of the enjoyment of that favour.

4-9. Paraphrase. 'I praise God continually because through your spiritual union with Christ you have received the gifts of His grace. (5) I am especially thankful because your knowledge of the truth and your ability to give it expression have increased (6) with the increasing response of your spirits to the gospel of Christ. (7) You are thus on an equality with other Churches in respect of spiritual gifts; and you wait and watch for the coming of the Lord, (8) who will keep you faithful, so that none shall reproach you.'

4. I thank my God] St. Paul regarded the Corinthian Church, in spite of its sins and faults, as a true and living Church.

5. Are enriched] RY 'were enriched.' In all utterance, and in all knowledge] The fact that they abused these gifts (1Co_12:3; 1Co_13:1-2; 1Co_14:2-13) did not lead the Apostle to undervalue them.

6. The testimony of Christ] The Apostle's witness to Christ's person and power and saving work was verified by its effects upon the Corinthians.

7. The coming of our Lord] cp. 1Co_4:5; 1Co_7:29; 1Co_15:51; 1Th_4:15; 2Pe_3:4, 2Pe_3:14.

8. Confirm you] keep you steadfast.

9. The fellowship of his Son] i.e. union with Him. This is the keynote of the Epistle, and leads to the thought suggested in the next paragraph, that they who are united to Christ should be united to one another.

(a) 1Co_1:10 to 1Co_4:21. Parties and Party Spirit in the Church

10-17. Paraphrase. 'Brethren, I implore you by the Holy Name of Jesus to abstain from strife and party spirit. I have heard of your disputes and of your use of the names of Apostles and even of Christ's Holy Name as party watchwords. (13-16) Can Christ be claimed as the property of a faction! And are you putting my name on a level with His Sacred Name? I am thankful that I baptised so very few of you that none can say I baptised in my own name. (17) Preaching was my work, not baptism—the preaching of salvation through the Cross of Christ.'

10. By the name of our Lord] The Apostle appeals to them by the Holy Name of Jesus, which itself should remind them of their oneness as His followers, since they had all been baptised into it. Speak the same thing] i.e. agree in calling Christ your only leader. Perfectly joined, etc.] lit. 'adjusted in the same mind and in the same view.' They should be reconciled, and try to be of the same spirit.

11. Chloe] We know nothing of her but her name. 'Those of her house' may have been sons or brothers or servants. Contentions] The 'divisions' of 1Co_1:10 had produced disputes probably at the meetings for worship.

12. This I say] The Corinthian Christians were divided into parties (see Intro.), each professing to follow the teaching and example of a favourite teacher. These parties had not yet separated into opposing sects, but their existence deprived the Church of the power of united action arising from united feeling.

13. Is Christ divided, etc.] see paraphrase. St. Paul reminds the Corinthians indirectly but emphatically of the crucifixion of Christ for them and of their baptism into His name. By the one they had been redeemed from sin; by the other they had been dedicated to Christ's service, and had entered into communion with Him. How then could they put others side by side with their crucified Lord?

Baptized in (RV 'into') the name of Paul] Their baptism did not dedicate them to Paul's service.

14. Crispus] the ruler of the synagogue (Act_18:8). Gaius] see Rom_16:23.

15. Lest any should say] This does not mean that the Apostle refrained from baptising because he had this danger in view, but only that because of the fact that a party had been formed in his name, it was well that he had not baptised, and so laid himself open to misrepresentation.

16. Stephanas] was now with St. Paul (1Co_16:17). He had been the first Corinthian convert (1Co_16:15).

17. Not to baptize] The Apostle reserved himself as far as possible for the work of preaching, and left baptism for the most part to his companions. Not with wisdom of words] i.e. paying attention, not to the manner of presenting the truth, but to the substance of the truth itself.

18-25. The gospel of the crucified Christ is no foolishness to those who know its power. The wisdom of the world has been shown to be mere folly by the wisdom of God in Christ. Men in their wisdom wandered away from God, and it is by this so-called folly of preaching that those who believe, both Jews and Greeks, have been saved.

18. Foolishness] Christ's self-sacrificing death produces no response in some hearts: cp. 2Co_2:15-16. Perish.. are saved] RV 'are perishing.. are being saved.' Salvation is here spoken of as present and progressive. The Apostle is thinking of the work of Christ in sanctifying those who believe. The power of God] Because the lives of those who receive it are transformed by the influence of Christ dwelling in them by His Spirit and moulding them to His will.

19, 20. Paraphrase. 'For God still works in the same way as when overruling the course of history He confounded those who in their boasted wisdom doubted His protection, and sought alliance with Egypt against Assyria. (20) Has He not confounded the wise, both learned Jew and keen-witted Greek, by revealing how little their learning and eloquence have done to save men from sin?'

19. It is written] Quoted from the LXX version of Isa_29:14; Isaiah 21. By wisdom] The Greeks learned nothing of His character from nature or speculation, and the Jews failed to recognise the truth taught in their history and in their law (cp. Romans 1, 2). The foolishness of preaching] St. Paul, of course, is writing sarcastically. Yes! you call it folly; but it is wiser than all your wisdom!

22-24. Paraphrase. 'And this is true, as the facts declare. The Jews will not believe unless a miracle is wrought before their eyes; the Greeks will accept no truth that is not commended by philosophical speculation; (23) but the subject of our preaching is salvation through the crucified Christ—who has by His death set us free from the bondage and from the power of sin—a doctrine which moves the Jews to anger and the Greeks to mirth, (24) but which is true wisdom to us, because we have been delivered from sin and brought to God by the transforming power of Christ.'

23. A stumblingblock] The idea of a crucified Messiah was repugnant to the Jews. Foolishness] The Greeks made a jest of such a religion. As an illustration the raillery of Lucian in a later age may be cited.

24. Them which are called] those whom the message has found responsive. Christ the power.. and the wisdom of God] He is the power of God because He enables the sinner to overcome his sin; and the wisdom of God because He reveals the mind of God and the practicable way of salvation.

25. The foolishness of God] This method of salvation by the Cross of Christ in point of fact saved men from their sins. And thus the so-called foolishness of God was proved in practice to be wiser than the wise methods of men.

26-31. Paraphrase. 'Look at the state of matters in your own Church. There are few among you eminent in the eyes of the world. (27-29) But it is just what is weak and lowly and of no account according to worldly standards that God has chosen to shame what is strong and lofty and worldly-wise; that no man may boast or compare his work with God's. (30) And you Corinthians are the evidences of the work of God in Christ who has saved you from your sins; (31) and so the word of prophecy has been fulfilled that if any one wishes to boast let him boast of what God has wrought for him.'

26. Ye see your calling] RV 'Behold your calling.' Calling] Not 'worldly station,' but God's invitation given through Christ. Not many wise, etc.] The Corinthian Church was composed chiefly of people who from the worldly standpoint were of little account. There were probably many freedmen and slaves in the Church, the former being chiefly engaged in trade. Prof. Ramsay says that the names Fortunatus, Achaicus (1Co_16:17), Gaius (1Co_1:14; Rom_16:23), Tertius (Rom_16:22), and Quartus (Rom_16:23), were those of freedmen, i.e. former slaves, who had been set free or redeemed. 'Gaius was probably a rich freedman to whom the honourable duty of entertaining the guests of the Church was assigned.' Noble] i.e. of noble birth.

28. Base] i.e. of low birth. Things which are not] i.e. mere nonentities: cp. Mat_11:5, Mat_11:25.

Hath God chosen] Thrice emphatically repeated, to mark the fact that all is due to God.

29. That no flesh should glory] because God's call is not given on account of any earthly position or advantage.

30. Who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, etc.] RM 'Who was made unto us wisdom from God, both righteousness and sanctification and redemption,' etc. There are only three co-ordinate terms in the sentence. Righteousness, sanctification and redemption are subordinate to wisdom and descriptive or explanatory of it. Christ is the true wisdom of God, the expression of His desire for our salvation and of His power in accomplishing it. That wisdom is shown in Christ as He first forgives our sins and accepts us as righteous, then goes on to make us pure and holy by His indwelling influence, and finally promises to give us ultimate victory over sin and death, and to raise us to life eternal.

31. He that glorieth] There was nothing of which human wisdom could boast. Philosophy had helped a few intellectual minds, but had never touched the ordinary man. But the Cross made its appeal to the lowly as well as to the noble, and 'the foolishness of God' transformed human lives, delivering them from the bondage of sin and making them 'new creatures' in Christ. Therefore let them glory in God alone.

J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

PART FIRST. PAUL’S ANALYSIS

OF HIS APOSTOLIC RELATIONS, AND ASSERTION OF HIS AUTHORITY OVER THE CHURCH AT CORINTH, 1Co_1:10 to 1Co_4:21.

I. AS A FOUNDER OR ORIGINATOR IN PHILOSOPHY HE IS NOTHING, 1Co_1:10 to 1Co_2:5.

1. He starts from their partisan preferences preparatory to this disclaimer of philosophic leadership, 1Co_1:10-17.

As Corinth was now the proudest, wealthiest, and most dissolute city of Greece, so part of her pride was exercised in philosophy, philosophical lecturing and debate, and the parting into sects or schools under different leaders, as Aristotle, Plato, Zeno, Epicurus, and later philosophs. In olden time, it was proudly remembered, one of the seven sophoi or sages of Greece was Periander of Corinth. Influenced, or, as the apostle expresses it, inflated, (puffed up, 1Co_4:6) with much of this Corinthian spirit, the Church had divided itself as partisans of Christian leaders, among whom Paul finds himself nominated as one.

Apostolic Style and Greeting, 1Co_1:1-3.

1. Paul, called to be an apostle—See note on Rom_1:1. Neander says, “Καλειν, to call, is used to denote the way in which God specially appoints men to any particular end.” Not quite correct. It strictly designates only God’s own act of summoning or inviting to an end. It expresses the divine side of calling; but the human side of obedience to the call being implied, the word does, in cases of obedience, presuppose the consequent assignment of the man to the mission. Notes, Rom_1:1; Rom_8:30; 2Co_8:20.

Will of God—And so not an uncalled apostle, through man’s will only, as we shall find in the two epistles that Paul’s opponents at Corinth maintained.

Sosthenes our brother— Literally, the brother; so that the great apostle and the humble brother unite in this epistle. And this subordinate cooperation of the brother in this epistolizing is beyond question best explained by supposing that Sosthenes (like Tertius in Rom_16:22, and Sylvanus and Timothy in 1Th_1:1) was his amanuensis. And as we find a Corinthian Sosthenes in Act_18:17, (see note on Act_18:8,) so what is called in logic the “law of parsimony,” namely, the law that we should not suppose more things than necessary, requires that we should not make more than one Sosthenes where one will suffice. If Sosthenes, the synagogue-ruler of Corinth, became a Christian, he was, doubtless, the proper man to be Paul’s aid, and his fellow-epistolizer to the Corinthians.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vers. 1-3. The greeting. An opening salutation is found in all the Epistles of St. Paul, and in every Epistle of the New Testament except the Epistle to the Hebrews and the first Epistle of St. John, both of which were more in the nature of treatises than letters.

Paul. After the beginning of the first missionary journey (A.D. 45) he seems to have finally abandoned his Hebrew name of Saul. Called. The word "called" is absent from A, D, E, and other manuscripts, but may have been omitted as superfluous. It occurs in the greeting of Rom_1:1, but not in any other Epistle. The words might also be rendered "a called or chosen apostle." To be an apostle. He uses this title in every letter except the private one to Philemon, the peculiarly friendly and informal one to the Philippians, and the two to the Thessalonians, which were written before the Judaizers had challenged his claim to this title in its more special sense. The Epistle to the Romans is the first in which he calls himself "a slave of Jesus Christ". (comp Php_1:1; Tit_1:1; James. 2Pe_1:1 Jud_1:1) It was necessary for him to assert his right to the apostolate in the highest sense of the word, as one who had received from Christ himself an authority equal to that of the twelve (see 1Co_9:1-5 1Co_15:9; 2Co_11:5 2Co_12:11, 2Co_12:12; Gal_1:1-19, etc.) Of Jesus Christ. In the Gospels the word "Christ" is all but invariably the Christ," i.e. the Anointed, the Messiah. It is the designation of the office of Jesus as the promised Deliverer. We trace in the New Testament the gradual transition of the word from a title into a proper name. In the two names together our Lord is represented as "the Saviour," and the anointed Prophet, Priest, and King, first of the chosen people and then of all mankind. Through the will of God. (comp 2 Corinthians; Ephesians; Colossians; 2Ti_1:1) This special call to the apostleship is emphatically expanded in Gal_1:1. The vindication of the Divine and independent claim was essential to St. Paul"s work. It was not due to any personal considerations, but to the necessity of proving that no human authority could be quoted to overthrow the gospel which was peculiarly "his gospel" (see Gal_1:11; Eph_3:8) of which one main feature was the freedom of the Gentiles from the yoke of Judaic bondage. And Soathenes. The association of one or more brethren with himself in the greeting of his letters is peculiar to St. Paul. Silas and Timothy are associated with him in 1 and 2 Thessalonians; and Timothy, though so much his junior, in 2 Corinthians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon; doubtless he would have been associated with St. Paul in this Epistle had he not been absent. (1Co_4:17 1Co_16:10) The practice arose partly from St. Paul"s exquisite courtesy and consideration towards his companions, partly from his shrinking from mere personal prominence. It is owing to the same reasons that in the earlier Epistles he constantly uses "we" for "I," and sometimes when he can only be speaking of himself. (1Th_2:18) But even in the Epistles to the Thessalonians he sometimes relapses from "we" into "I". (2Th_2:5) Our brother; literally, the brother; i.e. one of "the brethren". (comp 2Co_1:1) Of Sosthenes nothing whatever is known. He may possibly be the amanuensis whom St. Paul employed for this letter. Later tradition, which in such matters is perfectly valueless, spoke of him as" one of the seventy disciples, and Bishop of Colophon" (Eusebius, "Hist. Ec:," 1:12). There is a Jewish Sosthenes, a ruler of the synagogue, in Act_18:17; but it is only a vague conjecture that he may have been subsequently converted, and may have joined St. Paul at Ephesus. It is obvious that the persons named in the greetings of the Epistles were not in any way supposed to be responsible for their contents, lot St. Paul begins with "I" in ver. 4. Brother. At this time there was no recognized title for Christians. In the Acts they are vaguely spoken of as "those of this way." Among themselves they were known as "the saints," "the faithful," "the elect." The name "Christians" was originally a nickname devised by the Antiochenes. In the New Testament it only occurs as a designation used by enemies. (Act_11:26 Act_26:28 1Pe_4:16)

Vers. 1-3.

To feel, to be, and to desire.

called to be an apostle," etc. This salutation of Paul suggests

(1) what all minister"s should feel;

(2) what all Christians should be; and

(3) what all men should desire.

I WHAT ALL MINISTERS SHOULD FEEL. They should feel:

1. That they have a call to their mission. Paul did so. "Called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God." No man will do his work effectively in any sphere unless he is assured in his own mind that he is called to it. The inner evidence of this call is sympathy with the work and aptitude for it.

2. That their call is Divine. Paul felt called "through the will of God." It is one thing to feel you have a call to a mission, and another thing to feel that call is Divine. The predominence of the sympathy and the pre-eminence of the aptitude will give this assurance. No man succeeds in any mission unless he feels called to it.

II WHAT ALL MEN SHOULD BE. The description given of the persons addressed suggests what all men should be. What?

1. Religiously social. They should be identified with a religious community. "The Church of God which is at Corinth." All men should be in fellowship with the good, not isolated.

2. Consecrated to Christ. "Sanctified in Christ Jesus." Set apart to him, devoted to him, and thus "called to be saints." Called to live holy lives. "In every place call upon the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord." A reverent, conscious dependence on him everywhere.

3. A catholic participation in Christ. "Both theirs and ours." There are those who feel that Christ is their special property, they would monopolize him. An un-Christly feeling this. The feeling should be our Christ. "Our Father which art in heaven." There is no personal Christianity that is not catholic in spirit.

III WHAT ALL MEN SHOULD DESIRE. "Grace he unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ." In this we have the highest philanthropy a philanthropy that desires for man:

1. The highest good. "Grace and peace." If men have these they have all.

2. The highest good from the highest Source. "God the Father." Men need this good; Heaven only can bestow it.

HOMILIES BY C. LIPSCOMB. Vers. 1-9.

St. Paul and the apostleship.

First of all, HE ASSERTS THE DIVINE AUTHORITY OF HIS OFFICE, to which he was "called though the will of God." This pro found sense of the dignity belonging to his vocation, as one sent of God, was a supreme principle of his nature; not an opinion, but a conviction, and a conviction too strong to be dislodged from its central seat in his mind by any assault of adverse circumstances. It must needs be subjected to manifold and severe tests, since in this way alone can a conviction be made available for the highest moral uses. Owing to his exceptional position, St. Paul underwent, in this respect, a series of peculiar trials which distinguish him from the other apostles, so that, while he shared with them the persecution incident to the apostolate in itself, he had an experience of its perplexities and sorrows, personal to himself, in the distinctive and supplementary attitude he was ordained to maintain. Like all men, he had fluctuant moods, the ebb and flow of emotion with its reflex influence on intellect and volition. His natural temperament was extremely sensitive, and it was aggravated by hardship and disease. The blood that warmed and the nerves that thrilled under the touch of outward agencies, had their counterpart in the sensibility of his spiritual life, and, accordingly, body and soul were in singularly close partnership in his nature, and acted and interacted very powerfully on each other. Yet, in spite of this liability to the moods of subjective sensations and internal impressions, the conviction of his call to be an apostle of the Lord Jesus, and to exercise his Divine endowments in a specific way, stood altogether apart from the variations of ordinary thought and feeling, and held its strength of consciousness unimpaired throughout his career. So strong and yet so beautiful; humility the ornament of its energetic vigour, so that while he starts with "Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ," he loses not a moment, but in the opening verse of the Epistle introduces "Sosthenes our brother." Not a trace of Sosthenes appears in the Epistle; the production is Pauline to the core; and yet St. Paul would associate with him "Sosthenes our brother." If St. Paul is about to rebuke intellectual pride and vanity, and condemn the evil partisanship that grows out of selfishness and disguises an inflated personality under the mask of homage to a great leader, what more fitting words can he utter on the threshold of his letter than "Sosthenes our brother," whose name was no battle cry of faction? Naturally enough, this sense of unity in St. Paul"s mind with all Christians finds immediate vent in addressing "the Church of God" at Corinth, "with all that in every place call upon the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord," adding with touching expressiveness, "both theirs and ours." A true sense of manhood is always known by its prompt and hearty identification with the manhood of the race. All growth and culture advance from the individual and the personal towards the universal, until at last the providential work of development on earth accomplished the narrow horizon that was quite sufficient for youth and early manhood, widens to the reach of the world. When we find this circumference, we find our real centre. Not otherwise can a man attain genuine individuality. For the light that blesses his eyes, for the air that feeds his lungs, for the food nourishing bodily strength, he is a debtor to the universe. And it is the aim of Christianity to call out and perfect the latent vigour of this instinct of race, and, but for its Divine office, the sentiment were impossible as a spiritual actuality. No wonder, then, that St. Paul announces to the mixed population of Corinth to Romans, Greeks, Asiatics, in the Corinthian Church the doctrine of grace for all, and emphasizes the gift as "both theirs and ours" The formative thought of the first chapter is thus intimated. To prepare for its enlargement, he reminds the Corinthians that it was as a Church arid in their organic capacity they were "saints;" that, as members of Christ"s body, they had been "enriched by him in all utterance, and in all knowledge;" and then proceeds to show that the faithfulness of God was pledged to their continued progress in this selfsame line of direction, viz. fellowship in Christ Jesus as the Son of God and Lord of humanity. Here, as everywhere in St. Paul"s writings, the two ideas of the Divine and the human in Christ are assumed as the ground of our fellowship in him and with one another; brethren because disciples, one below because one above, the strength and purity and permanence of the tie between man and man in this fellowship being determined solely by our union in him. On no other basis could the word "fellowship" have taken its specialized place in the vocabulary of Christianity. The contents of the term outreach what we ordinarily mean by respect, confidence, intercourse, and like expressions, and signify a deep sense of equality, of the recognition of common rights and privileges, and of a sympathy that has its roots, not in the shallow soil of races and their latitude and longitude as geographical facts, but in One who was the Representative in a peculiar and exclusive manner of the human race. Fellowship is an acknowledgment of redemption. It is not union alone, but a vital unity, a communion of man with man, and as man by means of communion with God in Christ a bond that exists between spirit and spirit through the common grace of the Holy Ghost, as the Executive of the Father and the Son in the heart of every believer. Who knew more of the intensity of race-blood, of its subtle force, of its open and virulent activity in all the practical questions of the age, of its perpetuated and unyielding traditions, of its frantic emergence on every occasion unless repressed by the arm of authority, who understood this better than St. Paul, himself a notable example for years of its power to blind common sense and stupefy common instincts? And where was there a city of such miscellaneous activity of mind and such collisions of inherited beliefs and such ill-adjusted public life as this same Corinth a huge reservoir for all the tributary streams of civilization that had washed down into its bosom whatever had survived of the degeneracy in Asia Minor, in Egypt, in Italy? Yet this St. Paul is the man to speak of fellowship, and this Corinth is the community to which he would address himself in behalf of the grace "both theirs and ours. L.

HOMILIES BY E. HURNDALL

Vers. 1-3.

Christian salutation.

I CHRISTIAN SALUTATION SHOULD BE COURTEOUS. Christianity teaches the truest politeness. It seeks to eradicate the harsh and the brutal. Life is rough enough without our making it rougher; Christianity tends to smooth the ruggedness of life and to make it more kindly. Courtesy in others towards ourselves we greatly value; we have to be towards others what we would have them to be towards us. Paul"s courtesy is evidently of the right type it is heart-courtesy. Surface courtesy is of little worth. Besides which it is a lie.

II CHRISTIAN SALUTATION SHOULD BE GENEROUS. Paul"s is not conceived in a carping spirit. There is a disposition to look upon the better side. The Corinthian Church afforded plenty of inducement to severity in an exordium. The apostle declined the temptation. He knew the way to the human heart, and, whilst reserving needed rebuke, he saluted his Corinthian friends (and enemies) in a manner certain to impress them as charitable and large-hearted. Whilst strictly adhering to truth, we must, if we would win men, manifest a spirit of generosity. We are sometimes so terribly afraid of saying too much, that we say altogether too little. We are severely anxious to be just, and become really unjust. Large heartedness is attractive, and wins; stinginess in sentiment is repulsive, and loses. Insistance upon the dark side often makes it darker. Men need encouragement as well as lecturing, and the exhibition of a noble, sympathetic, generous spirit is one of the most encouraging spectacles that men who are erring and imperfect can be called to look upon.

III CHRISTIAN SALUTATION SHOULD BE CHEERFUL. Many burdens pressed upon the apostle"s heart, but he nevertheless gives a cheery greeting to the Corinthians. To start with a groan is not propitious. We have sometimes cause for sorrow; we have always cause for joy if we are in Christ. To wave the black flag is to give but poor welcome. We are to rejoice in the Lord always, and in saluting our brethren we may well let this joy beam forth. Glumness and dismalness are not the chief of the Christian graces, though some seem to think they are. We are not looking forward to a funeral, but to a wedding marriage supper of the Lamb." In Christian intercourse a little more brightness and gladness would not be out of place.

IV CHRISTIAN SALUTATION MAY WELL BE EXTENSIVE. We are one family, and all the members have a claim upon our good wishes. Paul"s greeting, is not too selective; his sympathies go out to all who call upon the Name of the Lord. Some are very fond of saluting the rich, and have no fondness for saluting the poor. One might suppose that a serious mistake had been made in the non-calling of many wise and mighty and noble, for some of God"s people seem to care for no others. Paul sent an equal greeting to the Corinthian believers; his sentiment was unaffected by poverty, ignorance, feebleness, or obscurity. Our love is apt to become cramped. The very best of us tend to love the lovely Christian, and to give the cold shoulder to the unlovely. We need more of the Spirit of the One who came to help the sinful and the unattractive, and who "loved the world.

V CHRISTIAN SALUTATION SHOULD NOT BE EMPTY. Much salutation says nothing and means it. Paul"s salutation is very ample and full of significance. He desires for the Corinthians the grace or favour of God and Christ the Divine love to be manifested towards them. "In his favour is life". (Psa_30:5) All blessing from God to be their portion. And peace as the result of this the inward assurance of the friendship of God, that sin is pardoned, that "all things are yours." Under the terms of the apostolic greeting all good, whether providential or spiritual, temporal or eternal, is included.

VI CHRISTIAN SALUTATION SHOULD SAVOUR MUCH OF CHRIST.

1. Here Christ is frequently named; but in no affected or canting way. It is a pity that when men talk of Christ in friendly intercourse they so often become intensely unnatural. The holy naturalness of Paul when talking of his Master is refreshing.

2. Here is much of the spirit of Christ. The salutation breathes forth love, tenderness, unselfishness, great heartedness, and intense sympathy. H.

Vers. 1-9.

The approach to rebuke.

The occasion of this letter was largely furnished by the need of rebuke. The Corinthian Church had erred grievously. To rebuke is frequently painful, but when called for it should not be shrunk from; not to rebuke under such circumstances is unalloyed cruelty. To rebuke, often painful, is always perilous. By maladroitness we may easily drive men from the right instead of drawing them to it. Unwise rebuke adds to the ill. We need to prepare for rebuke if when we reach it we would not deserve its infliction, Note the apostolic procedure. We have here one of the finest examples of preparing men"s minds for well deserved censure.

I REMARK SOME GENERAL FEATURES OF THIS PREPARATORY ADDRESS. We find in it:

1. Courtesy. A graceful and gracious salutation. The apostle does not rush into harsh words. He shows no eagerness to condemn. Roughness and rudeness add no strength to admonition.

2. Affection. This pervades every sentence, and culminates in the opening of the tenth verse, "Now I beseech you," etc. Love keeps in cheek apostolic authority and righteous indignation. We shall not injure delinquents by loving them very much. Nothing can make rebuke more telling than administering before and after and with it, unaffected love. If men see that we are unwilling to rebuke them, they will be very much more likely to accept our rebuke. To enjoy rebuking is to demonstrate our total unfitness for it.

3. Candour. The condemnation is not to be wholesale. Some can see nothing but fault in those who err, but the apostle perceives excellences. tie generously acknowledges spiritual attaimnent and endowment. To blind our eyes to the good is to make ourselves powerless to remove the bad. Many rebukes have worse than failed through lack of strict honesty in the rebuker. The "candid friend" has often proved very uncandid.

4. Wisdom.

(1) He turns the thought of the Corinthians to their oneness (ver. 2). His message is to them as one people in Christ: The Church at Corinth not the Churches. The Church of God not of many leaders. Presently he will have to censure them for lack of unity.

(2) He prays that they may have more "grace." Soon he will show that they need it. The Church has been boasting of its man power; Paul thinks its great need is God power enlightenment, guidance, help from above.

(3) He desires that they may have "peace "from God not without an eye to their divisions and quarrels. He is wisely preparing his way.

5. Absence of pomposity and of assumption of superiority. It is not the great man speaking to the infinitesimal; nor the spotless to the utterly depraved. Paul gets as near to the Corinthians as he can. He seems to remember that his Master was made in the likeness of men. (Php_2:7) "Come not near to me, for I am holier than thou," is likely to make people keep their distance and have nothing to do with us or our words. Not without wise humility has "Sosthenes our brother "a place in the salutation.

6. Yet the apostolic authority is not lost sight of. It may be well to show that we are entitled to rebuke that we are not assuming an office to which we have no claim. Rebukes should come from proper quarters. Paul was the "apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God." It was manifestly within his province to point out blemishes in the Christian Church and to reprove evil doers.

II NOTE HOW EARNESTLY HE STRIVES TO TURN THEIR THOUGHTS TO GOD AND TO CHRIST. This is, perhaps, the most striking feature of these introductory verses. Read the passage and note the extraordinary number of times mention is made of God and of Christ. The connection of this with the coming rebuke is apparent. The Corinthians have forgotten God, and therefore they have gone astray. Christ has become less and less to them, and so they have sinned more and more. We quarrel with one another very easily when we get away from our Master. We grow carnal swiftly when God begins to pass out of our thoughts. With heavenly wisdom the apostle floods the minds of the Corinthians with thoughts of God and of Christ. If they can be brought into the light of the Divine presence they will see their corruption, and standing once again before Jehovah they will be made ready to receive and not to resent a deserved and much needed rebuke. If they can be brought again well within the attractive influence of the marvellous self sacrifice and love of their Lord, self will will become crucified, pride humbled, and grateful life and service compelled. Note more particularly:

1. The apostle traces his apostleship to Christ and God. He stands before the Corinthians as the appointed representative of their Lord. The position he assumes was given to him by Christ through the will of God. We are what Christ makes us.

2. They are the Church of God, sanctified in Christ Jesus, and their oneness with all other Christians is through Christ (ver. 2).

3. All that they have received, and in which they glory so much, has come from God and from Christ (vers. 4-6).

4. Their right position is one of waiting for the revelation of Christ (ver. 7).

5. Their continuance in the faith and their perfection at last are made to depend upon Christ.

6. At first they were called by God into the fellowship of Christ. Memories of conversion time are potent. Paul thus strives in every way to take the Corinthians to their Father and to their Lord. The battle of Christian rebuke is half won when gracious thoughts of God and Christ are revived. Erring Christians are likely to be brought to their senses when they are brought to their Master.

III THE APOSTLE REMINDS HIS READERS OF CERTAIN THINGS, AND IN THIS WAY PREPARES THEM FOR WHAT IS TO FOLLOW.

1. Their Christian profession. They are sanctified or supposed to be. They are known as "saints," and therefore should live as such.

2. Past mercies, privileges, honours. (Vers. 4-7.) These are so many arguments to seek the Divine pleasure and not their own. And this can be done only by renouncing the evil and cleaving to the good. All the redeemed are laid under infinite obligation to live unto the Lord.

3. God"s faithfulness to them. (Ver. 9.) A great argument that they should be exemplary towards him and his kingdom.

4. What they are looking forward to. (Ver. 7.) Soon they will be in the visible presence of Christ. We are not far from the judgment. Well may we bear rebuke here, that we may escape rebuke there. H.

HOMILIES BY H. BREMNER Vers. 1-3.

The salutation.

As usual in Paul"s Epistles, this preface contains the name of the writer, the persons addressed, and a prayer for blessing. We have

I APOSTOLIC AUTHORITY. Paul"s authority as an apostle was disparaged by some at Corinth, who regarded him as inferior to the twelve.

Each of the opposing factions had its favourite teacher (ver. 12), and party spirit led them to decry all but their own. In opposition to this, the apostle opens his letter by presenting his credentials. As an apostle, he was:

1. Called. He had not taken this office of himself.

2. Called by Jesus Christ. He had not been elected by the Church, nor commissioned by any of the twelve, but had been directly appointed and consecrated by the Lord himself. "Not from men, neither through man, but through Jesus Christ, and God the Father". (Gal_1:1)

3. Called through the will of God. This is the ultimate ground. His apostleship rests on Divine authority. In thus magnifying his office, (Rom_11:13) Paul shows his own humility. Learn:

(1) Every true worker has a call to his work. This is true of secular as of spiritual work. Natural aptitude, hereditary position, providential circumstances, may clearly indicate to each man his calling. For spiritual office there must be a spiritual call the call of Christ. What mischief is done in the Church and in the world by men intruding into office without a call!

