The wisdom of this world A. M. 4060. A. D. 56. 19 For, the wisdom of this world thoughts of the wise, that they are A. U.C. 809. is foolishness with God. For, it is ronis Caes. 3. written, He taketh the wise in their 20 And again, The Lord knoweth the vain. A. M. 4060. A. D. 56. A. U. C. 809. Anno Imp. Ne 21 Therefore let no man glory in ronis Caes. 3. For all things are your's; men. 22 Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or a Ch. 1. 20. & 2. 6. Job 5. 13. Ps. 94. 11. a Ch. 1. 12. & 4. 6. ver. 4, 5, 6. 2 Cor. 4. 5, 15. thought himself wiser than seven men that could render a reason. Every Christian church has less or more of these. Let him become a fool] Let him divest himself of his worldly wisdom, and be contented to be called a fool, and esteemed one, that he may become wise unto salvation; by renouncing his own wisdom, and seeking that which comes from God. But probably the apostle refers to him who, pretending to great wisdom and information, taught doctrines contrary to the gospel; endeavouring to shew reasons for them, and to support his own opinions with arguments which he thought unanswerable. This man brought his worldly wisdom to bear against the doctrines of Christ; and probably through such teaching, many of the scandalous things which the apostle reprehends among the Corinthians, originated. Verse 19. The wisdom of this world] Whether it be the pretended deep and occult wisdom of the rabbins; or the wiredrawn speculations of the Grecian philosophers; is foolishness with God: for, as folly consists in spending time, strength and pains, to no purpose; so these may be fitly termed fools who acquire no saving knowledge by their speculations. And is not this the case with the major part of all that is called philosophy, even in the present day? Has one soul been made wise unto salvation through it? Are our most eminent philosophers either pious or useful meu? Who of them is meek, gentle, and humble? Who of them directs his researches so as to meliorate the moral condition of his fellowcreatures? Pride, insolence, self-conceit, and complacency, with a general forgetfulness of God, contempt for his word, and despite for the poor, are their general characteristics. He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.] This is a quotation from Job v. 13. and powerfully shews what the wisdom of this world is: it is a sort of craft, a subtle trade, which they carry on to wrong others, and benefit themselves; and they have generally too much cunning to be caught by men; but God often overthrows them with their own devisings. Paganism raised up persecution against the church of Christ in order to destroy it: this became the very means of quickly spreading it over the earth, and of destroying the whole pagan system. Thus the wise were taken in their own craftiness. Verse 20. The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise] They are always full of schemes and plans for earthly good; and God knows that all this is vain, empty, and unsatisfactory; and will stand them in no stead when He comes to take away their souls. This is a quotation from Psal. xciv. 11. What is here said of the vanity of human knowledge, is true of every kind of wisdom that leads not immediately to God himself. Verse 21. Let no man glory in men] Let none suppose that he has any cause of exultation in any thing but God. All are yours; he that has got God for his portion, has every thing that can make him happy and glorious: all are his. Verse 22. Whether Paul, or Apollos] As if he had said, God designs to help you by all things and persons: every teacher, sent from him, will become a blessing to you, if you abide faithful to your calling. God will press every thing into the service of his followers. The ministers of the church of Christ are appointed for the hearers; not the hearers for the ministers. In like manner, all the ordinances of grace and mercy are appointed for them, not they for the ordinances. Or the world] The word xocuos, here means rather the inhabitants of the world, than what we commonly understand by the world itself: and this is its meaning in John iii. 16, 17. vi. 33. xiv. 31. xvii. 21. See particularly John xii. 19. xoops oniów auтou aπyλley: the WORLD is gone after him: the great mass of the people believe on him. The Greek word has the same meaning in a variety of places, both in the sacred and the profane writers, as le monde, the world literally, has in French: where it signifies not only the system of created things, but by metonomy the