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Synopsis of the Books of the Bible
John Nelson Darby
1800-1882
1 Corinthians
Introduction
The Epistle to the Corinthians presents very different subjects from those
which occupied us in the one addressed to the Romans. We find in it moral
details, and the interior order of an assembly, with regard to which the
Spirit of God here displays His wisdom in a direct way. There is no mention
of elders or of other functionaries of the assembly. Through the labours of
the apostle a numerous assembly had been formed (for God had much people in
that city) in the midst of a very corrupt population, where riches and
luxury were united with a moral disorder which had made the city a proverb.
At the same time, here as elsewhere, false teachers (in general, Jews)
sought to undermine the influence of the apostle. The spirit of philosophy
did not fail also to exercise its baneful influence, although Corinth was
not, like Athens, its principal seat. Morality and the authority of the
apostle were compromised together; and the state of things was most
critical. The Epistle was written from Ephesus, where the tidings of the
sad state of the flock at Corinth had reached the apostle, almost at the
moment when he had determined to visit them on his way into Macedonia
(instead of passing along the coast of Asia Minor as he did), then
returning to pay them a second visit on his way back. These tidings
prevented his doing so, and, instead of visiting them to pour out his heart
among them, he wrote this letter. The second epistle was written in
Macedonia, when Titus had brought him word of the happy effect of the
first.
The subjects of this first epistle are very easily divided into their
natural order. In the first place, before he blames the Christians at
Corinth to whom he writes, the apostle acknowledges all the grace which God
had already bestowed on them, and would still impart. Chapter 1:1-9. From
verse 10 to chapter 4:21 the subject of divisions, schools of doctrine and
human wisdom, is spoken of in contrast with revelation and divine wisdom.
Chapter 5, the corruption of morals, and discipline, whether by power, or
in the responsibility of the assembly. Chapter 6, temporal affairs,
law-suits; and again the subject of fornication, which was of primary
importance for the Christians of this city. Chapter 7, marriage is
considered. Ought people to marry? The obligation of those who had already
married; and the case of a converted husband or of a converted wife, whose
wife or whose husband was not converted. Chapter 8, should they eat things
offered to idols? Chapter 9, his apostleship. Chapter 10, their condition
in general, their danger of being seduced, whether by fornication, or by
idolatry, and idolatrous feasts, with the principles relating thereto,
which introduces the Lord's supper. Chapter 11, questions connected with
their behaviour in religious matters individually or (v. 17) in the
assembly. Afterwards, chapter 12, the exercise of gifts, and their true
value, and the object of their use, magnifying (chap. 13) the comparative
value of charity; to the end of chapter 14, ordering the exercise of gifts
also, with which it is compared. Chapter 15, the resurrection, which some
denied, and specially that of the saints; and chapter 16, the collections
for the poor in Judea, with some salutations, and the principles of
subordination to those whom God has raised up for service, even where there
were no elders. It is of great value to have these directions immediately
from the Lord, independent of a formal organisation, so that individual
conscience and that of the body as a whole should be engaged.
But there are some other considerations as to the character and structure
of the epistle which I must not pass by.
The reader may remark a difference in the address in the Corinthians and
Ephesians. In the Corinthians, "To the church of God," etc., "with all that
in every place call on the name of the Lord Jesus." It is the professing
church, the members being assumed to be faithful, at any rate in character
such till put out, and with that, every one that owned Jesus as Lord,-the
house; hence chapter 10:1-5. In Ephesians it is "Holy and faithful
brethren," and we have the proper privileges of the body. This character of
the epistle, as embracing the professing church, and recognising a local
assembly as representing it in the locality, gives the epistle great
importance. Further, I think it will be found that the outward professing
assembly is dealt with to the middle of chapter 10 (and there the nature of
the Lord's supper introduces the one body of Christ, which is treated of as
to the gifts of the Spirit in chapter 12); comeliness in woman's activities
in the first verses of chapter 11; and afterwards from verse 17 what befits
the coming together in the assembly, and the Lord's supper, with the
government of God. Verses 1-16 do not apply to the assembly. Still, order
in the local assembly is everywhere the subject; only, from chapter 1 to
chapter 10:14, the professing multitude is in view, supposed however
sincere, but possibly not so. From chapter 10:15 to the end of chapter 12
the body is in view.
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.
It was in virtue of, and according to, Acts 26:17, and 13:2 to 4, and not
Matthew 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.
Chapter 2
It was in this spirit that Paul had come among them at first; he would know
nothing but Christ,
and Christ in His humiliation and abasement, object of contempt to
senseless men. His speech was not attractive with the carnal persuasiveness
of a factitious eloquence: but it was the expression of the presence and
action of the Spirit, and of the power which accompanied that presence.
Thus their faith rested, not on the fair words of man, which another more
eloquent or more subtle might upset, but on the power of God-a solid
foundation for our feeble souls-blessed be His name for it!
Nevertheless, when once the soul was taught and established in the doctrine
of salvation in Christ, there was a wisdom of which the apostle spoke; not
the wisdom of this present age, nor of the princes of this age, which
perish, wisdom and all; but the wisdom of God in a mystery, a secret
counsel of God (revealed now by the Spirit), ordained in His settled
purpose unto our glory before the world was-a counsel which, with all their
wisdom, none of the princes of this world knew. Had they known it, they
would not have crucified the One in whose Person it was all to be
accomplished.
The apostle does not touch the subject of the mystery, because he had to
feed them as babes, and only in order to put it in contrast with the false
wisdom of the world; but the way in which this wisdom was communicated is
important. That which had never entered into the heart of man
God had revealed by His Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, even
the deep things of God. It is only the spirit of a man which is in him that
knows the things which he has not communicated. So no one knows the things
of God save the Spirit of God. Now it is the Spirit of God which the
apostle and the other vessels of revelation had received, that they might
know the things which are freely given of God. This is the knowledge of the
things themselves in the vessels of revelation. Afterwards this instrument
of God was to communicate them. He did so, not in words which the art of
man taught, but which the Spirit-which God-taught, communicating spiritual
things by a spiritual medium.(4)
The communication was by the Spirit as well as the thing communicated.
There was yet one thing wanting that this revelation might be possessed by
others-the reception of these communications. This also required the action
of the Spirit. The natural man did not receive them; and they are
spiritually discerned.
The source, the medium of communication, the reception, all was of the
Spirit. Thus the spiritual man judges all things; he is judged of no man.
The power of the Spirit in him makes his judgment true and just, but gives
him motives and a walk that are unintelligible to one who has not the
Spirit. Very simple as to that which is said-nothing can be more important
than that which is here taught. Alas! the Corinthians, whether when the
apostle was at Corinth, or at the time of writing this letter, were not in
a condition to have the mystery communicated to them-a grievous humiliation
to their philosophic pride, but therefore a good remedy for it.
Chapter 3
They were not natural men; but they were carnal (not spiritual) men, so
that the apostle had to feed them with milk and not with meat which was
only fit for those that were of full age. That with which they nourished
their pride was a proof of this-their divisions into schools of doctrine.
Paul, no doubt, had planted; Apollos watered. It was well. But it was God
alone who gave the increase. Moreover the apostle had laid the foundation
of this building of God, the assembly at Corinth; others had built
since-had carried on the work of the edification of souls. Let every one
take heed. There was but one foundation; it was laid. But in connection
with it, they might teach things solid or worthless and form souls by one
or the other-perhaps even introduce souls won by such vain doctrines among
the saints. The work would be proved, sooner or later, by some day of
trial. If they had wrought in the work of God, with solid materials, the
work would stand; if not, it would come to nothing. The effect, the fruit
of labour, would be destroyed-the man who had wrought be saved, because he
had built on the foundation-had true faith in Christ. Yet the shaking,
caused by the failure of all that he had thought genuine,
would be apt, for himself, to shake the consciousness of his connection
with, and confidence in, the foundation. He should be saved as through the
fire. He who had wrought according to God should receive the fruit of his
labour. If any one corrupted the temple of God-introduced that which
destroyed fundamental truths, he should be destroyed himself.
The subject then is ministerial labour, carried on by means of certain
doctrines, either good, worthless, or subversive of the truth; and the
fruits which this labour would produce. And there are three cases; the work
good as well as the workman; the work vain, but the workman saved; the
corrupter of God's temple-here the workman would be destroyed.
Finally, if any one desired to be wise in this world, let him become
unintelligent in order to be wise. God counted the wisdom of the wise as
foolishness, and would take them in their own craftiness. But in this the
saints were below their privileges. All things were theirs, since they were
the children of God. "All things are yours"-Paul, Apollos, all things-you
are Christ's, and Christ is God's.
Chapter 4
As for the apostle and the labourers, they were to consider them as
stewards employed by the Lord. And it was to Him that Paul committed the
judgment of his conduct. He cared little for the judgment man might form
respecting him. He was not conscious of anything wrong, but that did not
justify him. He who judged (examined) him was the Lord. And, after all, who
was it that gave to the one or to the other that which he could use in
service?
Paul had thought well, in treating this subject, to use names that they
were using in their carnal divisions, and those, especially himself and
Apollos, which could not be used to pretend he was getting rid of others to
set up himself; but what was the real state of the case? They had despised
the apostle. Yes, he says, we have been put to shame, despised, persecuted,
in distress; you have been at ease, like kings-a reproach in accordance
with their own pretensions, their own reproaches-a reproach that touched
them to the quick, if they had any feeling left. Paul and his companions
had been as the offscouring of the earth for Christ's sake, while the
Corinthians were reposing in the lap of luxury and ease. Even while writing
to them, this was still his position. "Would to God," he says, "ye did
reign" (that the day of Christ were come) "in order that we might reign
with you." He felt his sufferings, although he bore them joyfully. They,
the apostles, were set forth on God's part as though to be the last great
spectacle in those marvellous games of which this world was the
amphitheatre; and as His witnesses they were exposed to the fury of a
brutal world. Patience and meekness were their only weapons.
Nevertheless he did not say these things to put them to shame, he warned
them as his beloved sons; for his sons they were. Though they might have
ten thousand teachers, he had begotten them all by the gospel. Let them
then follow him. In all this there is the deep working of the affection of
a noble heart, wounded to the utmost, but wounded in order to bring out an
affection that rose above his grief. It is this which so strikingly
distinguishes the work of the Spirit in the New Testament, as in Christ
Himself. The Spirit has come into the bosom of the assembly, takes part in
her afflictions-her difficulties. He fills the soul of one who cares for
the assembly,
making him feel that which is going on-feel it according to God, but with a
really human heart. Who could cause all this to be felt for strangers,
except the Spirit of God? Who would enter into these things with all the
perfection of the wisdom of God, in order to act upon the heart, to deliver
the conscience, to form the understanding, and to set it free, except the
Spirit of God? Still the apostolic individual bond was to be formed, to be
strengthened. It was the essence of the work of the Holy Ghost in the
assembly to bind all together in this way. We see the man: otherwise it
would not have been Paul and his dear brethren. We see the Holy Ghost, whom
the latter had grieved, no doubt, and who acts in the former with divine
wisdom, to guide them in the right way with all the affection of their
father in Christ. Timothy, his son in the faith and in heart, might meet
the case. Paul had sent him; Paul himself would soon be there. Some said,
No, he would not, and took occasion to magnify themselves in the absence of
the apostle; but he would come himself and put everything to the test; for
the kingdom of God was not in word, but in power. Did they wish him to come
with a rod, or in love?
Here this part of the epistle ends. Admirable specimen of tenderness and of
authority!-of authority sure enough of itself on the part of God, to be
able to act with perfect tenderness towards those who were thoroughly dear
to him, in the hope of not being forced to exercise itself in another way.
The most powerful truths are unfolded in so doing.
Chapter 5
He begins to treat the details of conduct and of discipline; and, first of
all, the carnal defilement carried on in their midst to the last degree of
hardness of conscience. Those who sought their own personal influence as
teachers allowed them to go on in it. He condemns it without reservation.
Discipline follows; for Christ had been offered up as the Paschal Lamb, and
they were to keep the feast without leaven, keeping themselves from the old
leaven; in order that they might be in fact, what they were before God-an
unleavened lump. As to discipline, it was this: before they knew that it
was their duty to cut off the wicked person, and that God had given them
the power and imposed on them the obligation to do so, a moral sense of
evil ought, at least, to have led them to humble themselves before God, and
to pray that He would take him away. On the contrary, they were puffed up
with pride. But now the apostle teaches them what must be done, and
enforces it with all his apostolic authority. He was among them in spirit
if not in body, and with the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, they being
gathered together, to deliver such a one to Satan; but as a brother for the
destruction of the flesh, that his spirit might be saved in the day of
Christ.