(2) The consciousness of this call is a source of strength. Let a man be assured that he is doing the work assigned him by God, and nothing will stand before him; but if he doubts, he is weak. The apostle, the preacher, the missionary, the teacher, need above all to have this assurance.

(3) Look well to the credentials of all that profess to speak in the Name of Christ. "Prove the spirits, whether they are of God". (1Jn_4:1) To follow a false prophet is as dangerous as the refusal to listen to a true one.

II MARKS OF THE CHURCH. The description of those to whom Paul writes gives us some notes of the Church of Christ. Its members are:

1. Called. This designation is implied in the word translated "Church" (ejkklhsia), which is the body of those that have been called out from the world. There is an outer and an inner call the invitation of the gospel addressed to all, and the effectual call of the Holy Spirit in compliance with which the sinner arises and comes to Christ. This last is the call referred to here. Every believer has come out from his old position in obedience to a Divine summons. The work of grace in the heart is not a thing of constraint. It is a call addressed to men with such sweetly persuasive power

2. that they cannot but come to him who calls (comp. ver. 9; 2 Timothy Heb_9:15; 1Pe_5:10)

3. Consecrated. This is the root thought in the words "sanctify" and "saints." The believer is separated from the world by the Divine call and set apart for God. Israel was the people of Jehovah, sacred to him. Animals devoted in sacrifice could never be turned to any common use. Even so Christians are "not their own", (1Co 5:18, 1Co 5:19) but "living sacrifices" unto God. (Rom_12:1) They are "an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God"s own possession". (1Pe_2:9) What a powerful factor in Christian life should this thought of consecration be! Devoted in Christ Jesus unto God!

3. Holy. This follows naturally from the foregoing mark. Consecration and holiness are the elements of sanctification. Believers are called to holiness. (1Pe_1:15) They are separated from the world in standing that they may be separated from it in character. (2Co_6:14-18) The Church at Corinth existed in the midst of a community that was fearfully corrupt. How significant for them these marks of consecration and holiness! Their Christian life could not be safe if they did not hold themselves aloof from the evil around them, and regard themselves as holy unto the Lord. Believers now, as then, must keep themselves" unspotted from the world," for the sake of their spiritual health and their mission as the "salt of the earth.

4. Prayerful. They "call upon the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ." They worship him as Lord. This is the distinguishing mark of Christians everywhere. They "honour the Son even as they honour the Father". (Joh_5:23) The believer is a man of prayer. Jesus Christ is to him a living Presence, near to hear and help. He worships him in the manifested glory of his person and perfection of his work. A prayerless Christian is a contradiction in terms.

5. One in a common Lord. The Church Catholic is one in Christ. True unity does not consist in anything outward, as in a visible head, an identical creed, a uniform government; but in spiritual union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Hence geographical divisions, denominational differences, do not destroy the Church"s unity. All believers are branches of the same vine, (Joh_15:5) members of the same body. (1Co_12:12) The diverging radii of the circle find their point of union in the centre. A rebuke to the spirit of faction so strong in the Corinthian Church. A warning against the narrowing influence of country or sect. The Church is not a mere club. The communion of saints is fellowship "with all that call on the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ." These marks suggest:

(1) The distinction between the Church visible and the Church invisible. The Church visible consists of all that profess the religion of Christ, among whom there may be many that are not true believers. The Church invisible consists of all that are in living union with Christ the Head all that have the marks here given. Paul addresses the actual Christian community at Corinth as "the Church of God," although it was disfigured by many corruptions. A field of wheat may have many weeds growing in it, but you still call it a field of wheat. The field as it is is a picture of the Church visible; remove the weeds so as to leave nothing but the pure wheat, and you have the Church invisible. There never has been a perfectly pure Church on earth. While striving to debar from her communion all that is manifestly unholy, absolute purity can never be laid down as a test of whether a Church is true or false.

(2) A test of Christian profession. Have we the marks here specified? Have we been called? Are we consecrated? etc.

III THE APOSTOLIC BENEDICTION. "Grace to you and peace." This is the usual form of the apostolic blessing (Rom_1:7; 2Co_1:2, etc.) Sometimes there is added "mercy" (1 Timothy; 2Ti_1:2) and in Jud_1:2 we have "mercy, peace, and love." Grace and peace include all the blessings of salvation.

1. Grace. The grace of God is a manifestation of love. It is the free kindness of God towards the guilty and ill deserving. Grace and Mercy are twin sisters sent forth by Love to bless sinful men. They come to us hand in hand, alike, yet different. Grace looks upon the guilty and speaks words of pardon; Mercy looks upon the miserable and stretches out the hand of pity. The idea of grace runs through the whole work of redemption from beginning to end. In purpose, plan, progress, perfection, all is of grace. The prayer that grace may be to a Christian means that he may realize and make his own the grace of God in all the fulness of its manifestation. Grace as a principle in the heart, the inner working of the Holy Spirit, enables us to appropriate the grace of God in Christ. The apostolic wish covers the whole of the Christian life, more particularly:

(1) The grace that justifies. We are "justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus". (Rom_3:24) "It is of faith, that it may be according to grace". (Rom_4:16) Faith brings us immediate pardon and acceptance with God for the sake of Jesus Christ; yet this is not always realized as a fact. The consciousness and comfort of this will not be enjoyed till it is seen how thoroughly it is of grace.

(2) The grace that sanctifies. Sin as a polluting and perverting power must be overcome, and the fair features of our Father brought clearly out. This also is of grace. Christ was made unto us sanctification (ch. 1:30), and this becomes ours through the gracious operation of the Spirit (2Th_2:13; 1Pe_1:2) Grace reigns where formerly sin reigned, (Rom_5:21)

(3) The grace that strengthens. (2Ti_2:1)

(a) In service. (Php_4:13)

(b) In temptation. (Heb_2:18)

(c) In trouble. (2Co_8:9)

(d) In death (Psa_23:4; 1Co_15:57)

(4) The grace that glorifies. (Psa_84:11)

2. Peace. Peace is the fruit of grace. It may be regarded as covering all the blessings which grace bestows. The angels sang of "Peace on earth", (Luk_2:14) as the sum of the good things to be brought by the Prince of Peace. It includes:

(1) Peace with God. (Rom_5:1) By faith we are justified, our sins being put away and we ourselves accepted as righteous; and thus we are "reconciled to God through the death of his Son". (Rom_5:10) Henceforth there is friendship between us and God. We become sons of, (Rom_8:14-17) and have "fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ". (1Jn_1:3) There is a mutual love between God and us, as between father and child. This leads to:

(2) Peace within ourselves. The knowledge that we are reconciled to God begets an inward calm. We are filled with "peace in believing". (Rom_15:13) "The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, guards our hearts and our thoughts in Christ Jesus". (Php_4:7) Christ gives us his own peace (Joh_14:27) that ineffable oneness with the Father in which his own deep joy lay; and this peace rules in our hearts. (Col_3:15) Such a peace springs only from reconciliation to God. "There is no peace unto the wicked". (Isa_48:22) Only whenmen discovered that the sun is the centre of our planetary system did all its parts move in harmony; only when our nature finds its centre in Christ is it truly at peace with itself. Grace and peace come to us "from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." The gifts of grace come to us from God, but only through Jesus Christ. The inspired writers never hesitate to join the Name of Christ with that of God the Father. The true Godhood of our Lord is everywhere taken for granted, rather than formally asserted. How great must be the grace and the peace that come to us thus! B.

HOMILIES BY R. TUCK

Vers. 1-9.

Paul"s claim to apostleship.

The personal appearance and characteristic disposition of Paul, with the particular circumstances which led to the writing of this letter, and roused intense personal feeling, form a fitting introduction. Paul blends Sosthenes with himself in the salutation, partly because of this man"s connection with Corinth, (see Act_18:17) partly as an answer to those who charged him with making too much of himself and his apostolic rights. By associating this name in the address, Paul intimates that he did not desire to make himself the sole guide of the Church, nor would he put himself before Christ in the thought of the people. The general idea of apostleship is mission. An apostle is a sent one, or a commissioned one. It was applied to other than the twelve, or thirteen, usually so called; Barnabas and Silas coming under this classification. As applied to the "twelve" (either as including Judas or Matthias), the term involves personal knowledge of Christ and direct reception of the commission from him. (Act_1:21, Act_1:22)

I THE GROUND OF PAUL"S CLAIM. It could not rest on personal knowledge of Christ"s ministry. We have no good reason for assuming that Paul ever saw Christ in the flesh. That, however, was not the more essential of the two qualifications. Paul had received a direct call to his office from the Lord himself. For the historical facts, see Act_9:13:2. Such a direct call did not involve infallibility; but it did form a ground for feeling personal confidence, for speaking with prophetic boldness, and for exercising measures of authority. More especially when we find the "call" was followed up with signs of the Divine presence and approval in the working of miracles. Paul ever makes much of the directness of his "call." This point he most emphatically insists on when writing to the Galatians. (Gal_1:1, Gal_1:11, Gal_1:12) It is characteristic of Paul"s training and habit of thought, as a Jew, that even this "call" from Christ should be conceived only as agency carrying out the sovereign and holy "will and purpose of God the Father. It was, through all the ages, a characteristic of pious Jews that they traced everything to God"s supreme will, and saw that will working through all. Compare and illustrate by the Mohammedan conception of Islam, or submission to the will of God.

II THE SPECIAL FEATURES OF PAUL"S COMMISSION. It was in full harmony with, yet perfectly distinct from, that of the other apostles. Such distinction may be traced in its sphere. He was to go to the Gentiles, and find opportunities of labour among them. He was the pioneer of Christian missions to the Gentile world. But adaptation to this sphere and work involved a further distinction in the subject of his commission. There is a marked individuality in the form of Paul"s presentation of the truth in Christ. We must give full recognition to that individuality, and its adaptation to the thought and life of the people among whom Paul laboured; but we should carefully guard against exaggerations which would set Paul"s apprehension of the Christian truths out of harmony with that of the earlier apostles. Paul"s leading subject may be thus stated: Christ is risen; then his life work is accepted by God; and he is living, prepared for direct saving relations with all who look to him in penitence and faith. To enter into direct, personal, living relations with Christ is to find perfect freedom from all other religious or ecclesiastical bondages, old or new.

Apply by showing what is the call to Christian office and ministry now. There is a selection of men by Divine endowment and Divine providence. These two go together, and the recognition of them may be made by other than the man himself. Such a "call" still involves teaching power, persuasive influence, and gracious authorities. R.T.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CRITICAL NOTES

1Co_1:1. Called (to be) an apostle.—Only here and in Rom_1:1. For exact force choose between, (a) one of Christ’s “called” ones, who am also, in point of fact, an apostle; and (b) called specially to this, that I might be one of Christ’s apostles [q.d. perhaps, “Though at Corinth there are some who say that I was not so called”]. Both are true; the latter here more likely. The external call and ordination of the Church (Act_13:1-2) coinciding with, and following upon, the internal and primary call of Christ Himself (Act_22:17-21). By the will of God.—Shutting out, (a) man’s authority, (b) any personal merit in Paul. Sosthenes.—Not certainly he of Act_18:17, though Bengel believes the beating had the happy effect of making him a Christian; as, similarly, the impressment of Simon of Cyrene may have made him and his wife and sons Christians (Mar_15:21; Rom_16:13).

1Co_1:2. Church of God.—So he calls it (but query the reading?) a little later (Act_20:28). New Testament equivalent of Old Testament “congregation of Jehovah” (e.g. Num_16:3; Deu_23:2). In Corinth.—In Corinth, of all unlikely places! (see Homily). Sanctified.—Note the perfect tense. A sanctification of relation to God (as 1Co_7:14), established at a definite date in the past, continuing into the present. Called (to be) saints.—Parallel to Paul’s call to office (1Co_1:1). Call upon the name.—As Ananias bade Paul do, when he was becoming a Christian (Act_22:16) [N. B. reading]. As Paul had heard Stephen do (Act_7:59) [cf. Paul’s “I appeal (same word) unto Cæsar” (Act_25:11). But this only illustrates a special case of the “calling upon.” Word covers whole range of Prayer, as in the Old Testament equivalent and LXX. parallels]. With all, etc.—Q.d. “I am not writing to you only, though to you primarily and immediately, i.e. my letter to you is also for all who invoke Christ in their prayers, everywhere and in all ages” [cf. Rev_2:7, where what Christ says to Ephesus the Spirit says to the Churches]. Theirs and ours.—Most probably, “Their (Lord) and ours.”

1Co_1:3.—Claudius Lysias (Act_23:26), and even James (1Co_1:1) and the Council at Jerusalem (Act_15:23), begin with “Greeting,” the ordinary secular phrase. Here enlarged and ennobled by the Gospel into “grace,” joined with the Old Testament “peace.” Note how, as matter of course, Paul makes Christ a concurrent and co-ordinate source of grace with the Father.

1Co_1:4.—Dean Howson (Hulsean Lectures, Character of St. Paul, iv.) remarks upon this and many similar incidental indications of Paul’s tendency to break out into praise or prayer. “Pray without ceasing; in everything [even for the good in a Church so full of evils as the Corinthian] give thanks.”

1Co_1:4. My God.—“My,” q.d. not only, “Whose I am, and whom I serve” (Act_27:23), but also, “Whom I know, and call, and claim Mine!” (Php_4:19). “We belong to each other! I am His; He is mine. Note, “was given,” “were enriched” (R.V.).

1Co_1:5.—“The grace,” namely this, that “ye were enriched.” Note, in Him” (R.V.). Cf. Col_2:9, “In Him dwelleth all the fullness, … and in Him ye are made full.” All utterance, all knowledge.—How glorious and serviceable, but rare, a combination of gifts! How “enriched” the man, the Church, who can speak in all needed modes of expression, all needed, or possible, phases of divine knowledge!

1Co_1:6. Even as.—Q.d. your enrichment is after the glorious measure and fulness of the confirmation. The testimony.—Whose great, central subject and burden is Christ. Was confirmed.—A special instance of Mar_16:20. Other cases: Act_2:4 (tongues), Act_2:43 (wonders and signs), Act_10:44; Act_10:46 (Cornelius), Act_19:1-6 (Baptist’s converts at Ephesus).

1Co_1:7.—Q.d. “Whilst ye are, as the normal attitude of the Christian life, waiting for” (cf. 2Pe_3:12; 2Ti_4:8; Heb_9:28).

1Co_1:8.—It was confirmed; you shall be. Everybody and everything connected with the kingdom of God is “in power” (1Co_4:20). Note, “unreproveable” (R.V.).

“Bold shall I stand in Thy great day;

For who aught to my charge shall lay?”

(Rom_8:33). “Shall not come into condemnation” (Joh_5:24).

1Co_1:9.—Same connection of thought as 1Th_5:24, viz. “Because He is faithful, He cannot but finish, by confirming you unto the end, what He began when He called you into the fellowship.” Fellowship of.—Your common sharing in and with (Rom_8:17) Him. So of and with are both in Heb_3:14. Note the solemn enumeration, at full length, of the names and titles of Christ. Paul a herald proclaiming the names and style of the King his Master.

1Co_1:10. “Fellowship?”—Then what is this I hear about “divisions”? Divisions.—Schisms. Not yet four mountains; as yet one mountain with four summits (Evans). Joined together.—Medical word (“restore,” Gal_6:1), as if suggesting, Not yet cut off from the body, but dislocated in the body. “Let the displacement be reduced, and all brought back to ease and peace.”

HOMILETIC ANALYSIS.—1Co_1:1-3

Observe (I.) The Twofold Call: (A) Paul’s to Apostleship; (B) Theirs to Saintship.

Observe (II.) The Twofold Holiness: (A) a. Ideal, b. Relative; (B) Real.

Observe (III.) The Twofold Bond of Fellowship: (A) “Our Brother”; (B) “That call upon … theirs and ours.”

Observe (IV.) The Twofold Blessing, with a Twofold Source: (A) “Grace and Peace”; (B) Father; Jesus Christ.

1Co_1:1-3. Observe (I.) The twofold call: (A) Paul’s to Apostleship; (B) Theirs to Saintship.—A.

1. He was “separated, even from his mother’s womb, and called through God’s grace” (Gal_1:15). “No man taketh,” wisely, “this honour unto himself,” any more than did even the Great Apostle of our profession His Priesthood (Heb_5:4). How should he run, to any purpose, unless he be sent?

2. As we speak, conceiving of God’s thoughts and purposes and work with “before” and “after” and “after the manner of men,” this call to take up and fulfil Office is a thing more nearly depending upon “the will of God” alone than is the other call to assume and realize and exhibit Character. He seems to give no account of His ways, e.g., in an analogous case, in selecting, using, blessing, and perhaps thus setting aside, one Nation rather than another for some special purpose in His government of the world; or (e.g. Romans 9) in choosing to make the Life of the world depend upon the line of Isaac rather than of Ishmael, or of Jacob rather than of the elder Esau; or why, of all the fishermen in Galilee, Peter, of all the publicans, Matthew, or of all Saul’s family circle, himself, should have been selected for pre-eminent apostolate. It often looks as if such call were precedent to all qualification or grace.

3. And yet, not irrespective of natural qualification or grace. (But the “natural” is the ordering of the Author of Nature and the Creator of the individual Man.) Paul was a suitable vessel, as well as “a chosen vessel.” Are we to say “chosen” because “suitable”? In natural endowment, as well as by providential training, he was the very man to carry the “grace” (Rom_1:5), and to do the work of an apostle. A thorough Israelite, in mind, and education, and sympathy; and yet from Tarsus, a Gentile city, where he escaped something of the rigidity and narrowness of Palestinian Judaism, such as would have entirely disqualified him for approaching the Gentile mind and heart; a noble personal character even before his conversion; he was made for the work, and was only waiting the conversion and the call and the qualifying Holy Spirit.

4. A call to the ministry always presupposes: (a) Gifts. Without these natural points of fitness, not even grace can make the best man a successful minister. Given these, the rest is a question of prayer and hard work. Grace may always be had for the asking (Jas_1:5 : “If any man lack, … let him ask,” etc.). Conversely, the possession of the gifts may set up a fair presumption that their possessor is designed for their complementary work. He should hold himself in readiness for the definite “call.” (b) Grace. Grace may fail to get married to gifts; they may be divorced through unfaithfulness, sloth, or sin. May not even an apostle fall from his grace? Is there only one Judas, an apostle who never fairly began his special work? The unfathomable mystery of the twin problems of Evil and of Free-will of course lies all around and beneath. But as matter of practical conduct, are there no men designed by natural equipment for apostleship, for the ministry, for honourable and blessed Church office who have turned aside from the “call,” or by early giving up self to sin or the world have barred the call which might else have come? Or, short of this, are there none in the Church designed for higher service than what they actually fulfil; who are blessed in their business, but were meant for the ministry; who honour God, and are honoured by Him, but who hold only a second-best place, and receive only a second-best blessing? (c) Fruit. Have they, upon experiment made, found the natural equipment and the added grace fruitful in “turning (Act_26:18) some from darkness to light”? If this never follows—though “fruit” is hard to judge of, it is so many-sided, and sometimes so obscure a thing—then there has been a mistake somewhere. A physician of souls, who never heals anybody—however he may be diplomaed—has missed his “calling.” (d) Happy for the “apostle” if there be the concomitant, complementary, independent, clear calls, within from the Master, and without from the God-directed Church. (See Critical Notes, 1Co_1:1, supra.) Happy, if he can say to many, “The seal of my apostleship are ye” (chap. 1Co_9:2). Happy, if the “call” never become to an unfaithful steward of it (chap. 1Co_4:2) a condemnation and a torturing memory.

B.

1. Every call involves in the response to it both Responsibility and Blessing. The call to Office throws up most prominently the Responsibility; the call to Saintship the Blessing. It is a perpetual invitation. Observe in 1Th_5:24, “Faithful is He that—not called, but—calleth you, who also will do it,” viz. “will sanctify you wholly,” etc.

2. The call to take up the life of the Christian has always this at the heart of it: “Be ye holy” [“Ye shall be holy”]. But it comes in many shapes, according as the ear and heart are ready, or not, to catch and respond to this, its truest meaning and purpose. To the weary, sin-sick, world-sick, unsatisfied life: “Come to Me; I will give you Rest!” To many a God-fearing Israelite, bound under a yoke of multiplied and vexatious prescriptions, “a yoke which neither he nor his fathers were able to bear” (Act_15:10), the Gospel came as a call “to liberty” (Gal_5:13). And such have their sympathising analogues in every generation. To souls at lower levels and of duller ear the call has to come, thundering, “Escape for thy life! There is ‘wrath to come.’ ”

3. And, as many forms, so many methods, of the call. A friend stricken down by the side of a Luther “calls.” The invisible seems suddenly to break in upon a sense-bound, world-narrowed man, he hardly knows how or why. He is looking into an open grave, and finds himself gazing into eternity; he is gazing blankly, stunned, at a letter lying upon his office desk, telling him of a great loss, and even the letter and the immediate loss fade away and disappear; he finds himself, “very inconsequently,” pondering, “What shall it profit a man?” etc. He is having one of many, oft-repeated calls. As before a worldling, man or woman, in the very whirl of the world’s life, there suddenly rises up a fair and lovely Ideal of a holy life; strangely the heart goes out, approvingly, longingly, toward it. Not always responded to, but there is the call. And even the man who responds only to the call of his fears of wrath and hell, finds when he enters upon the new life [and there is no “seeing” the kingdom of God” without “entering” it, Joh_3:3, compared with 5] that he has begun to “follow” not chiefly after safety and heaven, but “after holiness” (Heb_12:14).

4. Every man “had his calling” (chap. 1Co_7:20). The secular station and business is by the call of God, and therefore holy. And conversely, holiness is the calling, the business, of the spiritual life. “A Christian? Yes; but he is not working much at it,” is the reason of so many ineffective, unsatisfied Christian lives. They “grieve the Holy Spirit” who calls them, and would help them, to holiness. It is an interest of their lives, but should be the main interest and business. They are called to be saints; but being saints wants attending to, seriously and diligently, as a holy “vocation.” [The preacher may notice and use: (a) The distinction between κεκλημένος, e.g. Mat_22:3-4; Mat_22:8, the Supper parable, and the κλητοί, here and in the similar passage, Romans 1, ad init. The κλητοί are the new people of God, the new Israel; their calling being ideally complete. In κεκλημένος (perf. part.) we see the actual, historical calling of individuals being carried on. (b) The calling is in the root of ἐκκλησία=Church.]

Observe (II.) The twofold holiness: (A) a. Ideal, b. Relative; (B) Real.—(A) They are sanctified in Christ Jesus; (B) They are called to be saints. A.

1. Every great, leading Idea of Revelation, that of Holiness, like the rest, was revealed “in divers portions and in divers manners.” [So God, in the ordering of the historical, physical unfolding of His mind and purpose in creation, led up to Man by preluding hints and anticipatory forms, revealing Man “in divers portions and in divers manners,” until at last Adam stood forth the complete utterance of His thought, toward which He had been working all through the ages. Yet He had a still grander Word to speak forth, which is heard, seen, in His Incarnate Son. Perfect, ideal human nature and human life are there (Heb_2:8-9); a sinless Humanity in perfect fellowship with the Divine. All such subsidiary, partial revelations of God’s thoughts, as that about Holiness, follow on the same lines, obey the same law of disclosure, because they are really sub-sections of the greater disclosure. Their progressive unfolding is part of the greater progression and unfolding.] He began with a holiness of relation to Himself. “Holy” days, not physically in any way different from common days; “holy” ground, not distinguishable from the adjacent soil; “holy” garments, neither finer nor more costly than ordinary ones; a “holiness” which might belong to the firstborn produce of a flock, or a field, or a family, and even to the “brass” of the censers of Korah and his associates;—in all these the “holiness” was only separation, from common use and human ownership, that they might be devoted to the exclusive use and worship of Jehovah. [So, in the Polynesian groups, the order of a chief might make food, or property, or persons, tabu, and exclusively for himself.] In the Mosaic code such embodiments and presentations of “holiness” abounded. But this was only an elementary lesson, given to a nation which had barely passed childhood in spiritual knowledge. In the mind of God, to speak humanly, all these looked forward to, were the first steps in a path leading human thought and practice toward a real holiness. Separateness is by no means the only, and the final, meaning of “holiness,” in either the Old Testament, or (certainly) in the New Testament. “Separation is here [story of Balaam: ‘The people dwelt alone’], as throughout the Old Testament, the symbol of sanctity, the outward and visible sign of an inward and invisible grace, the grace which impels men and women to the pursuit of a pure and unworldly life, and makes righteousness … their chief end and highest good” (S. Cox, Expos., 1883, p. 205). [The separateness is the first, and for some time the only, thing our children can see or appreciate about, e.g., the holiness of the Sabbath. The intrinsic value and the deep meaning of the day comes long after, and only fully through the perceptions and experiences of the regenerate life. They, in fact, begin, each of them, where Israel began centuries ago, and rapidly run through and summarise in their own learning the lessons and the process distributed over centuries in the education of mankind.] “We may be made partakers of His holiness” (Heb_12:10) shows that separateness of a relation to God is not the only or the chief idea, but a personal quality. Historically this is the final point reached in the Revelation of Holiness; really, if we may so speak, it is the first, the full, the originating point, as mapped out in God’s purpose. Looking back over the completed series of Divine teachings, we can now see that, starting from the idea of character, a holiness of quality which is like God’s own holiness, will, in a fallen world, whose life is affected at every point by sin, inevitably work out in a separateness of conduct and of relation to God. [In what God’s holiness consists is a profound question. Is the One Absolute Right, right for all worlds, and ages, and creatures, and for their Creator—Truth; the One Absolute Wrong, for Him and them, Falsehood, or as John says, “A Lie”? Can we be made “partakers of His holiness,” in any sense in which He will be a partaker with us, except that of Love, Life, Truth?]

2. Israel was ideally a people both personally holy and relatively holy. In point of fact, the personally holy individuals were very few in any age, and their holiness was often extremely imperfect. Yet the whole nation was “separated” in a hundred ways from all other peoples. It was the “people of” Jehovah’s “possession,” peculiarly His in a world where all peoples are His. Their King repeatedly saw in them, and in them dealt with, an ideal people, rather than with the actually fickle, rebellious, faithless, idolatry-loving nation. Honours, protection, knowledge, a distinguished regard showing itself in many ways, were given to the real Israel for the sake of the Ideal, and not withdrawn, even in days of deep or widespread national unfaithfulness; not until the time had come for a new Israel, a new “peculiar people,” a new “Church” [for the old, hear Stephen, Act_7:38], indeed for a new Race to spring from a new, a second Adam. The localisation in one special land was to pass away; the restriction to one special nation was to be abolished; not national birth (Joh_1:13), but “new birth,” birth “of God” [ib.], was to be the principle of succession and evolution, as between generation and generation. The new Israel has stepped into the separated position of the old, and stands in the old speciality of relationship. At its most unworthy, worldly, depressed point the Church of Christ is still the separated people of God, “sanctified” as the old was.

3. “In Christ Jesus”. As Abraham and his seed through Isaac and Jacob are for many purposes to be regarded and dealt with as a great Unit of reckoning [e.g. Heb_7:5; Heb_7:10; Gal_3:16-18; and N. B. how Isaiah goes back to this, Isa_51:2], and are “Abraham” in the transaction; so “Christ” stands, a great Unit of reckoning, for Christ and His people, God’s new people, sprung from Him, their new ancestor. He and they are taken together (Gal_3:16; 1Co_12:12). His clients are in favour, for His sake, and along with Him. Indeed, they “are not,” do not count as existing, until they believe “into Him” and live “in Him.” There is no “sanctified” Israel to-day except the persons who are “in Christ.” [The relation of Christian baptism to this relative sanctification will come up later, chap. 1Co_7:14.]

B.

1. This is great honour and great responsibility. Each member of it is called to realise in himself the separateness, the relative holiness of the whole; and to realise in his character the likeness to God which underlies the separateness, and without which, indeed, the separateness becomes a mere empty conformity to certain codified restrictions and observances, mostly worthless, unless as expressing or assisting a life within, a conformity which will not long survive the extinction of the life within. “They will go out from us,” and merge themselves in the general mass of mankind, laying aside their separateness and “sanctification,” that they may be manifest that they “were not,” or had ceased to be, “of us” (1Jn_2:19).

2. The separateness for God, and so from any use which cannot conceivably be included in life for Him, will be the only sanctification of which their body is capable. It is matter, morally neutral; its powers and appetites, necessarily in themselves morally neutral, may equally well be made the “instruments of righteousness” or “of unrighteousness” (Rom_6:13). It is for them to see that tongue, or hand, or foot, or eye, or ear, are always ready for use by God, and are never employed for anything incongruous with His mind and law; always held at His service and disposal; always denied to the use of Sin in every shape. The body can only be holy as the brass of the censers was holy.

3. So, too, imagination, curiosity, judgment, reasoning powers, will, etc., may be lent to sin, or may be kept for God. “May,”—they must. “Holiness unto the Lord” must be written across them all, in all their exercise.

4. And all this not merely by means of regulations imposed from without, but in obedience to a new law of life within. The indwelling Holy Spirit will be a new life, and a new power to the will. Love to God will exert “the expulsive power of a new affection,” and cast out with growing completeness every opposing motive. The same love will carry with it in willing subjection all the exercise of every faculty, and make all tend toward God; the self-centering of life, which is the highest form of Idolatry [the “Man of Sin” exhibits his culminating wickedness in this: “Himself set forth as God,” 2Th_2:4], will be exchanged for a convergence of every line of feeling and action upon God as Centre and Object and End. “Separated for God” will be the instinctive, inevitable, happy expression of life within.

5. This will be perfect spiritual health, “life which is life indeed,” man’s life as in the original conception and intention of God in creating Man; and there will be the perfect correspondence between ideal and fact, the perfect self-consistency and internal harmony, which in its highest exemplification is the Truth of God’s own Character and Nature.

6. The very fact, then, that a man is of the Church, and “in Christ Jesus” is “sanctified,” speaks to him, “calls” to him, reminding Him of God’s purpose, and of God’s claim upon him. The Spirit, if he will keep an open ear, will be continually reminding him of the significance of his place in the new Israel, and be offering His own instruction, and leading up to a higher and ever higher type of Christian life. [The very world, in a way, calls him to holiness; for no one is more exacting, more just, in its expectation that Christians should be holy men than they, or has a higher standard of Christian separateness and holiness than the men “of the world.”]

Observe (III.) A twofold bond of fellowship: (A) “Our brother” (the brother, Gr.); (B) “That call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, in every place, their (Lord) and ours.”—A.