people; every body, the mass, the populace. In the same sense it is often found in English. The apostle's meaning evidently is, not only Paul, Apollos, and Kephas, are yours; appointed for, and employed in your service; but every person besides, with whom you may have any intercourse or connection; whether Jew or Greek, whether enemy or friend. God will cause every person, as well as every thing, to work for your good, while you love, cleave to, and obey Him. Or life] With all its trials and advantages, every hour of it, every tribulation in it, the whole course of it, as the grand state of your probation, is a general blessing to you: and you have life, and that life preserved, in order to prepare for an eternity of blessedness. The genuine Christian CHAP. III. profits by all things. A. M. 4060. A. M. 4060 the world, or life, or death, or things || 23 And ye are Christ's; and Christ . 56. A. D. 56. present, or things to come; all are is God's. A. D. A. U. C. 809. Anno Imp. Neronis Ces. 3. a Ch. 6. 2. Rom. 8. 28. 2 Cor. 4. 15. 1 Tim. 4. 8. Rom. 14. 8. ch. 11. 3. 2 Cor. 10. 7. Gal. 3. 29. Or death] That solemn hour, so dreadful to the wicked; and so hateful to those who live without God: that is your's. Death is your servant; he comes a special messenger from God for you: he comes to undo a knot that now connects body and soul, which it would be unlawful for yourselves to untie: he comes to take your souls to glory; and he cannot come before his due time to those who are waiting for the salvation of God. A saint wishes to live only to glorify God and he who wishes to live longer than he can get and do good, is not worthy of life. Or things present] Every occurrence in Providence, in the present life; for God rules in providence as well as in grace. Or things to come] The whole order and economy of the Eternal World, all in heaven and all in earth, are even now working together for your good. Verse 23. And ye are Christ's] You are called by his name; you have embraced his doctrine; you depend on him for your salvation; he is your foundation stone; he has gathered you out of the world, and acknowledges you as his people and followers. Teis de Xpisou Ye are of Christ; all the light and life which ye enjoy, ye have received through and from him; and he has bought you with his blood. and arrange yourselves under different teachers, you will meet 2. A want of spirituality seems to have been the grand fault of the Corinthians. They regarded outward things chiefly; and were carried away with sound and show. They And Christ is God's.] X1505 de 500, And Christ is lost the treasure, while they eagerly held fast the earthen vesof God. Christ, the Messiah, is the gift of God's eter-sel that contained it. It is a true saying, that he who lends only the ear of his body to the word of God, will follow that man most who pleases the car; and these are the persons who generally profit the soul least. nal love and mercy to mankind; for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that they who believe in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life. Christ, in his human nature, is as much the property of God, as any other human being. And as mediator between God and man, he must be considered, in a certain way, inferior to God; but, in his own essential, eternal nature, there is no inequality; he is God over all. Ye, therefore, do not belong to men. Why then take Paul, Apollos, Kephas, or any other man for your head? All these are your servants; ye are not their property, ye are Christ's property: and, as he has taken the human nature into Heaven, so will he take yours; because, he that sanctifieth, and they that are sanctified, are all of one ye are his brethren ; and as his human nature is eternally safe at the throne of God, so shall your bodies and souls be, if ye cleave to Him, and be faithful unto death. 1. A finer, and more conclusive argument, to correct what was wrong among this people, could not have been used than that with which the apostle closes this chapter. It appears to stand thus: "If you continue in these divisions, 3. All the ministers of God should consider themselves as jointly employed by Christ for the salvation of mankind. It is their interest to serve God, and be faithful to his calling; but shall they dare to make his church their interest ? This is generally the origin of religious disputes and schisms. Men will have the church of Christ for their own property; and Jesus Christ will not trust it with any man. 4. Every man employed in the work of God, should take that part only upon himself that God has assigned him. The church and the soul, says pious Quesnel, are a building of which God is the master and chief architect; JESUS CHRIST the main foundation; the APOSTLES the subordinate architects; the Bishops the workmen; the PRIESTS their helpers ; GOOD WORKS the main body of the building; FAITH a sort of second foundation; and CHARITY the top and per fection. Happy is that man who is a living stone in this building. 