Here all the power of the assembly in its normal condition, united to and
led by the apostolic energy, is displayed. Its members; the apostle, vessel
and channel of the power of the Spirit; and the power of the Lord Jesus
Himself, the Head of the body. Now the world is the theatre of Satan's
power; the assembly, delivered from his power, is the habitation of God by
the Spirit. If the enemy had succeeded in drawing aside by the flesh a
member of Christ, so that he dishonours the Lord by walking after the flesh
as men of the world do, he is put outside, and by the power of the Spirit,
as then exercised in their midst by the apostle, delivered up to the enemy,
who is in spite of himself the servant of the purposes of God (as in the
case of Job), in order that the flesh of the Christian (which, from his not
being able to reckon it dead, had brought him morally under the power of
Satan) should be physically destroyed and broken down. Thus would he be set
free from the illusions in which the flesh held him captive. His mind would
learn how to discern the difference between good and evil, to know what sin
was. The judgment of God would be realised within him, and would not be
executed upon him at that day when it would be definitive for the
condemnation of those who should undergo it. This was a great blessing,
although its form was terrible. Marvellous example of the government of
God, which uses the adversary's enmity against the saints as an instrument
for their spiritual blessing! We have such a case fully set before us in
the history of Job. Only we have here. in addition, the proof that in its
normal state, apostolic power
being there, the assembly exercised this judgment herself, having
discernment by the Spirit and the authority of Christ to do it. Moreover,
whatever may be the spiritual capacity of the assembly to wield this sword
of the Lord (for this is power), her positive and ordinary duty is stated
at the end of the chapter.
The assembly was an unleavened lump, looked at in the Spirit as an
assembly, and not individually. It is thus that we must view it, for it is
only in the Spirit that it is so. The assembly is seen of God as being
before Him in the new nature in Christ. Such she ought to be in practice by
the power of the Spirit, in spite of the existence of the flesh, which by
faith she ought to count as dead, and allow nothing in her walk that is
contrary to this state. The assembly ought to be a "new lump," and was not
if evil was allowed, and, consequently, ought to purge herself from the old
leaven, because she is unleavened in God's thoughts. Such is her position
before God. For Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us: therefore
we ought to keep the feast with the unleavened bread of sincerity and
truth. They did wrong therefore in boasting while this evil was in their
midst, however great their gifts might be. A little leaven leavens the
whole lump. The evil did not attach to that man alone who was personally
guilty of it. The assembly was not clear till the evil was put out (2 Cor.
7:11). They could not dissociate themselves in the intercourse of ordinary
life from all those who, in the world, walked corruptly, for in that case
they would have to go out of the world. But if any one called himself a
brother and walked in this corruption, with such a one they ought not even
to eat. God judges those who are outside. The assembly must herself judge
those that are within, and put out whatever must be called "wicked."
Chapter 6
Chapter 6:1-11 treats the subject of wrongs. It was shameful that those
who were to judge the world and the angels should be incapable of judging
the paltry affairs of this world. Let the least esteemed in the assembly be
employed in this service. Rather should they bear the wrong, whereas they
did wrong themselves. But the wicked and the unrighteous would assuredly
not inherit the kingdom. What a wonderful mixture we have here of
astonishing revelations, of a morality that is unchangeable whatever may be
the divine supremacy of grace, and of ecclesiastical order and discipline!
The assembly is united to Christ. When He shall judge the world and
pronounce the doom of the angels, she will be associated with Him and take
part in His judgment, for she has His Spirit and His mind. Nothing however
that is unrighteous shall enter into that kingdom, for in effect how could
evil be judged by any that took pleasure in it? Christians should not go to
a worldly tribunal for justice, but have recourse to the arbitration of the
brethren-a service which, as entering so little into christian
spirituality, was suited to the weakest among them. Moreover the proper
thing was rather to suffer the wrong. Be it as it might, the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom.
Judaism, which took pleasure in a carnal sanctity of outward regulations,
and the spirit of the world with conformity to its ways, were the two
dangers that threatened the assembly at Corinth-dangers, indeed, which
exist for the heart of man at all times and in all places. With regard to
meats the rule is simple: perfect liberty, since all is allowed-true
liberty, in that we are in bondage to none of these things. Meats and the
belly, as in relationship to each other, should both perish; the body has a
higher destiny-it is for the Lord, and the Lord for it. God has raised up
Christ from the dead, and He will raise us up again by His power. The body
belongs to this and not to meats.
But the doctrine that the body is for Christ decided another question, to
which the depraved habits of the Corinthians gave rise. All fornication is
forbidden. To us, with our present Christian habits of mind, it is a thing
of course-to Pagans, new; but the doctrine exalts every subject. Our bodies
are the members of Christ. Another truth connected with this is of great
importance: if (by union according to the flesh) two were one body, he who
is united to the Lord is one spirit. The Spirit whose fulness is in Christ
is the same Spirit who dwells in me and unites me to Him. Our bodies are
His temples. What a mighty truth when we think of it!
Moreover we are not our own, but were bought with a price-the blood of
Christ offered for us. Therefore we ought to glorify God in our bodies,
which are His-powerful and universal motive, governing the whole conduct
without exception. Our true liberty is to belong to God. All that is for
oneself is stolen from the rights of Him who has bought us for His own. All
that a slave was, or gained, was the property of his master; he was not the
owner of himself. Thus it was with the Christian. Outside that, he is the
wretched slave of sin and of Satan-selfishness his rule, and eternal
banishment from the source of love his end. Horrible thought! In Christ we
are the special objects and the vessels of that love. We have here two
mighty motives for holiness: the value of Christ's blood, at which we are
purchased; also the fact that we are the temples of the Holy Ghost.
Chapter 7
The apostle proceeds by answering a question in connection with the subject
he had been treating-the will of God with regard to the relationship
between man and woman. They do well who remain outside this relationship in
order to walk with the Lord according to the Spirit, and not to yield in
anything to their nature. God had instituted marriage-woe to him who should
speak ill of it! but sin has come in, and all that is of nature, of the
creature, is marred. God has introduced a power altogether above and
outside nature-that of the Spirit. To walk according to that power is the
best thing; it is to walk outside the sphere in which sin acts. But it is
rare; and positive sins are for the most part the effect of standing apart
from that which God has ordained according to nature. In general then for
this reason, every man should have his own wife: and the union once formed,
he had no longer power over himself. As to the body, the husband belonged
to his wife, the wife to her husband. If, by mutual consent, they separated
for awhile that they might give themselves to prayer and to spiritual
exercises, the bond was to be immediately acknowledged again, lest the
heart, not governing itself, should give Satan occasion to come in and
distress the soul, and destroy its confidence in God and in His love-lest
he should tempt by distressing doubts (it is for,not by incontinency) a
heart that aimed at too much, and failed in it.
This permission, however, and this direction which recommended Christians
to marry, was not a commandment from the Lord, given by inspiration, but
the fruit of the apostle's experience-an experience to which the presence
of the Holy Ghost was not wanting.
He would rather that every one were like himself; but every one had, in
this respect, his gift from God. To the unmarried and the widows, it is
good, he says, to abide as he himself was; but if they could not subdue
their nature and remain in calm purity, it was better to marry.
Unsubduedness of desire was more hurtful than the bond of marriage. But as
to marriage itself, there was no longer room for the counsel of experience,
the commandment of the Lord was positive. The woman was not to separate
from the man, nor the man from the woman; and if they separated, the bond
was not broken; they must remain unmarried or else be reconciled.
But there was a case more complicated, when the man was converted and the
wife unconverted, or vice versa. According to the law a man who had married
a woman of the Gentiles (and was consequently profane and unclean) defiled
himself, and was compelled to send her away; and their children had no
right to Jewish privileges; they were rejected as unclean (see Ezra 10:3).
But under grace it was quite the contrary. The converted husband sanctified
the wife, and vice versa, and their children were reckoned clean before
God; they had part in the ecclesiastical rights of their parent. This is
the sense of the word "holy," in connection with the question of order and
of outward relationship towards God, which was suggested by the obligation
under the law to send away wife and children in a similar case. Thus the
believer was not to send away his wife, nor to forsake an unbelieving
husband. If the unbeliever forsook the believer definitively, the latter
(man or woman) was free-"let him depart." The brother was no longer bound
to consider the one who had forsaken him as his wife, nor the sister the
man who had forsook her as her husband. But they were called to peace, and
not to seek this separation, for how did the believer know if he should not
be the means of the unbeliever's conversion? For we are under grace.
Moreover every one was to walk as God had distributed to him.
As regarded occupations and positions in this world, the general rule was
that every one should continue in the state wherein he was called; but it
must be "with God"-doing nothing that would not be to His glory. If the
state was in itself of a nature contrary to His will, it was sin; clearly
he could not remain in it with God. But the general rule was to remain and
glorify God in it.
The apostle had spoken of marriage, of the unmarried and of widows; he had
been questioned also with respect to those who had never entered into any
relationship with woman. On this point he had no commandment from the Lord.
He could only give his judgment as one who had received mercy of the Lord
to be faithful. It was good to remain in that condition, seeing what the
world was and the difficulties of a christian life. If they were bound to a
wife, let them not seek to be loosed. If free, they would do well to remain
so. Thus if they married, they did well; not marrying, they did better. He
who had not known a woman did not sin if he married, but he should have
trouble after the flesh in his life here below. (It will be observed, that
it is not the daughter of a Christian that is here spoken of, but his own
personal condition.) If he stood firm, and had power over his own will, it
was the better way; if he married, he still did well; if he did not marry,
it was better. It was the same with a woman; and if the apostle said that
according to his judgment it was better, he had the Spirit of God. His
experience-if he had no commandment-had not been gained without the Spirit,
but it was that of a man who could say (if any one had a right to say it)
that he had the Spirit of God.
Moreover the time was short: the married were to be as having no wives;
buyers, as having no possession; they who used the world, not using it as
though it were theirs. Only the apostle would have them without carefulness
or distraction, that they might serve the Lord. If by reckoning themselves
dead to nature this effect was not produced, they gained nothing, they lost
by it. When married they were pre-occupied with things below, in order to
please their wives and to provide for their children. But they enjoyed a
repose of mind, in which nature did not claim her rights with a will that
they had failed to silence, and holiness of walk and of heart was
maintained. If the will of nature was subjugated and silenced, they served
the Lord without distraction, they lived according to the Spirit and not
according to nature, even in those things which God had ordained as good
with respect to nature.
As to the slave, he might console himself as being the Lord's free-man; but
(seeing the difficulty of reconciling the will of a pagan or even an
unspiritual master with the will of God) if he could be made free, he
should embrace the opportunity.
Two things strike us here in passing: the holiness which all these
directions breathe with regard to that which touches so closely the desires
of the flesh. The institutions of God, formed for man when innocent, are
maintained in all their integrity, in all their authority, a safeguard now
against the sin to which man is incited by his flesh. The Spirit introduces
a new energy above nature, which in no wise weakens the authority of the
institution. If any one can live above nature in order to serve the Lord in
freedom, it is a gift of God-a grace which he does well to profit by. A
second very important principle flows from this chapter. The apostle
distinguishes accurately between that which he has by inspiration, and his
own spiritual experience-that which the Spirit gave him in connection with
the exercises of his individual life-spiritual wisdom, however exalted it
might be. On certain points he had no commandment from the Lord. He gave
the conclusion at which he had arrived, through the help of the Spirit of
God, in a life of remarkable faithfulness, and aided by the Spirit whom he
but little grieved. But it was not a commandment of the Lord. On other
points that which he did not except in this manner was to be received as
the commandment of the Lord (compare chap. 14:37). That is to say, he
affirms the inspiration, properly so called, of his writings-they were to
be received as emanating from the Lord Himself-distinguishing this
inspiration from his own spiritual competency, a principle of all
importance.
Chapter 8
After this the apostle answers the question respecting meats offered to
idols, which gives occasion to a few words on the value of knowledge.
Simply as knowledge, it is worth nothing. If we look at it as knowledge
that we possess, it does but puffs us up; it is something in me, my
knowledge. True christian knowledge unfolded something in God. By means of
that which is revealed, God, better known, became greater to the soul. It
was in Him the thing known, and not a knowledge in me by which I made
myself greater. He who loves God is known of Him. As to the question
itself, love decided it. Since such a question had arisen, it was evident
that all consciences were not brought into full light by spiritual
intelligence. Now undoubtedly the idol was nothing: there was but one God,
the Father; and one Lord, Jesus Christ. But if he who was strong sat at
meat in the idol's temple, another who had not full light would be
encouraged to do the same, and his conscience would be unfaithful and
defiled. Thus I lead into sin,and, as far as depends on me, I ruin a
brother for whom Christ died. I sin against Christ Himself in so doing.
Thus, if meat causes a brother to stumble, let me altogether abstain from
it rather than be a snare to him. Here the apostle treats the question as
arising among the brethren, so as that which regards the conscience of
each, choosing to maintain in all its force that in fact an idol was
nothing but a piece of wood or stone. It was important to set the question
on this ground. The prophets had done so before. But this was not all that
there was to say. There was the working of Satan and of wicked spirits to
explain, and this he does further on.