1. “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity,” were to our fathers’ ears associated with Unbelief and Revolution. Yet they are all, especially the last, ideas derived from the Gospel of Christ. They are not natural to the human heart; when its tendencies reveal themselves in simple openness, they emphasise Self and Class and Pride. The long experiment of antiquity showed that even a common manhood in the race was no native idea to the human heart; brotherhood was unheard of. The stranger in old times was, even as a point of vocabulary, also the enemy; Pascal remarks sadly on the persistency of the feeling, making this slope of the Pyrenees to be the home of “friends,” and the further slope the home of “enemies.” Shame that the preachers of Unbelief should have seemed often the louder, bolder preachers of “Fraternity,” whilst the Church of Christ, in some temporary, local embodiment, seemed to stand by the class distinction, the iniquitous privilege, the wealth as against poverty. If the Church hold its peace, the stones must needs cry out and preach the gospel of “brotherhood.”

2. “Barbarian, Scythian, bond, free, circumcision, uncircumcision, male, female, all one in Christ Jesus,” was the keynote of the new social system of Christianity. Neither sex, nor race, nor religion, nor station, carried privilege or prejudice as to status before God and access to His saving favour. In the early Church the slave and the master would sit at the same Lord’s Supper; it might even happen that the office-bearer was a slave, the private member the freeman. See how honourably prominent women are in the Roman Church, or the Philippian. Paul’s letter to Philemon, for the slave Onesimus, “the brother beloved” of his master Philemon, has always been significantly compared with a letter of Pliny the Younger to Sabinianus his friend, on behalf of an offending freed man, as revealing the utterly diverse conceptions of the relation between man and man on which the pagan and the Christian writers rest their pleading. In Philemon all hinges upon “brother.” Paul addresses his “brother.” Philemon (1Co_1:20), for his slave “brother” Onesimus (1Co_1:16). Given that a man were a Christian, early Christian literature lets us see him passing from Church to Church, from city to city, with his “letters of commendation” (2Co_3:1), receiving hospitality, finding every fellow-Christian ready to be his “host,” asking and receiving assistance in the business on which he was travelling (Rom_16:1; Rom_16:3; 3Jn_1:5-8).

3. That Church is losing one of its crowning honours, and losing sight of one of the main points of that Magna Charta of the Kingdom of Heaven, upon which its existence and policy rest, which does not practically work out “a brotherhood” in its membership. Church life must be a Family life, and every member must feel at home. However men may be estimated outside, even as between Christian and Christian, within there should be no such invidious recognition of rank or wealth or education as shall prevent worth carrying a man to his true place in the brotherhood and its work and offices and honour. At the Table of the Elder Brother, above all, must all be forgotten but this, “Brother.”

B.

1. The physical and mental unity of the race lies deeper than the surface divergencies which a century ago were made to argue multiplicity of origin—many “Adams” for as many great, originally distinct races of mankind. Indeed, the evolutionary drift of most modern science so far sustains Scripture teaching as to insist strongly upon the unity which is the natural basis of “brotherhood.” Paul’s argument on Areopagus is cogent still (Act_18:26).

2. The moral unity, the oneness of heart and conscience, of sin and moral defect, of aspiration after God, is a yet stronger ground for claiming and according “brotherhood.” The same sinful heart in similar conditions brings forth the same crop of sins. The Bible is a universal book; every age and race finds it describe their case with equally correct fidelity. The same Gospel and its remedy awaken the same response, and exhibit the same happy results, in all hearts which give it fair trial. The operation of the soul-medicine is constant in every case. Peter’s unanswerable argument justifies still the broadest brotherliness: “God gave them the like gift, as He did unto us” (Act_11:17).

3. The “Alliance” and Unity is “Evangelical,” not merely natural. They come to the same God, using the name of the same Christ. All have their access (Eph_2:18) through the same door, by the same “new and living Way.” A grand unity! On both sides of “the Pyrenees,” in the tents of two opposing armies, in the council-chambers of opposite political factions, in races as widely apart as Esquimaux and Fijian, as Englishman and native Australian, are found men closer together than ever blood-relationship made kindred by nature. Throughout all ages, and races, and countries, and churches, and ranks are distributed men, women, children, with this one mark in common—they use “the name of Jesus Christ our Lord” in prayer. Indeed, they agree in this, and hardly in more than this, that they pray to this one and the same God-man, who died equally for them all, and who lives on the throne of government for not man only, but for the universe, wearing the nature which belongs to them all. Every man of them feels that his Head is Christ. [Two Christian natives, of different tribes and language, once met at a South African mission station, and found the linguistic barrier insuperable, until one with a bright thought looked up and said, “Jehovah!” The other “caught on,” and responded “Jesus!” “Hallelujah!” said the first; “Amen,” the other. They had then exhausted their stock of Christian language, but “Jesus” had proved their brotherhood.] The world is every day girdled by a succession of praying hearts, who join the Mahometan, the Jew, the Theist, in drawing near to the same God as they, but who are differentiated from even these fellow-worshippers by this, that they “call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.” One Baptism, one Supper, one Prayer, one Mediator, one Object of prayer and worship—Christ. [The hymnologies of the Churches, largely common to them all, the identical experiences of all the hearts in them all, who love Christ, vindicate the Church-wide brotherhood. Let them begin to worship, let them begin to talk of the inner life, and they understand each other. Their common bond is “the Name.”] “One Christ died for us all. We all live ‘in’ the one and the same Christ. We all rely on the same Saviour. We all pray to the same God-man. We are diverse enough, to say that we are all ‘Christians’; we are not too friendly with each other; but our common convergence upon Him, our common use of His name in prayer, stamps us one; we are ‘brethren’ of that Brother, ‘theirs and ours.’ ”

Observe (IV.) The twofold blessing, with a twofold source.—A. “Grace and Peace.”—

1. “Grace” is the Greek, Gentile, secular word, originally. “Peace” is the Hebrew, sacred, Biblical word.

2. The free and spontaneous and entirely voluntary character of the bounty lay in the secular use of the Greek word, and fitted it to be a vessel capable of receiving new, Gospel contents and meaning. [Might not God almost have said to the Greek language, “Thou art a chosen vessel unto Me, to bear My Name,” etc.?] Gospel “grace” originates with God, in the mere self-suggesting love of His heart. There must be no claim upon God, and no merit belonging to man, “otherwise grace is no more grace” (Rom_9:6).

3. The whole bounty of God to Mankind is Grace. The distinction between Providence and Grace often drawn, is too sharp and at bottom unreal; at least there is no actual separation in their practical working. God is gracious in His Providence—it is mere undeserved bounty for Christ’s sake to a lost race. The purpose of His Providence in our life is not merely or chiefly temporal, immediate relief, convenience, profit, happiness, for even His children; but all these as part of a great scheme of a gracious education in holiness and “conformity to the image of His Son.” Every incident of “secular” life is in God’s view ethical, in ours is gracious.

4. Thus “grace” is one of the correlatives of “sin,” in language and in the facts of our life. It is more than bounty to need; it is free, undeserved bounty to sinners.

5. The Gift is one whole bounty; but we approach it on different sides, we draw upon its contents for the special supply of special needs of our fallen or of our regenerate life; at different stages we appreciate different bearings of its provisions upon our case; we therefore distinguish between grace which freely forgives, and grace which sanctifies, and grace which enlightens or delivers. But really the gift was given at one giving, when Christ was given. In a sense the Holy Spirit is the grace par excellence of the New Covenant; yet the gift of Christ carried this further gift within it. To give the One Comforter involved and carried with it as certain, necessary consequence, exsequence, the gift and coming and indwelling of the Other Comforter. Every operation of this gift upon a sinful heart, first and last, is grace. Every fruit of His redemption and of the indwelling of That Other, grace. All good, all Godward movement within us, from the first and faintest to the fullest and deepest going out of a saint’s heart after God, all grace. The “natural” goodness of so many children, the “natural” goodness in a few heathen, the early tenderness of conscience in those, the more or less of light and moral sense in these, all grace, the first workings of the universal gift of the Spirit for the sake of a universal Redeemer.

6. To the fallen race the grace is Redemption; to the individual sinner it may become Salvation; to the Church, at Corinth for example, what? One form of the answer will be “Peace.” No Peace, if there had been no grace; no Peace for a soul or a Church, if grace were sinned away and forfeited. The “God of all [= all forms of] grace” is for one thing the “God of peace” (1Pe_5:10; 1Th_5:23, etc. [where the relation between corporate perfectness and peace is very close]). Peace and Grace are “a twofold blessing,” but, more profoundly, one.—

1. What is “Peace” to a Church? When we “pray for the peace of Corinth,” what do we ask? A very pregnant word. Two Orientals to this day meet and greet each other with, “Peace be with thee.” The “Salaam,” universal in the East, becomes a word of customary compliment, like that of our own which once was “God be by you.” Peace meant all possible well-being to the man saluted. The Saviour bade His disciples cross a house-threshold with the salutation, “Peace be to this house”; and the peace was all possible family good, and all possible personal good to every inmate. Hardly needs saying that “peace” to a Church is much more than rest from foes outside and factions within.

2. Peace without sometimes a doubtful blessing. Peace within there must be, or a Church cannot prosper. Zion is always a besieged city. The siege is not always prosecuted with equal vigour, but it is always proceeding. The enemy, never far from the gate, finds his opportunity when the garrison quarrel among themselves. Nothing so much weakened Nehemiah’s hands as the traitors within the walls. In the last terrible overthrow of Jerusalem, from the moment that faction and strife amongst the defenders were added to the awful list of horrors which pressed upon the guilty city, capture by the Romans became a certainty. “As much as lieth in you live peaceably with all,” is counsel more urgent in regard to our dealings with the Church than even with the world outside. Peace within [cf. the factions at Corinth] indispensable.

3. Shall ask for peace outside, with some reserve. The infant Church of Palestine “had peace, and was built up” (Act_9:31). The chief persecutor was converted. The active enmity and attention of other Jews was diverted by some mad doings of Caligula. The Lord of the Church chose outward peace, in view of their weakness, so that in the lull of the storm the new-made converts were instructed and grew strong. Yet when He has chosen to permit persecution and pressure, it has not been unqualified evil. A common danger has drawn men closer together. At such times the unity is more felt after, and made more evident than the diversities. The testing-time sifts out unfaithful members. Faithful ones become more thorough, as a necessity of their own safety. The walls are often built most diligently and securely in “troublous times” (Dan_9:5). The Church may not pray for it, but many a worse thing for the real peace of a Church may happen than unpopularity or even persecution. There is no peace when the World and the Devil leave the Church alone, and can afford to do it.

4. A slumbering city by night is at peace. There is peace of the most profound in the streets swept by plague till not a living soul is left. “Peace” to Corinth must not be slumber or death, but wakeful health and life. A Church may have a peace imaged by the decorous quiet of an English town, once foremost in the country’s history and commerce, but now a stranded vessel forsaken by the changed course of the current of modern business or trade; the sluggard peace of honourable history and inherited traditions, of exceeding present-day respectability, but of slow decay. The true peace of a Church is rather the tumult and throng of busy thoroughfares; of an increasing roll of citizenship; of an eager, active population and a vigorous, honourable record of to-day.

5. The peace of a Church, as of a city, means citizens who have this “peace” at heart; of broad view, of great public spirit, of large heart; ready to put the corporate interest of the Church before their own comfort or convenience or preferences; all, in diverse ways, self-denyingly seeking the good of the whole.

6. Most deeply of all, Peace to a Church means Holiness. Its people are a holy people. Its well-being is the sum total of the well-being of them all. Sin is its, and their, weakness; holiness its, and their, well-being and peace. Wealth may pour into the treasury; influence, of a sort, may be increasingly wielded; even numbers may multiply; and yet upon a Church, as upon a man, God’s verdict may be: “There is no peace to the wicked.” For a sleeping, dead, indolent, apathetic, unholy Church there is always the peril that “the things which belong unto its peace should be” for ever “hid from its eyes” (Luk_19:42).

B. The “Father,” and “Christ.”—As the twofold blessing is fundamentally one blessing, so the twofold source is fundamentally one Divine Source.

1. In the fullest form of the Pauline salutation we have “grace, mercy, and peace” (1Ti_1:2). In the earliest we have “grace and peace” only, without even the indication of their source (1Th_1:1.) An interesting piece of doctrinal development for our study; as though, with ripening years, and ever fuller knowledge and clearer insight—the Spirit of God presiding over the process of mind and heart, guiding into real, if partial, truth at every stage, adding detail, filling up the earlier outline, completing the revelation in its historical disclosure, as the letters of the apostle’s last days are written—Paul had at last found a formula which was adequate to contain all he could ask, all God could give in Christ, to His beloved “children” and converts. Perhaps, also, one may see the Spirit of God making the ripe, final, fullest form of a Christian wish, or prayer, a not uncertain echo of the threefold high-priestly formula of benediction (Num_6:24-26), and impressing upon it—as in some Epistles, notably the Ephesian, it is impressed upon the very form of whole paragraphs and their underlying thought—the significant threefold form, so wonderfully persistent all along the course of Revelation, and belonging to the worship of the angels and the Church in heaven also, as well as to the experience and theology of the Church on earth.

2. Yet it would be overpressing the words of Scripture to allot Grace to the Father, Mercy to the Son, Peace to the Spirit. And here the two members of the one clause do not so correspond to the members of the other clause, as that Grace should come through the Father and Peace through Christ, exclusively in either instance. The “Grace of God” and the “Peace of God” are, equally, Scriptural, guiding, terms. The Son is invoked as the source of Grace in the concluding benediction of our two Corinthian letters.

3. The old theologies spoke of an “Economical,” or a “Redemptional,” Trinity. They were endeavouring to express the all-important, much-solving truth that we see Father and Son [and Spirit] not in their absolute, internal, relationships—a veil scarcely ever lifted lies upon those—but in their united working, and distinctly apportioned departments, so to speak, in effectuating the Redeeming purpose of the Grace of God toward a lost world. The Son is carrying out the will of Him that sent Him “about His Father’s business”; He is humbling Himself to be the channel, the essential condition, through which alone the grace of God can take blessed effect upon a sinner’s heart. Communication between God and man is opened up in Christ, and in Him only. [This the true point of the “So” in Joh_3:16, which is not “so much,” “so greatly,” but “thus,” in this manner: “God loved the world, and loved it thus, viz. that He gave …, in order that the love might mean eternal life to every man believing in Him.” All God’s communication with mankind has presupposed His grace, His loving, spontaneous, active goodwill to them. It is in the background of every approach towards man from His side. And the grace has reached us, can only reach us, through one conduit and channel—Christ. All starts and originates in grace. Peace, like every other expression of this basal grace, has reached us through Christ.

4. If a man therefore refuse Christ, or neglect Him, he can never see peace. This not as any arbitrary, isolated decision of God in his particular case, but because he puts away the Indispensable Condition of communication between God and man. He breaks down or refuses the only bridge over the gulf between them. He shuts the only door against himself, or seeks to find or make some other rather than this. We hardly know how to say that the Son conveys to a soul, or a Church, grace which is the bounty of the Father. The very co-ordination here, the two bracketed, as it were, under one “from,” forbids that.

5. Consider the place which Jesus of Nazareth has come to take, by this early date, in Christian language, thought, life. Could we conceivably associate thus any creature, were he never so exalted, as in any sense the giver of grace and peace concurrently with the Father, Jehovah?

SEPARATE HOMILIES

1Co_1:2. A Church in Corinth: A Wonder.—

1. (a) John once gazed in astonishment upon a “Wonder in heaven” (Rev_12:1). The “Woman” was the Church of God, in its external aspect as an historical fact, a community, out of which, midway in its continuous (Jewish and Christian) existence, arose the Man-Child (ib., 1Co_1:5). (b) That Church—in the preincarnation preparation for its Christian stage; in the fitness and the “fulness of the time” (Gal_4:4) at which its Incarnate Head intervened in the earthly history of its growth; in the “manifold wisdom” (Eph_3:10) displayed in all the arrangements of God for creating a new Human Race, redeemed, saved, drawn without distinction from amongst Jews and Gentiles alike, and all finally gathered as a Church, a Family, into the House of its God and Father, every member of it a replica, even in their “bodies of glory” (Php_3:2), of the Head and Elder Brother—is all through the ages a Wonder proposed for the instruction and adoring contemplation of “principalities and powers in the heavenly places” (Eph., ubi supr.). (c) That Church is the standing wonder of grace, of historical origin and preservation, of effect upon the world’s life and thought, in all ages. The Redeemer, its Head, stands, not only before the throne of His Father, in the day of the thankful consummation of His triumph (as in Heb_2:13), but before the gaze of the successive generations of mankind, and at the bar of their judgment, and borrows the words of the ancient prophet (Isa_8:18): “Behold, I and the children whom God hath given me are for signs and for wonders … from the Lord of Hosts.” In the occasional, temporary, embodiment of the principle of “miracle,” the age of miracles has ceased. But, in a deeper sense, it has never ceased, for the Church of Christ is a continuous Miracle. It is a Sign (John’s word, ubi supr.), i.e. it is a fact significant of much more behind, a fact with an Argument in it. Frederick the Great’s chaplain gave a compendious argument for the truth of Revelation: “The Jews, your Majesty.” The origin and history and work of the Christian Church are a similarly compendious argument for, e.g., the verity of the Resurrection of Christ and His actual life to-day in Heaven. The Church on Earth is a Wonder.

2. A Church in Corinth is a Wonder. In Corinth, of all places! Remember (a) Its Surroundings. This was Roman, rather than Grecian, Corinth, which latter had been, even in the ancient world, a proverb of costly, highly organized, luxurious vice, but which, like the polluted Whitehall of Restoration days in England, had, a hundred years or so before, perished in the flames of national overthrow and of Divine wrath, Memmius, the Roman conqueror, like Titus afterwards at Jerusalem, being the unconscious avenger of God’s outraged holiness. But Roman Corinth was corrupt enough; it had all the vice of a seaport town, the convergent point of the traffic and the traders of half the world. Heathenism, too, tends to corruption everywhere; where it does not directly make vice into worship and a source of revenue to idolatry, it has no power or motive for restraining the crude naturalism, the animalism, to which human nature gravitates always. In almost every epistle Paul had to speakplainly and strongly against everyday, open, customary, “fleshly” sin. The very phrase, “the flesh,” is more historical than ethical in its first force and use by him. The city specially of Venus (Aphrodite) was a strange setting for the jewel of a Christian Church. Remember (b) Its Difficulties. For the members every-day life bristled with them. The most elementary Christianity meant a sharp disseverance from many most ordinary practices of heathen, and even Jewish, life. Municipal, family, social, mental, artistic, life—men touched Heathenism, Idolatry, in them all. E.g. “Meat offered to idols” was a large part of the provisions at every public, civic banquet; creating many a difficulty for a Christian citizen. Men could hardly touch anything without handling the “defiling pitch”; every step was near a pitfall. “Conformity to the world” was obviously incongruous with any inward “transfiguration by the renewing of their mind.” Yet, the wonder of it! a Church arose and grew and throve amidst such difficulties. Remember (c) Its Work and Purpose. Christ proposed by this little Church to regenerate Corinth, its morals, its faith, its life. It is a lump of the “salt,” which is to arrest further corruption, and to impregnate the whole life of the city with something of its own gracious savour. It is the housewife’s mass of leavened dough, which is to assimilate to its own condition and characteristics the whole larger mass around it. Like similar Churches which were beginning to dot the map of the empire here and there, this was the first appearance of a centre of holy fermentation, which, with the chemistry and life-processes of grace, was to break up and rearrange in healthy, renewed, order, the corrupting material around it. And yet, wonder of wonders! remember (d) Its own Material.

(1) Socially, hardly anybody of any status; slaves, artisans, more women probably than men, Roman colonists, Corinthian Greeks, and Corinthian Jews. “Not many noble, not many wise,” etc. (1Co_1:26, sqq.). A Rabbi like Paul, or the great Gamaliel, was an important personage amongst his fellow-Jews; but neither he nor his learning counted for anything with even the second-rate representatives of that aristocracy of mind which had been the glory of Greek philosophy. A ruler of the synagogue could be beaten by the Greek mob before the very tribunal of the proconsul (Act_18:17), without the courteous Roman gentleman thinking him worth rescue or notice. Gaius, able to act “the host” to the Church, or (perhaps) Stephanas, whose household “addicted themselves” to the service of the saints, may have been a little wealthier than their brethren. But such occasional, and comparative, eminence within the Church was lost in a dead level of social insignificance when looked upon by the great people outside and above them.

(2) Then, personally, factious, proud, boastful, suspicious; the Greeks among them intellectually vain, without real knowledge to support their pretentions to be philosophically minded, and worst of all, hard to wean from the heathen evil of their old lives and of the surrounding world. Of such a people God is about to make a Church, and with such Churches to save the dying, or dead and corrupting, ancient world!

3. The Coming Wonder is the success of God’s method. Such Churches did save the world, and infuse into it a new life. It has never been God’s method, nor must it be ours, to wait vainly wishing for material and systems and workers, such as are ideally necessary or desirable, before attempting anything for Him; still less to do nothing unless our personnel, and doctrine, and methods commend themselves to human reason or the natural human heart. “The best” may in that way be “the enemy of the good.” “Imperfect” characters, “imperfect” work, “unreasonable” doctrine,—we will find the best we may,—with such much real work for God may be done, and has been done. The difficulty was, not the surroundings of the Church, nor the conditions of society, but the evil within the Church. “If the salt lose its savour, wherewith shall ‘the world’ be salted?”

4. A Church, a Christian, could live in Corinth, and might be a “saint” there; was “called to be a saint” there, and nowhere else. Obadiah can live in the court of Ahab, if need be. “Saints” may live saints in even Nero’s household. In fact, in greater or less degree, every steady, consistent, persistent, Christian is “a sign unto his generation.” He is sometimes a very Jonah kept alive in the dark “belly of hell.” If there is an Apology for Christianity in the continued existence and success of the Christian Church, there is as true an Apology for it in the life and faithfulness of the individual Christian, in Corinth, or elsewhere. He also is “a fact with an argument in it.” Of the same flesh and blood, of like passions, with the same liabilities and dangers,—what is it makes him so different, calm under trial, patient under persecution, able to forgive his enemies, fearless in the presence of death, and, not least, “keeping himself unspotted from the world,”—what is this Religion, what is there in it, that it can work this continuous miracle of fifty, sixty, seventy years of a holy life? Christians are “men greatly wondered at” (Zec_3:8).

HOMILETIC ANALYSIS.—1Co_1:1-10

A. “To me to” write “is Christ.”—So we might make Paul say, almost on the strength of this paragraph. George Whitefield once said, toward the end of a letter to some correspondent, on some indifferent or business topic, “I must have something of Christ in all my letters,” and thereupon proceeded to subjoin some religious talk. How these verses bristle with “The Name” (3Jn_1:7, R.V.). The lines are embroidered, wrought throughout, emblazoned, with the name. The Epistle closes in a white-heat of passionate, intolerant devotion to Christ (1Co_16:22). Here we might not have supposed that Paul had yet “warmed to his subject.” But he never needs “warming” to this subject. He is ready at a moment’s notice, not only to break out into thanksgiving (1Co_1:4), but to mention his Master’s name. Or without notice, for it is the instinct and habit of his thought. The page is emblazoned with “The Name,” and indeed with the names. Paul is an ambassador (2Co_5:20) introducing his business with a proudly solemn and stately announcement, in all due and ceremonious form, of the style and titles of the King who sends him. Paul is the bearer of the mind and will of a Son—God’s Son,—a Son unique of this sort,—whose full name and style is, “Jesus—Christ—His Son—His Only Son—Our Lord.” “Take notice of my Master’s name!” [“My God,” in comparison with the stately array of names and titles of his Master, seems quite homely, and touchingly, trustfully, familiar.] No wonder that the clever wit-mongers, the Antiochians, hit off so happily in their nickname the characteristic of these Nazarenes. Their preachers were ever talking of some one known amongst themselves and their hearers as “Christ”; you could not listen long to their uttorances before His name occurred in their discourses. Did men overhear two of these strange people conversing together in the street, or anywhere else, they were sure before very long to bring in His name. [Cf. the Rabbinical rule: “Let not two Israelites meet and separate without a word about the Law.”] He seemed always a topic welcome to their lips. What should they be called? The Antiochians would surely not let them go long without a sobriquet; it would be a reflection on the reputation of their city to let these people slip by unnamed. “Call them ‘Christians’!” Here Christ is in all; touches all; the whole Church, each individual member; every gift; all the fellowship; and gathers up to Himself all hope and desire. Past, Present, Future, all are linked with Christ.

B. I. The Past was full of Him.—As they look backward along the perspective of the Past they see that with Him all the lines of present life and blessing have originated. He is their radiant point. From the first, all the “grace” and gifts which now so enrich them, that they “come behind in no gift,” were all long ago given “in Him” (1Co_1:4). Potentially every gift was in that first Unspeakable Gift” (see under 2Co_1:20).

II. The Present is full of Him.—

1. He is the basis and bond of their fellowship.—Besides the great, deep cleft yawning between Jew and Gentile, there were divisions of race dividing Gentile from Gentile; divisions of sex; divisions of station, slave from master, poor from rich: but out of this medley material a new Unity was being created, a new Communion, “The Fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.” Outside of Him they may either be separate and independent units, or may group themselves on other lines or round other nuclei of opinion or object in life. Their common relation to Him gives them a relation to each other. “Friends of the same Friend are friends of one another” here, though on all other grounds they be strangers from the ends of the earth. Only in the One whose manhood was, in the truest sense, of no nationality, though He sprung from one special branch of the great human family—only in the One who was so entirely “The Son of Man” that no race, no sex, no rank, no age, has ever felt Him a Jew, or alien from itself—could there be a basis for a world-wide fellowship. Only such a Brother and Redeemer of all men alike, could draw together and hold together the diverse elements which were included within the sacred circle and family bond of the “fellowship.” Take the Second Adam away, the new Race, the new Humanity, the Church, resolves itself into its units again, with their isolation and perhaps their antagonisms. Their fellowship is realised as they worship. The world over, prayer and praise are going up to God, the Great Object of worship; but Christian worship converges to the throne through one Door and Avenue of approach—Christ. The differentia of Christian worship, its “note” of unity amidst all its diversity, is that “all in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.” Christian worship, all Christian intercourse with God, passes through Him. He has made it possible.

2. He is the beginning and the continuance of their holiness.—They were sanctified “in Him,” with a relative holiness, from the beginning, and all realisation of this ideal, all their “confirmation” in their holy status, is distinctly His work (1Co_1:8). And this stands closely connected in fact with another “confirmation”, that of “the testimony of Christ.” The strength is from no outward support merely or chiefly, but from within. [The weak spine may be “confirmed” by the iron supports strapped on outside the patient’s body. The best “confirmation” would be that within, the strengthening of the spine itself.] They stand strong, four-square to all blasts, firm amidst all assaults, until “the End” (1Co_15:24, perhaps), not alone, nor most of all, because He directly and from without upholds them, but because within them “the testimony is confirmed.” Every point of the witness, both of the Holy Spirit and of Apostles, concerning Christ is verified in their experience. They know that He is a Saviour, and Divine, for He is that to them. There is no promise, implied or expressed, whose root is in Him, which they may not prove, and are not proving, to be true. They stand “confirmed” because they take Him to be “Wisdom, Righteousness, Sanctification, Redemption” (1Co_1:30). In the fullest sense they find the pledges of His very Name, “Jesus,” abundantly redeemed, and are kept with a continuous Salvation. The external testimony answers point by point to the internal experiences. It is “confirmed in” them by the very same facts of grace which together make up their “confirmation” also. There is no believer in Christianity like the man in whom its great facts have become experiences. Ought we to say that there is no real believer in Christianity except such a man? And the testimony is “of Christ.”

3. What Paul and his fellow-workers had to offer to Corinth and the world was a “testimony.”—They were witnesses, not philosophers; reporters, not authors; they handed on what was first given to them, and did not propose for acceptance what they had themselves in any sense devised. It is true that the testimony has passed through their own mind; each of them puts his own individuality upon the form of delivery; each of them is entrusted with only part; to some is given more than to others, but to each probably just that which he could naturally best appreciate. [The burner gives its own size and shape to the jet of burning gas which it passes. The jet of the fountain also gives shape to the stream of water issuing from it. A group of burners, passing out the gas from one common supply-pipe, will give each its own shape and size of flame, whilst contributing to the one light. (Such illustrations are of course not to be pressed far).] Yet they are witnesses, and no more. As to the great fundamental, historical facts in which Christianity rests, they speak as bearing testimony. When they preach doctrines which are the superstructure upon or the consequences of, the facts, these are not their own inferences, or deductions, or speculations. They are reporters of what the Spirit of God has told them. This narrowed range of work and function—simply witness-bearing—was their strength; as it is still the strength of the preacher and worker. Every great religious awakening affords many examples of the power of testimony, even when that testimony is nothing more than the story of the speaker’s conversion and his “present experience.” It has often been from rude lips a mighty power with cultured people. The facts of the Gospel story, told with freshness and reality, and with the power of the Spirit of God, have, from Pentecost onwards, been very effective preaching,—the most effective. Christian speculation has its time, and place, and value. There is a philosophy of Christianity. But the working force, the real lever-power, of it lies in its “testimony.” That “confirmed” “confirms” Christians. Noteworthy is the summary of all Apostolic messages: “the testimony of Christ.” Comparing this with 1Co_2:1, “the testimony of God,” we are guided to the conclusion that in the latter case God is regarded as the Proprietor and Source, in the former Christ is regarded as the great Subject. Indeed, as the One Subject; for He summarises the Gospel. All its topics are “broken lights” of Him. He is the Topic. A scheme of doctrine, a sermon from a Christian pulpit, which does not clearly show the relation of any and every topic to Christ, is not a Christian scheme or a Christian sermon. [That is no Christian religious life in which He is not central.] As a matter of notorious, and often verified, result a “Christianity” (if it borrow the name) whose Christ is not Divine, and therefore not the dominating Name and influence a Divine Person must of necessity be, is not a Christianity that moves the world, though for a time it may give satisfaction to a few. The men who move the masses and “confirm” the Church are “witnesses,” and witnesses who report what they see and know in Christ. They exhibit Him. He is the great Subject of all that preaching which is the instrument of strengthening the religious life.

III. The future is full of Christ.—

1. He is the convergent point of all the perspective of the years to come.—At the end of the vista of the personal life, His people see Christ. They “depart and are with Christ.” And the end of the vista of history is to them the blaze of the glory of His “revelation,” and the dread solemnities of His “Day.” The “call” of the Past was into fellowship in Him. The “confirmation” of the Present is in Him. The “waiting” for the Future turns toward Him. [Is the “Revelation” for His people, His “Day” for His enemies?] The “Day of Christ” is, most broadly stated, a period with its historical contents, extending from His first Coming to His second. Within it are several subsidiary “days of Christ,” each of which reproduces in miniature the features of “the Day” on the largest scale. Hence what is true of the whole “Day of Christ,”—which is also a continuous “Revelation”—was true of the historical Advent and its day, which began the larger “Day”; and will be true of the “Day,” specially so called, which closes the period. In the course of it are episodes, special incidents or events, each of which is a real “coming” and “revelation” of Christ, and marks a “day of the Son of Man.” His “revelations” and “days” have all of them three characteristics: Scrutiny [“The thoughts of many hearts shall be revealed,” (Luk_2:35)]; Judgment, i.e. judicial discrimination of, and verdict on, character and conduct, inevitable in, and from, the moment that men, or churches, or nations, or systems, come into contact with Christ, their touchstone [Joh_9:39]; Sentence, a feature only slightly emphasised as yet, but to be the prominent one of the latest “Day of Christ.”

