3:1-4. After demonstrating that though the gospel is not a wisdom, yet it contains one, but one which cannot be expounded except to those who by their spiritual maturity are in a condition to understand it, the apostle applies this truth to his relation to the Church of Corinth. The passage 1 Corin... [ Continue Reading ]
“And I also, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, as unto babes in Christ. 2. I have fed you with milk, not with meat: for hitherto ye were not strong enough, and not even yet are ye.” The apostle, after rising to the height assigned him by the revelation which... [ Continue Reading ]
The figures used by the apostle relate to the term _babes. Milk_, according to 1 Corinthians 2:2, denotes the preaching of Jesus crucified, with its simplest contents and its most immediate consequences, expiation, justification by faith, the sanctification of the justified believer by the Holy Spir... [ Continue Reading ]
“For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying and strifes, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? 4. For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I of Apollos, are ye not men?” The apostle here uses, according to the great majority of the documents, the term σαρκικοί, carnal by act... [ Continue Reading ]
The two examples the apostle gives in this verse are intended to prove that what he blames in the divisions which have been formed, is not any hostility they may have to his person, but the fact of those divisions themselves. And hence he puts forward his own party and the nearest to his own, that o... [ Continue Reading ]
“What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Ministers by whom ye believed, and that, as the Lord gave to each.” There is no difficulty, whatever Hofmann may object, in connecting the _then_ with the previous verse, provided we see in this verse the conclusion and consequently the summary of all that go... [ Continue Reading ]
In order to show what, in a religious organization like that which the gospel creates, is the place of preachers, the apostle takes two examples: Apollos and himself; and he develops what he means to expound regarding the true place of Christian preachers, by applying it more specially to those two... [ Continue Reading ]
“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase; 7. So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase.” The asyndeton between 1 Corinthians 3:6 and the preceding one arises from the fact that the verse reaffirms in a new form the last pro... [ Continue Reading ]
What harvest would have sprung up from the labour of the two workers without the life which God alone could give? What then are those workers? There is ordinarily understood as the predicate of the last proposition: _is everything._ But why not simply retain the preceding predicate: _is anything?_... [ Continue Reading ]
“Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one, but every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.” The δέ is here a particle of transition, but with a shade of contrast: “ _Now_, despite this difference of functions (pointed out, 1 Corinthians 3:5-7), these ministers are on... [ Continue Reading ]
“For we are labourers together with God; ye are God's husbandry, God's building.” It is not without reason that in the original the word θεοῦ, _God's_, heads the three propositions of this verse. God alone is Judge, for He is the proprietor in whose service all this work is done. It is therefore a m... [ Continue Reading ]
“According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise master builder, I laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon; but let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon!” The apostle first looks backwards (_I laid_), in order to put himself out of the question; hence the asyndeto... [ Continue Reading ]
“For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” The γάρ, _for_, announces an explanation of the warning contained in the βλεπέτω, _let him consider well._ The γάρ refers, not to 1 Corinthians 3:11 taken separately, this verse is only a reservation, and, so to speak, a... [ Continue Reading ]
“But if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; 13. every man's work shall be made manifest; for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.” The δέ is adversative: “My work... [ Continue Reading ]
The same figure continues. The edifice before being inhabited by the Master must pass through the proof of fire, in which the materials of bad quality will be reduced to ashes, but from which the good materials will come forth intact. Commentators are mostly at one in our time in applying the _day_... [ Continue Reading ]
“If any man's work shall abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive the reward; 15. if any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss [of reward]; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as through fire.” Μενει is generally taken as a future (μενεῖ, _shall abide_), because of the futu... [ Continue Reading ]
To understand the picture which the apostle draws of the opposite result, we must undoubtedly suppose the workmen occupying the portion of the building which has been committed to them, and to which they are putting the last touch. In proportion as the fire, set to the building, consumes the combust... [ Continue Reading ]
“Know ye not that ye are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? 17. If any man destroy the temple of God, him will God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.” The asyndeton between 1 Corinthians 3:15-16 is to be remarked; it is as if, on occasion of what t... [ Continue Reading ]
Again an asyndeton. 1 Corinthians 3:16 was the minor of the syllogism of which 1 Corinthians 3:17 is the major: “Ye are a temple...; he is destroyed who destroys a temple..., therefore...” The conclusion which is self-evident is understood. The future φθερεῖ, _shall destroy_, is no doubt the true re... [ Continue Reading ]
“Let no man deceive himself; if any man thinketh that he is wise among you, let him become a fool in this world, that he may become wise.” Again an asyndeton, testifying to the emotion which fills the apostle's heart. The illusion, to which he points in the first words of the verse, according to so... [ Continue Reading ]
“For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, ‘He that taketh the wise in their craftiness.' 20. And again, ‘The Lord knoweth the reasonings of the wise, that they are vain.'” The first passage declares the power-lessness of the wisdom of the world to reach the ends at wh... [ Continue Reading ]
This passage is taken from Psalms 94:11. It proclaims the emptiness of human wisdom, not now as to its result, but as to its very essence. The Hebrew and the LXX. say, “the thoughts of _man._ ” The apostle says, _of the wise_, because it is through them that mankind exercise their understanding. Th... [ Continue Reading ]
“So then, let no man glory in men, for all things are yours.” The apostle began by reminding the Corinthians of what preachers are in relation to the Church: _servants_ (ministers) of the one Lord; then, in a passage which may be regarded as an episode, he put before the eyes of the Church and of mi... [ Continue Reading ]
“Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come, all are yours; 23. and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's.” In the front are placed the names of the three teachers who had been made party chiefs, and in connection with whom all this inst... [ Continue Reading ]
We might be tempted to give the words, _and ye are Christ's_, a restrictive meaning: “Ye are His alone, not your teachers'.” But in the two analogous propositions, that which precedes and that which follows, Paul certainly does not mean: “All things are only yours,” and “Christ is only God's.” It is... [ Continue Reading ]