We may remark in passing the expression, "To us there is but one God, the
Father, and one Lord, Jesus Christ." The apostle does not here treat the
abstract question of the Lord's divinity, but the connection of men with
that which was above them in certain relationships. Pagans had many gods,
and many lords, intermediate beings. Not so Christians. For them is the
Father abiding in the absoluteness of the divinity, and Christ who, become
man, has taken the place and the relationship of Lord towards us. The
position, and not the nature, is the subject. It is the same thing in
chapter 12:2-6, where the contrast is with the multitude of spirits whom
the Pagans knew, and the number of gods and lords. Nevertheless every one
was not, in fact, thus delivered from the influence of false gods on his
imagination. They were still perhaps, in spite of himself, something to
him. He had conscience of the idol, and if he ate that which had been
offered to it, it was not to him simply that which God had given for food.
The idea of the existence of a real and powerful being had a place in his
heart, and thus his conscience was defiled. Now they were not better in
God's sight for having eaten, and by eating they had put a stumbling block
in their brother's way, and, so far as the act of those who had full light
was concerned, had ruined him by defiling his conscience and estranging him
from God in unfaithfulness. This was sinning against Christ, who had died
for that precious soul. If God intervened to shield him from the result of
this unfaithfulness, that in nowise diminished the sin of him who led the
weak one to act against his conscience. In itself that which separates us
from God ruins us in that which regards our responsibility. Thus he who has
the love of Christ in his heart would rather never eat meat than do that
which would make a brother unfaithful, and tend to ruin a soul which Christ
has redeemed.
Chapter 9
The apostle was exposed to the accusations of false teachers, who asserted
that he carried on his evangelisation and his labours from interested
motives, and that he took the property of Christians, availing himself of
their devotedness. He speaks therefore of his ministry. He declares openly
that he is an apostle, an eye-witness of the glory of Christ, having seen
the Lord. Moreover, if he was not an apostle to others, doubtless he was to
the Corinthians, for he had been the means of their conversion. Now the
will of the Lord was that they who preached the gospel should live of the
gospel. He had a right to take with him a sister as his wife, even as Peter
did, and the brethren of the Lord. Nevertheless he had not used this right.
Obliged by the call of the Lord to preach the gospel, woe unto him if he
failed to do it! His glory was to do it gratuitously, so as to take away
all occasion from those who sought it. For, being free from all, he had
made himself the servant of all, that he might win as many as he could.
Observe that this was in his service; it was not accommodating himself to
the world, in order to escape the offence of the cross. He put this plainly
forward (chap. 2:2); but in preaching it, he adapted himself to the
religious capacity and to the modes of thought belonging to the one and to
the other, in order to gain access for the truth into their minds; and he
did the same in his manner of conduct among them. It was the power of
charity which denied itself in all things, in order to be the servant of
all, and not the selfishness which indulged itself under the pretence of
gaining others. He did so in every respect for the sake of the gospel,
desiring, as he said, to be a partaker with it, for he personifies it as
doing the work of God's love in the world.
It was thus they should run; and, in order to run thus, one must deny
oneself. In this way the apostle acted. He did not run with uncertain
steps, as one who did not see the true end, or who did not pursue it
seriously as a known thing. He knew well what he was pursuing, and he
pursued it really, evidently, according to its nature. Every one could
judge by his walk. He did not trifle as a man who beats the air-easy
prowess. In seeking that which was holy and glorious, he knew the
difficulties he resisted in the personal conflict with the evil that sought
to obstruct his victory. As a vigorous wrestler, he kept under his body,
which would have hindered him. There was reality in his pursuit of heaven:
he would tolerate nothing that opposed it. Preaching to others was not all.
He might do that, and it might be, as regards himself, labour in vain; he
might lose everything-be rejected afterwards himself, if not personally a
Christian. He was a Christian first of all, then a preacher, and a good
preacher, because he was a Christian first. Thus, also (for the beginning
of chapter 10 connects itself with the close of chapter 9), others might
makes a profession, partake of the initiatory and other ordinances, as he
might be a preacher, and after all not be owned of God. This warning is a
testimony to the condition to which, in part at least, the assembly of God
was already reduced: a warning always useful, but which supposes that those
who bear the name of Christian, and have partaken of the ordinances of the
church, no longer inspire that confidence which would receive them without
question as the true sheep of Christ. The passage distinguishes between
participation in christian ordinances and the possession of salvation: a
distinction always true, but which it is not necessary to make when
christian life is bright in those who have part in the outward privileges
of the assembly.
Chapter 10
The apostle then gives the Corinthians the ways of God with Israel in the
wilderness, as instruction with regard to His ways with us, declaring that
the things which happened to them were types or figures which serve as
patterns for us: an important principle, and one which ought to be clearly
apprehended, in order to profit by it. It is not Israel who is the figure,
but that which happened to Israel-the ways of God with Israel. The things
themselves happened to Israel; they were written for our instruction who
find ourselves at the close of God's dispensations. That which shall follow
will be the judgment of God, when these examples will no longer serve for
the life of faith.
Two principles are next established which also have great practical
importance: "Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall."
This is our responsibility. On the other side we have the faithfulness of
God. He does not permit us to be tempted beyond our strength, but provides
a way of escape in order that we may not stumble.
He enjoins, with regard to idolatry, that holy fear which avoids the
occasion of doing evil, the occasion of falling. There is association and
communion through the table of which we partake with that which is on it;
and we Christians, being many, are but one bread and one body,
inasmuch as we share the same bread at the Lord's supper. Those in Israel
who ate of the sacrifices were partakers of the altar-were identified with
it. So those who ate of idol's meat as such were identified with the idol
it was offered to. Was this to say that the idol was anything? No. But as
it is written (Deut. 32), "The things which the Gentiles offered, they
offered to demons and not to God." Should a Christian then, partake of the
table of demons? The table was the table of demons, the cup the cup of
demons-an important principle for the assembly of God. Would one provoke
the Lord by putting Him on a level with demons? Allusion is again made to
Deuteronomy 32:21. The apostle repeats his principle already established,
that he had liberty in every respect, but that on the one hand he would not
put himself under the power of anything; on the other, being free, he would
use his liberty for the spiritual good of all. To follow out this rule,
these are his instructions: Whatsoever was sold in the market they should
eat without question of conscience. If any man said, "This was sacrificed
to idols," it was a proof that he had conscience of an idol. They should
then not eat of it, because of his conscience. For as to him who was free,
his liberty could not be judged by the conscience of the other; for, as to
doctrine, and where there was knowledge, the apostle recognises it as a
truth that the idol was nothing. The creature was simply the creature of
God. Communion with that which was false I ought to avoid for myself,
especially in that which relates to communion with God Himself. I should
deny myself the liberty which the truth gave me, rather than wound the weak
conscience of others.
Moreover in all things, even in eating or drinking, we ought to see the
glory of God, and do all to His glory; giving no offence by using our
liberty, either to Jew or Gentile, or the assembly of God; following the
apostle's example, who, denying himself, sought to please all for their
edification.
Having given these rules in answer to questions of detail, he turns to that
which regarded the presence and action of the Holy Ghost; which also
introduces the subject of the conduct proper for them in their assemblies.
Chapter 11
Observe here the way in which the apostle grounded his replies with regard
to details on the highest and fundamental principles. This is the manner of
Christianity (compare Titus 2:10-14). He introduces God and charity,
putting man in connection with God Himself. In that which follows we have
also a striking example of this. The subject is a direction for women.
They were not to pray without having their heads covered. To decide this
question, simply of what was decent and becoming, the apostle lays open the
relationship and the order of the relationship subsisting between the
depositories of God's glory and Himself,
and brings in the angels, to whom Christians, as a spectacle set before
them, should present that of order according to the mind of God. The head
of the woman is the man; that of man is Christ; of Christ, God. This is the
order of power, ascending to Him who is supreme. And then, with respect to
their relationship to each other, he adds, the man was not created for the
woman, but the woman for the man. And as to their relations with other
creatures, intelligent and conscious of the order of the ways of God, they
were to be covered because of the angels, who are spectators of the ways of
God in the dispensation of redemption, and of the effect which this
marvellous intervention was to produce. Elsewhere (see note below) it is
added, in reference to the history of that which took place, the man was
not deceived; but the woman, being deceived, transgressed first. Let us
add-from the passage we are considering-that, as to creation, the man was
not taken from the woman, but the woman from the man. Nevertheless the man
is not without the woman, nor the woman without the man, in the Lord; but
all things are of God;-and all this to regulate a question of modesty as to
women, when in praying they were before the eyes of others.
The result-in that which concerns the details-is that the man was to have
his head uncovered, because he represented authority, and in this respect
was invested (as to his position) with the glory of God, of whom he was the
image. The woman was to have her head covered, as a token that she was
subject to the man (her covering being a token of the power to which she
was subject). Man however could not do without woman, nor woman without
man. Finally the apostle appeals to the order of creation, according to
which a woman's hair, her glory and ornament, shewed, in contrast with the
hair of man, that she was not made to present herself with the boldness of
man before all. Given as a veil, her hair shewed that modesty, submission-a
covered head that hid itself, as it were, in that submission and in that
modesty-was her true position, her distinctive glory. Moreover, if any one
contested the point, it was a custom which neither the apostle nor the
assemblies allowed.
Observe also here that, however man may have fallen, divine order in
creation never loses its value as the expression of the mind of God. Thus
also in James, man is said to be created in the image of God. As to his
moral condition, he needs (now that he has knowledge of good and of evil)
to be born again, created in righteousness and in true holiness, that he
may be the image of God as now revealed through Christ; but his position in
the world, as the head and centre of all things-which no angel has been-is
the idea of God Himself, as well as the position of the woman, the
companion of his glory but subject to him; an idea which will be gloriously
accomplished in Christ, and with respect to the woman in the assembly; but
which is true in itself, being the constituted order of God, and always
right as such: for the ordinance of God creates order, although, no doubt,
His wisdom and His perfection are displayed in it.
The reader will remark, that this order in creation, as well as that which
is established in the counsels of God in respect of the woman, of the man,
of Christ, and of God Himself, and the fact that men-at least Christians
under redemption-are a spectacle to angels (compare chap. 4:9), subjects
which here I can only indicate, have the highest interest.
The apostle afterwards touches upon the subject of their assemblies. In
verse 2 he had praised them; but on this point he could not do so (v. 17).
Their assemblies manifested a spirit of division. This division concerned
the distinction between the rich and the poor, but, as it seems, gave rise
to others: at least others were necessary to make manifest those who were
really approved of God. Now these divisions had the character of sects;
that is to say, particular opinions divided Christians of the same
assembly, of the assembly of God, into schools; they were hostile to each
other, although they took the Lord's supper together-if indeed it could be
said that they took it together. Jealousies that had arisen between the
rich and the poor tended to foster the sectarian division. If, I observed,
it could be said that they broke bread together; for each one took care to
eat his own supper before the others did so, and some were hungry while
others took their fill. This was not really eating the Lord's supper.
The apostle, guided by the Holy Ghost, seizes the opportunity to declare to
them the nature and the import of this ordinance. We may notice here, that
the Lord had taught it him by an especial revelation-proof of the interest
that belongs to it,
and that it is a part of the Lord's mind in the entire christian walk, to
which He attaches importance in view of our moral condition, and of the
state of our spiritual affections individually, as well as those of the
assembly. In the joy of christian liberty, amid the powerful effects of the
presence of the Holy Ghost-of the gifts by which He manifested Himself in
the assembly, the Lord's death, His broken body, was brought to mind, and,
as it were, made present to faith as the basis and foundation of
everything. This act of love, this simple and solemn deed, weak and empty
in appearance, preserved all its importance. The Lord's body had been
offered for us! to which the Holy Ghost Himself was to bear witness, and
which was to maintain all its importance in the Christian's heart, and to
be the foundation and centre of the edifice of the assembly. Whatever might
be the power that shone forth in the assembly, the heart was brought back
to this. The body of the Lord Himself had been offered,
the lips of Jesus had claimed our remembrance. This moral equilibrium is
very important to saints. Power, and the exercise of gifts do not
necessarily act upon the conscience and the heart of those to whom they are
committed, nor of those always who enjoy their display. And, although God
is present (and when we are in a good state, that is felt), still it is a
man who speaks and who acts upon others; he is prominent. In the Lord's
supper the heart is brought back to a point in which it is entirely
dependent, in which man is nothing, in which Christ and His love are
everything, in which the heart is exercised, and the conscience remembers
that it has needed cleansing, and that it has been cleansed by the work of
Christ-that we depend absolutely on this grace. The affections also are in
the fullest exercise. It is important to remember this. The consequences
that followed forgetfulness of the import of this ordinance confirmed its
importance and the Lord's earnest desire that they should take heed to it.
The apostle is going to speak of the power of the Holy Ghost manifested in
His gifts, and of the regulations necessary to maintain order and provide
for edification where they were exercised in the assembly; but, before
doing so, he places the Lord's supper as the moral centre, the object of
the assembly. Let us remark some of the thoughts of the Spirit in
connection with this ordinance.