2. To His people His “revelation” is a Dawn.—There are mysterious, perplexing hints of a darkest hour before that dawn. [E.g. Luk_18:8; 2Th_2:3.] It is confessedly difficult to arrange the scattered intimations in Scripture as to the sub-final days of the present Age, into any coherent, consistent programme; as difficult as it would have been for even the prophets of fullest knowledge and largest illumination in Old Testament days to have drawn up from the body of Old Testament intimations any programme of the First Advent of Christ. We are in their position: “Searching what or what manner of times the Spirit … did signify” when He gave the New Testament prophetic indication as to the future, the “Revelation” and the “Day.” The relation between even these two great facts is obscure. If the problem had not been as yet insoluble, the pains and learning spent upon it would long ago have resulted in some solution in which all, or most, expositors would have been agreed. Practically the Church has, age after age, “waited for the revelation,” as the individual waits day by day for death. It is an event certain, but the time of it unknown. A constant preparedness for it is cultivated, and, this made sure, the man—and the Church—go steadily on with the daily tasks, “doing what the hand finds to do,” and doing it “with their might.” The end, whether to the man or the Church, must be reckoned with as of urgent present importance, even though in fact it may only come after long delay. It is ever impending, though it may be long before it falls; and this not only keeps a helpful fear awake, but keeps hope and expectation and desire in active exercise. The “waiting” has all these elements in it. The sinner may well stand in dread at the resistless, untarrying, sure approach of “the Day”; like the wretch in the condemned cell “waiting for” the day of the executed sentence. The Christian man “loves the Appearing” of his Lord. His eye is ever turning to the quarter from which his help shall come; he is ever—as the Church also has been doing for ages—looking with eager gaze for the first sign of the breaking of that day, when the glory of His revealing shall burst in upon the unbelieving, persecuting, daringly blasphemous, world [2Th_2:8], and the Lord and His people shall together stand revealed in their true and native glory as “sons of God.” All his highest aims and work will then enter upon their eternal fulfilment; all his best hopes will then begin their eternal realisation. No wonder they “wait.”

3. No wonder that “the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” is Paul’s strong ground of appeal.—The common hope, the common Lord, make them more closely one than does any other bond which holds men together. They understand each other with a deep, quick instinct, such as no other, no natural, community of sympathy and interests creates. There is no rallying point like this; none like Him. Speak His name, and it should awaken the harmonious response of heart to heart, where all are first tuned to respond to It. “Brethren, do you split into your parties? Do you cherish and foment your antagonisms? Brethren! BRETHREN! Do you forget that you are all His together, that you are all together pledged to Him; that you are looking forward together to His ‘revelation’? You to be divided, who are redeemed by the same blood of the same Lord Jesus Christ? You, who are together ‘sanctified in’ the same Christ, ‘enriched in’ Him; who ‘call’—as none others do—‘upon His name’; you, whose whole life, through and through, is ‘Christ’?” Surely to mention “The Name” ought to hush all party clamour, ought to make them close up all party rents and schisms, and “join them perfectly together in the same mind and the same judgment.” If the spell of The Name do not act, nothing will. If it be the uplifted banner, then round it should gather a compactly united host; too earnest, too thoroughly one, for even partisan “sparring in the ranks.”

HOMILETIC SUGGESTIONS

1Co_1:9. God is Faithful.

I. God’s character.—To use a homely word, “reliable.” Like His “faithful sayings,” in the Pastoral Epistles; as He is, so is “every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” “By every (such) word doth man live” (Deu_8:3). Here His character is the great basal fact on which rests the fulfilment of “shall confirm,” (1Co_1:8). The “confirmation” of “the testimony” (1Co_1:6) was but the means employed by this “faithful God.” It is an admirably suitable and efficient instrumentality, but chiefly because it is in His hand. [Cf. the same link of thought in a Fijian’s boast to a missionary (known to H. J. F.), “This is a good gun, but I carry it.”] Promises, the arrangement of the “plan of salvation,” everything in Gospel and in grace, for all worth to us, ultimately come to this, that behind them, directing them, employing them, is the “faithful God.” All faith ultimately finds its way to Him. “Have faith in God.” He is reliable, and may be counted on, to an utter certainty.

II. An argument for our heart, resting upon it.

1. His character is pledged to us. “He cannot deny Himself.” He cannot turn His back upon the Self whom His people have always known. He cannot do anything which is incongruous with His past character and dealings. He will never “begin again,” on some new and unexampled line of conduct. We may plead “For Thy Name’s sake,” and feel that we there have a strong hold upon Him. His “Name” is involved.

2. When He called us, He promised, so far as depended on Him, to finish His work by bringing us “unreproveable” to “the day of Jesus Christ.” The beginning was, quâ His intention and desire, a promise to finish. It committed Him to finish His work, if we will not thwart His purpose. He desires to redeem the pledge of His “calling.”

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

FIRST DIVISION

THE GREETING; THANKS AND HOPE IN REFERENCE TO THEIR CHRISTIAN STATE IN GENERAL

I. Greeting

1Co_1:1-3

1Paul, called1 to be an apostle [a chosen apostle] of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our [the] brother, 2Unto the church of God which is at Corinth,2 to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be [chosen] saints, with all that in every place [om. in every place] call upon the name of Jesus Christ 3our Lord, [in every place3] both theirs and ours: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1Co_1:1-3. These opening verses, according to ancient custom, combine to present in advance the address and greeting; that is, the designation of the parties concerned in their mutual relations, and likewise the benediction.

1Co_1:1. Paul.—Concerning his person and history, his importance to the Church and his labors, consult the general introduction to these Epistles [also Herzog’s Real. Ency. art. Paul. Smith’s Dict. of the Bible, do. Kitto’s Bible Ency. do. Besser, “Paul the Apostle.” Eadie, “Paul the Preacher.” Howson, “Hulsean Lectures,” for 1862. A. Monod, “Five Discourses on St. Paul.” Ld. Lyttleton, “On the Conversion of St. Paul.” Neander, “Planting and Training,” etc.]

A chosen Apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God.—The ordinary rendering, “called to be an Apostle,” does not give sufficient prominence to the leading thought here, which is shown by the order of the words to lie in ‘Apostle.’ The sense is,—an Apostle by virtue of his calling; and this calling was that given him by Christ (Act_9:22-26), having for its deeper ground the will of God (comp. Gal_1:15 ff.). Hence, neither of these designations is superfluous. The fact of “being called” is insisted on in contrariety to everything like arbitrary assumption of honor, or unwarrantable, intrusion into office. “Καλεἶν: to call, like קָלָא is used to denote the way in which God specially appoints men to any particular end.” Neander. And this was a matter which, in view of the parties at Corinth who refused to acknowledge Paul’s apostleship, and sought to put him below the twelve, directly called by Christ when on earth, it was in point to bring prominently forward; and no less important was it to show that this calling came through (διἀ) the Supreme Will. And there was the greater necessity for this, inasmuch as the office of which he claimed to be the bearer was highest in the divine economy. It was that of an ambassador of Jesus Christ, whose business it was to represent his Master, whose words and acts were to be regarded as Christ’s words and acts, the honoring or contemning of whom was to be looked upon as the honoring or contemning of Christ, who, as Christ’s commissioner, appointed to organize and govern the Church throughout the world, wielded an all-embracing power, and exercised a far-reaching authority, and who agreeably with such an appointment and such plenitude of authority was endowed with a “wealth of spiritual gifts, such as is ordinarily distributed among several persons in a less degree.4

And Sosthenes the brother.—Although conscious of his high and well established position, he nevertheless does not present himself before the Church alone; but he takes into company one who officially stood far below him. Him, however, he designates as an equal—as a brother both to himself and the Church, in the unity of Christian faith and hope. “The disposition on the part of Paul to send out his Epistles in the name of one or more of the brethren happening to be with him (Gal_1:2), may be taken either to imply that the persons mentioned had aided in the upbuilding of the churches concerned, or as an expression of their perfect agreement with what he wrote. It certainly is, at any rate, a testimony to that fellowship in the Spirit, which Paul so often inculcated, and which he was ever diligent both to cultivate in himself and to inculcate upon his readers.” Burger. Whether this Sosthenes was the ruler of the synagogue mentioned in Act_18:17,—supposing him to be then already inclined to the cause of Christ, in case it was by the Jews that he was beaten, or that he was violently opposed to this cause, in case he was beaten by Greeks, (the readings which indicate the one or the other are neither of them original),—cannot be accurately ascertained. In any case, he must have been known and esteemed in the Church, so that it was not without its influence with them that he expressed his assent to the contents of the letter, and represented them before Paul. That he must have written the letter himself under Paul’s dictation, as some suppose (Billroth, Hodge) (comp. 1Co_16:21), does not necessarily follow from this connection. Perhaps we might infer that he had been an official assistant of Paul; but even this is not expressly denoted by the term ‘brother.’

1Co_1:2. Names and characterizes the party written to.—Unto the Church of God.—‘The congregation,’ or, ‘the Church of God’ is the Old Testament designation of Israel as a divinely gathered people. It means a people assembled before God and for God. The derivation of the word ecclesia points out the mode of its gathering. It was by means of a ‘calling,’—a spiritual instrumentality. Hence its members are designated as “the called.” In this a personal independence is presupposed. Salvation is offered, not enforced, and it is shared only by those who voluntarily accept and enter into it. Τοῦ θεοῦ: of God—Gen. of possession. The Corinthian Church is hereby emphatically declared to belong not to any human leader, but to God alone. The Church is His.—Which is at Corinth [The local designation of the Church. Geographical divisions are in the Church the only ones recognized in the New Testament, and the Church in one place or city is always spoken of as a unit. Though consisting of one or more distinct congregations, it was regarded as an organic whole under one general superintendency. It was otherwise when a province was in view, e. g., the churches of Asia.—“Church at Corinth! that wicked city! what a joyful and striking paradox.” Bengel.]—to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus.—By this the Church of God is distinctly characterized in its members as Christian. It is composed of persons who are sanctified, i. e., separated from the mass of sinful humanity, the world, and devoted to the exclusive service of the true God [and whose guilt has been expiated by an atonement. Both ideas, those of consecration and expiation, are included in the word ἁγιάζειν: to sanctify]. This is not to be understood in a simply legal or theocratic sense (as in the case of the Jews, who were termed a holy nation because of their descent from Abraham and their divine government); nor yet in a purely objective sense, as implying the mere imputation of holiness; but in a real sense, as being the result of the operation of the Holy Ghost (comp. 1Co_6:11; 1Pe_1:2). Yet this inward appropriation of salvation is not on this account to be considered as complete, but only as begun in its informing principle, and as existing in a germ which may be developed in various degrees.

In Christ Jesus.—These words denote the ground or soil whereon those who are sanctified stand, and from which they derive the power of sanctification. It is Jesus Christ, into whose fellowship they have entered by faith and baptism (comp. Gal_3:26 ff.; Rom_6:3), [and who is the only centre and bond of union for the Church]—called or chosen saints. This implies that they are consecrated to God and numbered among His peculiar people by virtue of a divine call, [“effectual call as distinguished from a merely external invitation.” Hodge] (comp. Rom_10:14; Rom_9:24, etc.); hence, that they, as well as the Apostle on his part (1Co_1:1), were also indebted for their high position to the Divine Will, which was made known to them in their call through the Gospel (Rom_10:14; 2Th_2:14). “Paul here may have reminded them of their ‘calling’ as something which was alike for all, having in view already the parties whom he was soon to rebuke for giving undue prominence to the human instrumentality, and for insisting upon subjective diversities in a schismatic way.” Neander. [“It is not to be inferred from this that the Corinthian professors were all true believers, or that these terms express nothing more than external consecration. Men are uniformly addressed in Scripture according to their profession.” Hodge].

With all that call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place.—There is a difference of opinion as to the connection of these words. They might be joined to those just preceding, e.g., ‘who are called holy, as are all who, etc.’ So taken, they would serve to remind the Corinthian converts of their fellowship with Christians in all places. So Bengel. Or they may be construed as enlarging the circle of those whom Paul intends to address. The former construction would not be unsuitable, since it would furnish a fit antidote to the narrow-minded tendency to division which showed itself in the church. But the latter is favored by the similar passage in 2Co_1:1, which at the same time more exactly defines and explains the general statement we have here: ‘in every place.’ Then we should have immediately joined to this, as belonging to it, the closing words—both theirs and ours.—To connect these [as the E. V. does] with “our Lord,” q. d. “their Lord and ours,” is hardly admissible from the order of the Greek text, and is also unsuitable, because in that case the word “our” as connected with “Lord” would be understood not simply of Paul or Sosthenes, but also of the recipients of the letter included with them as well. (Comp. 2Co_13:13).—Referred to the daughter churches of Corinth in Achaia, as suggested by 2Co_1:1, these words yield the sense: “in every place which belongs as well to them—the Corinthians as the mother church—as also to us, the Apostle and his companions.” So construed, the Apostle will here be understood as, on the one hand, conceding to them the right of the mother church, and impressing upon them the duty of taking a deeper interest in the daughter churches, and, on the other hand, as indicating his interest in these, and so winning them also to the reception of his doctrine and exhortation. [But is it not more natural to refer “theirs” to “those who call upon, etc.,” and to include under “ours” both the parties writing and the parties written to? So Alford. Another interpretation has been proposed. “The Epistle is addressed to all Christians in Corinth and Achaia, wherever they might be. Every place is at once theirs and ours—their place of abode and my place of labor.” See Hodge. “These words form a weighty and precious addition—made here doubtless to show the Corinthians that membership of God’s Holy Catholic Church consisted not in being planted or presided over by Paul or Apollos or Cephas (or their successors), but in calling on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Alf.].

Who call upon the name, etc.—ἐπικαλεῖσθαι τὸ ὄνομα. By this is denoted, not the being called by the name of the Lord, as if the Greek verb were in the Passive, but, as every where in the Old and New Testament, the calling upon the name of the Lord, especially the invocation of His help as Lord. It is, accordingly, an act of divine worship, [and in a more extended sense, denotes a life of reverence towards God, and of habitual religious faith]. The term Lord, answering to the Hebrew יְהוָֹה or אֲדוֹנָי: Jehovah or Adonai, here applied to Christ, indicates His plenipotence and truth, which is more fully set forth in Mat_11:27; Mat_28:18; Joh_18:2; and which rests partly upon His original sonship and His mediatorial agency in the creation (1Co_8:6; Col_1:16 ff.; Heb_1:2 ff.), and partly upon His redemptive office (1Co_7:22 ff.; Act_20:28; Tit_2:14).—The name indicates the being as revealed and known; hence the invocation presupposes faith—faith, preaching—and preaching, the word of God (Rom_10:14 ff.). Those who called upon the name of Christ formed a contrast with those who blasphemed this name among the Jews. (Luk_23:39; 1Ti_1:13; Act_26:9; comp. Act_22:16). This same thought lies at the foundation even in places where instead of a name we have a mere description. The name of Jesus Christ expresses what He is, His entire personality together with His office and work. [On the import of names, especially as belonging to Deity: see Bush, Com. Exo_3:13.; Hengst. Com. Psa_8:2; Psa_9:12; Whately, Serm. Mat_1:23].

1Co_1:3. The benediction, which elsewhere among the Greeks, and twice also in the New Testament (Jam_1:1; Act_15:23) is woven with the address into one sentence, is here peculiarly extended.—Grace and peace constitute the sum total of Gospel blessings, the former being the ground and source of the latter. Χάρις properly denotes that which begets joy, viz. favor, grace, kindly feeling. It may be regarded either as a quiescent trait, the mere outshining of an inward goodness or amiability; or as an energy put in active exercise for the welfare of others. Among the Greeks the word was used also in connections which we should deem immoral. But in the language of revelation it denotes that supreme love and self-devotion which was manifested in its most perfect form by the Son of God. It is what we, in respect of the unworthiness of the object, denominate grace, by which is meant sometimes the mere feeling of kindness in the heart, and sometimes the beneficent act which is its result. Here, indeed, it means the peace of forgiveness and reconciliation, corresponding to the Hebrew שָלוֹם which includes the entire welfare of the individual both spiritual and physical, and the root of which is inward peace, the repose of the spirit in the sweet consciousness of being reconciled to God, and in the blessed assurance that we have God for our friend and have to expect from Him good alone. (Comp. Rom_8:1; Rom_8:31-39). [“The wish of peace has a peculiar bearing here in view of the (dissensions at Corinth.” Ols.].

From God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.—That this clause is not to be translated “from God the Father of us, and of the Lord Jesus Christ,” is clear from Gal_1:3; not to say any thing of the impropriety of thus putting Jesus Christ in a subordinate position.—The co-ordination of Jesus with the Father is to be explained on the ground that the office of mediating grace and peace rests upon His divine sonship, and so upon His equality with God.—This is a truth already indicated in the appellation “Lord,” and which is inferred from 1Co_8:6, and from the whole Pauline system of doctrine. [“Here it is to be remarked, that God is called our Father and Christ our Lord. God, as God, has not only created us, but renewed and adopted us. God in Christ has redeemed us. He is our owner and sovereign, to whom our allegiance is immediately due; who reigns in us, and rules over us, defending us from all our enemies. This is the peculiar form which piety assumes under the Gospel. All Christians regard God as their Father and Christ as their Lord.” Hodge].

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. From the fact that God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ are exhibited to us as the common source or sum total of all the blessings of salvation, it is to be seen that the Apostle, even while subordinating Christ to God (1Co_3:23; 1Co_11:3; 1Co_15:28), yet maintains such a mediation through Christ of the Divine grace, and of the blessings flowing from it, as presupposes in Christ the Mediator a divine nature. How the two things, subordination and equality of substance, agree, is a problem for the science of Christology. This is the mystery of love, which in the Father flows out in the fulness of the divine perfections; which in the Son keeps itself evermore as consciously dependent and recipient, and, accordingly, both thinks, purposes and does every thing with sole reference to the Father.

2. The equality of Christ with God is also indicated by the calling upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Both this invocation and that derivation of all the blessings of salvation from the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ conjointly, can be made consistent with the Old Testament teaching respecting God, only on the supposition of the essential divinity of Jesus Christ and His true equality with the Father.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

1. The consciousness of being called to the ministry through the will of God (1Co_1:1) is: 1. the ground of our confidence in appearing before a Christian congregation to instruct, exhort, reprove and comfort (comp. 2Co_3:4 ff.); 2. the spring of humble devotion to the service of the Lord, a. devoid of all arbitrary and self-willed activity, b. and in every thing observant of the Master’s eye, and subject to His word; [3. an example for all engaged in any lawful vocation. The consciousness of being called to our work in the providence of God is necessary for the sanctification of our labors, by imparting to them a noble aim, a right impulse, and a true courage to do and endure valiantly for God, our true Master, in all things appointed unto us. After Robertson].

2. The main features of a true church (1Co_1:2) are, 1. that it is an assemblage before and for God; 2. that it consists of such as are consecrated to God in Jesus Christ; 3. that it is thus consecrated through the mighty creative will of God; 4. that its members are such as call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ; [5. that these things may exist in connection with many glaring faults in true professing believers, and with many false professions of faith, which yet do not necessarily vitiate the claim to be called a true church].

3. The proper fellowship between the office and the church rests, 1. in that the former works out for the latter the benefits of salvation which come from God and Jesus Christ in the way of blessing; 2. in that the latter receives these benefits from the ministration of blessing with earnest and hearty desires.

4. 1Co_1:2-3 : Besser:—How must the Apostolic greeting shame many congregations who assemble to hear this Epistle read, and yet come there with discordant sentiments and divided tongues! “The name ἐκκλησία: church,” says Chrysostom, “is a name not of separation, but of union and harmony.”

[5. 1Co_1:2 : Bengel:—The consideration of the church universal frees the mind from party bias, and sways it to obedience.]

Footnotes:

[1]1Co_1:1.—Κλητός: called or chosen is wanting in many good authorities (A. D. E. etc.) These, however, are not sufficient to warrant its omission, since it is more likely that the word was omitted as superfluous, in consequence of διὰ θελήματος θεοῦ (as it is not found in like connection in 2Co_1:1; Eph_1:1; Col_1:1; 2Ti_1:1), than that it should have been inserted from Rom_1:1. [Cod. Sin. has it. In the text we follow the version of our author and translate κλητος as a verbal adjective “chosen.” This is the nearest equivalent in English. “Called” would be more correct; but this word is appropriated to another meaning, and would therefore be ambiguous.]

[2]1Co_1:2.—[Our author inserts the clause “which is at Corinth” after “Christ Jesus,” an unnatural order, authorized by B. D. E. F. G. It. and which he vindicates on the ground that it were more natural to suppose that the order of the Received Text was a supposed improvement by transcribers, than that the clause in question should have been placed by design or error in those manuscripts after “sanctified in Christ Jesus.” The valuable Cod. Sin., however, agrees with the Received Text, and we adhere to this against the decision of Alford, Stanley or others.]

[3][We here conform to the unquestioned order of the Greek text, which alone yields the true meaning.—See below.]

[4][On the nature and extent of the apostolic office, consult articles under the word “Apostle,” in Kitto’s Enc., 2d ed.; Smith’s Bib. Diet.; Herzog’s Real. Enc.; also, Owen’s Works, vol. iv. p. 433–445; Schaff, Hist. of Ap. Ch., Book iii. chap. 2; Conybeare and Howson, Life of St. Paul, 1 Corinthians 13; Litton, The Church of Christ, Book ii., Part ii. 1 Corinthians 1.]

Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Analysis and Annotations

THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD. SEPARATION AND TESTIMONY. CHAPTERS 1-10

What Grace has Done and the Assurance Grace Gives. 1:1-9.

CHAPTER 1

In the opening verse of this epistle the Apostle Paul associates with himself the name of Sosthenes. There can be little doubt that he is the same Sosthenes mentioned in Act 18:17. Like the great apostle he was once “a persecutor and injurious.” The experience through which he passed, when, as an enemy of Christ he received the deserved beating, was instrumental to bring him to Christ. When he was the chief ruler of the synagogue he was an enemy, but now through the grace of God he had become “a brother beloved.” It was to call to the remembrance of the sadly drifting Corinthians the former days, as well as the power of God in salvation. Then Paul addresses them as “the church of God which is at Corinth”; and this church of God is composed of those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called Saints. All believers are set apart to God in Christ. Grace has constituted them Saints; but with the gifts grace bestows, there also goes the responsibility of manifesting that separation from the world, from which the church is called out. To the Saints, true believers, sanctified in Christ, set apart to God, the epistle is addressed. Then follows another sentence, which goes beyond the church at Corinth. “With all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours.” Thus the true circle of fellowship was laid down, for every local church to observe. As we shall find later in this epistle, the party spirit, sectarianism, was manifesting itself in Corinth and these words of address may be looked upon as a protest against that unchristian spirit. All who acknowledge Christ as Lord and call upon His name belong to the church. He is their Lord as He is our Lord. Furthermore we learn from these words that the messages of this epistle are for God’s people at all times. “In every place” means every place where believers are found today. The truths unfolded, the exhortations given, have therefore a universal application; they are the commandments of the Lord to all His people (1Co 14:37).

Before the Apostle begins to mention the evils which the Corinthian assembly tolerated and which burdened his spirit, he speaks first of all of the grace of God given to them by Jesus Christ. They had been saved and were enriched by Him. The truth they had received, they also communicated “in all utterance and knowledge” to others. They had all the gifts in their midst, and were waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. Grace had bestowed all these gifts, and yet they failed to manifest His grace. In possession of such grace and the gifts of grace, they should have walked in humility and should have lived soberly, righteously and godly. But they were walking in an evil way.

The Apostle knew all the evil which was among them as an assembly (and more so did the Holy Spirit know), but before he uncovers their condition, he gives a most precious assurance. He speaks of the faithfulness of God, who had called them into that wonderful fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ. God is faithful! He reckons on God’s faithfulness to do in the end all for them which He had promised, so that they would be blameless in the day of the lord Jesus Christ. God does not repent of His gifts and calling. The same assurance is found in other epistles. “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly, and your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it” (1Th 5:23--24). Such a loving and gracious assurance to those who are called according to His purpose, that He is faithful and will bring it about that His people shall be blameless in that coming day of Christ, leads to self-judgment and repentance.

Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Section 1. (1Co 1:1-16.)

The Church under Christ the Lord.

It is this darkness and uncertainty on man’s part, which could not be but as the result or a moral obliquity, which has turned him from the Source of light and blessing, that has placed him under the control of the "gods many and lords many" that oppress him now. His passions govern him and by the skillful use of these he is turned, as the ship in the master’s hand, "whithersoever the governor listeth." With the entrance of the light from heaven, this misery ceases; the kingdom of truth has come: one righteous and sufficient rule is discerned and welcomed, which embraces all circumstances, and sets the subject heart at, rest. How completely may it be so for him for whom a Son of man sits upon the Father’s throne, and the crown of glory rests where once was the crown of thorns. It was soon understood of Christians that they had "another king, one Jesus;" whose sovereignty meant freedom in obedience, the sweetest possible despotism of a perfect and divine love.

This is what animates the apostle as he addresses himself to the Corinthians now. He is full, as may be plainly seen, of the Lordship of Christ, their Lord and his. Alas, they needed the reminder of what alone set right the whole state of things amongst them. How could they be "frill" and "rich" and "reign as kings" in the scene of His cross, if the sovereignty of Jesus had not been losing its rightful hold upon them? How could they be parcelling themselves off as followers of this and that one among the servants by whom He had ministered to them, if all were serving the Lord Christ with the simplicity they once had? The "day of the Lord," with its "revelation of the Lord," did not shine for them as once, with its overmastering display of glory that eclipsed all others with its radiance. Hence his first aim, without any formal argument, which was unneeded, was to remind them of Him they served, To serve Him would soon be proved greater than to reign as kings on. earth.

1. Paul reminds them also of his own call as an apostle by the will of God, which had wrought in spite of the opposition of the human heart in his own case, as in that of "Sosthenes our brother," whom he joins with himself in his epistle, now a "strong helper," according to the probable meaning of his name, as he seems to have been, in the time of the apostle’s earlier labors at Corinth, a strong opposer. The brief way in which he is mentioned here, though the name itself may not have been an uncommon one, suggests that he was known to the Corinthians as the former ruler of the synagogue would be. It is certain he would not be brought forward in this way without some reason for it.

Thus divine sovereignty had wrought for Christ, as it had wrought in the self-same grace toward every one of those Paul addresses here, if not so manifestly. He does not fail to assert this presently in direct terms where he presses upon them their own knowledge of their calling (ver. 26). Here too he addresses them (as before the Romans) as saints by calling -God’s creative call (Rom 8:30) -as he an apostle. The assembly is also by its designation as such a company "called out," which expresses in this application a body separated from the world which has crucified the Son of God, and to which every one who believes in Him is crucified in His cross.

The two epistles to the Corinthians are the only two written to the assembly of God as such, -that is, in true church-character. "The assembly of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father," is, as we have already seen, different in its suggestion; while "the assemblies of Galatia" shows by its plural form that "the Church which is His body" is in no wise the thought, but it leaves room for question -too much in accord with the condition shown in the epistle -whether they have in fact a divine character at all. "I stand in doubt of you" is written upon the very opening of it.

Ephesians gives us most fully of all the doctrine of the Church; but it is not written to the Church, but to the saints; and so we may say of Colossians. They are for individual faith and conduct, and not directions for the regulation of the Body as such. Corinthians is, without doubt, all that is written directly for this purpose, by him who was the special minister of the Church (Col 1:25).

To the assembly, then, he writes, characterizing it first as that of those sanctified (or set apart to God) in Christ Jesus. The place they had in Him was necessarily, as that, a place, not of negative separation merely from this evil or that, but a separation in which God was distinctly before the soul, according to the perfection of His holy nature. "In Christ" was the accomplishment of this: He being both in His atoning work our deliverance from the distance which sin had brought in, and in the power of His glory transforming to His likeness the one in faith beholding it (2Co 3:18). Saints, therefore, we are by calling; for it is a "calling above, in Christ Jesus" (Php 3:14). We are called out of a fallen world to a portion in Christ, with Him where He is. Our faces there, our backs must be here. There is our goal, our prize, the home of the light which brightens all our journey thither.

It is to the assembly of God in Corinth that Paul specifically writes: and this gives its character to the epistle, as has been said. But he is far from desiring it to be thought that it is on that account in any way restricted to a mere local interest. On the contrary, it is most instructive to see his earnestness to have it understood that all Christians are concerned in and addressed in it. He adds, therefore, to the specifically named Corinthians, "with all who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, -theirs and ours." Thus there is the widest possible appeal to attention, as afterwards the strongest claim to divine authority for all that is not expressly excepted from this: "If any man be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord" (1Co 14:37).

The "calling upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ" is bowing to authority in the hands of the divinely appointed Ruler. To "call upon the name of the Lord" is the pass-word of salvation; and the apostle has no thought here of a mere lip-confession, although, of course, there may in fact be many who say, "Lord, Lord," while the heart knows Him not. But he credits all with their responsible profession, and from his inmost heart he desires for all that "grace and peace" which have but one source, one channel, -our Father God, and the Lord our Saviour.

2. He starts at once with what we have seen to be his subject here, by acknowledging what God’s abundant grace had done for them, and the witness-place for which God had furnished them. They had been enriched by grace in all utterance and in all knowledge -in what was communicated to them, and in ability to communicate it to others. The testimony of Christ which had been brought to them in the gospel, had thus been confirmed in them; God was thus glorifying Him in whom He had been glorified on earth, in those endowments which we have soon to see were being perverted by the Corinthians to the glorifying of themselves -in fact to their own dishonor. As far as they were concerned, the gifts were those of grace only, -grace which had decorated the poor human clay in those who were but the "base things of the earth," and still as earthen vessels in which the treasures of heaven had been received. They lacked in no gift: God had kept back nothing that could be needed by them for the setting forth Christ, while the day of His revelation tarried, for which they were waiting; and by this would establish them also, that in His day they might be without blame. Paul assures them, therefore, of the faithfulness of God, who, having called them to the fellowship of His Son, could not repent of what He had thus done. Every one so called will, therefore, in like manner be confirmed, and so be found blameless in the day when divine grace shall have perfected its work in them, and the robes of their righteousness will be seen as washed white in the blood of the Lamb. But there is a way by which such an end is reached, as surely as there is the end also to which it leads. Both are alike ordained, and not one without the other.