5. He who expects any good out of God, is confounded. The ministers of the Gospel are I. CORINTHIANS. stewards of divine mysteries. and disappointed in all things. God alone can content, as he feast but none can have such a mind who has not taken alone can satisfy the soul. All our restlessness and uneasi-God for his portion. How is it that Christians are continuness, are only proofs that we are endeavouring to live with- ally forgetting this most plain and obvious truth? and yet out God in the world. A contented mind is a continual wonder how it is that they cannot attain true peace of mind. CHAPTER IV. Ministers should be esteemed by their flocks as the stewards of God, whose duty and interest it is to be faithful, 1,2. Precipitate and premature judgments condemned, 3-5. The apostle's caution, to give the Corinthians no offence, 6. We have no good but what we receive from God, 7. The worldly-mindedness of the Corinthians, 8. The enumeration of the hardships, trials, and sufferings of the apostles, 9-13. For what purpose St. Paul mentions these things, 14-16. Ile promises to send Timothy to them, 17. And to come himself shortly, to examine and correct the abuses that had crept in among them, 18-21. A. M. 4060. A. U. C. 809. Anno Imp. Ne ET a man so account of us, LE b a A. M. 4060. A. D. 56. A. U. C. 809. Anno Imp. Ne ronis Cas. 3. and stewards of the mysteries of God. 2 Moreover it is required in stewas of the ministers of Christ,ards, that a man be found faithful. 3 But with me it is a very small ronis Cas. 3. thing that I should be judged of you, or of ■ Matt. 24. 45. ch. 3. 5. & 9. 17. 2 Cor. 6. 4. Col. 1. 25. b Luke 12. 42. Tit. 1. 7. 1 Pet. 4. 10. NOTES ON CHAP. IV. Verse 1. Let a man so account of us] This is a continuation of the subject in the preceding chapter; and should not have been divided from it. The fourth chapter would have begun better at ver. 6. and the third should have ended with the fifth verse. As of the ministers of Christ] 5 UTYρETαI Xρ1500. The word Ungers means an under-rower; or one who in the Trireme, Quadrireme, or Quinquereme gallies, rowed in one of the undermost benches: but it means also, as used by the Greek writers, any inferior officer or assistant. By the term here, the apostle shews the Corinthians, that, far from being heads and chiefs, he and his fellow-apostles considered themselves only as inferior officers, employed under Christ; from whom alone they received their appointment, their work, and their recompence. God, relative to the salvation of the world, by the passion and death of Christ; and the inspiration, illumination, and purification of the soul by the Spirit of Christ, constituted a principal part of the divine treasure entrusted to the hands of the stewards by their heavenly Master; as the food that was to be dispensed at proper times, seasons, and in proper proportions, to the children and domestics of the church, which is the house of God. Verse 3. It is a very small thing that I should be judged of you] Those who preferred Apollos or Kephas, before St. Paul, would of course give their reasons for this preference; and these might, in many instances, be very unfavourable to his character as a man, a Christian, or an apostle; of this he was regardless, as he sought not his own glory, but the glory of God in the salvation of their souls. Stewards of the mysteries of God] Kai oixovoμous Must- Or of man's judgment] H To avopwaives &μspas, liter ύπο ανθρώπινης ημερας, piwy Ozov: œconomists of the Divine mysteries. See the ex-ally, or of man's day: but avŷpwain uspa signifies any day planation of the word steward in the Note on Matt. xxiv. 45. Luke viii. 3. and xii. 42. set apart by a judge or magistrate, to try a man on. This is the meaning of juspa, Psal. xxxvii. 