First, He links the affections with it in the strongest way. It was the
same night on which Jesus was betrayed that He left this memorial of His
sufferings and of His love. As the paschal lamb brought to mind the
deliverance which the sacrifice offered in Egypt had procured for Israel,
thus the Lord's supper called to mind the sacrifice of Christ. He is in the
glory, the Spirit is given; but they were to remember Him. His offered body
was the object before their hearts in this memorial. Take notice of this
word "Remember." It is not a Christ as He now exists, it is not the
realisation of what He is: that is not a remembrance-His body is now
glorified. It is a remembrance of what He was on the cross. It is a body
slain, and blood shed, not a glorified body. It is remembered, though, by
those who are now united to Him in the glory into which He is entered. As
risen and associated with Him in glory, they look back to that blessed work
of love, and His love in it which gave them a place there. They drink also
of the cup in remembrance of Him. In a word, it is Christ looked at as
dead: there is not such a Christ now.
It is the remembrance of Christ Himself. It is that which attaches to
Himself, it is not only the value of His sacrifice, but attachment to
Himself, the remembrance of Himself. The apostle then shews us, if it is a
dead Christ, who it is that died. Impossible to find two words, the
bringing together of which has so important a meaning, The death of the
Lord. How many things are comprised in that He who is called the Lord had
died! What love! what purposes! what efficacy! what results! The Lord
Himself gave Himself up for us. We celebrate His death. At the same time,
it is the end of God's relations with the world on the ground of man's
responsibility, except the judgment. This death has broken every link-has
proved the impossibility of any. We shew forth this death until the
rejected Lord shall return, to establish new bonds of association by
receiving us to Himself to have part in them. It is this which we proclaim
in the ordinance when we keep it. Besides this, it is in itself a
declaration that the blood on which the new covenant is founded has been
already shed; it was established in this blood. I do not go beyond that
which the passage presents; the object of the Spirit of God here, is to set
before us, not the efficacy of the death of Christ, but that which attaches
the heart to Him in remembering His death, and the meaning of the ordinance
itself. It is a dead, betrayed Christ whom we remember. The offered body
was, as it were, before their eyes at this supper. The shed blood of the
Saviour claimed the affections of their heart for Him. They were guilty of
despising these precious things, if they took part in the supper
unworthily. The Lord Himself fixed our thoughts there in this ordinance,
and in the most affecting way, at the very moment of His betrayal.
But if Christ attracted the heart thus to fix its attention there,
discipline was also solemnly exercised in connection with this ordinance.
If they despised the broken body and the blood of the Lord by taking part
in it lightly, chastisement was inflicted. Many had become sick and weak,
and many had fallen asleep, that is, had died. It is not the being worthy
to partake that is spoken of, but the partaking in an unworthy manner.
Every Christian, unless some sin had excluded him, was worthy to partake
because he was a Christian. But a Christian might come to it without
judging himself, or appreciating as he ought that which the supper brought
to his mind, and which Christ had connected with it. He did not discern the
Lord's body; and he did not discern, did not judge, the evil in himself.
God cannot leave us thus careless. If the believer judges himself, the Lord
will not judge him; if we do not judge ourselves, the Lord judges; but when
the Christian is judged, he is chastened of the Lord that he may not be
condemned with the world. It is the government of God in the hands of the
Lord who judges His own house: an important and too much forgotten truth.
No doubt the result of all is according to the counsels of God, who
displays in it all His wisdom, His patience, and the righteousness of His
ways; but this government is real. He desires the good of His people in the
end; but He will have holiness, a heart whose condition answers to that
which He has revealed (and He has revealed Himself), a walk which is its
expression. The normal state of a Christian is communion, according to the
power of that which has been revealed. Is there failure in this-communion
is lost, and with it the power to glorify God, a power found nowhere else.
But if one judges oneself, there is restoration: the heart being cleansed
from the evil by judging it, communion is restored. If one does not judge
oneself, God must interpose and correct and cleanse us by
discipline-discipline which may even be unto death (see Job 33, 36; 1 John
5:16; James 5:14, 15).
There are yet one or two remarks to be made. To "judge" oneself, is not the
same word as to be "judged" of the Lord. It is the same that is used in
chapter 11:29, "discerning the Lord's body." Thus, what we have to do is
not only to judge an evil committed, it is to discern one's condition, as
it is manifested in the light-even as God Himself is in the light-by
walking in it. This prevents our falling into evil either in act or
thought. But if we have fallen, it is not enough to judge the action; it is
ourselves we must judge, and the state of heart, the tendency, the neglect,
which occasioned our falling into the evil-in a word, that which is not
communion with God or that which hinders it. It was thus theLord dealt
with Peter. He did not reproach him for his fault, He judged its root.
Moreover the assembly ought to have power to discern these things. God acts
in this way, as we have seen in Job; but the saints have the mind of Christ
by the Spirit of Christ, and ought to discern their own condition.
The foundation and centre of all this, is the position in which we stand
towards Christ in the Lord's supper, as the visible centre of communion and
the expression of His death; in which sin, all sin, is judged. Now we are
in connection with this holy judgment of sin as our portion. We cannot
mingle the death of Christ with sin. It is, as to its nature and efficacy,
of which the full result will in the end be manifested, the total putting
away of sin. It is the divine negation of sin. He died to sin, and that in
love to us. It is the absolute holiness of God made sensible and expressed
to us in that which took place with regard to sin. It is absolute
devotedness to God for His glory in this respect. To bring sin or
carelessness into it, is to profane the death of Christ, who died rather
than allow sin to subsist before God. We cannot be condemned with the
world, because He has died and has put away sin for us; but to bring sin to
that which represents this very death in which He suffered for sin is a
thing which cannot be borne. God vindicates that which is due to the
holiness and the love of a Christ who gave up His life to put away sin. One
cannot say, I will not go to the table; that is, I will accept the sin and
give up the confession of the value of that death. We examine ourselves,
and we go; we re-establish the rights of His death in our conscience-for
all is pardoned and expiated as to guilt, and we go to acknowledge these
rights as the proof of infinite grace.
The world is condemned. Sin in the Christian is judged, it escapes neither
the eye nor the judgment of God. He never permits it; He cleanses the
believer from it by chastening him, although He does not condemn, because
Christ has borne his sins, and been made sin for him. The death of Christ
forms then the centre of communion in the assembly, and the touchstone of
conscience, and that, with respect to the assembly, in the Lord's supper.
Chapter 12
The other branch of the truth, in reference to the assembly of God in
general and to the assemblies, is the presence and the gifts of the Holy
Ghost. These, as well as the Lord's supper, are in connection with unity
;
the individual being responsible in each. It is the subject of spiritual
manifestations which the apostle takes up in chapter 12. The first point
was to establish the distinctive marks of the Spirit of God. There were
evil spirits, who sought to creep in among the Christians, and to speak or
act pretending to be the Spirit of God, and thus to confound everything.
Christians of the present day hardly believe in such efforts of the enemy
as these. Spiritual manifestations are, no doubt, less striking now than at
the time of which the apostle speaks; but the enemy adapts his means of
deception to the circumstances in which man and the work of God are found.
As Peter says in a similar case, "As there were false prophets among the
people, so shall there be false teachers among you." The enemy does not
cease to act. "Forbidding to marry," etc., was the doctrine of devils. In
the last days his power will be manifested still more. God can restrain him
by the energy of His Spirit, and by the power of the truth; but if he is
not bridled, he still acts, deceiving men, and that by such things as one
would suppose it impossible (if not deceived oneself) that a man of sober
sense could believe. But it is surprising what a man can believe when he is
left to himself, without being kept by God, when the power of the enemy is
there. We talk of common sense, of reason (very precious they are); but
history tells us that God alone gives them or preserves them to us.
Here the Spirit of God manifested Himself by the effects of His power,
which broke forth in the midst of the assembly, attracting the attention
even of the world. The enemy imitated them. The greater part of the
Christians at Corinth having been poor Gentiles, without discernment, and
stupidly led by the delusions of the enemy, they were the more in danger of
being again deceived by this means. When a man is not filled with the
Spirit of God, who gives force to the truth in his heart, and clearness to
his moral vision, the seductive power of the enemy dazzles his imagination.
He loves the marvellous, unbelieving as he may be with regard to the truth.
He lacks holy discernment, because he is ignorant of the holiness and
character of God, and has not the stability of a soul that possesses the
knowledge of God (God Himself, we may say) as his treasure-of a soul which
knows that it has all in Him, so that it needs no other marvels. If a man
is not thus established by the knowledge of God, the power of the enemy
strikes him-pre-occupies him; he cannot shake it off, he cannot account for
it. He is a victim to the influence which this power exercises over his
mind; the flesh is pleased with it, for in one shape or another the result
is always liberty to the flesh.
Long led blindly by the power of evil spirits, the converted Gentiles were
hardly in a state to discern and judge them. Strange to say, this demoniac
power exercised such an influence that they forgot the importance even of
the name of Jesus, or at least forgot that His name was not acknowledged by
it The enemy transforms himself into an angel of light, but he never really
owns Jesus Christ as Lord. He will speak of Paul and Silvanus, and would
have his part with Christians, but Christ is not acknowledged; and at last
it is the breaking up and ruin of those who follow him. An unclean spirit
would not say Lord Jesus, and the Spirit of God could not say Anathema to
Jesus. But it is a question here of spirits, and not of conversion, nor of
the necessity of grace working in the heart for the true confession of the
name of Jesus-a very true thing, as we know, but not the subject here.
We come now to positive instructions. Nothing more important, more
distinctive, more marvellous, than the presence of the Holy Ghost here
below in the midst of Christians; the fruit to us, of the perfect work of
Christ, but in itself the manifestation of the presence of God among men on
the earth. The providence of God manifests His power in the works of
creation, and His government which directs all things; but the Holy Ghost
is His presence in this world, the testimony that He bears of Himself, of
His character.
He is among men to display Himself, not yet in glory, but in power and in
testimony of what He is. Christ having accomplished redemption, and having
presented the efficacy of His work to God, Sovereign and Judge, the
assembly, being ransomed and cleansed by His blood, and united to Him as
His body, became also the vessel of this power which acts in His members.
Thus she ought to display this power in holiness-she is responsible to do
so. But in this way, as to its exercise, man becomes in fact individually
the vessel of this spiritual energy. It is a treasure committed to him. Now
the Spirit is, in the first place, the link between the assembly and
Christ, as well as between the Christian and Christ. It is by the Spirit
that communion is realised and maintained, it is the primary function of
the Spirit; and man must be in communion in order to realise the character
and discern the will of God, and that, according to the testimony intended
to be borne by the Spirit come down to earth.
But if the assembly does not maintain this communion, she loses her
strength as the responsible witness of God on earth, and in fact her joy
and her spiritual intelligence also. God is ever sovereign to act as He
chooses, and Christ cannot fail in His faithfulness to His body; but the
testimony committed to the assembly is no longer so rendered as to make it
felt that God is present on the earth. The assembly is not, perhaps, aware
of the estrangement, because she retains for a time much of that which God
has given, which is far beyond all that was according to nature; and in
losing strength she has also lost the discernment of what she ought to be.
But God is never mistaken as to the assembly's condition-"Thou hast left
thy first love." "Except thou repent," says He, "and do the first works, I
will take away thy candlestick"-a solemn consideration for the assembly, as
to her responsibility, when we reflect on the grace that has been shewn
her, on the fruits that have been-and those that ought to have
been-manifested, and on the power given her to produce them.
The purposes of God for the assembly have their end and aim in heaven. They
will be accomplished without the possibility of the least thing failing.
All that is needful to bring her members there according to His counsels,
Christ will do. They are redeemed by His blood to be His.
The ways of God are accomplished and unfolded on the earth for our
instruction, both in the assembly and in individuals.
It is not only in His gifts that the presence of the Spirit of God is
manifested. There are prophecies and miracles, men moved by the Holy Ghost,
before the day of Pentecost. That which is attributed to faith in Hebrews
11 is often ascribed to the Spirit in the Old Testament. But the Spirit was
promised in a special way in the Old Testament. He was never at that period
the presence of God in the midst of the people, as He dwelt in the
assembly. The glory came to take possession of the tabernacle or temple.
His Spirit acted in sovereignty outside the order of His house, and could
be with them when that glory was gone. But the Holy Ghost sent down from
heaven to dwell in the disciples and in the assembly on earth, was the
manifestation of the presence of God in His house, of God who was there by
the Spirit. And this presence of the Spirit is so distinct, and so plainly
noted as a thing known and realised by the first Christians, which
demonstrated instead of being demonstrated, that it is spoken of in the
word as being the Holy Ghost Himself. In John 7 it is said, "The Holy Ghost
was not yet." In Acts 19 the twelve men say to Paul, "We have not so much
as heard whether the Holy Ghost is." It was not a question whether there
was a Holy Ghost (every orthodox Jew believed it), but whether this
presence of the Holy Ghost Himself dwelling here below, the new Comforter
and Guide of the disciples, of which John the Baptist had spoken, had yet
taken place. When come down, it was the presence of God in His spiritual
temple on earth. The place in which the disciples were gathered together
was shaken to shew that God was there. Ananias and Sapphira fell down dead
before the apostles for having lied to God. Philip is caught away by His
power from the presence of the man who had received the knowledge of Jesus
by his means.