With these reminders and with this encouragement, Paul appeals to them now by the name of Him whom they called their Lord against all division of spirit, and even of mind. The name of Christ is that which is named upon us all, and will have power, as the glory of it is realized, to unite us thus together. How can the servants of the same dear Lord fail to be united in a common obedience? It may be said, "They may misconceive what that obedience is." True; how much of this, in fact, there has been. And yet the correction of it is in the same spirit provided for: for the Lord Himself has guaranteed that "He that will, do His will shall know of the doctrine;" and that is a principle, surely, of the most far-reaching significance. It may be questioned or denied, except as to some things of main importance; but what does it mean, to deny it? Is it to he supposed that, in matters of practical moment, He will allow the one who with downright simplicity desires to know the path, prepared at all costs then to walk in it, yet to be without the knowledge that he seeks; and so to err in that way of holiness of which it is written that "the wayfaring man, though a fool, shall not err therein?"

It is quite true, again, that in all such texts mistakes may be made, and are made. The wayfaring man, so marked, is not the idler by the way, -not the one who believes that the intelligence of divine grace means taking things easily, and being as little as possible exercised about anything. He is not the man who little consults his road-map, is little interested in communications from the place to which he is going, and who, passing through an enemy’s country, sees but little evidence of danger anywhere, and finds the proof of the world being improved in the monuments of the prophets built by the children of their persecutors. These are they who naturally take the distracted state of Christendom as an infallible argument of the uselessness of expecting positive certainty about anything beyond a few cardinal points of doctrine, and who yet think Scripture plain enough for all practical purposes. No! it is deep enough to exercise thoroughly every earnest student of it, and profitable for the "man of God" alone.

And how many are the men of God? How many are they who are set absolutely to follow all that Scripture sets before them, and never balk the light because it searches them too much? The "secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him" thus, and none of these will find Scripture disappoint them. But they will find it immensely large, and ever beyond them, -leading them on, therefore, to the invisible, the heavenly, the eternal; while giving them practical wisdom without limit with regard to all that meets them by the way.

Christian reader, is this your character? and how does your experience agree with this?

It is no wonder then that what the apostle appeals to the Corinthians by, against their divisions. is the Name of a common Lord, -that Dame upon which they call as owning subjection to Him whose name it is. We find directly how far they had gone astray from the simplicity of this obedience; even to the ranging themselves as disciples under the various teachers which God had given them, as one of Paul, and one of Apollos, and one of Cephas, and one even -as if putting His teachings in contrast with those of His (even inspired) servants -of Christ Himself! How ninny since have sought to make such a distinction! perhaps to refer us for their creed to the "sermon on the mount"! And one whole school of recent date, among the many monstrous births with which the degenerate universities of Protestant Germany have afflicted the church, has for its cardinal principle the opposition of Paul to Peter, and Peter to Paul, from a compromise between whose followers came the Catholic church! There is no need for us at present to concern ourselves with such grotesque heresies, and it will be of more profit to think of things that more nearly touch ourselves. We no doubt believe that all the inspired writers are to be listened to as the mouthpieces of the Spirit of God alike; whatever may be the differences in their respective lines of testimony. It is to be feared, however, that for most of us some of these have written almost in vain. The want of balance of truth may thus be very great, and the result more than a defect in knowledge. Scripture is a living organism, in which each member ministers to the rest, and if one member suffer all the members suffer with it. Prophecy roots itself in history, which again is the birthplace of every great doctrine. Doctrine controls and models practice. To suppose that any part of the word of God may be slighted with impunity is to come near to accusing God of having spoken idly in it; and it is not the knowledge of it, but the want of knowledge -its power and preciousness not being realized in the soul, that makes men ready to yield it up to the unsparing hands of the (falsely called) "higher critics," whose every effort is to debase what they do not understand.

But this works also in other ways which may once more come closer home to us. What is it that makes people sit at the feet of men who can be but, at best, interpreters after an imperfect fashion of a book which is in all our hands, and the One infallible Interpreter of which is given to all Christians, with deference often abject to the authoritative exposition of those who know, or ought to know, as those occupied so much with the things of the world, and destitute of needful training, cannot be expected to do? Let it not be thought that it is meant that we can receive no help from teachers; or that there is not to be a due recognition of whatever help the Lord would give us. His way is to use us to one another, and the pride of independency is sure to reap its reward. But the opposite error is at least no less; it is a false, because extreme, confidence in any teacher, however pious, however gifted, which as little really honors the teacher as it even establishes in the teaching, or builds up the soul therefore before God. Such disciples of men are like a house upon the sand, when the storm of trial comes; while, as the Lord says, "He that heareth His words and doeth them," his house shall not fall, because it is founded upon a rock. And be it the truth one builds on, but receiving it as the word of man, without having searched out all before God, except His mercy avert, the sand that is over the rock may cause its fall as easily. Who that is a teacher indeed can be satisfied with less than divine authority for himself, or therefore allow others to be satisfied with less? The mind may wander through imaginative realms of fancy at its will, but the conscience is that which has to do with God alone, where no one of us all can answer for another. Yet how many grow up in the faith of their parents simply, without ever having examined it! or in the creed of a church certified to them by a multitude of respectable names, and thus are walking by the faith of others, and not their own! And thus we have come with the weight of centuries upon us, down to a systematized Corinthian condition, in the easiest and most natural way possible to be imagined. Alas, too natural; what more so than for Abraham to desire to carry his father with him into Canaan? Yet he only kept himself out of it till his father died. And we, what wonder that we have not much need of a text to teach us how to know of the doctrine, we who succeed to our fathers, doctrines just as to any other part of their estates, and would think it a dishonor to their memories to act as if we were wiser than they, except as perforce we are carried on with the progress of the generations, mostly scientific as it is, and thus are compelled to realize that Darwin has come, and Darwinism in religion, while they and Moses had the misfortune to live before his time.

One would think that this principle of science with its professed call for "verification," would suggest at least no less than the verification by our manual of instruction, of all that we hear from those who professedly are teaching from it; but men are men, and sinuosity still marks "the worm Jacob’s" course. How many verify their scientific text-books? And in religion, how shall these hard-worked business men sit down to verify the sayings of those whose business is to give out that which by long labor they have acquired? They may change their teacher, if they are unable in the main to go with him; but the method is harder to change. Until, indeed, the invisible things become for them the deepest realities, and the spoon fashion of feeding no longer is found to meet the demands of a sturdier life.

With the Corinthians things had not gone on in any wise so far as this, but the same causes were at work, and the people of God were already becoming such or such a teacher’s people. The apostle meets it with the utmost vigor, according to his wont. "Is Christ divided?" he asks: are His words in contradiction to those inspired by the Spirit since He went on high? "Was Paul crucified for you?" so that you should be the people of Paul? "Or were you baptized to the name of Paul?" -as people are baptized into this or that church now. "I thank my God," he adds, "that I baptized none of you, except Crispus and Gains, that no one may say ye were baptized to my name. And I baptized also the house of Stephanas; for the rest, I know not if I baptized any other."

"Under the old dispensation," says Hodge, "whenever any one professed Judaism, or entered into covenant with God as one of His people, all his children and dependents, that is, all to whom he stood in a representative relation, were included in the covenant, and received its sign. In like manner, under the gospel, when a Jew or Gentile joined the Church, his children received baptism and were recognized as members of the Christian Church." I quote this because of some common but important errors in it, which need to be separated from the truth which is contained.

The "baptismal covenant" is a very common doctrine in much of Protestant theology; having its main support from its analogy with the Israelite "covenant of circumcision "by which the seed of Abraham according to the flesh" stood in acknowledged relationship to Jehovah, their covenant God. But while conceding fully the analogy, we have carefully to remember the difference between a nation in the flesh and under a covenant of law, and the Church as the Body of Christ, indwelt of the Spirit. Into this Church no ordinance can bring, but the baptism of the Spirit only (1Co 12:13). The confounding of this with water-baptism, and of the Body of Christ with the Kingdom of heaven is one that has led largely to the ritualism with which the professing church is afflicted today, and from which the Reformers themselves, with but a few exceptions such as Zwingle, were by no means fully delivered. But while there was a "throne of the Lord" in Israel, where Solomon sat as the viceroy and representative of a higher power (1Ch 28:5; 1Ch 29:23), the sign of whose Presence was the Glory over the ark of the covenant in the innermost holy place, yet the difference is even thus apparent. And if Israel were thus a kingdom of the Lord, and might have been, had they stood to the terms of their covenant, "a kingdom of priests" (Exo 19:6) in nearer relationship, yet members of the Body of Christ they never were -not even that remnant according to the election of grace which has been ever among them. To urge, as so many do, that they were the "assembly," (or "church") of the Lord, as we are, is to mistake the whole matter, and substitute a false issue for the true one. The question is in no wise one of the assembly of the Lord simply, which no one could deny them to have been, but of "the assembly which is His Body" (Eph 1:22-23), which could not exist before there was a Head in heaven, or a baptism of the Spirit to form the Body. The Kingdom it is which, in whatever different forms, existed, and exists all through; and in Israel the house of God was its centre; in the Kingdom, but of course distinct from it. And so again, the Church is now the House of God by the indwelling of the Spirit; in the Kingdom, but distinct from the Kingdom. It is only the confusion between Israel as the assembly of the Lord, and the assembly which is Christ’s Body and the House of God, that makes this other confusion between the Kingdom and the Church. And it is true that "He hath made us a Kingdom, priests to His God and Father," as the book of Revelation says (Rev 1:6, R.V.); but this is another of the many blessings which are ours in Christ.

This distinction clear makes clear many another thing. It is on this lower ground that Israel and the Church are in some sense one. It is here that the analogy between circumcision and baptism finds its justification, and the whole ritualistic argument as to the latter is swept away. Baptism is into the Kingdom, not the Church; it is, as we have elsewhere seen, one of the keys of the Kingdom (see Mat 16:19, notes), and one of the modes of discipling into that which is a kingdom of truth (Mat 28:19, notes). On this ground all the blessing is governmental, conditional, and (however it may look on to eternity,) secures nothing there. It is a remission or washing away of sin which is hypothetical necessarily, as done by those who cannot know infallibly the hearts of those who come to their baptism, and cannot cleanse those whom God has not cleansed; any more than the water which they use can cleanse the soul (see Act 2:38, notes). Nor does God work magically, as men would have Him, by means unsuitable to the nature He has given us.

If we understood that baptism is just the solemn admission to the Lord’s school on earth, the difficulty as to the admission of a believer’s house to this along with himself would be at an end; and the reason would be apparent for the distinction to be made between the child and the adult. God would of course have reality, and he who owns Christ Master and Lord, coming to sit at His feet and learn of Him, must come in faith or he does not come; while on the other hand the arms of divine love are ready to encircle the babes brought to Him, and His own word bids those to whose responsibility they are committed to "bring them up in the nurture and discipline of the Lord:" -that is, as disciples. Thus the assurance that "of such is the Kingdom of heaven" is as plain as need be and as encouraging as plain. There is no bringing into a place those who have no proved fitness for it; no bringing into the professing church at all; while in complete harmony with the principles announced by God in Abraham, the family ties are owned of God in blessing wherever a faith like his may lay hold of the promise, "Bring up a child in the way in which he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it."

Here therefore, the apostle plainly distinguishes between the only two of the assembly at Corinth whom he had baptized -"none of you, except Crispus and Gaius;" while of the baptized households he had baptized but one, as far as his memory served -"the house of Stephanas." Here it was not so important to remember; for it was not the children who were distracting the church by their divisions. It was sufficient, therefore, to say here, "for the rest, I know not that I baptized any other."

{*"The household of Stephanas" of whom we read at the end of the epistle that they had "addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints," seems to be the servants, the word being different, -oikia, and not oikos. "They that are of Cesar’s household" -oikia, Php 4:22 -were not his children; while all the cases in which the children are plainly intended the word is oikos.}

F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1:1-3 Paul commonly begins his letters with a few words about himself, followed by greetings and an invocation of grace and peace. In this, he follows the normal pattern of ancient Greek letters but expands it with Christian meaning.

1:1 An apostle of Christ Jesus was a missionary evangelist commissioned by Christ himself. • Sosthenes, Paul’s co-worker, might be the same person as in Acts 18:17.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

1Co 1:1. Παῦλος, Paul. The epistle consists—

I. Of the Inscription, 1Co 1:1-3.

II. Of the Discussion; in which we have—

I. An exhortation to concord, depressing the elated judgments of the flesh, 1Co 1:4; 1Co 4:21.

II. A reproof,—

1) For not putting away the wicked person, 1Co 5:1-13.

2) For perverse lawsuits, 1Co 6:1-11.

III. An exhortation to avoid fornication, 1Co 6:12-20.

IV. His answer to them in regard to marriage, 1Co 7:1; 1Co 7:10; 1Co 7:25; 1Co 7:36; 1Co 7:39.

V. On things offered to idols, 1Co 8:1-2; 1Co 8:13 — 1Co 9:27—1Co 10:1 — 1Co 11:1.

VI. On a woman being veiled, 1Co 11:2.

VII. On the Lord’s Supper, 1Co 11:17.

VIII. On spiritual gifts, 1 Corinthians 12; 1 Corinthians 13; 1 Corinthians 14.

IX. On the resurrection of the dead, 1Co 15:1; 1Co 15:12; 1Co 15:29; 1Co 15:35.

X. On the collection: on his own coming, and that of Timothy and Apollos; on the sum and substance of the whole subject, 1Co 16:1; 1Co 16:5; 1Co 16:10; 1Co 16:12-14.

III. Of the Conclusion, 1Co 16:15; 1Co 16:17; 1Co 16:19-20.

—ἀπόστολος Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, an apostle of Jesus Christ) 1Co 1:17.—διὰ θελήματος Θεοῦ, by the will of God) so 2Co 1:1; Eph 1:1; Col 1:1; 2Ti 1:1. His apostleship is said to be “by the commandment of God,” in 1Ti 1:1. This was the principle on which rested the apostolic authority in regard to the churches: and the principle of the zealous and humble mind which characterized Paul himself; comp. Rom 1:1, note. For by the mention of God, human claim to wages (auctoramentum) is excluded, Gal 1:1; by the mention of the will of God, merit on the part of Paul is excluded, ch. 1Co 15:8, etc.: whence this apostle is in proportion the more grateful and zealous, 2Co 8:5, at the end of the verse. Had Paul been left to his own will, he would never have become an apostle.[1]—Σωσθένης, Sosthenes) a companion of Paul, a Corinthian. Apollos is not mentioned here, nor Aquila; for they do not appear to have been at that time with Paul, although they were in the same city, ch. 1Co 16:12; 1Co 16:19. In the second epistle, he joins Timothy to himself.

[1] It is of the greatest advantage to have the will of GOD for our guide. To attempt anything under the guidance of a man’s own will is an undertaking full of hazard, under however specious a name it may be capable of being commended. In the world it readily produces embarrassments, troublesome and very difficult to be got rid of.—V. g.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Co_1:1. Κλητὸς ἀπόστ. See on Rom_1:1. A polemical reference (Chrysostom, Theophylact, and many others, including Flatt, Rückert, Olshausen, Osiander), which would be foreign to the winning tone of the whole exordium, would have been quite otherwise expressed by one so decided as Paul (comp Gal_1:1).

διὰ θελ. Θεοῦ] That his position as an apostle called by Christ was brought about by the will of God, was a truth so vividly and firmly implanted in his consciousness, that he commonly includes an expression of it in the beginning of his Epistles. See 2Co_1:1; Gal_1:1; Eph_1:1; Col_1:1; 1Ti_1:1; 2Ti_1:1. Sua ipsius voluntate P. nunquam factus esset apostolus, Bengel. Regarding διά, see on 1Co_1:9 and Gal_1:1.

καὶ Σωσθένης] Modern interpreters reckon him the amanuensis of the Epistle (see 1Co_16:21). But the mere amanuensis as such has no share in the Epistle itself, which must, however, be the case with one who holds a place in the introductory salutation. Since, moreover, in 1 and 2 Thess. we find two others besides Paul named with him in the superscription (who therefore could hardly both be mentioned as amanuenses), and even an indefinite number of brethren in the Epistle to the Galatians, whereas in that to the Romans the amanuensiswho is known from 1Co_16:22does not appear as included in the superscription, we must rather suppose that Paul made his Epistle run not only in his own name, but also (although, of course, in a subordinate sense) in the name of Sosthenes, so that the Corinthians were to regard the letter of the apostle as at the same time a letter of Sosthenes, who thereby signified his desire to impress upon them the same doctrines, admonitions, etc. This presupposes that Paul had previously considered and discussed with this friend of his the contents of the letter to be issued. Comp on Php_1:1. Sosthenes himself accordingly appears as a teacher then present with the apostle and enjoying his confidence, but known to, and respected among, the Corinthians. There remains, indeed, the possibility that he may have also written the Epistle, but only in so far as we are in utter ignorance of who the amanuensis was at all. Had Timothy not already started on his journey (1Co_4:17, 1Co_16:10), he would have had a place along with, or instead of, Sosthenes in the salutation of the Epistle; comp 2Co_1:1.

Theodoret and most commentators, including Flatt, Billroth, Ewald, Maier, Hofmann, identify Sosthenes with the person so named in Act_18:17; but this is rightly denied by Michaelis, Pott, Rückert, and de Wette. See on Acts, l.c[80] Without due ground, Rückert concludes that he was a young man trained up by Paula view least of all to be deduced from the assumption that he was the amanuensis of the letter. The very absence of any definite information whatever as to Sosthenes shows how utterly arbitrary is the remark of Chrysostom, Theophylact, Grotius, and Estius, that it was a great proof of modesty in the apostle to name him along with himself.

ὁ ἀδελφός] denotes nothing more special than Christian brotherhood (so also 2Co_1:1; Col_1:1, al[81]), not fellowship in the office of teacher. The particulars of the position of Sosthenes were well known to the readers.

[80] .c. loco citato or laudato.

[81] l. and others; and other passages; and other editions.

1Co_1:1-3. Apostolic address and greeting.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Co 1:1-3 . The salutation is full and varied in the epp. of this group. As in Galatians and Romans, P. emphasises his apostleship (see 1Co 9:1 f.), at present in dispute. The readers are (in 1 and 2 Cor.) “the Church” and “the saints” a transition from “the ch.” of 1 and 2 Thess. (“the churches,” Gal.) to “the saints” of Rom. and later epp. Here stress is thrown with a purpose, (1) on the sanctity of the Cor [32] Church, (2) on its fellowship with the general body of Christians .

[32] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

1Co 1:1 . Παῦλος κλητὸς ἀπόστολος (so in Rom.) not ap. by merit or human choice, but called thereto διὰ θελήματος Θεοῦ (so in later epp.). through an express intervention of he Divine will , cf. 1Co 9:16 f., Gal 1:1 ; Gal 1:15 f., Eph 3:2 ff., also Act 9:15 , etc. “A called apostle” as the Cor [33] are “called saints”: he summoned to be herald and dispenser (1Co 1:17 ; 1Co 1:23 , 1Co 4:1 ), they receivers of God’s Gospel (1Co 1:26-31 ). The κλητοὶ are in P. identified with the ἐκλεκτοί (1Co 1:26 f., Rom 8:29 f.), not distinguished as in Mat 20:16 . The thought of the “call” of God as assigning to each Christian man his status is prominent in this ep.: see 1Co 1:9 ; 1Co 1:24 ff., 1Co 7:17-24 . Σωσθέντης ὁ ἀδελφὸς is a party to the Letter, which notwithstanding runs in first pers [34] sing [35] , as in Gal. after οἱ σὺν ἐμοὶ πάντες ἀδελφοὶ of 1Co 1:2 ; otherwise in 2 Corinthians , 1 and 2 Thess.: Sosthenes (only named here by P.) shares in this ep. not as joint-composer, but as witness and approver. He would scarcely be introduced at this point as amanuensis ( cf. Rom 16:22 ). . is a person known to and honoured by the Cor [36] , but now with the Ap. at Ephesus and in his confidence. He may, or may not, have been the Sosthenes of Act 18:17 the name was fairly common. One ἀρχισυνάγωγος (Crispus) had been converted at Cor [37] , why not another afterwards? P. would delight to make of a persecutor an ally. His former position would give an ex-Synagogue-leader weight, especially with Jewish Christians; and his subsequent conversion may account for Luke’s exceptionally preserving Sosthenes’ name as Paul’s assailant (see M. Dods on the point, in Exp. Bib. ). Eusebius ( Hist. Eccles. , i. 12) makes . one of the Seventy of Luk 10:17 “a worthless tradition” (Lt [38] ).

[33] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

[34]ers. grammatical person, or personal.

[35]ing. singular number.

[36] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

[37] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

[38] J. B. Lightfoot’s (posthumous) Notes on Epp. of St. Paul (1895).

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Co 1:1-9. SALUTATION AND INTRODUCTION

1. Παῦλος. We find this name first given to the Apostle in Act 13:9. His real name was Saul. But it was usual for Jews to have a name of similar sound to their own for use in the Gentile world, as Jason for Joseph, Ἰοῦστος (perhaps) for Ἰησοῦς (Col 4:11), and the like. Some have suggested that St Paul took the name in honour of Sergius Paulus, who is mentioned in the same chapter in which the change of name is recorded. This is hardly probable; though it is probable that the name may have at that time suggested itself to the Apostle as suitable (1) from its similarity of sound to Saul, and (2) as falling in with his deep humility. He was wont to style himself the least of the Apostles, and paullus means little.

κλητός. Cf. Rom 1:1; Rom 1:6-7 and especially Rom 8:28 κατὰ πρόθεσιν κλητοῖς. The only other passages in which the word occurs are in this chapter, Mat 20:16, and Jud 1:1. It is used of any office or character which is of Divine appointment. So the assembly of God’s people is called a κλητὴ ἀγία (Exo 12:16 &c.) as having been called together by His appointment. Cf. κλῆσις, 1Co 1:26, 1Co 7:20. ὅρα πῶς εὐθέως ἑκ προοιμίων τὸν τῦφον κατέβαλε, καὶ χαμαὶ ἔῤῥιψε πᾶσαν αὐτῶν τὴν οἴησιν, κλητὸν ἑαυτὸν εἰπών. οὐ γὰρ αὐτὸς εὗρον, φησίν, ὅπερ ἔμαθον, οὐδὲ οἰκείᾳ κατέλαβον σοφίᾳ, ἀλλὰ διώκων καὶ πορθῶν τὴν ἐκκλησίαν, ἐκλήθην. Chrysostom.

ἀπόστολος. This word differs from ἄγγελος chiefly in the fact that the latter has special reference to the message, the former to the messenger. ἄγγελος denotes one who has a message to deliver; ἀπόστολος is used of one who is commissioned to deliver the message, with some reference to the person or persons from whom the message is sent. From the heathen sense of one commissioned by man, we pass on in the N. T. to one commissioned or delegated by God. See Bishop Lightfoot’s note, Ep. to Galatians, p. 92. Also Joh 17:18.

διὰ θελήματος θεοῦ. St Paul here as elsewhere asserts his Divine commission. This was necessary because a party had arisen which was inclined to dispute it. We read in the Epistle to the Galatians of the ‘false brethren unawares brought in’ whose doctrine he was compelled to withstand and to assert the Divine origin of his own; and in the second Epistle to the Corinthians we find many allusions to those who rejected his authority, as in ch. 1Co 3:1, 1Co 5:12, 1Co 10:2; 1Co 10:7; 1Co 10:10, and the whole of chapters 11 and 12. They no doubt laid much stress on the fact that St Paul had not received the call of Christ as the Twelve had (see notes on ch. 9), and also on the different complexion his doctrine, though in substance the same, necessarily bore, from the fact that it was mainly addressed to Gentiles and not to Jews. It is worthy of remark that in the two Epistles to the Thessalonians, written before the controversy arose, no such clause is found, while after the commencement of the dispute the words or some equivalent to them are only absent from one Epistle addressed to a church.

Σωσθένης ὁ ἀδελφός. Literally, the brother. He was probably not the Sosthenes mentioned in Act 18:17, who was an opponent of the faith, but some one well known to the churches in the Apostolic age. Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. I. 12, mentions a report that he was one of the Seventy.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

ΠΡΟΣ ΚΟΡΙΝΘΙΟΥΣ Α

Chap.

1:1-3.] Address and greeting.

1.] It is doubtful whether κλητός is not spurious: see var. readd.

The words διὰ θελ. θεοῦ point probably to the depreciation of Paul’s apostolic authority at Corinth. In Gal 1:1 we have this much more strongly asserted. But they have a reference to Paul himself also: “ratio auctoritatis ad ecclesias: humilis et prompti animi, penes ipsum Paulum.” Bengel. Chrys., referring it to κλητός, says, ἐπειδὴ αὐτῷ ἔδοξεν, ἐκλήθημεν, οὐκ ἐπειδὴ ἄξιοι ἦμεν. Hom. i. p. 4.

Σωσθένης can hardly be assumed to be identical with the ruler of the synagogue in Act 18:17: see note there. He must have been some Christian well known to the church at Corinth. Thus Paul associates with himself Silvanus and Timotheus in the Epistles to the Thessalonians; and Timotheus in 2 Cor. Chrysostom attributes it to modesty: μετριάζει, συντάττων ἑαυτῷ τὸν ἐλάττονα πολλῷ. Some have supposed Sosthenes to be the writer of the Epistle, see Rom 16:22. Possibly he may have been one τῶν Χλόης (ver. 11) by whom the intelligence had been received, and the Apostle may have associated him with himself as approving the appeal to apostolic authority. Perhaps some slight may have been put upon him by the parties at Corinth, and for that reason Paul puts him forward.

ὁ ἀδελφός, as 2Co 1:1, of Timothy, our brother,—one of οἱ ἀδελφοί.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS

————

1:1-3. THE APOSTOLIC SALUTATION

Paul, a divinely chosen Apostle, and Sosthenes our brother, give Christian greeting to the Corinthian Church, itself also divinely called.

1 Paul, an Apostle called by divine summons equally with the Twelve, and Sosthenes whom ye know, 2 give greeting to the body of Corinthian Christians, who have been consecrated to God in Christ, called out of the mass of mankind into the inner society of the Church to which so many other Christian worshippers belong. 3 May the free and unmerited favour of God, and the peace which comes from reconciliation with Him, be yours! May God Himself, our Heavenly Father, and the Lord Jesus Messiah, grant them to you!

The Salutation is in the usual three parts: the sender (v. 1), the addressees (v. 2), and the greeting (v. 3).

1. κλητός. Elsewhere only Rom 1:1. As all are called to be ἅγιοι, so Paul is called to be an Apostle: see on v. 2, and note the same parallelism, Rom 1:1, Rom 1:6. In O.T. the idea of κλῆσις is often connected with prophets.*

διὰ θελήματος Θεοῦ. As in 2 Cor., Eph., Col., 2 Tim.; expanded, with emphasis on his divine call to the exclusion of any human source or channel, in Gal 1:1. Sua ipsius voluntate nunquam P. factus esset apostolus (Beng.). Per quod tangit etiam illos, quos neque Christus miserat, neque Per voluntatem Dei praedicabant (Herveius Burgidolensis), viz., the self-constituted teachers, the false apostles.

Σωσθένης. He was not necessarily the amanuensis, for Tertius (Rom 16:22) does not appear in the Salutation. In Gal 1:1, a number of unnamed persons are associated with the Apostle. Nor need this Sosthenes be the Corinthian Jew (Act 18:17) who was the chief of the synagogue (superseding Crispus the convert?) and perhaps leader of the complaint before Gallio.* If the two are identical, S. himself had (1) subsequently become a Christian, (2) migrated from Corinth to Ephesus.

ὁ ἀδεηφός. A Christian: 16:12; 2Co 1:1; Col 1:1; Phm 1:1; Rom 16:23; Heb 13:23. The article implies that he was well known to some Corinthians. Deissmann (Bible Studies, pp. 87, 142) has shown that ἀδελφοί was used of members of religious bodies long before Christians adopted it in this sense. It is remarkable that Apollos is not named as joining in sending the letter (16:12).

A D E omit κλητός. Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ (B D E F G 17, Am.) is to be preferred to Ἰησοῦ Χρ. (א A L P, Syrr. Copt. Arm. Aeth.); see note on Rom 1:1 contrast vv. 1, 2, 4 with 3, 7, 8, 9, 10, where Κύριος is added.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Called to be an apostle. See on Rom 1:1. Compare 1Ti 1:1. Not distinguishing him from other apostles. Compare Mt 4:21; Joh 6:70; but Paul was called no less directly than these by Jesus Christ. Gal 1:12 - 16. John does not use the word apostle, but gives the idea, Joh 13:18.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Vv. 1. “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by call, through the will of God, and Sosthenes the brother.”

The addresses of Paul’s letters are generally drawn on the type of the ancient address: N. to N., greeting! Comp. Act 23:26. Paul does not confine himself to translating this received form into Christian language; he modifies it each time according to the interests which occupy his heart, and with a view to the state of the Church to which he writes. To his name he adds the title in virtue of which he is now addressing his readers; it is as an apostle that he writes them. The special mark of this office is the call directly received from Christ Himself. Paul puts this mark in relief by the epithet κλητός, called; a qualifying adjective, and not a participle (κληθείς), as if the apostle had meant, called to be an apostle. The meaning is, “an apostle in virtue of a call.” He means that he has not taken this office at his own hand, but that he has received it by a Divine act. I do not think that there is here a polemical intention against parties who might deny his apostleship: what would this assertion prove? He means rather to place the whole contents of the letter which is to follow under the warrant of Him who confided to him his mission. We must read, according to several ancient Mjj.: of Christ Jesus, that is to say, “of the Messiah who is Jesus;” and not of Jesus Christ (Jesus who is the Messiah), according to the received text. The technical form has been mechanically substituted for the less ordinary by the copyists. By this complement, Paul may designate Christ as the Author of the call, or perhaps as the Master whose property he became by that call. As the regimen following ascribes the call to God, the second meaning is to be preferred. The words, through the will of God, refer to all the providential circumstances of Paul’s birth and education, whereby his apostolic mission had been prepared for; and especially the extraordinary act which completed this preparation, and triumphed over his resistance; all which Paul sums up in those expressions of the Epistle to the Galatians (1Co 1:15): “But when it pleased God who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by His grace....” It is with a feeling of profound humiliation that he emphasizes so expressly this idea of the will of God; for he feels that it needed unfathomable mercy to snatch him from the obstinate rebellion to which he was giving himself up. But at the same time he is powerfully strengthened in relation to himself and to the Church, by the assurance that what he is, he is by the will of God. But at the same time he is powerfully strengthened, as regards himself and the Church, by the assurance that it is God who has willed that he should be what he is.