13. The Lord shall laugh at him, for he seeth that his DAY, yepa autou his judgment is coming. Malac. iii. 17. And they shall be mine in the DAY, as uspay in the judgment, when I make up my The steward, or oikonomos, was the master's deputy in regulating the concerns of the family, providing food for the household, seeing it served out at the proper times and seasons, and in proper quantities. He received all the cash, ex-jewels. It has the same meaning in 2 Pet. iii. 10. but the pended what was necessary for the support of the family, and kept exact accounts, which he was obliged at certain times to lay before the master. The mysteries, the doctrines of DAY, the JUDGMENT of the Lord will come. The word avSowmivos, (man's,) signifies miserable, wretched, woeful; so Jerem. xvii. 16. Neither have I desired, wax or yom I judge not mine own self.] I leave myself entirely to God, heads of parties. Bishop Pearce paraphrases the verse thus: whose I am, and whom I serve. Verse 4. For I know nothing by myself] Oudev yap εμαυτῳ συνοιδα I am not conscious that I am guilty of any evil; or have neglected to fulfil faithfully, the duty of a steward of Jesus Christ. The import of the verb Guvedev, is to be conscious of guilt; and conscire has the same meaning: so in Horace, Nil CONSCIRE sibi; to know nothing to one's self: is the same as nullá pallescere culpá, not to grow pale at being charged with a crime, through a consciousness of guilt. || Yet am I not hereby justified] I do not pretend to say that, though I am not conscious of any offence towards God, I must, therefore, be pronounced innocent; No-I leave those things to God; he shall pronounce in my favour; not I, myself. By these words, the apostle, in a very gentle, yet effectual manner, censures those rash and precipitate || judgments which the Corinthians were in the habit of pronouncing on both men and things: a conduct, than which nothing is more reprehensible and dangerous. Verse 5. Judge nothing before the time] God, the righteous Judge, will determine every thing shortly; it is His province alone, to search the heart, and bring to light the hidden things of darkness. If you be so pure and upright in your conduct; if what you have been doing in these divisions, &c. be right in his sight; then shall you have praise for the same: if, otherwise, yourselves are most concerned. Some refer the praise to St. Paul, and his companions: then shall every one of us apostles, have praise of God. "I have made use of my own and Apollos' name, in my arguments against your divisions, because I would spare to name those teachers among you, who are guilty of making and heading parties: and because I would have you by our example, not to value them above what I have said of teachers in general, in this Epistle: so that none of you ought to be puffed up for one against another." Doubtless, there were persons at Corinth who, taking advantage of this spirit of innovation among that people, set themselves up also for teachers; and endeavoured to draw disciples after them. And, perhaps, some even of these were more valued by the fickle multitude, than the very apostles, by whom they had been brought out of heathenish darkness, into the marvellous light of the gospel. I have already supposed it possible that Diotrephes was one of the ring-leaders in these schisms at Corinth. See on chap. i. 14. Verse 7. For who maketh thee to differ] It is likely that the apostle is here addressing himself to some one of those puffed up teachers, who was glorying in his gifts, and in the knowledge he had of the gospel, &c. As if he had said, If thou hast all that knowledge which thou professest to have, didst thou not receive it from myself, or some other of my fellow-helpers, who first preached the gospel at Corinth ? God never spoke to thee, to make thee an apostle. Hast thou a particle of light that thou hast not received from our preaching? Why then dost thou glory, boast, and exult, as if God had first spoken by thee, and not by us? This is the most likely meaning of this verse; and a mean The afflicted and persecuted A. M. 4060. A. D. 56. 8 Now ye are full, a A. U. C. 809. Anno Imp. Neronis Cæs. 3. 1. CORINTHIANS. men. state of the apostles. now ye are for we are made a spectacle unAUC, rich, ye have reigned as kings with-to the world, and to angels, and to out us: and I would to God ye did reign, that we also might reign with you. b 9 For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: h A. M. 4060. A.. 10 'We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised. Rev. 3. 17.— Or, us the last apostles, as. Ps. 44. 22. Rom. 8. e Gr. theatre. ch. 2. 3.— Acts 17. 18. & 26. 24. ch. 1. 18, &c, & 2. 36. ch. 15. 30, 31. 2 Cor. 4. 11. & 6. 9.- -Heb. 10. 33. 14. & 3. 18. See 2 Kings 9. 11. 2 Cor. 13. 