Such was the presence of the Holy Ghost. In our chapter, the apostle speaks
of the manifestations of His presence in the gifts which were exercised by
the instrumentality of members of the body, whether for the calling out and
edification of the assembly, or in testimony to those outside. Before
entering on this subject, he gives the Corinthians-whom the enemy would
have deeply deceived-that which would enable them to distinguish between
the manifestation of the Holy Ghost and the actings of an evil spirit. He
then speaks of gifts.
Now there were not divers spirits, as in the case of demons; there was only
one and the same Spirit, but diversity of gifts. This gives occasion to
bring in the different relationship (for he speaks of the order of the
relations of man with God-the practical energy of which is in the Holy
Ghost) in which men, moved by the Holy Ghost, are placed with regard to God
and to Christ. The Spirit, one and the same Spirit, acts in them by various
manifestations. But in the exercise of these different gifts they were
administrators, and there was one Lord, that is, Christ. It was not
therefore in them an independent and voluntary power: whatever might be the
energy of the Spirit in them, they did not cease to be servants and
stewards of Christ, and they were to act in this character, acknowledging
in their service the Lordship of Christ. Nevertheless, although it was
power in a man, and that it was man who acted, so that he was a servant
(and a Man who was Head and who was served, although He was Son of God and
Lord of all), yet it was God who wrought, one and the same God who wrought
all in all. It is not the Trinity, properly speaking, that is presented
here in its own character, but one only Spirit acting in Christians, Jesus
Lord, and God acting in the gifts.
The gifts are manifestations of the energy of the Spirit thus committed to
men, under Christ who is Head and Lord; men were to use them as serving the
Lord. Now Christ thought of what was profitable to His people, to those
that were His; and the manifestation of the Spirit was given for the profit
of souls, of the assembly in general. The apostle notices several of these
gifts; but he reminds us again that it is the same Spirit who works in each
case, distributing to every one according to His own will. Let the reader
remark this passage. The apostle had said that God wrought all these
things, and had spoken of the gifts as being manifestations of the Spirit.
It might have been supposed that the Spirit was some vague influence, and
that one must attribute everything to God without recognising a personal
Spirit. But these operations, which were attributed to God in verse 6, are
here attributed to the Spirit; and it is added, that He, the Spirit,
distributes to each as He will. It is not therefore an inferior Spirit.
Where He works, it is God who works; but these operations in men are gifts
distributed according to the will of the Spirit, the Spirit being thus
presented as acting personally in this distribution and according to His
will.
Some of the gifts may require a short observation. Wisdom is the
application of divine light to right and wrong, and to all the
circumstances through which we pass-an expression which has a wide extent,
because it applies to everything with regard to which we have to form a
judgment. The Holy Ghost furnishes some in a peculiar way with this wisdom,
with a wisdom according to God-a perception of the true nature of things,
and of their relationship to each other, and of conduct with regard to
both, which, coming from God, guides us through the difficulties of the
way, and enables us to avoid that which would place us in a false position
towards God and man.
Knowledge is intelligence in the mind of God as it is revealed to us. Faith
is not here simple faith in the gospel; that is not a distinctive gift
which one believer may possess and another not. This is evident. It is the
faith, the energy, given by God, which overcomes difficulties, which rises
above dangers, which confronts them without being alarmed by them. The
discerning of spirits is not that of a man's condition of soul-it has
nothing to do with it. It is the knowing how to discern, by the mighty
energy of the Spirit of God, the actings of evil spirits, and to bring them
to light if necessary, in contrast with the action of the Spirit of God.
The other gifts require no comment. We must now return to the unity of the
Spirit, with which is connected that which the apostle says after having
spoken of the gifts. The Spirit was one, he had said, working diversely in
the members according to His will. The importance of His personality, and
the immense import of His divinity (if we reflect that it is He who works
in and by man) is very evident when we observe that He is the centre and
the living power of the unity of the whole body, so that the individuals,
in the exercise of their gifts, are but the members of the one and the same
body divinely formed by the power and the presence of the Spirit. This
point the apostle develops largely, in connection with the oneness of the
body, the mutual dependence of the members, and the relationship of each
one to the body as a whole.
The practical instructions are easily understood, but there are some
important points in the general principles. The oneness of the body is
produced by the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and the connection of the
members depends upon it. By one Spirit we have all been baptised to be one
body. The Lord's supper is the expression of this oneness; the Spirit is He
who produces it, and who is its strength. The distinctive character of Jew
and Gentile-and all other distinctions-was lost in the power of one Spirit
common to all, who united them all as redeemed ones in one only body. The
apostle in this verse (13) speaks of the baptism of the Holy Ghost; but the
word suggests to him the supper, the second ordinance of the Lord, and he
speaks of drinking into one spirit, alluding, I doubt not, to the Lord's
supper. He does not speak of the Holy Ghost: one spirit was the state of
the believers, the word being used in contrast with one body, associated in
one heart and mind by the Spirit-participating in Christ.
It is not faith which is union, nor even life, though both are the portion
of those united, but the Holy Ghost. The baptism of the Holy Ghost, then,
is that which forms Christians into one only body, and they are all made
partakers of, are animated individually by, one and the same Spirit. Thus
there are many members, but one only body, and a body composed of these
members, which are dependent the one on the other, and have need of each
other. And even those gifts which were the most shining were comparatively
of the least value, even as a man clothes and ornaments the least
honourable parts of his body, and leaves the more beautiful parts
uncovered.
Another point which the apostle marks, is the common interest that exists
among them in that they are members of the one and the same body. If one
suffers, all suffer, since there is but one body animated by one Spirit. If
one is honoured, all rejoice. This also depends on the one self-same Spirit
who unites and animates them. Moreover this body is the body of Christ. "Ye
are," says the apostle, "the body of Christ, and members in particular."
Observe, also, here that, although that assembly at Corinth was only a part
of the body of Christ, the apostle speaks of the whole body; for the
assembly there was, according to the principle of its gathering, the body
of Christ as assembled at Corinth. It is true that at the beginning he
speaks of all those who call on the name of the Lord Jesus; but in fact he
addresses the Corinthian assembly. And the general expression shews that,
in the walk of the assembly, and in its general interests, a local assembly
cannot be separated from the whole body of Christians on earth; and the
language employed here shews that, as to their position before God, the
Christians of one town were considered as representing the whole assembly,
as far as regarded that locality; not as independent of the rest, but, on
the contrary, as inseparably united to the others, living and acting, with
respect to that locality as members of the body of Christ, and looked upon
as such in it, because every Christian formed a part of that body, and they
formed a part of it likewise. From the verses that follow we see that the
apostle, while looking upon the Christians there as the body of Christ, the
members of which they were, has in his mind the whole assembly as the
assembly of God. In the New Testament there is no other membership than
that of Christ, except that they are members of each other,. as forming the
entire body, but never members of a church; the idea is different. The word
speaks of the members of a body, like that of man as a figure, never of the
members of an assembly in the modern sense of the word. We are members of
Christ, and consequently of the body of Christ; so were the Corinthians, as
far as that body was manifested at Corinth.
Moreover the body of Christ, the assembly, is looked at here as a whole
upon the earth. God has set in the assembly, apostles, prophets, etc.;
miracles, healings, tongues. It is very plain that this is on the earth, as
were the Corinthians, and that it is the assembly as a whole. Healings and
tongues were not in heaven, and the apostles were not those of an
individual assembly. In a word it was the Holy Ghost, come down from
heaven, who had formed the unity of the body on earth, and who acted in it
by the especial gifts which distinguished the members.
The apostle then points out these gifts, not to give a formal and complete
list of them, but to mark the order and importance of those he mentions.
Tongues, of which the Corinthians were so proud, are the last gifts named
in the list. Some gifts then, were more excellent than others; they were to
be estimated according to the measure in which they served for the
edification of the assembly. Those which served this end were to be
desired.
It is interesting to remark here the difference of this chapter and
Ephesians 4. Here it is simply power, and men are told in certain cases to
be silent, when the power was there; it was the Holy Ghost working as
power. In Ephesians 4 it is Christ's care as Head of the body. No gifts
which are signs of power to others are mentioned; only what founds the
assembly, edifies the saints, and builds the assembly up; and then there is
promise of continuance till we all come. For Christ cannot cease to care
for His body; but sign-gifts may disappear, and they have. Apostles and
prophets were the foundation, and in that sense they were, when the
foundation was laid, no longer in exercise.
Chapter 13
Nevertheless there was something more excellent than all gifts. They were
the manifestations of the power of God and of the mysteries of His wisdom;
love, that of His nature itself.
They might speak with all tongues; they might have prophecy, the knowledge
of mysteries, the faith which can remove mountains; they might give all
their possessions to feed the poor, and their bodies to be tortured: if
they had not love, it was nothing. Love was conformity to the nature of
God, the living expression of what He was, the manifestation of having been
made partakers of His nature: it was the acting and feeling according to
His likeness. This love is developed in reference to others; but others are
not the motive, although they are the object. It has its source within; its
strength is independent of the objects with which it is occupied. Thus it
can act where circumstances might produce irritation or jealousy in the
human heart. It acts according to its own nature in the circumstances; and
by judging them according to that nature, they do not act upon the man who
is full of love, except so far as they supply occasion for its activity,
and direct its form. Love is its own motive. In us participation in the
divine nature is its only source. Communion with God Himself alone sustains
it through all the difficulties it has to surmount in its path. This love
is the opposite of selfishness and of self-seeking, and shuts it out,
seeking the good of others, even (as to its principle) as God has sought us
in grace (see Eph. 4:32; 5:1, 2). What a power to avoid evil in oneself,
to forget all in order to do good!
It is worthy of note that the qualities of divine love are almost entirely
of a passive character.
The first eight qualities pointed out by the Spirit are the expression of
this renunciation of self. The three that follow, mark that joy in good
which sets the heart free also from that readiness to suppose evil, which
is so natural to human nature, on account of its own depth of evil, and
that which it also experiences in the world. The last four shew its
positive energy, which-the source of every kind thought-by the powerful
spring of its divine nature, presumes good when it does not see it, and
bears with evil when it sees it, covering it by longsuffering and patience;
not bringing it to light, but burying it in its own depth-a depth which is
unfathomable, because love never changes. One finds nothing but love where
it is real; for circumstances are but an occasion for it to act and shew
itself. Love is always itself, and it is love which is exercised and
displayed. It is that which fills the mind: everything else is but a means
of awakening the soul that dwells in love to its exercise. This is the
divine character. No doubt the time of judgment will come; but our
relationships with God are in grace. Love is His nature. It is now the time
of its exercise. We represent Him on earth in testimony.
In that which is said of love in this chapter we find the reproduction of
the divine nature, except that what is said is but the negative of the
selfishness of the flesh in us. Now the divine nature changes not and never
ceases; love therefore abides ever. Communications from God; the means by
which they are made; knowledge, as attained here below, according to which
we apprehend the truth in part only, although the whole truth is revealed
to us (for we apprehend it in detail, so that we have never the whole at
once, the character of our knowledge being to lay hold of different truths
singly); all that is characterised by being in part-passes away. Love will
not pass away. A child learns; he rejoices too in things that amuse him;
when he becomes a man, he requires things in accordance with his
intelligence as a man. It was thus with tongues and the edification of the
assembly. The time however was coming when they should know even as they
were known, not by communications of truths to a capacity that apprehended
the truth in its different parts, but they should understand it as a whole
in its unity.
Now love subsists already; there are faith and hope also. Not only shall
these pass away, but even now, here below, that which is of the nature of
God is more excellent than that which is connected with the capacity of
human nature, even though enlightened by God, and having for its object the
revealed glory of God.
Believers therefore were to follow after and seek for love, while desiring
gifts, especially that they might prophesy, because thus they would edify
the assembly, and that was the thing to aim at; it was that which love
desired and sought, it was that which intelligence required, the two marks
of a man in Christ, of one to whom Christ is all.
Chapter 14
Two verses in this chapter 14 demand a little attention-the 3rd and the
6th. Verse 3 is the effect, or rather the quality, of that which a prophet
says, and not a definition. He edifies, he encourages, he comforts, by
speaking. Nevertheless these words shew the character of what he said.
Prophecy is in no wise simply the revelation of future events, although
prophets as such have revealed them. A prophet is one who is so in
communication with God as to be able to communicate His mind. A teacher
instructs according to that which is already written, and so explains its
import. But, in communicating the mind of God to souls under grace, the
prophet encouraged and edified them. With regard to verse 6, it is plain
that coming with tongues (by the use of which the Corinthians like
children, loved to shine in the assembly) he that so spoke, edified no one,
for he was not understood. Perhaps he did not understand himself, but was
the unintelligent instrument of the Spirit, whilst having the powerful
impression of the fact that God spoke by his means, so that in the Spirit
he felt that he was in communication with God, although his understanding
was unfruitful. In any case no one could speak for the edification of the
assembly unless he communicated the mind of God.