Paul joins with his name that of a Christian, the brother Sosthenes. Reuss regards this man merely as an obscure person who no doubt acted as secretary to the apostle. I believe that there are here two errors; the place in our verse ascribed to Sosthenes is wholly different from that which the apostle gives to a simple secretary, as, for example, Tertius (Rom 16:22). Paul uses particular delicacy in his way of mentioning those whom he associates with him in the composition of his letters. In his two Epistles addressed to the Church of Thessalonica, of which Silas and Timothy had been the founders along with him, he mentions them absolutely as his equals, except in so far as he puts himself in the first place; and the first person plural, which he frequently uses, again and again applies, as in 1Co 1:2, to the three taken together. It is nearly the same in Php 1:1, where Timothy’s name is closely associated in the address with that of Paul, no doubt because Timothy had laboured with him in founding that Church. There is a marked difference between this form and that of the Epistle to the Colossians, where Timothy’s name is certainly associated with Paul’s, but where it is more profoundly distinguished from it by an appendix added to the latter, in the first place, then by the title of apostle given to Paul and the name brother to Timothy. This difference arises from the fact that neither the one nor the other having founded the Church, Paul writes here in his character of apostle to the Gentiles, which Timothy does not share. In the letters to the Romans and Ephesians, whom Paul addresses more expressly still as the apostle of the Gentile world, he associates no name with his own. The position given to Sosthenes in our address is therefore somewhat like the place of Timothy in the Epistles to the Philippians and Colossians. Paul makes this brother share to a certain extent in the composition and responsibility of the letter. Sosthenes is perhaps his secretary; but he is more than that: he must be a man enjoying high consideration among the Corinthians, a fellow-labourer with the apostle who, as well as Timothy (2Co 1:1), co-operated in the evangelization of Corinth and Achaia. If it is so, it is probable that we here find the same person who, as chief of the synagogue of Corinth, had played a part in the scene of Paul’s appearance before Gallio (Act 18:17). It was he who, after Paul’s liberation, as the account of the Acts says, “was beaten by all” (the words—the Greeks are a gloss), consequently by Jews and Greeks, without Gallio’s taking any concern. He took probably a doubtful attitude in this affair, later his position was more decided (see Hofmann). The place assigned him here is consequently, as Heinrici says, a place of honour; it reminds us of that ascribed by Paul to those mentioned in the address of the Epistle to the Galatians (1Co 1:2): “and all the brethren who are with me.” Assuredly those brethren were not all his secretaries, but all, in name of the Christian brotherhood, exhorted the Galatians to take to heart the warnings which Paul addressed to them as their spiritual father; so it is that the credit which Sosthenes has with the Church must be added to the superior authority of the apostle. Clement of Alexandria, according to the account of Eusebius (H. E. 1.12), made Sosthenes one of the seventy disciples: the statement is without value.

From the author, Paul passes to the readers:

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Introduction

1. Corinth

The Grecian Peloponnesus is connected with the continent by an isthmus from four to six miles wide. On this isthmus stood the city of Corinth. A rocky eminence, called the Acrocorinthus, rises from the plain almost perpendicularly, to the height of two thousand feet above the level of the sea, and is sufficiently broad at the summit for a town of considerable size. From the top of this abrupt hill the eye reaches towards the east over the expanse of the Aegean Sea, with its numerous islands; and westward, towards the Ionian Sea, a prospect scarcely less inviting was presented. Looking towards the north, the eye rests on the mountains of Attica on the one hand, and northeastern Greece on the other; the Acropolis of Athens being clearly visible at a distance of forty-five miles. As early as the days of Homer, Corinth was an important city. Its position made it, in a military point of view, the key of the Peloponnesus; and its command of a port on two seas made it the center of commerce between Asia and Europe. The supremacy enjoyed by one Grecian State after another, had at last fallen to the lot of Corinth. It became the chief city of Greece, not only in authority, but in wealth, magnificence, literature, the arts, and in luxury. It was characteristic of the place, that while the temple of Minena crowned the Acropolis of Athens, the Acrocorinthus was the site of the temple of Venus. Of all the cities of the ancient world it was most notorious for licentiousness. It was entirely destroyed by the Roman consul Mummius, 120 years b.c., its inhabitants were dispersed, and the conqueror carried with him to Rome the richest spoils that ever graced the triumph of a Roman general. For a century after this event it lay in ruins, serving only as a quarry whence the Roman patricians gathered marble for their palaces. Julius Caesar, recognizing the military and commercial importance of the position, determined to rebuild it, and for that purpose sent thither a colony consisting principally of freed men. This accounts for the predominance of Latin names which we meet with in connection with the Christians of this city. Erastus, Phoebe, and Sosthenes are Greek names; but Gaius, Quintus, Fortunatus, Crispus, Justus, Achaicus, are of Roman origin. This colony, however, was little more than the nucleus of the new city. Merchants flocked thither from all parts of Greece; Jews also were attracted by the facilities of commerce; wealth, art, literature, and luxury revived. The Isthmian games were again celebrated under the presidency of the city. It was made the capital of Achaia, which as a Roman province, included the greater part of Greece. Under the fostering care of Augustus, Corinth regained much of its ancient splendor, and during the century which had nearly elapsed since its restoration, before it was visited by the Apostle Paul, it had reached a pre-eminence which made it the glory of Greece. It was at this time under the rule of the Proconsul Gallio, the brother of Seneca, a man distinguished for integrity and mildness. His brother says of him: Nemo enim mortalium uni tam dulcis est, quam hic omnibus. His refusal to entertain the frivolous charges brought by the Jews against Paul (Act_18:14-16, is in keeping with the character given of him by his contemporaries. He was one of the victims of the cruelty of Nero. ‹1›

2. Pauls Labors in Corinth

As Corinth was not only the political capital of Greece, but the seat of its commercial and intellectual life; the place of concourse for the people not only of the neighboring cities, but of nations; a source whence influences of all kinds emanated in every direction, it was specially important for the diffusion of the gospel. Paul, therefore, leaving Athens, which he had visited in his second missionary journey, went alone to Corinth, where he was soon after joined by Silas and Timotheus, who came from Macedonia. (Act_18:5.) A stranger in this great city, and without the means of support, he associated himself with Aquila, a Jew lately come from Italy, in consequence of the edict of Claudius banishing the Jews from Rome. While living in the house of Aquila, and working with him at his trade of tent-making, Paul attended the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and Greeks. But when they opposed themselves and blasphemed, he shook his raiment, and said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean: henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles. And he departed thence, and went into a certain mans house, named Justus, one who worshipped God, and whose house joined hard to the synagogue. And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord, with all his house; and many of the Corinthians hearing it believed, and were baptized. Then spake the Lord to Paul by night, by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace: for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee; for I have much people in this city. And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. (Act_18:1-11.) The success of Paul aroused the enmity of the Jews, who determined to arraign him before the Roman governor. As soon as the governor ascertained the nature of the charge, he refused to listen to it, and dismissed the accusers from the judgment-seat with evident displeasure which encouraged the bystanders to beat the Jews. Thus the opposers of the apostle were ignominiously defeated. After remaining some time longer in Corinth, he sailed from Cenchrea, the eastern port of the city, to Ephesus, with Aquila and Priscilla. Leaving his friends in that city, he sailed to Caesarea, and thence went up to Jerusalem. After remaining a short time in the Holy City, he went to Antioch, and thence, through Phrygia and Galatia, again to Ephesus. Shortly after Paul left Ephesus the first time, Apollos, an Alexandrian Jew, having been more fully instructed in the doctrine of Christ by Aquila and Priscilla, went to Corinth, and there mightily convinced the Jews, and that publicly, shewing by the Scripture that Jesus was the Christ. (Act_18:24-28.) It is altogether probable, considering the constant commercial intercourse between Corinth and Ephesus, that the apostle had frequent opportunities of hearing of the state of the Corinthian church during his three years residence in the latter city. The information which he received led him, as is generally supposed, to write a letter no longer extant, exhorting them not to keep company with fornicators. (See 1Co_5:9.) Not satisfied with this effort to correct an alarming evil, he seems himself to have made them a brief visit. No record is indeed found in the Acts of his having been to Corinth more than once before the date of this epistle; but there are several passages in his second epistle which can hardly be understood otherwise than as implying an intermediate visit. In 2Co_12:14 he says, Behold, the third time I am ready to come to you. This may indeed mean that for the third time he had prepared to go to Corinth; but this the context does not suggest, and would really amount to nothing. It was not how often he had purposed to visit them, but how often he had actually made the journey, which was the point on which stress is laid. In 2Co_13:1 he says, This is the third time I am coming to you, which is still more explicit. In 2Co_2:1 he says, I determined I would not come again to you in heaviness. This supposes that he had already made them one sorrowful visit, i.e., one in which he had been obliged to cause sorrow, as well as to experience it. See also 2Co_12:21, and 2Co_13:2, where further allusion seems to be made to a second visit. Notwithstanding his frequent injunctions, the state of things in Corinth seemed to be getting worse. The apostle therefore determined to send Timothy and Erastus to them. (1Co_4:17. Act_19:22.) Whether Timothy reached Corinth at this time is doubtful; and it would seem from 1Co_16:10 that the apostle himself feared that he might not be able to accomplish all that had been appointed him in Macedonia, and yet get to Corinth before he arrival of this letter. After the departure of Timothy, Paul received such intelligence from the household of Chloe, and from a letter addressed to him by the Corinthians themselves (1Co_7:1), that he determined at once to write to them.

3. State of the Church in Corinth

The state of the church in Corinth may be partially inferred from the character and circumstances of the people, but with certainty only from the contents of this and the following epistles. As remarked above, the population of the city was more than ordinarily heterogeneous. The descendants of the colonists sent by Julius Caesar, the Greeks who were attracted to the principal city of their own country, Jews and strangers from all parts of the Roman Empire, were here congregated. The predominant character of the people was doubtless Grecian. The majority of the converts to Christianity were probably Greeks, as distinguished from Jews. (See 1Co_12:1.) In all ages the Greeks were distinguished by their fondness for speculation, their vanity and love of pleasure, and their party spirit. A church composed of people of these characteristics, with a large infusion of Jewish converts, educated in the midst of refined heathenism, surrounded by all the incentives to indulgence, taught to consider pleasure, if not the chief good, yet in any form a good, plied on every hand by philosophers and false teachers, might be expected to exhibit the very characteristics which in this epistle are brought so clearly into view.

Their party spirit. One said I am of Paul, another I am of Apollos; another I of Cephas, another I of Christ. Much ingenuity and learning have been expended in determining the nature of these party divisions. What may be considered as more or less satisfactorily determined is,

1. That there were factions in the church of Corinth which called themselves by the names above mentioned, and therefore that the names themselves give a clue to the character of the parties. The idea that the names of Paul, Apollos, and Cephas, are used figuratively, when other teachers were really intended, is so unnatural, and has so little to sustain it, that it is now almost universally repudiated.

2. There can be little doubt that those who called themselves by the name of Paul, or made themselves his partisans, were in the main the Gentile converts, men brought up free from the bondage of the Mosaic law, and free from the influence of Jewish ideas and usages. They were disposed to press to extremes the liberty of the gospel, to regard as indifferent things in themselves sinful, and to treat without respect the scruples of the weak.

3. The intimate relations which subsisted between Paul and Apollos, as indicated in these epistles, authorizes the inference that it was not on doctrinal grounds that the followers of the latter differed from those of the former. It is probable that those who objected to Paul that he did not preach with the wisdom of words, were those attracted by the eloquence of Apollos.

4. It is scarcely less certain that those who said, We are of Peter, were the Judaizers, as Peter was specially the apostle of the circumcision. There is no evidence, however, from this epistle, that the leaders of this party had attempted to introduce into Corinth the observance of the Jewish law. But they were determined opponents of the Apostle Paul. They had come to Corinth with letters of commendation (2Co_2:1). They were Hebrews (2Co_11:22); they professed to be ministers of Christ (2Co_11:23); they were false apostles (2Co_11:13); the ministers of Satan, handling the word of God deceitfully. These men, as is evident from the defense which the apostle makes of his divine commission (1Co_9:1-3, 2Co_12:11, 2Co_12:12), called in question his apostleship, probably on the ground that he was not of the original twelve. On this ground, also, to give themselves the greater authority they claimed to be disciples of Peter, who was the first of the apostles. They also accused Paul of inconstancy and insincerity (2Co_1:17-24. In short, they stirred up against him all the elements of discord which they could find in a congregation composed of such incongruous materials.

5. With regard to those who said, We are of Christ, only two things are certain. First, that they were as much to blame as the other parties. It was in no Christian spirit that they set up their claim to be of Christ. And secondly, that they assumed to have some relation to Christ, which they denied to others. Whether it was because they had seen and heard him, or because they claimed connection with James, the brother of the Lord, or because they were the only genuine Christians, inasmuch as through some other channel than the apostles, they had derived, as they pretended, their knowledge of the gospel, is a matter of conjecture. Billroth and Baur regard this class as identical with the followers of Peter, who claimed to be of Christ, because Paul was no apostle, and therefore his disciples were not of Christ. According to this view there were only two, instead of four, parties in Corinth the followers of Paul and Apollos belonging in one class. This, however, does violence to the plain meaning of the passage in 1Co_1:12. These neutrals were probably the worst class in the congregation, as is commonly the case with those who claim to be Christians to the exclusion of all others.

Another great evil in the Corinthian church was the violation of the seventh commandment in various forms. Educated as we are under the light of the gospel, in which the turpitude of such sins is clearly revealed, it is impossible for us to appreciate correctly the state of feeling in Corinth on this subject. Even by heathen philosophers offenses of this kind were regarded as scarcely deserving of censure, and by the public sentiment of the community they were considered altogether indifferent. They were in fact so associated with their religious rites and festivals as to lose their character as immoralities. With such previous training, and under the influence of such a public sentiment, and surrounded by all incitements and facilities to evil, it is surely not a matter of surprise that many of the Corinthians should take the ground that things of this class belonged to the same category with questions of food (1Co_6:12). It is certain, from numerous passages in these epistles, that the church of Corinth was not only very remiss in the exercise of discipline for such matters, but also that the evil was widely extended.

Another indication of the latitudinarian spirit of one portion of the church, was their conduct in reference to the sacrificial offerings and feasts of the heathen. They had been accustomed not only freely to eat meat which had been offered in sacrifice to idols, but to attend the feasts held in the temples. As they were told as Christians that the distinction between clean and unclean meats was abolished, and that the gods of the heathen were nothing, they insisted on their right to continue in their accustomed habits. This gave rise to great scandal. The stricter portion of the church, whether Jews or Gentiles, regarded all use of sacrificial meat as involving in some form connection with idolatry. This, therefore, was one of the questions of conscience which was answered differently by different parties, and no doubt contributed to promote the divisions existing among them.

The turbulent and independent spirit of the people also was conspicuously manifested in their public assemblies. Instead of following the instructions of the apostles and the usages of the church, they converted the Lords Supper into a disorderly common meal; in violation of the public sentiment and the custom of all the churches, they allowed women to appear unveiled in their congregations and to speak in public; and in the spirit of emulation and ostentation they exercised their gifts of prophecy and speaking with tongues, without regard to order or edification. Besides all this, under the influence probably of the heathen philosophy, some among them denied the doctrine of the resurrection, and thus subverted the very foundation of the gospel.

Such is the picture presented in this epistle of one of the most flourishing churches of the apostolic age, drawn, not by an enemy, but by the apostle himself. with all this, however, there were not only many pure and exemplary members of the church, but much faith and piety even in those who were more or less chargeable with these disorders. Paul, therefore, addressed them as sanctified in Christ Jesus, thanks God for the grace which he had bestowed upon them, and expresses his confidence that God would preserve them blameless until the day of the Lord Jesus. This shows us how the gospel works in heathen lands. It is like leaven hid in a measure of meal. It is long before the whole mass is leavened. It does not transform the character of men or the state of society in a moment; but it keeps up a continual conflict with evil until it is finally overcome.

4. Date and Contents of the Epistle

The date of this epistle is determined by its contents. It was evidently written from Ephesus towards the close of Pauls protracted sojourn in that city. He tells the Corinthians that he was to visit Macedonia, and would then come to Corinth, but that he must tarry in Ephesus till Pentecost (1Co_16:5-8.) Compare also 1Co_1:19, which agrees with the account given in Act_19:20; Act_20:1, Act_20:2. After the uproar excited by Demetrius, Paul, as we learn from these passages, did go to Macedonia, and then to Greece; and thence, with the contributions of the saints, to Jerusalem. Accordingly, in his epistle to the Romans, written from Corinth, he says, Now I go unto Jerusalem to minister to the saints. For it hath pleased them of Macedonia and of Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor saints which are in Jerusalem. (Rom_15:25, Rom_15:26.) These and other data seem to fix the date of the epistle about the year 57, or five years after his first visit to Corinth. There are no indications of a later date, unless any one should find it hard to believe that Paul had already suffered all that is recorded in 2Co_11:23-28. Five times he had received of the Jews forty stripes save one, thrice he had been beaten with rods, once he was stoned, thrice he had suffered shipwreck, a day and a night he had been in the deep. These and the other dangers there enumerated seem enough to fill a lifetime. But this only shows how small a part of the labors and sufferings of the apostles is recorded in the Acts. It furnishes no sufficient reason for referring this epistle to a later period of the apostles career.

As this epistle was written to correct the various disorders which had arisen in the Corinthian church after the apostles departure, and to meet the calumnies and objections of the false teachers by whom the peace of the church had been disturbed, and his own authority called in question, its contents are to a corresponding degree diversified. The apostle begins with the assertion of his Divine commission, and with the usual salutation, 1Co_1:1-3. Then follows the general introduction to the epistle, commendatory and conciliatory in its tone and intention, 1Co_1:4-9. He then introduces the subject of the party divisions by which the church was disturbed, and showed how inconsistent they were with the relation which believers bear to Christ and to each other; and how careful he had been to avoid all appearance of desiring to be a party leader among them. He had even abstained from baptizing lest any should say he baptized in his own name, 1Co_1:10-16. He had baptized only a few among them, for his business was to preach rather than to baptize.

As one class of his opponents directed their attacks against his want of philosophy and rhetorical refinement as a preacher, he for a time leaves the subject of their party contentions, and addresses himself to these objections. He tells them that he did not preach the wisdom of this world, because God had pronounced it to be folly, because all experience proved it to be inefficacious to bring men to the knowledge of God, because God had determined to save men by the preaching of Christ as crucified, because their history showed that it was not the wise who embraced the gospel, but God so administered his grace as to force all men to acknowledge that it was of him, and not of themselves, that they became united to Christ, and thereby partakers of the true wisdom, as well as of righteousness, holiness, and redemption, 1Co_1:17-31. Such being the case, he had come among them, not with the self-confidence of a philosopher, but as a simple witness to bear testimony to the fact that the Son of God had died for our redemption. Under a deep sense of his insufficency, he spoke to them with fear and trembling, relying for success not on his own powers of persuasion, but wholly on the power with which the Holy Spirit accompanied the truth; knowing that the true foundation of faith was not argument, but the witness of the Spirit with and by the truth, 1Co_2:1-5. Howbeit, although he repudiated human wisdom, the gospel which he preached was the true wisdom, a system of truth which God had made known, which was far above the power of man to discover, but which the Spirit of God had revealed. This Divine wisdom he preached not in the words which the rhetorician prescribed, but which the Holy Ghost dictated. Both the truths which he taught, and the words which he used in communicating that truth, were taught by the Holy Ghost, If any man neglected what was thus presented, the fault was neither in the doctrines taught, nor in the mode in which they were exhibited, but in the objector. The things of the Spirit must be spiritually discerned, 1Co_2:6-16.

The first evil: After this defense of his mode of preaching, the apostle resumes the subject of their divisions. He had preached to them in as high a strain as they were able to bear. They were but babes in Christ, and had to be fed with milk. That they were in this low stage of the Christian life was manifest from their contentions, 1Co_3:1-4. As these contentions had reference to their religious teachers, Paul endeavors to correct the evil by showing what ministers really are.

First, he says, they are mere instruments, servants; men sent to deliver a message or perform a given work; not the authors of the system of truth which they taught. All authority and efficiency are in God.

Secondly, ministers are one. They teach the same doctrine, they have the same object, and stand in the same relation to God.

Thirdly, every one will have to answer for his work. If he attempt to lay any other foundation than Christ, he is not a Christian minister. If on that foundation he builds with sound doctrine, he shall receive a reward; if with false doctrine, he shall be punished.

Fourthly, human wisdom in this matter must be renounced. A man must become a fool in order to be truly wise.

Fifthly, such being the relation of ministers to the church, the people should not place their confidence in them, or regard themselves as belonging to their ministers, since all things were subordinate to the people of God, ministers as well as other things, 3:5-20.

Sixthly, ministers being stewards, whose office it is to dispense the truth of God, fidelity on their part is the great thing to be demanded.

So far as he was himself concerned, it was a small matter what they thought of his fidelity, as the only final judge was the Lord. The true character of the ministerial office he had illustrated by a reference to himself and Apollos, that they might learn to estimate ministers aright, and not contend about them. He then contrasts himself, as suffering, laboring, and despised, with the false teachers and their followers, and exhorts the Corinthians to be followers of him, and intimates his apprehension that he would have to come to them with a rod, 4:1-21. This is the end of that portion of the epistle which relates to the divisions existing in the church.

The second evil which it was the design of this epistle to correct, was the remissness of the Corinthians in the exercise of church discipline. Fornication was not only tolerated, but they allowed a man who had married his fathers wife to retain his standing in the church. Paul here interferes, and in the exercise of his apostolical authority, not only pronounces on this incestuous person a sentence of excommunication, but delivers him to Satan, 1Co_5:1-5. He enforces on the church the general duty to exclude immoral members from their communion, 1Co_5:6-13.

Thirdly, the practice which some of them had introduced of going to law before heathen magistrates, he severely condemns, 1Co_6:1-11.

Fourthly, the principle that all things are lawful, which the apostle had often uttered in reference to the ceremonial distinction between clean and unclean meats, some of the Corinthians had perverted as an argument to prove that fornication is a matter of indifference. The apostle shows the fallacy of this argument, and assures them that no sin is so great a desecration of the body, or more fatal to its union with Christ, and participation of the benefits of redemption, 1Co_6:12-20.

Fifthly, marriage was another subject about which the minds of the Corinthians were disturbed, and on which they sought the advice of the apostle. They wished him to tell them whether marriage was obligatory, or lawful, or expedient; whether divorce or separation was allowable; and especially, whether a Christian could consistently remain in the conjugal relation with a heathen. All these questions are answered in the seventh chapter, in which the apostle lays down the principles which are applicable to all cases of conscience in reference to that subject, 7:1-40.

Sixthly: Surrounded as the Corinthians were by idolatry, whose institutions pervaded all the relations of society, it became a question how far Christians might conform to the usages connected with heathen worship. The most important question was, whether it was lawful to eat meat which had been offered in sacrifice to idols. On this point Paul agreed in principle with those who took the affirmative side in this controversy. He admitted that the idols were nothing, and that what was offered them was nothing, i.e., received no new character from its having been a sacrifice, and that the use of it involved no communion with idolatry. A regard, however, to the spiritual welfare of others, should lead them to abstain from the use of such meat under circumstances which might encourage others to act against their own convictions, 1Co_8:1-13.

In exhorting them to exercise self-denial for the benefit of others, Paul urged them to nothing which he was not himself willing to do. Although he enjoyed all the liberty which belongs to other Christians, and had all rights belonging to ministers or apostles, he had abstained from claiming them whenever the good of the church required. For example, although entitled on all the grounds of justice, usage, and of divine appointment, to be supported by those to whom he preached, he had sustained himself by the labor of his own hands; and so far as the Corinthians were concerned, he was determined still to do so. He was determined that his enemies in Corinth should not have the slightest pretext for accusing him of preaching the gospel from mercenary motives, 9:1-18. This, however, was not a solitary instance. In all things indifferent he had accommodated himself to Jews and Gentiles, to the strong and to the weak. He had exercised the self-denial and self-control which every combatant in the ancient games was obliged to submit to who hoped to win the prize, 1Co_9:19-27. What he did, other Christians must do. The history of the church shows that the want of such self-denial was fatal even to those who were the most highly favored. The ancient Israelites had been delivered out of Egypt by the direct and manifest intervention of God; they had been miraculously guided and miraculously fed in the wilderness, and yet the great majority perished. Their experience should be a warning to the Corinthians not to be overcome by similar temptations, and especially to be on their guard against idolatry, 1Co_10:1-13. Their danger in this respect was very great. They knew that the Grecian deities were imaginary beings; they knew that things offered to those deities had no contaminating power; they knew that it was, under some circumstances, lawful to eat meat which had been thus offered; they were, therefore, in danger of being led to eat it under circumstances which would render them guilty of idolatry. As they were constantly exposed to have such meat set before them, it became a matter of the highest importance to know when it might, and when it might not be eaten with impunity. The general principle which the apostle lays down on this subject is, that all participation in the religious services of a people, brings us into communion with them as worshippers, and therefore with the objects of their worship. Consequently, to eat of heathen sacrifices under circumstances which gave a religious character to the act, was idolatry. It is not necessary that they themselves should view the matter in this light. They might worship idols, and incur the guilt and penalty of idolatry, without knowing or suspecting that they did so. To prove this, he appealed to their own convictions. They knew that all who came to the Lords table did thereby join in the worship of Christ; and that all who attended the altars of the Jews, and eat of the sacrifices, did thereby unite in the worship of Jehovah. By parity of reasoning, those who took part in the religious festivals of the heathen, joined in the worship of idols. And, although the idols were nothing, still the worship of them was apostasy from God, and the worship of devils, 1Co_10:14-22. On the other hand, to eat of these sacrifices under circumstances which precluded the idea of a religious service, was a matter of indifference. Therefore, if meat offered to idols was exposed for sale in the market, or met with at private tables, it might be eaten with impunity, 1Co_10:23-33.

Seventhly: Grave abuses had been introduced into the celebration of public worship at Corinth. The women spoke in public unveiled; the Lords Supper was degraded into a common meal; and the use of spiritual gifts gave rise to great disorder. With regard to the first of these abuses, the apostle teaches that, as by the divine constitution the woman is subordinate to the man, and as the veil was the conventional symbol of that subordination, for a woman to appear in public unveiled, was to renounce her position, and to forfeit the respect due to her sex, 1Co_8:1 -16. As to the Lords Supper, it seems probable that it was, in Corinth at least, connected with an ordinary meal, in which all the Christians met at a common table. For this meal each one brought what provisions he was able to contribute. Instead, however, of its being a feast of brotherly love, the rich ate by themselves, and left their poorer brethren no part in the feast. To correct this abuse, destructive of the whole intent of the sacrament, the apostle reminds his readers that he had communicated to them the account of the original institution of the ordinance, as he himself had received it of the Lord. According to that institution, it was designed not to satisfy hunger, but to commemorate the death of Christ. It was therefore a religious service of a peculiarly solemn character. The bread and wine being the appointed symbols of his body and blood, to eat and drink in a careless, irreverent manner, making no distinctions between the consecrated elements and ordinary food, was to be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord, 11:17-34.

With regard to spiritual gifts, the apostle, after reminding the Corinthians that the possession of these gifts was one of the distinctive marks of their Christian, as distinguished from their heathen state, teaches that all these extraordinary manifestations of the Holy Ghost have a common origin; that they were all given, not for the exaltation of those who received hem, but for the edification of the church, and that they were distributed according to the good pleasure of God. He illustrates all these points by a reference to the human body. As the body is one, being animated by one soul, so the church is one, being animated by one Spirit. And as the vital principle manifests itself in different forms in the different members of the body, for the common good; and as the different members have their office assigned to them by God, and are mutually dependent, being bound together as a common life, so that one part cannot be injured or honored, without all sharing in the joy or sorrow, so it is in the church. There should, therefore, be no discontent or envy on the part of those who have subordinate gifts, and no pride or ostentation on the part of those more highly favored; especially as the more showy gifts were not the most useful. So far, therefore, as their gifts were objects of desire, they should seek those which were the most useful, 12:1-31.

There was, however, one thing more important than any of these gifts, and without which all others, whether faith, knowledge, or the power to work miracles, would be of no avail; and that is Love. The love which renders its possessor meek, kind, humble, disinterested, forbearing, and enduring. This is the highest grace, which is to endure when all these extraordinary endowments have passed away, 1Co_13:1-13. The two gifts which were most conspicuous in the church of Corinth, were those of prophecy, and the gift of speaking in foreign tongues. The latter being the more wonderful, and exciting more admiration than the other, was unduly coveted and ostentatiously excersied. The apostle shows that it was very subordinate to the gift of prophecy, because the prophets were inspired to communicate, in an intelligible manner, divine truth to the edification of the church. Whereas, their speaking with tongues, where the language they used was not understood, could only edify themselves, 14:1-40.

Eighthly: Certain persons in Corinth denied the Resurrection. Whatever the grounds on which this doctrine was rejected, the apostle shows that its denial involved the destruction of the gospel, for if the dead cannot rise, Christ is not risen; and if Christ be not risen, we have no Savior. He therefore proves, first, the fact of the resurrection of Christ, and then shows that his resurrection secures that of his people, 15:1-36; and finally, that the objection that material bodies, such as we now have, are unsuitable to the future state, is founded on the false assumption, that matter cannot be so refined as to furnish material for bodies adapted to the soul in its highest state of existence, 15:36-58. The sixteenth chapter is devoted to directions relative to the collection for the poor, and to certain admonitions and salutations.

5. Importance of this Epistle

Pauls relation to the church in Corinth was in some respects peculiar. He was not only the founder of the congregation, but he continued in the closest relation to it. It excited his solicitude, called for the wisest management, tried his patience and forbearance, rewarded him at times by signal evidence of affection and obedience, and filled him with hopes of its extended and healthful influence. His love for that church was therefore of special intensity. It was analogous to that of a father for a promising son beset with temptations, whose character combined great excellencies with great defects. The epistles to the Corinthians, therefore, reveal to us more of the personal character of the apostle than any of his other letters. They show him to us as a man, as a pastor, as a counselor, as in conflict not only with heretics, but with personal enemies. They reveal his wisdom, his zeal, his forbearance, his liberality of principle and practice in all matters of indifference, his strictness in all matters of right and wrong, his humility, and perhaps above all, his unwearied activity and wonderful endurance.

There is another consideration which gives a special interest to these epistles. They show more clearly than any other portion of the New Testament, Christianity in conflict with heathenism. We see what method Paul adopted in founding the church in the midst of a refined and corrupt people; how he answered questions of conscience arising out of the relations of Christians to the heathen around them. The cases may never occur again, but the principles involved in their decision are of perpetual obligation, and serve as lights to the church in all ages. Principles relating to church discipline, to social relations and intercourse, to public worship, the nature of the church, and of the sacraments, are here unfolded, not in an abstract form, so much as in their application. These epistles, therefore, in reference to all practical measures in the establishment of the church among the heathen, and in its conduct in Christian lands, are among the most important portions of the word of God.

Chapter I

Salutation, 1Co_1:1-3. Introduction, 1Co_1:4-9. The divisions which existed in the Church at Corinth, 1Co_1:10-16. Defense of the Apostles mode of preaching, 1Co_1:17-31.

Introduction to the Epistle 1Co_1:1-9

Paul declares himself to be a divinely appointed messenger of Christ, 1Co_1:1. In this character he addresses the church at Corinth, as those who were sanctified in Christ, and called to be saints. He includes in his salutation all the worshippers of Christ in that vicinity, 1Co_1:2; and invokes upon them the blessings of grace and peace, 1Co_1:3.

The introduction is as usual commendatory. He thanks God for the favor shown to the Corinthians; for the various gifts by which the gospel had been confirmed among them, and by which they were placed on a full equality with the most favored churches, 1Co_1:4-7. He expresses his confidence, founded on the fidelity of God, that they would be preserved from apostasy until the day of the Lord, 1Co_1:8, 1Co_1:9.