9. ing that is suitable to the whole of the context. It has been applied in a more general sense by religious people; and the doctrine they build on it, is true in itself, though it does not appear to me to be any part of the apostle's meaning, in this place. The doctrine I refer to is this: God is the foundation of all good; no man possesses any good but what he has derived from God. If any man possess that grace which saves him from scandalous enormities, let him consider that he has received it as a mere free gift from God's mercy. Let him not despise his neighbour who has it not; there was a time when he himself did not possess it; and a time may come when the man, whom he now affects to despise, and on whose conduct he is unmerciful and severe, may receive it; and probably may make a more evangelical use of it than he is now doing. This caution is necessary to many religious people, who imagine that they have been eternal objects of God's favour; and that others have been eternal objects of his hate, for no reason that they can shew for either the one or the other. He can have little acquaintance with his own heart, who is not aware of the possibility of pride lurking under the exclamation, Why me! when comparing his own gracious state, with the unregenerate state of another. Verse 8. Now ye] Corinthians, are full of secular wisdom; now ye are rich, both in wealth and spiritual gifts, chap. xiv. 26. Ye have reigned as kings, flourishing in the enjoyment of these things, in all tranquillity and honour; without any want of us: and I would to God ye did reign, in deed, and not in conceit only, that we also, poor, persecuted, and despised apostles, might reign with you.-Whitby. Though this paraphrase appears natural, yet I am of opnion that the apostle here intends a strong irony; and one, which, when taken in conjunction with what he had said before, must have stung them to the heart. It is not an unusual thing for many people to forget, if not despise, the men by whom they were brought to the knowledge of the truth; and take up with others, to whom, in the things of God, they owe nothing. Reader, is this thy case? Verse 9. God hath set forth us the apostles last] This whole passage is well explained by Dr. Whitby. "Here the apostle seems to allude to the Roman spectacles, 775 Twy te pizza, nai poroμaxias avdpocovou, that of the Bestiarü and the gladiators, where, in the morning, men were brought upon the theatres to fight with wild beasts; and to them was allowed armour to defend themselves, and smite the beasts that assailed them: but in the meridian or noon-day spectacles, the gladiators were brought forth naked, and without any thing to defend themselves from the sword of the assailant; and he that then escaped was only kept for slaughter to another day, so that these men might well be called ɛnibavaris, men appointed for death; and this being the last appearance on the theatre, for that day, they are said here to be set forth axaro: the last. Of these two spectacles, Seneca speaks thus: Epist. vii. "In the morning, men are exposed to lions and bears; at mid-day, to their spectators; those that kill, are exposed to one another; the victor is detained for another slaughter: the conclusion of the fight is death. The former fighting, compared to this, was mercy; now, it is mere butchery; they have nothing to cover them, their whole body is exposed to every blow; and every stroke produces a wound, &c." We are made a spectacle] Ori bearpov eyevyfquer, we are exhibited on the theatre to the world: we are lawful booty to all mankind, and particularly to the men of the world; who have their portion in this life. Angels are astonished at our treatment; and so are the more considerate part of men. Who, at that time, would have coveted the apostolate? Verse 10. We are fools for Christ's sake] Here he still carries on the allusion to the public spectacles among the Romans; where they were accustomed to hiss, hoot, mock, and variously insult the poor victims. To this, Philo alludes in his embassy to Caius, speaking of the treatment which the Jews received at Rome, ώσπερ γαρ ἐν θεατρῳ κλυσμοσυριτα TóvTwv, xатяμшnшμivшr, aμεтpa yλevatórur "For, as if exhibited upon a theatre, we are hissed, most outrageously hooted, and insulted beyond all bounds." Thus, says the apostle, we are fools on Christ's account; we walk in a coformity to his will, and we bear his cross and did we walk according to the course of this world, or according to the man-pleusing conduct of some among you, we should have no such cross to bear. |