Of such communication the apostle distinguishes two kinds-revelation and
knowledge. The latter supposes a revelation already given, of which some
one availed himself by the Holy Ghost for the good of the flock. He then
points out the gifts which were respectively the means of edifying in these
two ways. It is not that the two latter terms (v. 6) are the equivalents of
the two former; but the two things here spoken of as edifying the church
were accomplished by means of these two gifts. There might be"prophecy"
without its being absolutely a new revelation, although there was more in
it than knowledge. It might contain an application of the thoughts of God,
an address on the part of God to the soul, to the conscience, which would
be more than knowledge, but which would not be a new revelation. God acts
therein without revealing a new truth, or a new fact. "Knowledge," or
"doctrine," teaches truths, or explains the word, a thing very useful to
the assembly; but in it there is not the direct action of the Spirit in
application, and thus not the direct manifestation of the presence of God
to men in their own conscience and heart. When any one teaches, he who is
spiritual profits by it; when one prophesies, even he who is not spiritual
may feel it, he is reached and judged; and it is the same thing with the
Christian's conscience. Revelation, or knowledge, is a perfect division and
embraces everything. Prophecy, and doctrine, are in intimate connection
with the two; but prophecy embraces other ideas, so that this division does
not exactly answer to the first two terms.
The apostle insists largely on the necessity for making oneself understood,
whether one speaks, or sings, or prays. He desires-and the remark is of all
importance in judging men's pretensions to the Spirit-that the
understanding be in exercise. He does not deny that they might speak with
tongues without the understanding being at all in it-a thing of evident
power and utility when persons were present who understood no other
language, or whose natural language it was. But, in general, it was an
inferior thing when the Spirit did not act upon, and therefore by means of,
the understanding in him who spoke. Communion between souls in a common
subject, through the unity of the Spirit, did not exist when he who spoke
did not understand what he said. The individual speaking did not himself
enjoy, as from God, what he communicated to others. If others did not
understand it either, it was child's play to utter words without meaning to
the hearers. But the apostle desired to understand himself that which he
said, although he spoke in many tongues; so that it was not jealousy on his
part. He spoke more foreign tongues, by the gift of the Holy Ghost, than
they all. But his soul loved the things of God-loved to receive truth
intelligently from Him-loved to hold intelligent intercourse with others;
and he would rather say five words with his understanding, than ten
thousand without it in an unknown tongue.
What a marvellous power, what a manifestation of the presence of God-a
thing worthy of the deepest attention-and, at the same time, what
superiority to all carnal vanity, to the lustre reflected upon the
individual by means of gifts-what moral power of the Spirit of God, where
love saw nothing in these manifestations of power in gift but instruments
to be used for the good of the assembly and of souls! It was the practical
force of that love, to the exercise of which, as being superior to gifts,
he exhorted the faithful. It was the love and the wisdom of God directing
the exercise of His power for the good of those whom He loved. What a
position for a man! What simplicity is imparted by the grace of God to one
who forgets self in humility and love, and what power in that humility! The
apostle confirms his argument by the effect that would be produced on
strangers who might come into the assembly, or on unenlightened Christians,
if they heard languages spoken which no one understood: they would think
them mad. Prophecy, reaching their conscience, would make them feel that
God was there-was present in the assembly of God.
Gifts were abundant in Corinth. Having regulated that which concerned moral
questions, the apostle in the second place regulates the exercise of those
gifts. Every one came with some manifestation of the power of the Holy
Ghost, of which they evidently thought more than of conformity to Christ.
Nevertheless the apostle acknowledges in it the power of the Spirit of God,
and gives rules for its exercise. Two or three might speak with tongues,
provided there was an interpreter, so that the assembly might be edified.
And this was to be done one at a time, for it appears they even spoke
several at once. In the same way as to the prophets: two or three might
speak, the others would judge if it really came from God. For, if it were
given to them of God, all might prophesy; but only one at a time, that all
might learn-a dependence always good for the most gifted prophets-and that
all might be comforted. The spirits of the prophets (that is to say, the
impulse of the power in the exercise of gifts) were subject to the guidance
of the moral intelligence which the Spirit bestowed on the prophets. They
were, on God's part, masters of themselves in the use of these gifts, in
the exercise of this marvellous power which wrought in them. It was not a
divine fury, as the pagans said of their diabolical inspiration, which
carried them away; for God could not be the author of confusion in the
assembly, but of peace. In a word we see that this power was committed to
man in his moral responsibility; an important principle, which is
invariable in the ways of God. God saved man by grace, when he had failed
in his responsibility; but all that He has committed to man, whatever may
be the divine energy of the gift, man holds as responsible to use it for
the glory of God, and consequently for the good of others and especially
for the assembly.
Women were to be silent in the assembly: it was not permitted to them to
speak. They were to remain in obedience and not to direct others. The law
moreover held the same language. It would be a shame to hear them speak in
public. If they had had questions to ask, they might inquire of their
husbands at home.
With all their gifts, the word did not come out from the Corinthians, nor
had it come unto them only; they ought to submit to the universal order of
the Spirit in the assembly. If they pretended to be led by the Spirit, let
them acknowledge (and this would prove it,) that the things which the
apostle wrote to them were the commandments of the Lord: a very important
assertion; a responsible and serious position of this wonderful servant of
God.
What a mixture of tenderness, of patience, and of authority! The apostle
desires that the faithful should come to the truth and to order, conducted
by their own affections; not fearing, if necessary for their good, to avail
himself of an authority without appeal, as speaking directly from God-an
authority which God would justify if the apostle was forced unwillingly to
use it. If any were ignorant that he wrote by the Spirit with the authority
of God, it was ignorance indeed; let such be given up to their ignorance.
Spiritual and simple men would be delivered from such pretensions. Those
who were really filled with the Spirit would acknowledge that what the
apostle wrote came immediately from God, and was the expression of His
wisdom, of that which became Him: for often there may be the recognition of
divine or even human wisdom when it is found, where there was not the
ability to find it, nor, if it were perceived in part, the power to set it
forth with authority. Meanwhile the man of pretension, reduced to this
place, would find the place profitable, and that which he needed.
We shall also observe here the importance of this assertion of the
apostle's with regard to the inspiration of the epistles. That which he
taught for the details even of the order of the assembly, was so really
given of God, came so entirely from God, that they were the commandments of
the Lord. For doctrine we have, at the end of the Epistle to the Romans,
the same declaration that it was by means of prophetic writings that the
gospel was disseminated among the nations.
The apostle resumes his instructions by saying, that they should desire to
prophesy, not forbid to speak with tongues, and that all should be done
with order and propriety.
Chapter 15
But other evils had found means to introduce themselves into the midst of
the shining gifts which were exercised in the bosom of the flock at
Corinth. The resurrection of the dead was denied. Satan is wily in his
dealings. Apparently it was only the body that was in question;
nevertheless the whole gospel was at stake, for if the dead rose not, then
Christ was not risen. And if Christ was not risen, the sins of the faithful
were not put away, and the gospel was not true. The apostle therefore
reserved this question for the end of his epistle, and he enters into it
thoroughly.
First, he reminds them of that which he had preached among them as the
gospel, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and was
raised again according to the scriptures. This then was the means of their
salvation, if they continued in it, unless they had believed in vain. Here
at least was a very solid foundation for his argument: their salvation
(unless all that they had believed was but a profitless fable) depended on
the fact of the resurrection, and was bound up with it. But if the dead
rose not, Christ was not risen, for He had died. The apostle begins
therefore by establishing this fact through the most complete and positive
testimonies, including his own testimony, since he had himself seen the
Lord. Five hundred persons had seen Him at once, the greater part of whom
were still alive to bear witness of it.
Observe, in passing, that the apostle can speak of nothing without a moral
effect being produced in his heart, because he thinks of it with God. Thus,
verses 8-10, he calls to mind the state of things with regard to himself
and to the other apostles, and that which grace had done; and then, his
heart unburdened, he returns to his subject. The testimony of every divine
witness was the same. Everything declared that Christ was risen; everything
depended on the fact that He was so. This was his starting-point. If, said
he, that which was preached among you is that Christ was raised from the
dead, how happens it that some among you say there is no resurrection of
the dead? If there is none, Christ is not risen; if He is not risen, the
preaching of His witnesses is vain, the faith of Christians vain. Nor that
only; but these witnesses are false witnesses, for they had declared, with
respect to God, that He had raised up Christ from the dead. But God had not
raised Him up if the dead do not rise. And in that case their faith was
vain: they were yet in their sins; and those who had already fallen asleep
in Christ had perished. Now, if it be in this life only that the believer
has hope in Christ, he is of all men the most miserable; he does but suffer
as to this world. But it is not so, for Christ is risen.
Here, however, it is not only a general doctrine that the dead are raised.
Christ, in rising, came up from among the dead. It is the favour and the
power of God come in,
to bring back from among the dead the One who had in His grace gone down
into death to accomplish and to display the deliverance of man in Christ
from the power of Satan and of death; and to put a public seal on the work
of redemption, to exhibit openly in man the victory over all the power of
the enemy. Thus Christ arose from among all the other dead (for death could
not hold Him), and established the glorious principle of this divine and
complete deliverance, and He became the first-fruits of them that slept,
who, having His life, await the exercise of His power, which will awaken
them by virtue of the Spirit that dwells in them.
This evidently gives a very peculiar character to the resurrection. It is
not only that the dead rise, but that God, by His power, brings back
certain persons from among the dead, on account of the favour which He has
for them, and in connection with the life and the Spirit which are in them.
Christ has a quite peculiar place. Life was in Him, and He is our life. He
gained this victory by which we profit. He is of right the first-fruits. It
was due to His glory. Had He not gained the victory, we should always have
remained in prison. He had power Himself to resume life, but the great
principle is the same, it is not only a resurrection of the dead, but those
who are alive according to God arise as the objects of His favour, and by
the exercise of that power which wills to have them for Himself and with
Himself-Christ, the first-fruits: those who are Christ's, at His coming. We
are associated with Christ in resurrection. We come out like Him, not only
from death, but from the dead. We mark, too, here how Christ and His people
are inseparably identified. If they do not rise, He is not risen. He was as
really dead as we can be, has taken in grace our place under death, was a
man as we are men (save sin) so truly that, if you deny this result for us,
you deny the fact as to Him; and the object and foundation of faith itself
fails. This identification of Christ with men, so as to be able to draw a
conclusion from us to Him, is full of power and blessing. If the dead do
not rise, He is not risen; He was as truly dead as we can be.
It needed to be by man. No doubt the power of God can call men back from
the tomb. He will do so, acting in the Person of His Son, to whom all
judgment is given. But that will not be a victory gained in human nature
over death which held men captive. This it is which Christ has done. He was
willing to be given up to death for us, in order (as man) to gain the
victory for us over death and over him who had the power of death. By man
came death; by man, resurrection. Glorious victory! complete triumph! We
come out of the state where sin and its consequences fully reached us. Evil
cannot enter the place into which we are brought out. We have crossed the
frontiers for ever. Sin, the power of the enemy, remains outside this new
creation, which is the fruit of the power of God after evil had come in,
and which the responsibility of man shall not mar. It is God who maintains
it in connection with Himself: it depends on Him.
There are two great principles established here: by man, death; by man, the
resurrection of the dead; Adam and Christ as heads of two families. In Adam
all die; in Christ all shall be made alive. But here there is an
all-important development in connection with the position of Christ in the
counsels of God. One side of this truth is the dependence of the family, so
to call it, upon its head. Adam brought death into the midst of his
descendants-those who are in relation with himself. This is the principle
which characterises the history of the first Adam. Christ, in whom is life,
brings life into the midst of those who are His-communicates it to them.
This principle characterises the second Adam, and those who are His in Him.
But it is life in the power of resurrection, without which it could not
have been communicated to them. The grain of wheat would have been perfect
in itself, but would have remained alone. But He died for their sins, and
now He imparts life to them, all their sins being forgiven them.
Now, in the resurrection, there is an order according to the wisdom of God
for the accomplishment of His counsels-Christ, the first-fruits; those who
are Christ's, at His coming again. Thus those who are in Christ are
quickened according to the power of the life which is in Christ; it is the
resurrection of life. But this is not the whole extent of resurrection as
acquired by Christ, in gaining the victory over death according to the
Spirit of holiness. The Father has given Him power over all flesh, that He
should give eternal life to as many as the Father had given Him. The latter
are those of whom this chapter treats essentially, because its subject is
resurrection among Christians; and the apostle, the Spirit Himself, loves
to speak on the subject of the power of eternal life in Christ. Yet he
cannot entirely omit the other part of the truth. The resurrection of the
dead, he tells us, is come by man. But he is not here speaking of the
communication of life in Christ. In connection with this last and nearer
part of his subject, he does not touch upon the resurrection of the wicked;
but after the coming of Christ he introduces the end, when He shall have
given up the kingdom to the Father. With the kingdom is introduced the
power of Christ exercised over all things-a different thought entirely from
the communication of life to His own.