1Co_1:1

Paul, called (to be) an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes (our) brother.

Paul, so called after his conversion and the commencement of his labors among the Gentiles. His Jewish name was Saul. It was common for the Jews to bear one name among their own people, and another among foreigners.

Called (to be) an apostle, that is, appointed an apostle. The apostleship being an office, it could not be assumed at pleasure. Appointment by competent authority was absolutely indispensable. The word apostle means literally a messenger, and then a missionary, or one sent to preach the gospel. In its strict official sense it is applied only to the immediate messengers of Christ, the infallible teachers of his religion and founders of his church. In calling himself an apostle Paul claims divine authority derived immediately from Christ.

By the will of God, that is, by divine authority. Paul was made an apostle neither by popular election, nor by consecration by those who were apostles before him; but by immediate appointment from God. On this point, see his explicit declaration, Gal_1:1.

And Sosthenes (our) brother. In the Greek it is the brother. He was a brother well known to the Corinthians, and probably one of the messengers sent by them to the apostle, or whom they knew to be with him. In Act_18:17 a man by this name is mentioned as the ruler of the synagogue in Corinth, and a leader of those who arraigned Paul before the judgment seat of Gallio. This identity of name is not a sufficient proof that the person was the same, especially as the name was a common one. The companions of the apostles, whom he associates with himself in his salutations to the churches, are not merely placed in the position of equality of office and authority with the apostle. On the contrary, they are uniformly distinguished in these respects from the writer of the epistles. Thus it is Paul the apostle, but Sosthenes the brother; or, Paul the apostle and Timothy the brother, Col_1:1 and elsewhere. They are associated in the salutation, not in the epistle. Very probably Sosthenes was the amanuensis of Paul in this instance, and Timothy in others.

Charles Hodge — Commentary on Romans (1835), First Corinthians (1857), and Ephesians (1856) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The inscription of the Epistle, wherein he chiefly goeth about to procure the good will of the Corinthians towards him, yet notwithstanding so, that always he letteth them to wit, that he is the servant of God, and not of men.

If he be an Apostle, then he must be heard, although he sometimes reprehend them sharply, seeing he hath not his own cause in hand, but is a messenger that bringeth the commandments of Christ.

He joineth Sosthenes with himself, that this doctrine might be confirmed by two witnesses.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

We have here the apostle's preface to his whole epistle, in which we may take notice,

I. Of the inscription, in which, according to the custom of writing letters then, the name of the person by whom it was written and the persons to whom it was written are both inserted. 1. It is an epistle from Paul, the apostle of the Gentiles, to the church of Corinth, which he himself had planted, though there were some among them that now questioned his apostleship (Co1 9:1, Co1 9:2), and vilified his person and ministry, Co2 10:10. The most faithful and useful ministers are not secure from this contempt. He begins with challenging this character: Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ, through the will of God. He had not taken this honour to himself, but had a divine commission for it. It was proper at any time, but necessary at this time, to assert his character, and magnify his office, when false teachers made a merit of running him down, and their giddy and deluded followers were so apt to set them up in competition with him. It was not pride in Paul, but faithfulness to his trust, in this juncture, to maintain his apostolical character and authority. And, to make this more fully appear, he joins Sosthenes with him in writing, who was a minister of a lower rank. Paul, and Sosthenes his brother, not a fellow-apostle, but a fellow-minister, once a ruler of the Jewish synagogue, afterwards a convert to Christianity, a Corinthian by birth, as is most probable, and dear to this people, for which reason Paul, to ingratiate himself with them, joins them with himself in his first salutations. There is no reason to suppose he was made a partaker of the apostle's inspiration, for which reasons he speaks, through the rest of the epistle, in his own name, and in the singular number. Paul did not in any case lessen his apostolical authority, and yet he was ready upon all occasions to do a kind and condescending thing for their good to whom he ministered. The persons to whom this epistle was directed were the church of God that was at Corinth, sanctified in Christ Jesus, and called to be saints. All Christians are thus far sanctified in Christ Jesus, that they are by baptism dedicated and devoted to him, they are under strict obligations to be holy, and they make profession of real sanctity. If they be not truly holy, it is their own fault and reproach. Note, It is the design of Christianity to sanctify us in Christ. He gave himself for us, to redeem us from all iniquity, and purify us to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. In conjunction with the church at Corinth, he directs the epistle to all that in every place call on the name of Christ Jesus our Lord, both theirs and ours. Hereby Christians are distinguished from the profane and atheistical, that they dare not live without prayer; and hereby they are distinguished from Jews and Pagans, that they call on the name of Christ. He is their common head and Lord. Observe, In every place in the Christian world there are some that call on the name of Christ. God hath a remnant in all places; and we should have a common concern for and hold communion with all that call on Christ's name.

II. Of the apostolical benediction. Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. An apostle of the prince of peace must be a messenger and minister of peace. This blessing the gospel brings with it, and this blessing every preacher of the gospel should heartily wish and pray may be the lot of all among whom he ministers. Grace and peace - the favour of God, and reconciliation to him. It is indeed the summary of all blessings. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace, was the form of benediction under the Old Testament (Num 6:26), but this advantage we have by the gospel, 1. That we are directed how to obtain that peace from God: it is in and by Christ. Sinners can have no peace with God, nor any good from him, but through Christ. 2. We are told what must qualify us for this peace; namely, grace: first grace, then peace. God first reconciles sinners to himself, before he bestows his peace upon them.

III. Of the apostle's thanksgiving to God on their behalf. Paul begins most of his epistles with thanksgiving to God for his friends and prayer for them. Note, The best way of manifesting our affection to our friends is by praying and giving thanks for them. It is one branch of the communion of saints to give thanks to God mutually for our gifts, graces, and comforts. He gives thanks, 1. For their conversion to the faith of Christ: For the grace which was given you through Jesus Christ, Co1 1:4. He is the great procurer and disposer of the favours of God. Those who are united to him by faith, and made to partake of his Spirit and merits, are the objects of divine favour. God loves them, bears them hearty good-will, and bestows on them his fatherly smiles and blessings. 2. For the abundance of their spiritual gifts. This the church of Corinth was famous for. They did not come behind any of the churches in any gift, Co1 1:7. He specifies utterance and knowledge, Co1 1:5. Where God has given these two gifts, he has given great capacity for usefulness. Many have the flower of utterance that have not the root of knowledge, and their converse is barren. Many have the treasure of knowledge, and want utterance to employ it for the good of others, and then it is in a manner wrapped up in a napkin. But, where God gives both, a man is qualified for eminent usefulness. When the church of Corinth was enriched with all utterance and all knowledge, it was fit that a large tribute of praise should be rendered to God, especially when these gifts were a testimony to the truth of the Christian doctrine, a confirmation of the testimony of Christ among them, Co1 1:6. They were signs and wonders and gifts of the Holy Ghost, by which God did bear witness to the apostles, both to their mission and doctrine (Heb 2:4), so that the more plentifully they were poured forth on any church the more full attestation was given to that doctrine which was delivered by the apostles, the more confirming evidence they had of their divine mission. And it is no wonder that when they had such a foundation for their faith they should live in expectation of the coming of their Lord Jesus Christ, Co1 1:7. It is the character of Christians that they wait for Christ's second coming; all our religion has regard to this: we believe it, and hope for it, and it is the business of our lives to prepare for it, if we are Christians indeed. And the more confirmed we are in the Christian faith the more firm is our belief of our Lord's second coming, and the more earnest our expectation of it.

IV. Of the encouraging hopes the apostle had of them for the time to come, founded on the power and love of Christ, and the faithfulness of God, Co1 1:8, Co1 1:9. He who had begun a good work in them, and carried it on thus far, would not leave it unfinished. Those that wait for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ will be kept by him, and confirmed to the end; and those that are so will be blameless in the day of Christ: not upon the principle of strict justice, but gracious absolution; not in rigour of law, but from rich and free grace. How desirable is it to be confirmed and kept of Christ for such a purpose as this! How glorious are the hopes of such a privilege, whether for ourselves or others! To be kept by the power of Christ from the power of our own corruption and Satan's temptation, that we may appear without blame in the great day! O glorious expectation, especially when the faithfulness of God comes in to support our hopes! He who hath called us into the fellowship of his Son is faithful, and will do it, Th1 5:24. He who hath brought us into near and dear relation to Christ, into sweet and intimate communion with Christ, is faithful; he may be trusted with our dearest concerns. Those that come at his call shall never be disappointed in their hopes in him. If we approve ourselves faithful to God, we shall never find him unfaithful to us. He will not suffer his faithfulness to fail, Psa 89:33.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The advantages of this Epistle are various and manifold; for it contains many special topics, the handling of which successively in their order, will show how necessary they are to be known. Nay, it will appear in part from the argument itself, in the recital of which I shall study to be brief, yet in such a way as to take in the whole, without omitting any of the leading points.

Corinth, as every one knows, was a wealthy and celebrated city of Achaia. While it was destroyed by L. Mummius for no other reason than that the advantageousness of its situation excited his suspicions, posterity afterwards rebuilt it for the same reason that Mummius had for destroying it. The convenience of the situation, too, occasioned its being restored again in a short time. For as it had the Aegean Sea contiguous on the one side, and the Ionian on the other, and as it was a thoroughfare between Attica and the Peloponnesus, it was very conveniently situated for imports and exports. Paul, after teaching there for a year and a half, as Luke mentions in the Acts, constrained at length by the wickedness of the Jews, sailed thence into Syria (Acts 18:11, 18.) During Paul’s absence false apostles had crept in, not, in my opinion, to disturb the Church openly with wicked doctrines, or designedly to undermine sound doctrine; but, priding themselves in the splendor and magnificence of their address, or rather, being puffed up with an empty loftiness of speech, they looked upon Paul’s simplicity, and even the Gospel itself, with contempt. They afterwards, by their ambition, gave occasion for the Church being split into various parties; and, last of all, reckless as to every thing, provided only they were themselves held in estimation, made it their aim to promote their own honor, rather than Christ’s kingdom and the people’s welfare.

On the other hand, as those vices prevailed at Corinth with which mercantile cities are wont to be particularly infested, — luxury, pride, vanity, effeminacy, insatiable covetousness, and ambition; so they had found their way even into the Church itself, so that discipline was greatly relaxed. Nay more, purity of doctrine had already begun to decline, so that the main article of religion — the resurrection of the dead — was called in question. Yet amidst this great corruption in every department, they were satisfied with themselves, equally as though every thing had been on the best possible footing. Such are Satan’s usual artifices. If he cannot prevent the progress of doctrine, he creeps forward secretly to make an attack upon it: if he cannot by direct falsehoods suppress it, so as to prevent it from coming forth to light, he digs secret mines for its overthrow; and in fine, if he cannot alienate men’s minds from it, he leads them by little and little to deviate from it.

As to those worthless persons, however, who had disturbed the Corinthian Church, it is not without good ground that I conclude that they were not open enemies of the truth. We see that Paul nowhere else spares false doctrines. The Epistles to the Galatians, to the Colossians, to the Philippians, and to Timothy, are short; yet in all of them he does not merely censure the false apostles, but also points out at the same time in what respects they injured the Church. Nor is it without good reason; for believers must not merely be admonished as to the persons whom they ought to shun, they must also be shown the evil against which they should be on their guard. I cannot therefore believe that, in this comparatively long Epistle, he was prepared to pass over in silence what he carefully insists upon in others that are much shorter. In addition to this, he makes mention of many faults of the Corinthians, and even some that are apparently trivial, so that he appears to have had no intention of passing over any thing in them that was deserving of reproof. Besides, he must, in any other view, be regarded as wasting many words in disputing against those absurd teachers and prating orators. He censures their ambition; he reproves them for transforming the gospel into human philosophy; he shows that they are destitute of the efficacy of the Spirit, inasmuch as they are taken up with mere ornaments of speech, and seek after a mere dead letter; but not a word is there as to a single false doctrine. Hence I conclude that they were persons who did not openly take away any thing from the substance of the gospel, but, as they burned with a misdirected eagerness for distinction, I am of opinion that, with the view of making themselves admired, they contrived a new method of teaching, at variance with the simplicity of Christ. This must necessarily be the case with all that have not as yet thrown off self, that they may engage unreservedly in the Lord’s work. The first step towards serving Christ is to lose sight of ourselves, and think only of the Lord’s glory and the salvation of men. Farther, no one will ever be qualified for teaching that has not first himself tasted the influence of the gospel, so as to speak not so much with the mouth, as with the dispositions of the heart. Hence, those that are not regenerated by the Spirit of God — not having felt inwardly the influence of the gospel, and know not what is meant when it is said that we must become new creatures, (John 3:7) have a dead preaching, whereas it ought to be lively and efficacious; and, with the view of playing off their part, they disfigure the gospel by painting it over, so as to make it a sort of worldly philosophy.

Nor was it difficult for those of whom we are now speaking to accomplish this at Corinth. For merchants are usually led away with outward disguises, and they do not merely allow themselves to be imposed upon by the empty show with which they deceive others, but in a manner take delight in this. Besides, as they have delicate ears, so that they cannot bear to be rudely taken to task, so if they meet with teachers of the milder sort, that will handle them gently, they give them, as it were, a reward in turn by caressing them. It is so, I grant, everywhere; but it is more especially common in wealthy and mercantile cities. Paul, who was in other respects a god-like man, and distinguished by admirable virtues, was, nevertheless, not adorned with outward elegance, and was not puffed up with show, with the view of setting himself off to advantage. In fine, as he was inwardly replenished with the genuine excellence of the Spirit, so he had nothing of outward show. He knew not to flatter, and was not concerned to please men. (Galatians 1:10.) The one object that he had in view was, that Christ might reign, himself and all others being brought under subjection to him. As the Corinthians were desirous of doctrine that was ingenious, rather than useful, the gospel had no relish for them. As they were eager for new things, Christ had now become stale. Or if they had not as yet fallen into these vices, they were, nevertheless, already of their own accord predisposed to corruptions of that nature. Such were the facilities afforded to the false apostles for adulterating the doctrine of Christ among them; for adulterated it is, when its native simplicity is stained, and in a manner painted over, so as to differ nothing from worldly philosophy. Hence, to suit the taste of the Corinthians, they seasoned their preaching in such a way that the true savor of the gospel was destroyed. We are now in possession of the design that Paul had in view in writing this Epistle. I shall now take in the sum of the argument, by noting down briefly the particular heads of discourse.

He begins with an ascription of praise, that is in effect an exhortation, that they should go on as they have begun, and in this way he soothes them beforehand, that he may make them the more docile. Immediately afterwards, however, he proceeds to chide them, making mention of the dissensions with which their Church was infested. Being desirous to cure this evil, he calls upon them to exchange haughtiness for humility. For he overthrows all the wisdom of the world, that the preaching of the Cross may alone be exalted. He also at the same time abases them as individuals, in exhorting them to look around and see what class of persons chiefly the Lord has adopted as members of his flock.

In the second chapter he brings forward, by way of example, his own preaching, which, in the account of men, was base and contemptible, but had nevertheless been signalized by the influence of the Spirit. And in the meantime he unfolds at greater length the sentiment, that there is a heavenly and secret wisdom that is contained in the gospel, which cannot be apprehended by any acuteness or perspicacity of intellect, or by any perception of sense, and is not influenced by human reasonings, and needs no meretricious ornament of words or embellishment, but simply by the revelation of the Spirit comes to be known by the understandings of men, and is sealed upon their hearts. He at length comes to this conclusion, that the preaching of the gospel does not merely differ widely from the wisdom of the flesh, and consists in the abasement of the Cross, but cannot be estimated as to its true nature by the judgment of the flesh; and this he does, with the view of drawing them off from a mistaken confidence in their own judgment, by which they measured every thing amiss.

The beginning of the third chapter contains the application of this last department of the subject to their case. For Paul complains, that, being carnal, they were scarcely capable of learning the first rudiments of the gospel. He intimates in this way, that the distaste which they had contracted for the word, arose from no fault in the word itself, but from their ignorance; and at the same time he indirectly admonishes them, that they need to have their minds renewed, before they will begin to judge aright. He afterwards shows in what estimation the ministers of the gospel ought to be held — that it ought to be in such a way, that the honor given to them does not in any degree detract from the glory that is due to God — as there is one Lord, and all are his servants: all are mere instruments; he alone imparts efficacy, and from him proceeds the entire result. He shows them, at the same time, what they ought to have as their aim — to build up the Church. He takes occasion from this to point out the true and proper method of building aright. It is to have Christ alone as the foundation, and the entire structure harmonizing with the foundation. And here, having stated in passing that he is a wise master-builder, he admonishes those that come after him to make the end correspond with the beginning. He exhorts also the Corinthians not to allow their souls to be desecrated by corrupt doctrines, inasmuch as they are temples of God. Here he again brings to naught proud fleshly wisdom, that the knowledge of Christ may alone be in estimation among believers.

In the beginning of the fourth chapter he points out what is the office of a true apostle. And as it was their corrupt judgment that prevented them from recognizing him as such, putting it aside, he appeals to the day of the Lord. Farther, as he was contemptible in their view from an appearance of abasement, he teaches them that this ought to be regarded as an honor to him rather than a disgrace. He afterwards brings forward tokens, from which it might in reality appear that he had not consulted his own glory, or his own belly (Romans 16:18), but had with faithfulness devoted himself exclusively to Christ’s work. He comes at length to infer what honor is due to him from the Corinthians. In the close of the chapter he recommends Timothy to them, until he shall come to them himself; and at the same time he forewarns them that, on his coming, he will openly discover how little account he makes of those empty boastings by which the false apostles endeavored to recommend themselves.

In the fifth chapter he takes them to task, for silently tolerating an incestuous connection between a son-in-law and a mother-in-law, and instructs them that in connection with a crime of such enormity, there was good reason why they should be covered with shame, instead of being elated with pride. From this he passes on to lay down a general doctrine to this effect, that crimes of that nature ought to be punished with excommunication, that indulgence in sin may be repressed, and that the infection may not spread from one individual to the others.

The sixth chapter consists chiefly of two parts. In the first he inveighs against law-suits, with which they harassed one another, before unbelievers, to the great dishonor of the gospel. In the second he reproves indulgence in fornication, which had come to such a pitch, that it was almost looked upon as a lawful thing. He sets out with a heavy threatening, and afterwards enforces that threatening with arguments.

The seventh chapter contains a discussion in reference to virginity, marriage, and celibacy. So far as we may conjecture from Paul’s words, a superstitious notion had become prevalent among the Corinthians of this nature — that virginity was a distinguished, and in a manner angelic virtue, so that marriage was held by them in contempt, as though it had been a profane thing. With the view of removing this error, he teaches that every one must consider what his gift is, and not strive in this matter beyond his ability, inasmuch as all have not the same calling. Accordingly he shows who they are that may abstain from marriage, and what ought to be the design of abstaining from it; and on the other hand, who they are that ought to enter into the married state, and what is the true principle of Christian marriage.

In the eighth chapter he prohibits them from having fellowship with idolaters in their impure sacrifices, or giving countenance to anything of such a nature as might injure weak consciences. And as they excused themselves on this pretext, that they did not by any means connect themselves with idolaters in any corrupt sentiment, inasmuch as they acknowledged in their heart one God, and regarded idols as empty contrivances, he sets aside this excuse, on this principle that every one ought to have a regard to his brethren, and that there are many weak persons whose faith might be staggered by such dissimulation.

In the ninth chapter he shows that he requires from them nothing more than he himself practiced, that he may not be reckoned so unreasonable as to impose upon others a law that he did not himself observe. For he puts them in mind how he had voluntarily refrained from availing himself of the liberty granted him by the Lord, lest he should give occasion of offense to any one, and how he had, in things indifferent, put on as it were various appearances, with the view of accommodating himself to all, that they may learn from his example that no one should be so devoted to self as not to endeavor to accommodate himself to his brethren for their edification.

Now as the Corinthians were highly satisfied with themselves, as we said in the outset, in the beginning of the tenth chapter he admonishes them, from the example of the Jews, not to deceive themselves by a mistaken confidence; for if they are puffed up on account of outward things and gifts of God, he shows that the Jews were not without similar ground of glorying, and yet all this availed them nothing, because they abused their privileges. After alarming them by this threatening he returns immediately to the subject on which he had previously entered, and shows how unseemly it is for those who partake of the Lord’s Supper to be participants in the “table of devils,” that being a shameful and insufferable pollution. He at length draws this conclusion, that all our actions should be regulated in such a manner as not to be an occasion of offense to any one.

In the eleventh chapter he clears the public assemblies from certain corrupt observances, which were at variance with Christian decorum and propriety, and shows what gravity and modesty ought to be exercised when we stand in the view of God and angels. He takes them to task, however, chiefly for their corrupt administration of the Supper. He subjoins the method of correcting the abuse that had crept in, which is by calling them back to our Lord’s original institution, as the only sure rule and permanent law of right acting.

As, however, many abused spiritual gifts for purposes of ambition, he enters into a discussion, in the twelfth chapter, as to the purpose for which they are conferred by God, and also as to what is the proper and genuine use of them, which is, that by contributing mutually to each other’s advantage, we may be united together in one body, that of Christ. This doctrine he illustrates by drawing a similitude from the human body, in which, although there are different members and various faculties, there is nevertheless such a symmetry and fellow-feeling, that what has been conferred on the members severally contributes to the advantage of the whole body — and hence love is the best directress in this matter.

The subject he follows out at greater length, and illustrates it more fully in the thirteenth chapter. The sum is this — that all things must be viewed in relation to love. He takes occasion from this to make a digression for the purpose of commending that virtue, that he may the more strongly recommend the pursuit of it, and may encourage the Corinthians the more to cultivate it.

In the fourteenth chapter he begins to point out more particularly in what respect the Corinthians had erred in the use of spiritual gifts; and as mere show bulked so much in their estimation, he teaches them that in all things edification alone should be looked to. For this reason he prefers prophecy to all other gifts, as being more useful, while the Corinthians set a higher value on tongues, purely from empty show. In addition to this, he lays down the right order of procedure, and at the same time reproves the fault of sounding forth in unknown tongues without any advantage, while in the meantime the doctrine and exhortations, which ought ever to hold the foremost place, were left in the background. He afterwards forbids women to teach publicly, as being a thing unseemly.

In the fifteenth chapter he inveighs against a very pernicious error, which, although we can scarcely suppose it to have spread generally among the Corinthians, had nevertheless taken possession of the minds of some of them to such a degree, that it was necessary that a remedy should be openly administered. He appears, however, to have intentionally delayed mentioning this matter until the close of the Epistle, for this reason — that if he had set out with this, or had entered upon it immediately after commencing, they might have thought that they were all reckoned to be in fault. The hope of a resurrection, accordingly, he shows to be so necessary, that, if it is taken away, the whole gospel falls to pieces. Having established the doctrine itself by powerful arguments, he subjoins also the principle and manner of it. In fine, he carefully draws out a full discussion of this point.

The sixteenth chapter consists of two parts. In the first of these he exhorts them to relieve the necessity of the brethren at Jerusalem. They were at that time pinched with famine, and they were cruelly treated by the wicked. The apostles had assigned to Paul the charge of stirring up the Churches of the Gentiles to afford them help. He accordingly exhorts them to lay up in store whatever they were inclined to contribute, that it might be transmitted to Jerusalem without delay. He at length concludes the Epistle with a friendly exhortation and congratulations.

Hence we may gather, as I stated in the outset, that the Epistle is replete with most profitable doctrine, containing, as it does, a variety of discussions on many important topics.

1. Paul, called to be an Apostle In this manner does Paul proceed, in almost all the introductions to his Epistles, with the view of procuring for his doctrine authority and favor. The former he secures to himself from the station that had been assigned to him by God, as being an Apostle of Christ sent by God; the latter by testifying his affection towards those to whom he writes. We believe much more readily the man whom we look upon as regarding us with affection, and as faithfully endeavoring to promote our welfare. In this salutation, therefore, he claims for himself authority, when he speaks of himself as an Apostle of Christ, and that, too, as called by God, that is, set apart by the will of God Now, two things are requisite in any one that would be listened to in the Church, and would occupy the place of a teacher; for he must be called by God to that office, and he must faithfully employ himself in the discharge of its duties. Paul here lays claim to both. For the name, Apostle, implies that the individual conscientiously acts the part of an ambassador for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:19), and proclaims the pure doctrine of the gospel. But as no one ought to assume this honor to himself, unless he be called to it, he adds, that he had not rashly intruded into it, but had been appointed to it by God.

Let us learn, therefore, to take these two things together when we wish to ascertain what kind of persons we ought to esteem as ministers of Christ, — a call to the office, and faithfulness in the discharge of its duties. For as no man can lawfully assume the designation and rank of a minister, unless he be called, so it were not enough for any one to be called, if he does not also fulfill the duties of his office. For the Lord does not choose ministers that they may be dumb idols, or exercise tyranny under pretext of their calling, or make their own caprice their law; but at the same time marks out what kind of persons they ought to be, and binds them by his laws, and in fine chooses them for the ministry, or, in other words, that in the first place they may not be idle, and, secondly, that they may confine themselves within the limits of their office. Hence, as the apostleship depends on the calling, so the man who would be reckoned an apostle, must show himself to be really such: nay more, so must every one who demands that credit be given him, or that his doctrine be listened to. For since Paul rests on these arguments for establishing his authority, worse than impudent were the conduct of that man who would think to have any standing without such proofs.

It ought, however, to be observed, that it is not enough for any one to hold out to view the title to a call to the office, along with faithfulness in discharging its duties, if he does not in reality give proof of both. For it often happens that none boast more haughtily of their titles than those that are destitute of the reality; as of old the false prophets, with lofty disdain, boasted that they had been sent by the Lord. Nay, at the present day, what else do the Romanists make a noise about, but “ordination from God, and an inviolably sacred succession even from the Apostles themselves,” while, after all, it appears that they are destitute of those things of which they vaunt? Here, therefore, it is not boasting that is required, but reality. Now, as the name is assumed by good and bad alike, we must come to the test, that we may ascertain who has a right to the name of Apostle, and who has not. As to Paul, God attested his calling by many revelations, and afterwards confirmed it by miracles. The faithfulness must be estimated by this, — whether or not he proclaimed the pure doctrine of Christ. As to the twofold call — that of God and that of the Church — see my Institutes.

An Apostle Though this name, agreeably to its etymology, has a general signification, and is sometimes employed in a general sense, to denote any kind of ministers, yet, as a peculiar designation, it is applicable to those that were set apart by the Lord’s appointment to publish the Gospel throughout the whole world. Now, it was of importance that Paul should be reckoned in that number, for two reasons, — first, because much more deference was paid to them than to other ministers of the gospel; and, secondly, because they alone, properly speaking, had authority to instruct all the Churches.

By the will of God While the Apostle is accustomed cheerfully to acknowledge himself indebted to God for whatever he has of good, he does so more especially in reference to his apostleship, that he may free himself from all appearance of presumption. And assuredly as a call to salvation is of grace, so also a call to the office of apostle is of grace, as Christ teaches in these words:

“Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,” (John 15:16.)

Paul, however, at the same time indirectly intimates, that all who attempt to undermine his apostleship, or in any way oppose it, contend against an appointment of God. For Paul here makes no useless boast of honorary titles, but designedly vindicates his apostleship from malicious aspersions. For as his authority must have been sufficiently established in the view of the Corinthians, it would have been superfluous to make particular mention of “the will of God,” had not wicked men attempted by indirect means to undermine that honorable rank which had been divinely assigned him.

And Sosthenes our brother This is that Sosthenes who was ruler of the Jewish synagogue that was at Corinth, of whom Luke makes mention in Acts 18:17. His name is added for this reason, that the Corinthians, knowing his ardor and steadfastness in the gospel, could not but hold him in deserved esteem, and hence it is still more to his honor to be made mention of now as Paul’s brother, than formerly as ruler of the synagogue

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(1) Paul, called to be an apostle.—Better, a called Apostle of Jesus Christ. His apostolic authority, which was questioned by some in Corinth, is thus set out at the commencement of the Epistle.

And Sosthenes our brother.—Sosthenes the brother, probably the Sosthenes (see Note on 1Co_1:16) the chief ruler of the synagogue mentioned in Act_18:17, one of the brethren well known to the Corinthians. From his name being thus joined with that of the Apostle, we may conjecture that he was his amanuensis in writing this Epistle, the salutation only (1Co_16:21) having been written by St. Paul’s hand.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ,.... The author, or rather the writer of the following epistle; for the Holy Ghost was the author and dictator of it, and which was never doubted: he is described by his, name Paul, though his Jewish name was Saul; and very probably he being a Jew by birth, and yet born in a Roman city, might have two names, the one Jewish, the other Gentile; and by the one he went when among the Jews, and by the other when concerned with the Gentiles: and also by his office, "an apostle of Jesus Christ"; immediately called, and sent forth by him; had the Gospel from him by immediate revelation, and a commission to preach it; and which high office was confirmed by signs and wonders, and mighty deeds; by the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost conferred on him, and on others under his ministry; and by the eminent success which attended the preaching of the Gospel by him. This his character he the rather mentions, because some in this church, through the insinuations of the false apostles, demurred upon it; whereas this was not a mere name given him by men, and by which he was only commonly called by them, but was an office he was "called" to by Christ; he did not rush into it, or assume it of himself, but had a divine warrant for it; for he was invested with it,

through the will of God: both by the secret will and purpose of God, by which he was a chosen vessel, to bear the name of Christ among the Gentiles, Act 9:15; and by the revealed will of God, signified by the Spirit of God, who said, "separate me Saul and Barnabas, for the work whereunto I have called them", Act 13:2, and shows, that it was not owing to any worth or merit in him, but purely to the free grace and sovereign will and pleasure of God, that he was made an apostle of Christ:

and Sosthenes our brother. This seems to be the same man, who was the chief ruler of the synagogue of the Jews at Corinth; and was converted to the Christian faith by the Apostle Paul whilst there, as appears from his favouring the cause of the apostle, for which the Jews beat him before the judgment seat, and yet Gallio the Roman deputy took no notice of it, Act 18:17, in the Syriac dictionary (a) mention is made of one Sosthenes, governor of a city, one of the seventy disciples, who was educated at Pontus, and cast into the sea by the order of Nouna; and is also said to be bishop of Colophon in Ionia; see Gill on Luk 10:1; but without any reason. This person the apostle joins with him, not as in equal office with him, but as a brother in Christ, and very probably a ministering brother, and a companion of his; and the rather, because he might be well known to the Corinthians, and respected by them; wherefore he chose to join him with him, to show their agreement in doctrine and discipline, and in advice to them, which might have the greater weight with them; see Act 18:17.

(a) Bar Bahluli apud Castel. Lex. Polyglott. col. 2444. Vid. Euseb, Eccl. Hist. l. 1. c. 12.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

1 Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother,

Ver. 1. Through the will of God] Not the faculty in God, whereby he willeth, but his act, the thing that he willeth. This will of God is either secret or revealed, Deu 22:29. And this revealed will is either of his pleasure, Placiti, or of his good pleasure, Beneplaciti. The former is also in things where the effect is evil; and so God willeth in respect of the end, but not of the means to the end; as in sin, and some miseries. The latter is in those things only where the effect is good, as here, and Rom 12:2. It was for the very great good of the Church that God would have Paul to be a chosen vessel, to bear his name before the Gentiles, &c., Act 9:15. So that Cor Pauli est cor Christi, the heart of Paul is the heart of Christ, as Chrysostom hath it; for, "We have the mind of Christ," 1Co 2:16.

Sosthenes our brother] And companion in the kingdom and patience of Christ, Rev 1:9; Act 18:17. There he was despitefully entreated, here highly honoured. Christ is a liberal paymaster: never any did or suffered aught for his sake that complained of a hard bargain. It is to my loss (said that martyr) if thou bate me anything in my sufferings. Maiora certamina, maiora sequuntur praemia, After greater battles, greater rewards follow, saith Tertullian.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Paul called to be an apostle. St. Paul had preached to the Corinthians, and had remained a long time with them, to instruct and confirm them in the faith. During his absence, the faithful of Corinth were divided into several parties, on occasion of some new teachers, who had come amongst them. (Calmet) --- It was to heal the wounds caused by these divisions, that the present epistle was written. (St. Thomas Aquinas; Haydock) --- And Sosthenes. There are various conjectures made concerning the person St. Paul here mentions. Some are of opinion that this Sosthenes is the same mentioned, Acts xviii. 17. who was beaten before the tribunal of Gallio, proconsul of Achaia, when St. Paul was carried before that magistrate. Eusebius says, that Sosthenes was one of the 72 disciples, and a different person from the one mentioned in Acts. Estius takes him to be St. Paul’s secretary. The common opinion is, that he was a great sufferer for the faith at Corinth, and St. Paul here mentions him as a man worthy their imitation. (Calmet)

itself. Therefore, concludes St. Paul, though the Jews call for miracles, and the Gentiles lean upon worldly wisdom, Christians must seek their strength and success in the weakness of the cross, and their glory in the ignominy of Christ crucified, to whom alone be all the honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ: our common custom is to subscribe our name to the bottom of our letters; it seems by the apostolical Epistles, that their fashion was otherwise: he elsewhere telleth us, that it was his token in every epistle, which makes some doubt, whether that to the Hebrews was wrote by him; but others think it is there concealed, for the particular spite the Jews had to him. He had the name of Saul as well as Paul, as we read, Act 7:58; 9:1; whether he had two names, (as many of the Jews had), or Saul was the name by which he was called before his conversion, and Paul his name after he was converted, or after he was made a citizen of Rome, (for Paul is a Roman name, nor do we read that after his conversion he was ever called by the name of Saul), is not worth our disputing. He was a man of Tarsus in Cilicia, by his nation a Jew, both by father and mother; an Hebrew of the Hebrews, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Pharisee, bred up at the feet of Gamaliel, one of their great doctors; he was also citizen of Rome, as himself tells us, Act 21:39; 22:3,27; Php 3:5; by his trade a tent maker, Act 18:3; a great zealot for the Jewish ceremonies and law, and upon that score a great persecutor, consenting to the death of Stephen, and breathing out threatenings against Christians. Of his miraculous conversion we read, in Act 9:1-43, as also of his being called to be an apostle, not one of those first sent out by Christ, but yet called: he gives king Agrippa a full account of his calling, Act 26:12-19.

Through the will of God; so as he was an apostle by the will of God, God's special revelation from heaven: he did not thrust himself into the employment, but was sent of God in an extraordinary manner; not only mediately, (as all ministers are), but by an immediate call and mission.

And Sosthenes our brother: in the salutation prefixed to this Epistle, he joineth Sosthenes, whom he calls his brother. Of this Sosthenes we read, Act 18:17; he was a chief ruler of the synagogue, but converted to Christianity; Paul disdaineth not to call him his brother.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Paul, called to be an apostle - There is great propriety in every clause of the salutation, particularly in this, as there were some in the church of Corinth who called the authority of his mission in question. Through the will of God - Called "the commandment of God," 1 Tim. i, 1 This was to the churches the ground of his authority; to Paul himself, of an humble and ready mind. By the mention of God, the authority of man is excluded, Gal. i, 1; by the mention of the will of God, the merit of Paul, chap. xv, 8, &c. And Sosthenes - A Corinthian, St. Paul's companion in travel. It was both humility and prudence in the apostle, thus to join his name with his own, in an epistle wherein he was to reprove so many irregularities. Sosthenes the brother - Probably this word is emphatical; as if he had said, Who, from a Jewish opposer of the gospel, became a faithful brother.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Salutation and Thanksgiving.

The salutation of the letter:

v. 1. Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes, our brother,

v. 2. unto the Church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, both theirs and ours:

v. 3. Grace be unto you and peace from God, our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

On account of the special conditions obtaining in Corinth at the time of his writing, Paul finds it necessary to emphasize his office and the manner of his entering upon his ministry. He is called, chosen, as an apostle of Christ Jesus; he has not presumptuously taken the office or intruded upon its holy administration, but is an apostle by virtue of a special call of the Lord Himself. And this call has come to him also through the will of God. The call of Christ and the will of God have worked together in conferring upon him this distinction. Not as a joint composer, but as a fellow-worker, as a witness and approver of the contents of the epistle, Paul mentions Sosthenes. Whether this man was the same as the one named Act 18:17, cannot be ascertained; at any rate, he must have been known and esteemed in the congregation at Corinth as a brother in the Lord.

The letter is addressed to the Church of God which was in Corinth. This title is a Biblical term for a divinely gathered people, of a people called, or chosen, by God to be His peculiar nation, and, as Chrysostom says, it is a designation, not of disharmony, but of unity and harmony. At Corinth there was a part of the great congregation of God, of those whom He had chosen for His own. Note: Although Paul was fully aware that the Church, in the real sense of the word, is invisible, he, in addressing the Corinthians, charitably assumes that they all are members of the true congregation of the Lord, of the communion of saints. This is shown by the explanation: To them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, to the chosen saints. Paul is addressing such as have been sanctified, separated from the evil and corruptions of their age and city through the power of the Gospel, by which they had redemption through the blood of Christ, the forgiveness of sins. Thus they were consecrated in Christ Jesus, thus they were chosen as saints. All believers have union with Christ as well as salvation through Christ; they share in the righteousness and holiness of Christ, through the call of the Lord in the Gospel, to which they have given obedience through faith. Incidentally, the Christians at Corinth should always be conscious of the fact that they are united as members of the body of Christ, in this most intimate union, with all that call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, Christ being the Lord and Head of the Church everywhere and standing in this relation to all those that accept Him as their Redeemer. To call upon the name of the Lord is an act of divine worship which flows out of faith in Him, is an expression of the faith worked by the Holy Ghost. The true believer knows Christ to be true God, and accordingly puts his trust in Him and confidently expects help from Him as the almighty God, chap. 12:3; Rom 10:12-13; Rom 15:6. The universality, the true catholicity, of the Christian Church is here emphasized.

The apostle opens his letter with his customary greeting: Grace unto you and peace from God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. The grace and mercy of God in Christ Jesus is the greatest gift of the believers; they are assured of the favor of God through the redemption of Jesus. And therefore they have also peace with God, the peace of forgiveness and reconciliation, which includes spiritual welfare in all conditions of life, the calm assurance, the sweet consciousness of being reconciled to God, the certainty that we have God for our friend and hence may expect only goodness and blessings from Him. Nothing else can come to us since God is our Father and wants only our greatest and highest good, and since Jesus Christ, He that assumed our human nature and became our Substitute, is now exalted to be Lord over all; He is the Head of His Church, and intends finally to lead all believers to everlasting glory. Note that Jesus is here again, as elsewhere throughout the writings of Paul, coordinated with the Father.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Co 1:7-8

Waiting for Christ.

I. St. Paul had found the Corinthians in great darkness of mind, worshipping many different gods, of whom they had different fancies and notions, worshipping the goddess of Pleasure above all. They had a dream of some God, some Father, some Friend; at times they fancied these gods to whom they were doing homage were likenesses of Him, His children to whom He had given power in various places and over various things. But then it seemed to them that there was more evil than good in the world, and that these powers must oftener mean evil to them than good, and that He from whom they got their power must be harder and sterner than they were, and must design worse and more terrible mischief to the creatures He had formed. The Corinthians believed the Apostle’s gospel; they renounced their idols. They found that there was a love stronger than the evil that was in them, stronger than the evil that was in their brethren—one which could convert the most rebellious to itself. But still the world was full of misery. There was the tyranny of the Roman empire established over the great part of it; in each particular country and neighbourhood there were crimes, divisions, and oppressions.

II. Besides believing, then, the Corinthians had need to hope and to wait. What had they to hope and wait for? That He who had been declared to be the Deliverer of the world, who had proved Himself so by dying for it, who was proving Himself so in their hearts, would come forth, would declare Himself to be the King of kings and Lord of lords, would put down the wrong, would establish the right. To work for this, to wait for this, was, the Apostle tells them, the best thing for them, one and all.

III. So it was with the Corinthians. Why is it to be different with us? We have heard that Christ is the great Deliverer and King. Every event that has happened in any nation of the earth, any great judgment that has befallen it, any great deliverance that has been wrought for it, has been a day of the Lord, an appearing of Christ, a proof that He is in deed, and not in name only, our Sovereign. Christ’s light is about us at this moment; we need not wait for that till another day; we may come to it; we may ask Him to scatter the darkness that is in us now.

F. D. Maurice, Sermons in Country Churches, p. 29.

References: 1Co 1:12.—G. Salmon, Non-Miraculous Christianity, p. 50. 1Co 1:13.—T. Arnold, Sermons, vol. iii., p. 166; H. P. Liddon, Contemporary Pulpit, vol. i., p. 379; Ibid., Easter Sermons, vol. ii., p. 224; Ibid., Penny Pulpit, No. 1113. 1Co 1:14-22.—F. W. Robertson, Lectures on Corinthians, p. 28.

1Co 1:17

What makes the Cross of Christ of none effect?

I. The making it identical with the crucifix, as though the Cross of Christ were nothing more than His crucifixion.

II. The exhibition of false doctrine and of speculation concerning the Cross of Christ.

III. The exhibition of the Cross of Christ without a personal recognition of its claim.

IV. The multiplication and complication of the requirements of the Cross of Christ.

V. Lack of faith in the power of the Cross.

VI. The use of the Cross for objects foreign to itself.

S. Martin, Westminster Chapel Sermons, 1st series, p. 198.

References: 1Co 1:17.—J. Oswald Dykes, Sermons, p. 20. 1Co 1:17, 1Co 1:18.—A. J. Parry, Phases of Truth, p. 104.

1Co 1:18

The Two Paths.

These phrases, "Them that are perishing," "Us which are being saved," have not in themselves to do with the final state of the persons spoken of, not with the state when religious truth has been finally accepted or rejected, but rather with the anterior condition, their condition when it is preached to them, the condition of which their accepting or rejecting it is a test or an incident.

I. St. Paul divides the world into two classes, not in respect of their ultimate destiny,—he did not pretend at this moment to look on to that,—but in respect of their present state, their state when religious truth was set before them, and when the question was how they would look on it. The one class were in the way of safety, of progress, making the best of themselves, rising ever to things higher and better; the other class were in the way of ruin, going to waste, undoing themselves, going farther from God and happiness and life. And to these two classes, he said, religious truth comes with exactly opposite results. The one class recognise and welcome the good, can see moral beauty, have tender consciences, and unspoilt hearts; the other class are blind to heavenly outlines—they see no difference between them and coarse and clumsy imitations of fraud. "The Cross to them is foolishness."

II. We may ruin ourselves. There is no doubt or limitation there. We may be doing so, beginning to tread that dreadful path already. And in a sense we may save ourselves, but not in the same full sense. Walk dutifully with God, trust Him, come back to Him whenever you have offended, however deeply, and He will save you, save you daily, give you ever more and more of life and peace and happiness, till the struggle and risk is over and heaven is won.

E. C. Wickham, Wellington College Sermons, p. 240.

References: 1Co 1:18.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvii., No. 1611; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ix., p. 212; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. v., p. 190; T. J. Crawford, The Preaching of the Cross, p. 1; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. ii., p. 94; H. W. Beecher, Sermons, 10th series, p. 23.

1Co 1:21

I. What was the preaching referred to in the text? The word might fairly be rendered "the truth preached," for St. Paul is not thinking of the action and process of announcement, but of the message announced. In his eyes mere discourse or oratory, irrespective of the claims of the subject on which it was employed, would have had no charm or dignity whatever. The world was saved by the substance of a message from heaven, not by the human words that conveyed it. Now, one leading characteristic of the apostolical preaching which gave it its saving power was its positive and definite character. Resting on solid evidence, planting its feet firmly on the soil of earth, and in the full daylight of human history, the Christian creed raised its head to heaven, unveiled to the believer the inner being of God, displayed the manner in which when God the Son took our nature upon Him a bridge was really constructed between earth and heaven, and even discovered to us the inmost heart of the All Merciful in the true meaning and value of the Sacrifice which was offered on Calvary for the sins of the whole world. From that fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness flow all the hopes of pardon, all the reinforcements of grace, all the power of sacraments, by which the work of the Redeemer is carried forward in the sphere of sense and time, in preparation for the momentous, the endless future.

II. Of this preaching, what was the object? St. Paul answers, "To save them that believe." When the Apostle speaks of salvation, he means a salvation of the individual human soul from ruin, ruin begun here and rendered beyond the grave permanent and irretrievable, salvation from eternal death. And the preaching of the apostles presented Christ to men, in St. Paul’s phrase, as evidently set forth crucified among them, as their Saviour, as their all-sufficient Saviour, able to save to the utmost those that come unto God by Him.

III. Who are capable of receiving this salvation? "Them that believe." As a matter of fact, then, the recipients of salvation are a limited class. Belief is, in its essence, the act by which the soul accepts salvation. This belief is a movement of the whole soul, of all its powers going forth to meet the appointed truth; it is thought, it is affection, it is trust, it is self-surrender, face to face with the unseen, but clearly apprehended, Christ. Faith does not, cannot of itself, save; but faith is the hand which we hold out to receive the salvation which is wrought for us, and which we must thus receive in this our hand in order to make it our own.

H. P. Liddon, Family Churchman, July 28th, 1886.

References: 1Co 1:21.—J. Hunter, Story of Daniel, p. 39; J. B. Brown, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xviii., p. 200. 1Co 1:21-23.—T. Arnold, Sermons, vol. iv., p. 47; H. Allon, Sermons in Union Chapel, Islington, p. 40; Homilist, vol. ii., p. 1. 1Co 1:22.—J. B. Brown, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxxii., p. 225. 1Co 1:22-24.—Magee, The Gospel and the Age, p. 1; Beecher, Sermons, 1870, p. 261; R. Lorimer, Bible Studies in Life and Truth, p. 45; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iv., p. 539. 1Co 1:22-25.—Homilist, vol. ii., p. 339. 1Co 1:23.—J. M. Neale, Sermons for the Christian Year, vol. ii., p. 119; T. R. Stevenson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xviii., p. 246. 1Co 1:23, 1Co 1:24.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. i., Nos. 7, 8; H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiii., p. 92; Ibid., vol. xviii., p. 340; W. Cunningham, Sermons, pp. 120,134; F. W. Robertson, Lectures on Corinthians, p. 83; W. J. Knox-Little, The Mystery of the Passion, p. 85; J. Oswald Dykes, Sermons, p. 34; Bishop Stubbs, The Anglican Pulpit of Today, p. 49. 1Co 1:23-25.—C. Kingsley, Town and Country Sermons, p. 408. 1Co 1:23-30.—Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxv., p. 406. 1Co 1:24.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iii., No. 132; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ix., p. 186; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iv., p. 85; J. Irons, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. xv., p. 377. 1Co 1:26.—H. Phillips, Christian World Pulpit, vol. ii., p. 358; Saturday Evening, p. 247. 1Co 1:26-29.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. x., No. 587. 1Co 1:26-31.—A. J. Parry, Phases of Truth, p. 133. 1Co 1:27.—H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. ii., p. 25; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ix., p. 165. 1Co 1:28-31.—Christian World Pulpit, vol. ii., p. 377.

1Co 1:30

Christ the Source of all Blessings.

I. St. Paul seems to have had in his mind a conception of the gradual growth of the Christian spirit under the hand of Christ, from its dawn of grace to its final fulfilment in glory. He seems to view Christ as the great Dispenser of the Father’s treasures, accumulating gifts upon the believer’s soul until it brightens into the very image of Himself; to view it rising higher and higher, as it is drawn nearer and nearer to Him, till the crisis of the final redemption is come and it is lost from the eye, hidden beyond the clouds. The words are as the ladder to the Patriarch’s vision, "set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and behold, the angels of God ascending and descending on it."

II. Wisdom—the apprehension of the true and Divine knowledge—is the first stage on the path of peace; the clearing of the eye of reason for the prospect itself of eternity and of God. Christ is here declared to be made unto us wisdom, not so much because He is the Giver of wisdom as because He is the ground and object of it; not so much because He declares to us the truth as because He is the truth. He gives us knowledge in giving us Himself. The "righteousness, sanctification, and redemption" are ingredients of the wisdom. Christ is our wisdom in being to us these things: that is, He is the prime object of all true wisdom inasmuch as He is the source of all true blessedness.

III. Weigh well the force of the expression "is made unto us." As one with Christ we obtain the whole inheritance of grace and glory. The instant that we are incorporated into the mystical body of which He is the Head, that instant we possess the seed of the entire life of the Christian—yea, all his eternity is but the less or greater development of the Christ he bears within, around, and upon him. To receive Him is to receive the germ of every blessing that is written in the book of God.

W. Archer Butler, Sermons, 2nd series, p. 1.

References: 1Co 1:30.—W. Landels, Christian World Pulpit, vol. vii., p. 376; R. S. Candlish, The Gospel of Forgiveness, p. 301; Homilist, new series, vol. i., p. 240; Ibid., 2nd series, vol. i., p. 240; Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 271.

1Co 1:30-31

Righteousness not of Us, but in Us.

In every age of the Church, not in the primitive age only, Christians have been tempted to pride themselves on their gifts, or at least to forget that they were gifts, and to take them for granted. Ever have they been tempted to forget their own responsibilities, their having received what they are bound to improve, and the duty of fear and trembling while improving it. One of the first elements of knowledge and a Christian spirit is to refer all that is good in us, all that we have of spiritual life and righteousness, to Christ our Saviour; to believe that He works in us, or, to put the same thing more pointedly, to believe that saving truth, life, light, and holiness are not of us, though they must be in us.

I. Whatever we have is not of us, but of God. This is that great truth which is at the foundation of all true doctrine as to the way of salvation. All teaching about duty and obedience, about attaining heaven, and about the office of Christ towards us, is hollow and unsubstantial, which is not built here, in the doctrine of our original corruption and helplessness; and in consequence, of original guilt and sin.

II. While truth and righteousness are not of us, it is quite as certain that they are also in us if we be Christ’s; not merely nominally given to us and imputed to us, but really implanted in us by the office of the Blessed Spirit. Let us never forget this great and simple view, which the whole of Scripture sets before us. What was actually done by Christ in the flesh eighteen hundred years ago is in type and resemblance really wrought in us one by one even to the end of time. Christ Himself vouchsafes to repeat in each of us in figure and mystery all that He did and suffered in the flesh. He is formed in us, born in us, suffers in us, rises again in us, lives in us; and this not by a succession of events, but all at once; for He comes to us as a Spirit, all dying, all rising again, all living. We are ever receiving our birth, our justification, our renewal, ever dying to sin, ever rising to righteousness. His whole economy in all its parts is ever in us all at once; and this Divine presence constitutes the title of each of us to heaven; this is what He will acknowledge and accept at the last day. As the king’s image appropriates the coin to him, so the likeness of Christ in us separates us from the world and assigns us over to the kingdom of heaven.

J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. v., p. 128.

References: 1Co 1:30, 1Co 1:31.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xvii., No. 991. 1Co 1:31.—Ibid., vol. xx., No. 1178; Saturday Evening, p. 260. 1Co 2:1, 1Co 2:2.—W. Morley Punshon, Christian World Pulpit, vol. ii., p. 168; H. W. Beecher, Sermons, 1870, pp. 448, 465. 1Co 2:1-5.—Ibid., Christian World Pulpit, vol. vi., p. 148; W. Baxendale, Ibid., vol. xxviii., p. 364, vol. xxx., p. 168. 1Co 2:1-7.—F. W. Robertson, Lectures on Corinthians, p. 36.

The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Observe here, 1. The apostle’s asserting his commission for the work of the ministry to be from God: he was called to be an apostle by the will of God; he did not thrust himself into that high and honourable employment, but was chosen, called and sent by God. Such as exercise the sacred function without a regular call and commission, may expect a blast instead of a blessing.

Observe, 2. The double object of St. Paul’s salutation in this epistle: he first salutes the church of Corinth in particular, and then all the churches of Christ in general: To all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Where note, That they were not real saints, no, nor all visible saints, (but called to be both,) whom he calls the church. Many secretly vile and scandalously profane persons were found amongst them; yet the apostle salutes them as the church of God; To the church of God at Corinth.

Learn hence, That there may be a mixture of profane and scandalous persons with real saints in the church of God here on earth; there may be, I say. I mean, de facto, there have been, and there will be; not de jure, that there ought to be such a mixture; yet if so, this doth not unchurch the assembly in which they are; they are the disease of the church, but not its death; such corruptions and blemishes cannot consist with the well-being, but may consist with the being, of particular churches.

Observe, 3. The salutation itself, Grace and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Where note, 1. A double blessing desired, Grace and peace; grace is of all blessings the richest, and peace is of all comforts the sweetest.

Note, 2. A double spring discovered from whence this double blessing flows, God and Christ: God, as the original source and fountain of all good in himself; and Christ, as the donor and dispenser of all good to us:

Note, 3. The order of the words, first grace, then peace: there can be no peace without grace, and no grace but there will be peace; there can be no peace but from God, no peace from God but as a Father; no peace from God as a Father, but as our Father; and he cannot comfortably be said to be our Father, but through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Learn hence, That all that grace and peace which believers share in, and are made partakers of, is derived from God the Father, through our Lord Jesus Christ.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1. “Paul an elect apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God.” “Called” in E.V. impresses the reader that it means “annunciated,” which is really not the meaning. It is a participle from kaleo, “to call,” from which ecclesia, “church,” is derived. Hence it means the call of the Holy Ghost responsive to which we become the elect of God, “nominated” in conversion, “elected” in sanctification (1Pe 1:2), and “crowned” in heaven if faithful to the end. “And Sosthenes our brother.” Here we see that Paul honors Sosthenes even with a place in the authorship of this letter, showing that he was a preacher of the gospel associated with Paul in labor, and evidently standing at the very front. Sosthenes was he who received a flogging in Corinth when chief ruler of the synagogue in the succession of Crispus. Having become a most virulent persecutor of Paul, he with his Jewish comrades had brought him before Gallio, the Roman proconsul of Achaia, for prosecution, and the latter dismissing the case out of court, thus refusing to try Paul, much less punish him, the Gentile multitude, concluding that Sosthenes as prosecutor deserved a thrashing, set on him and gave him a good one (Act 18:12-17). As in case of Peter Cartwright beating religion into the big blacksmith, who had flogged and run all of his predecessors out of the circuit, and then he got gloriously converted, became a roaring class leader, and Peter’s right-hand man on the battlefield; it seems that we have a parallel case in the history of Sosthenes, as he is only mentioned in these two passages. In Acts we find him there in Corinth, the chief ruler in the synagogue, doing his utmost to get the governor to kill Paul or run him off, but making a failure and getting a whipping himself. Then the next time we hear of him he is gone away with Paul to Asia on evangelistic work, and associated with him in writing this letter back to his friends and acquaintances who knew him so well in Corinth. Thus wonderful things transpire in the Lord’s battlefield.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother [Paul does not here call himself the slave of Christ as he afterwards did when he wrote to the Romans, for he now needed to assert the divinity of his apostleship because certain Judaizers had affirmed in Corinth that he was not divinely called, as were the twelve. See 1Co_9:1 ; 2Co_12:12 . His apostleship was not the result of his own choice, nor yet the choice of any church, but of the will of God. Who Sosthenes was is not known. It is not unlikely that he was Paul's amanuensis, as was Tertius ( Rom_16:22 ). The speed with which the apostle uses the pronoun "I" ( 1Co_1:4 ) shows how little Sosthenes had to do with the Epistle. It is highly improbable that he is the same man mentioned at Act_18:17 ],

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

1 Corinthians Chapter 1

I will now turn back to take up the thread of the contents of this epistle from the beginning. Paul was an apostle by the will of God. That was his authority, however it might be with others. Moreover the same call that made those of Corinth Christians had made him an apostle. He addresses the assembly of God at Corinth, adding a character (the application of which is evident when we consider the contents of the epistle)-”sanctified in Christ Jesus.” Afterwards the universality of the application of the doctrine and instructions of the epistle, and of its authority over all Christians, wherever they might be, is brought forward in this address. Happily, whatever sorrow he felt at the state of the Corinthians, the apostle could fall back upon the grace of God, and thus recognise all the grace which He had bestowed on them. But the placing them thus in relationship to God brought all the effects of His holiness to bear upon their consciences, while giving the apostle’s heart the encouragement of the perfect grace of God towards them. And this grace itself became a powerful lever for the word in the hearts of the Corinthians. In the presence of such grace they ought to be ashamed of sin. Nor can there be a more remarkable testimony than is here found of reckoning on the faithfulness of God towards His people. The relationship does claim holiness: in holiness alone it is enjoyed; but it reposes on the faithfulness of God. The Corinthians were walking, as we know, badly. The apostle lets none of the evil pass; but still he declares that God was faithful and would confirm them to the end that they might be-not safe, but-blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ, and then proceeds to blame them. what a wonderful testimony!

Paul (the Spirit Himself) thus linked the Corinthians with God; and that which He was in this connection with them had all its force upon their hearts and consciences. At the same time the use of this weapon opened their heart to all that the apostle had to say. One must be very near the Lord to be able in practice thus to look at Christians who are walking badly. It is not to spare their sins-the apostle is very far from doing that; but it is grace which brings their own consciences to be occupied with it, as having a relationship with God that was too precious to allow them to continue in sin or to permit it.

The Epistle to the Galatians supplies us with a remarkable instance of the confidence thus inspired; compare chapters 4:20; 5:10.

The Corinthians were enriched by God with His gifts, and His testimony was thus confirmed among them, so that they came behind in no gift, waiting for the revelation of the Lord, the fulfilment of all things. Solemn day! for which God, who had called them, confirmed them in His faithfulness, that they might be without reproach in that day, called as they were to the fellowship and communion of His Son Jesus Christ. Short but precious exposition of the grace and faithfulness of God, serving as a basis (if their condition did not allow the apostle to develop it as he did to the Ephesians) to all the exhortations and instructions which he addressed to the Corinthians in order to strengthen them and direct their wavering steps.

The apostle first takes up the folly of the Corinthians in making the chief Christian ministers and Christ Himself heads of schools. Christ was not divided. They had not been baptised unto the name of Paul. He had indeed, on occasion, baptised a few; but his mission was to preach, not to baptise.[1] It was in virtue of, and according to, Act 26:17, and Act 13:2-4, and not Mat 28:19. Moreover, all this human wisdom was but foolishness, which God brought to nothing: the preaching of the cross was the power of God; and God had chosen the weak things, the things of nought, foolish things according to the world, to annihilate the wisdom and strength of the world, in order that the gospel should be evidently the power of God. The Jews asked for a sign, the Greeks sought for wisdom; but God caused Christ crucified to be preached, a scandal to the Jews, foolishness to the Greeks, but to them which are called the power of God. By things that are not He brought to nought things that are, because His weakness is stronger than the strength of the world; His foolishness wiser than the wisdom of the age. The flesh shall not glory in His presence. God dealt with conscience, though in grace, according to the true position of responsible man, and did not subject Himself to the judgment and reasonings of man’s mind, wholly incompetent thereto, and which put him out of his place as if he could judge of God. But, besides this, the Christian was more even than the object of God’s instruction; he was himself of God in Christ Jesus; of God he had his life, his being, his position as a Christian. And Christ was unto him, from God, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption-all in contrast with the pretensions of the human mind, with the false righteousness of the Jew under the law, with the means and the measure of the sanctification it supplied, and with the weakness of man, the last trace of which God will remove in the deliverance He will accomplish by His power in Christ when He shall complete the work of His grace. Thus we are of God, and Christ is everything for us on God’s part, in order that he who glories may glory in the Lord: a brief but mighty testimony to what Christianity is in its elements.

Footnotes for 1 Corinthians Chapter 1

1: This statement is the more remarkable, as he had a special revelation as to the Lord’s supper. But that ordinance has reference to the unity of the body, which was specially the testimony of the apostle. The twelve were sent to baptise the nations (Mat 28:1-20).

John Nelson Darby — Synopsis of the Books of the Bible: the New Testament (c. 1857–1862) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1–3. Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ. Some of the Judaizing teachers, who had visited the church at Corinth after the departure of Paul, in order to lessen his authority, had asserted that he was not an apostle, divinely called like the Twelve. Hence, at the beginning, he asserts his apostleship, and refers to his divine call. See 1 Cor. 9:1, and 2 Cor. 12:12. Sosthenes, our brother. A Sosthenes is named in Acts 18:17, who was then the chief ruler of the synagogue at Corinth. The Sosthenes whom Paul associated with himself in the letter must have been well known to, and influential among, the Corinthians, and was probably the former chief ruler, who had been converted. Apollos, Priscilla and Aquila, all well known to the church, were at Ephesus with Paul (see chap. 16), but Sosthenes is chosen to appear with him in the salutation.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

General Information:

Paul and Sosthenes wrote this letter to the Christians who belonged to the church in Corinth.

General Information:

Unless otherwise noted, such words as "you" and "your" refer to Paul's audience and so are plural. (See: Forms of You)

Paul ... to the church of God at Corinth

Your language may have a particular way of introducing the author of a letter and the intended audience. AT: "I, Paul, wrote this letter to you in Corinth who believe in God"

Sosthenes our brother

This indicates that both Paul and the Corinthians knew Sosthenes. AT: "Sosthenes the brother you and I know" (See: How to Translate Names and Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus

Here "sanctified" refers to people whom God has reserved to honor him. AT: "to those whom Christ Jesus has set apart for God" or "to those whom God has set apart for himself because they belong to Christ Jesus"

who are called to be holy people

This can be stated in active form. AT: "whom God has called to be holy people" (See: Active or Passive)

who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ

"Name" here is a metonym for person of Jesus Christ. AT: "who call on the Lord Jesus Christ" (See: Metonymy)

their Lord and ours

The word "ours" includes Paul's audience. Jesus is the Lord of Paul and the Corinthians and all the churches. (See: Inclusive "We")

translationWords

Paul

call

Christ

Jesus

apostle

will of God

brother

church

Corinth

holy

lord

grace

peace

God the Father

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.