There are three steps therefore in these events: first, the resurrection of
Christ; then, the resurrection of those who are His, at His coming;
afterwards, the end, when He shall have given up the kingdom to the Father.
The first and the second are the accomplishment in resurrection of the
power of life in Christ and in His people. When He comes, He takes the
kingdom; He takes His great power and acts as king. From His coming then to
the end is the development of His power, in order to subdue all things to
Himself; during which all power and all authority shall be abolished. For
He must reign till all His enemies are under His feet; the last subdued
will be death. Here then, as the effect of His power only, and not in
connection with the communication of life, we find the resurrection of
those who are not His; for the destruction of death is their resurrection.
They are passed over in silence: only that death, such as we see it, has no
longer dominion over them. Christ has the right and the power, in virtue of
His resurrection and of His having glorified the Father, to destroy the
dominion of death over them, and to raise them up again. This will be the
resurrection of judgment. Its effect is declared elsewhere.
When He has put all His enemies under His feet, and has given back the
kingdom to His Father (for it is never taken from Him, nor given to
another, as happens with human kingdoms), then the Son Himself is subject
to Him who has put all things under Him, in order that God may be all in
all. The reader should observe, that it is the counsels of God with regard
to the government of all things which is here spoken of, and not His
nature; and moreover it is the Son, as man, of whom these things are said.
This is not an arbitrary explanation: the passage is from Psalm 8, the
subject of which is the exaltation of man to the position of head of all
things, God putting all things under His feet. Nothing, says the apostle,
is excepted (Heb. 2:8) save, as he adds here, that He is necessarily
excepted who put all things under Him. When the man Christ, the Son of God,
has in fact accomplished this subjugation, He gives back to God the
universal power which had been committed to Him, and the mediatorial
kingdom, which He held as man, ceases. He is again subject, as He was on
earth. He does not cease to be one with the Father, even as He was so while
living in humiliation on the earth, although saying at the same time
"Before Abraham was, I am." But the mediatorial government of man has
disappeared-is absorbed in the supremacy of God, to which there is no
longer any opposition. Christ will take His eternal place, a Man, the Head
of the whole redeemed family, being at the same time God blessed for ever,
one with the Father. In Psalm 2 we see the Son of God, as born on earth,
King in Zion, rejected when He presented Himself on earth; in Psalm 8 the
result of His rejection, exalted as Son of man at the head of all that the
hand of God has made. Then we find Him here laying down this conferred
authority, and resuming the normal position of humanity, namely, that of
subjection to Him who has put all things under Him; but through it all,
never changing His divine nature, nor-save so far as exchanging humiliation
for glory-His human nature either. But God is now all in all, and the
special government of man in the Person of Jesus-a government withwhich
the assembly is associated (see Eph. 1:20-23, which is a quotation from
the same Psalm)-is merged in the immutable supremacy of God, the final and
normal relationship of God with His creature. We shall find the Lamb
omitted in that which is said in Revelation 21:1-8, speaking of this same
period.
Thus we find in this passage resurrection by man-death having entered by
man; the relationship of the saints with Jesus, the source and the power of
life, the consequence being His resurrection, and theirs at His coming;
power over all things committed to Christ, the risen Man; afterwards the
kingdom given back to God the Father, the tabernacle of God with men, and
the man Christ, the second Adam, eternally a man subject to the
Supreme-this last a truth of infinite value to us (the resurrection of the
wicked, though supposed in the resurrection brought in by Christ, not being
the direct subject of the chapter). The reader must now remark that this
passage is a revelation, in which the Spirit of God, having fixed the
apostle's thoughts upon Jesus and the resurrection, suddenly interrupts the
line of his argument, announcing-with that impulse which the thought of
Christ always gave to the mind and heart of the apostle-all the ways of God
in Christ with regard to the resurrection, to the connection of those that
are His with Him in that resurrection, and the government and dominion
which belong to Him as risen, as well as the eternal nature of His
relationship, as man, to God. Having communicated these thoughts of God,
which were revealed to him, he resumes the thread of his argument in verse
29. This part ends with verse 34, after which he treats the question, which
they had brought forward as a difficulty-in what manner should the dead be
raised?
By taking the verses 20-28 (which contain so important a revelation in a
passage that is complete in itself) as a parenthesis, the verses 29-34
become much more intelligible, and some expressions, which have greatly
harassed interpreters, have a tolerably determined sense. The apostle had
said, in verse 16, "If the dead rise not," and then, that if such were the
case, those who had fallen asleep in Jesus had perished, and that the
living were of all men most miserable. At verse 28 he returns to these
points, and speaks of those who are baptised for the dead, in connection
with the assertion, that if there were no resurrection those who had fallen
asleep in Christ had perished; "if," he says, repeating more forcibly the
expression in verse 16, "the dead rise not at all"; and then shews how
entirely he is himself in the second case he had spoken of, "of all men
most miserable," and almost in the case of perishing also, being every
moment in danger, striving as with wild beasts, dying daily. Baptised,
then, for the dead is to become a Christian with the view fixed on those
who have fallen asleep in Christ, and particularly as being slain for Him,
taking one's portion with the dead, yea, with the dead Christ; it is the
very meaning of baptism (Rom. 6). How senseless if they do not rise! As in
1 Thessalonians 4, the subject, while speaking of all Christians, is looked
at in the same way. The word translated "for" is frequently used in these
epistles for "in view of," "with reference to."
We have seen that verses 20-28 form a parenthesis. Verse 29 then is
connected with verse 18. Verses 30-32 relate to verse 19. The historical
explanations of these last verses is found in the second epistle (see chap.
1:8, 9; 4:8-12). I do not think that verse 32 should be taken literally.
The word translated "I have fought with beasts" is usually employed in a
figurative sense, to be in conflict with fierce and implacable enemies. In
consequence of the violence of the Ephesians he had nearly lost his life,
and even despaired of saving it; but God had delivered him. But to what
purpose all these sufferings, if the dead rise not? And observe here, that
although the resurrection proves that death does not touch the soul
(compare Luke 20:38), yet the apostle does not think of immortality,(18)
apart from resurrection. God has to do so, with man? and man is composed of
body and of soul. He gives account in the judgment of the things done in
the body. It is when raised from the dead that he will do so. The intimate
union between the two, quite distinct as they are, forms the spring of
life, the seat of responsibility, the means of God's government with regard
to His creatures, and the sphere in which His dealings are displayed. Death
dissolves this union; and although the soul survives, and is happy or
miserable, the existence of the complete man is suspended, the judgment of
God is not applied, the believer is not yet clothed with glory. Thus to
deny the resurrection, was to deny the true relationship of God with man,
and to make death the end of man, destroying man as God contemplates him,
and making him perish like a beast. Compare the Lord's argument in that
passage in Luke of which I have already quoted one verse.
Alas! the denial of the resurrection was linked with the desire to unbridle
the senses. Satan introduced it into the heart of Christians through their
communication with persons with whom the Spirit of Christ would have had no
communion.
They needed to have their conscience exercised, to be awakened, in order
that righteousness might have its place there. It is the lack of that which
is commonly the true source of heresies. They failed in the knowledge of
God. It was to the shame of these Christians. God grant us to take heed to
it! It is the great matter even in questions of doctrine.
But further, the inquisitive spirit of man would fain be satisfied with
respect to the physical mode of the resurrection. The apostle did not
gratify it, while rebuking the stupid folly of those who had occasion every
day to see analogous things in the creation that surrounded them. Fruit of
the power of God, the raised body would be, according to the good pleasure
of Him who gave it anew for the glorious abode of the soul, a body of
honour, which, having passed through death, would assume that glorious
condition which God had prepared for it-a body suited to the creature that
possessed it, but according to the supreme will of Him who clothed the
creature with it. There were different kinds of bodies; and as wheat was
not the bare grain that had been sown, although a plant of its nature and
not another, so should it be with the raised man. Different also were the
glories of heavenly and earthly bodies: star differed from star in glory. I
do not think that this passage refers to degrees of glory in heaven, but to
the fact that God distributes glory as He pleases. Heavenly glory and
earthly glory are however plainly put in contrast, for there will be an
earthly glory.
And observe here, that it is not merely the fact of the resurrection which
is set forth in this passage, but also its character. For the saints it
will be a resurrection to heavenly glory. Their portion will be bodies
incorruptible, glorious, vessels of power, spiritual. This body, sown as
the grain of wheat for corruption, shall put on glory and incorruptibility.
It is only the saints that are here spoken of-"they also that are
heavenly," and in connection with Christ, the second Adam. The apostle had
said that the first body was "natural." Its life was that of the living
soul; as to the body it partook of that kind of life which the other
animals possessed-whatever might be its superiority as to its relationship
with God, in that God Himself had breathed into his nostrils the spirit of
life, so that man was thus in a special way in relationship with God (of
His race, as the apostle said at Athens). "Adam, the son of God," said the
Holy Ghost in Luke-made in the image of God. His conduct should have
answered to it, and God had revealed Himself to him in order to place him
morally in the position that was suitable to this breath of life which he
had received. He had become-free as he was from death by the power of God
who sustained him, or mortal by the sentence of Him who had formed him-a
living soul. There was not the quickening power in himself. The first Adam
was simply a man-"the first man Adam."
The word of God does not express itself thus with regard to Christ, when
speaking of Him in this passage as the last Adam. He could not be the last
Adam without being a man; but it does not say "the last man was a
quickening Spirit," but the "last Adam"; and when it speaks of Him as the
second Man, adds that He was "from heaven." Christ had not only life as a
living soul, He had the power of life, which could impart life to others.
Although He was a man on earth, He had life in Himself; accordingly He
quickened whom He would. Nevertheless it is as the last Adam, the second
Man, the Christ, that the word here speaks of Him. It is not only that God
quickens whom He will, but the last Adam, Christ, the Head, spiritually, of
the new race, has this power in Himself: and therefore it is said-for it is
always Jesus on earth who is in question-"He hath given to the Son to have
life in himself." Of us it is said, "God hath given to us eternal life, and
this life is in his Son: he who hath the Son hath life, and he that hath
not the Son of God hath not life." Howbeit that which is of the Spirit is
not that which was first, but that which is natural, that is, that which
has the natural life of the soul. That which is spiritual, which has its
life from the power of the Spirit, comes after. The first man is of the
earth-has his origin, such as he is (God having breathed into his nostrils
a spirit or breath of life), from the earth. Therefore he is of the dust,
even as God said, "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." The
last Adam, though He was as truly man as the first, is from heaven.
As belonging to the first Adam, we inherit his condition, we are as he is:
as participating in the life of the second, we have part in the glory which
He possesses as Man, we are as He is, we exist according to His mode of
being, His life being ours. Now the consequence here is that, as we have
borne the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of the
heavenly. Observe here, that the first Adam and the last, or second Man,
respectively, are looked at as in that condition into which they entered
when their respective trials under responsibility had ended; and those who
are connected with the one and the other inherit the condition and the
consequences of the work of the one and the other, as thus tested. It is
the fallen Adam who is the father of a race born after his image-a fallen
and guilty race, sinful and mortal. He had failed, and committed sin, and
lost his position before God, was far from Him, when he became the father
of the human race. If the corn of wheat falling into the ground does not
die, it bears no fruit; if it die, it bears much fruit. Christ had
glorified God, made expiation for sin, and was raised in righteousness; had
overcome death and destroyed the power of Satan, before He became, as a
quickening Spirit, the Head of a spiritual race,
to whom-united to Himself-He communicates all the privileges that belong
to the position beforeGod which He has acquired, according to the power of
that life by which He quickens them. It is a risen and glorified Christ
whose image we shall bear, as we now bear the image of a fallen Adam.
Flesh and blood, not merely sin, cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.
Corruption (for such we are) cannot inherit that which is incorruptible.
This leads the apostle to a positive revelation of that which will take
place with regard to the enjoyment of incorruptibility by all the saints.
Death is conquered. It is not necessary that death should come upon all,
still less that all should undergo actual corruption; but it is not
possible for flesh and blood to inherit the kingdom of glory. But we shall
not all sleep; there are some who will be changed without dying. The dead
shall be raised incorruptible, and we (for redemption being accomplished
and Christ ready to judge the quick and the dead, the apostle always looked
at it as a thing immediately before his eyes, ready to take place any
moment) shall be changed (a change equivalent to resurrection); for that
which is corruptible, if not already in dust and corruption, shall put on
incorruptibility; that which is mortal, immortality. We see that this
relates to the body; it is in his body that man is mortal, even when he has
eternal life, and shall live by Christ and with Christ. The power of God
will form the saints whether living or dead for the inheritance of glory.
Take especial notice of what has just been said. Death is entirely
conquered-annulled in its power-for the Christian. He possesses a life
(Christ risen), which sets him above death, not perhaps physically, but
morally. It has lost all its power over his soul, as the fruit of sin and
judgment. It is so entirely conquered, that there are some who will not die
at all. All Christians have Christ for their life. If He is absent, and if
He does not return-as will be the case as long as He sits on His Father's
throne, and our life is hid with Him in God-we undergo death physically
according to the sentence of God; that is to say, the soul is separated
from the mortal body. When He shall return and exercise His power, having
risen up from the Father's throne to take His people to Himself before He
exercises judgment, death has no power at all over them: they do not pass
through it. That the others are raised from the dead is a proof of power
altogether divine, and more glorious even than that which created man from
the dust. That the living are changed proves a perfection of accomplished
redemption, and a power of life in Christ which had left no trace, no
remains, of the judgment of God as to them, nor of the power of the enemy,
nor of the thraldom of man to the consequences of his sin. In place of all
that, is an exercise of divine power, which manifests itself in the
absolute, complete, and eternal deliverance of the poor guilty creature who
before was under it-a deliverance that has its perfect manifestation in the
glory of Christ, for He had subjected Himself in grace to the condition of
man under death for sin; so that to faith it is always certain, and
accomplished in His Person. But the resurrection of the dead and the change
of the living will be its actual accomplishment for all who are His, at His
coming. What a glorious deliverance is that which is wrought by the
resurrection of Christ, who-sin entirely blotted out, righteousness
divinely glorified and made good, Satan's power destroyed-transports us by
virtue of an eternal redemption, and by the power of a life which has
abolished death, into an entirely new sphere, where evil cannot come, nor
any of its consequences, and where the favour of God in glory shines upon
us perfectly and for ever! It is that which Christ has won for us according
to the eternal love of God our Father, who gave Him to us to be our
Saviour.
At an unexpected moment we shall enter into this scene, ordained by the
Father, prepared by Jesus. The power of God will accomplish this change in
an instant: the dead shall rise, we shall be changed. The last trumpet is
but a military allusion, as it appears to me, when the whole troop wait for
the last signal to set out all together.
In the quotation from Isaiah 25:8 we have a remarkable application of
scripture. Here it is only the fact that death is thus swallowed up in
victory, for which the passage is quoted; but the comparison with Isaiah
shews us that it will be, not at the end of the world, but at a period
when, by the establishment of the kingdom of God in Zion, the veil, under
which the heathen have dwelt in ignorance and darkness, shall be taken off
their face. The whole earth shall be enlightened, I do not say at the
moment, but at the period. But this certainty of the destruction of death
procures us a present confidence, although death still exists. Death has
lost its sting, the grave its victory. All is changed by the grace which,
at the end, will bring in this triumph. But meantime, by revealing to us
the favour of God who bestows it, and the accomplishment of the redemption
which is its basis, it has completely changed the character of death.
Death, to the believer who must pass through it, is only leaving that which
is mortal; it no longer bears the terror of God's judgment, nor that of the
power of Satan. Christ has gone into it and borne it and taken it away
totally and for ever. Nor that only,-He has taken its source away. It was
sin which sharpened and envenomed that sting. It was the law which,
presenting to the conscience exact righteousness, and the judgment of God
which required the accomplishment of that law, and pronounced a curse on
those who failed in it,-it was the law which gave sin its force to the
conscience, and made death doubly formidable. But Christ was made sin, and
bore the curse of the law, being made a curse for His own who were under
the law; and thus, while glorifying God perfectly with regard to sin, and
to the law in its most absolute requirements, He has completely delivered
us from the one and the other, and, at the same time, from the power of
death, out of which He came victorious. All that death can do to us is to
take us out of the scene in which it exercises its power, to bring us into
that in which it has none. God, the Author of these counsels of grace, in
whom is the power that accomplishes them, has given us this deliverance by
Jesus Christ our Lord. Instead of fearing death, we render thanks to Him
who has given us the victory by Jesus. The great result is to be with Jesus
and like Jesus, and to see Him as He is. Meanwhile we labour in the scene
where death exercises its power-where Satan uses it, if God allows him, to
stop us in our way. We labour although there are difficulties, with entire
confidence, knowing what will be the infallible result. The path may be
beset by the enemy; the end will be the fruit of the counsels and the power
of our God, exercised on our behalf according to that which we have seen in
Jesus, who is the Head and the manifestation of the glory which His own
shall enjoy.
To sum up what has been said, we see the two things in Christ: firstly,
power over all things, death included; He raises up even the wicked: and
secondly, the association of His own with Himself. With reference therefore
to the latter, the apostle directs our eyes to the resurrection of Christ
Himself. He not only raises up others, but He has been raised up Himself
from the dead. He is the first-fruits of them that sleep. But before His
resurrection He died for our sins. All that separated us from God is
entirely put away-death, the wrath of God, the power of Satan, sin,
disappear, as far as we are concerned, in virtue of the work of Christ; and
He is made to us that righteousness which is our title to heavenly glory.
Nothing remains of that which appertained to His former human estate,
except the everlasting favour of God who brought Him there. Thus it is a
resurrection from among the dead by the power of God in virtue of that
favour, because He was the delight of God, and in His exaltation His
righteousness is accomplished.
For us it is a resurrection founded on redemption, and which we enjoy even
now in thepower of a life, which brings the effect and the strength of
both into our hearts, enlightened by the Holy Ghost who is given to us. At
the coming of Christ the accomplishment will take place in fact for our
bodies.
With regard to practice, the assembly at Corinth was in a very poor
condition; and being asleep as to righteousness, the enemy sought to lead
them astray as to faith also. Nevertheless, as a body, they kept the
foundation; and as to external spiritual power, it shone very brightly.
Chapter 16
The apostle, in his letter, had treated of the disorder that reigned among
these believers, and his spirit was to a certain degree relieved by
fulfilling this duty towards them; for, after all, they were Christians and
an assembly of God. In the last chapter he speaks to them in the sense of
this, although he could not make up his mind to go to Corinth, for he had
intended to visit them in going to Macedonia, and a second time in
returning thence. He does not say here why he did not go thither on his way
to Macedonia, and he speaks with uncertainty as to his sojourn at Corinth
when he should arrive there on his return from Macedonia; if the Lord
permitted, he would tarry awhile with them. The second epistle will explain
all this. In their existing state his heart would not allow him to visit
them. But he treats them tenderly, nevertheless, as still beloved
Christians, giving them directions suited to the circumstances of the
moment. They were to make a collection for the poor saints at Jerusalem, as
had been arranged with the apostles when Paul left Jerusalem as the
recognised apostle of the Gentiles. This was not to be done in haste when
he came, but by laying up every week in proportion to their prosperity. He
would send persons chosen by the Corinthians, or take them with him if he
went himself to Jerusalem. He thought of remaining till Pentecost at
Ephesus, where a great door was opened to him and there were many
adversaries. If these two things go together, it is a motive for remaining;
the open door is an inducement on the part of God, the activity of
adversaries makes it necessary with regard to the enemy. A closed door is a
different thing from opposition. People do not hearken if the door is shut;
God does not act to draw attention. If God is acting, the assiduity of the
enemy is but a reason for not abandoning the work. It appears (chap. 15:
32) that Paul had already suffered much at Ephesus, but he still continued
his work there. He could not pour out his heart on the subject to the
Corinthians, seeing the state they were in. He does it in the second
Epistle, when the first had produced the effect he desired. There was a
tumult afterwards at Ephesus, stirred up by the craftsmen, in consequence
of which Paul left the city (Acts 19). Verses 21, 22, of this chapter in
Acts shew us the period at which he wrote this letter. The danger to his
life had preceded it, but he remained at Ephesus after that. The tumult
closed the door and sent him away.
In Acts 19:22 we see that he had sent Timothy into Macedonia. In our
epistle he supposes that he might go on as far as Corinth. If he came, the
Corinthians were to receive him as they would have received Paul. He had
begged Apollos to go to them; he had already been made a blessing to them;
and Paul thought he might be so again. He did not fear that Apollos would
displace him in the heart of the Corinthians. But Apollos shared the
apostle's feeling; he was not inclined to recognise, or by his presence to
have the appearance of upholding, that which prevented Paul going thither;
and the more so because there were some in the assembly at Corinth who
wished to use his name as the standard of a party. Free in his movements,
he would act according to the judgment which the Lord would enable him to
form.
After speaking of Apollos, the apostle's mind turns again to his children
in the faith, dear to him, whatever their faults might be. Verses 13, 14,
are the effusion of a heart which forgot these faults in the ardent desire
of a charity that only thought of their blessingaccording to the Spirit.
Three Corinthians had brought him supplies; it does not appear to have been
on the part of the assembly, nor that it was any testimony of its love
which had refreshed the apostle's heart. He would have the Corinthians to
rejoice at it. He does not doubt that they loved him enough to be refreshed
because it was so. Their charity had not thought of it beforehand; but he
expresses his conviction that they took pleasure in the thought of his
heart being refreshed. It is touching to see here, that the apostle's
charity suggests that which grace would produce on the heart of the
Corinthians, communicating that which they probably would not otherwise
have known of-the active charity of three brethren of the assembly; and, in
love uniting them to his joy, if they had not been united to that which
occasioned it. The flame of charity communicates itself by rising above
coldness, and reaching the depths of divine life in the heart; and, once
communicated, the soul, before unkindled, glows now with the same fire.
We find in this chapter four channels, so to speak, of ministry. Firstly,
the apostle, sent direct from the Lord and by the Holy Ghost. Secondly,
persons associated with the apostle in his work, and acting at his desire,
and (in the case of Timothy) one pointed out by prophecy. Thirdly, an
entirely independent labourer, partly instructed by others (see Acts 18:
26), but acting where he saw fit, according to the Lord and to the gift he
had received. Fourthly, one who gives himself to the service of the saints,
as well as others who helped the apostle and laboured. Paul exhorts the
faithful to submit themselves to such, and to all those who helped in the
work and laboured. He would also have them acknowledge those who refreshed
his heart by their service of devotedness. Thus we find the simple and
important principle according to which all the best affections of the heart
are developed, namely, the acknowledgment of every one according to the
manifestation of grace and of the power of the Holy Ghost in him. The
christian man submits to those who addict themselves to the service of the
saints; he acknowledges those who manifest grace in a special way. They are
not persons officially nominated and consecrated who are spoken of here. It
is the conscience and the spiritual affection of Christians which
acknowledges them according to their work-a principle valid at all times,
which does not permit this respect to be demanded, but which requires it to
be paid.
We may remark, here, that this epistle, although entering into all the
details of the interior conduct of an assembly, does not speak of elders or
of any formally established officers at all. It is certain, that in general
there were such; but God has provided in the word for the walk of an
assembly at all times, and, as we see, principles which oblige us to
acknowledge those who serve in it through personal devotedness without
being officially appointed. General unfaithfulness, or the absence of such
established officers, will not prevent those who obey the word from
following it in all that is needful for christian order. We see moreover
that, whatever might be the disorder, the apostle recognises the members of
the assembly as being all real Christians; he desires them to acknowledge
one another by the kiss of love, the universal expression of brotherly
affection. This is so entirely the case that he pronounces a solemn
anathema on every one who loved not the Lord Jesus. There might be such,
but he would in no way recognise them. If there were any, let them be
anathema. Is this an allowed mixture? He will not believe it, and he
embraces them all in the bonds of christian love (v. 24).
The last point is important. The state of the assembly at Corinth might
give room for some uncertainty as to the Christianity of certain members,
or persons in connection with them although not dwelling at Corinth. He
admonishes them; but in fact, in cases of the most grievous sin where the
discipline of God was exercised, or that of man was required, the guilty are
looked upon as Christians. (See chap. 10 for the warning; chap. 11:32 for
the Lord's discipline; for that of man, chap. 5:5 in this epistle; for the
principle, 2 Cor. 2:8). Besides, he denounces with an anathema those who
do not love the Lord Jesus. Discipline is exercised towards the wicked man
who is called a brother. He who calls himself a Christian, yet does not
really love the Lord-for there may be such-is the subject of the most
terrible anathema.
It is sweet to see that, after faithfully (although with anguish of heart)
correcting every abuse, the spirit of the apostle returns by grace into the
enjoyments of charity in his relationship with the Corinthians. The
terrible verse 22 was not felt to be inconsistent with the love that
dictated the other verses. It was the same spirit, for Christ was the sole
spring of his charity.
We may notice (v. 21) that the apostle, as other passages testify, employed
some one to write for him. The Epistle to the Galatians is an exception. He
verified his epistles to the assemblies by writing the salutation at the
end with his own hand, marking the importance he attached to the exactitude
of the verbal contents, and confirming the principle of an exact
inspiration. His heart flows out (v. 24), and he comforts himself in being
able to acknowledge them all in love.
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