II. DISCIPLINE. CHAP. 5. A large number of commentators think that Paul here passes to the vice of impurity. But it is not till 1 Corinthians 6:12 that he really attacks this vice. As to chap. 5, they confound the occasion with the subject. The occasion is an act of impurity; but the subject treate... [ Continue Reading ]
“In general, it is reported that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not found even among the Gentiles, that one hath his father's wife.” The first word, ὅλως, has been variously explained. It signifies _totally_, and hence _in general_ or _summarily_, but never _certainly_, a... [ Continue Reading ]
“And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you. ” Even this fact has not sufficed to disturb the proud self-satisfaction which he has already rebuked in the Corinthians in the previous chapter, or to make them come down from t... [ Continue Reading ]
“For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have decided already, as though I were present, [to deliver over] him that hath so done this deed...” The _for_ is thus explained: “Such is what you ought to have done; _for_, as for me, this is what I have done. The μέν, to which there is no... [ Continue Reading ]
“Ye and my spirit being gathered together in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, 5. to deliver with the power of our Lord Jesus such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.” The tribunal is formed of the Christians of Corinth ass... [ Continue Reading ]
“Your glorying is not good; know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?” There are two ways of understanding the connection between the following passage and that which precedes: either the apostle continues to dwell on the disciplinary obligation of the Church, and we must then regar... [ Continue Reading ]
“Purge out the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ, our Paschal lamb, hath been sacrificed. 8. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of purity and truth.” If the f... [ Continue Reading ]
The Christian's Paschal feast does not last a week, but all his life. In an admirable discourse Chrysostom has developed this idea: “For the true Christian, it is always Easter, always Pentecost, always Christmas.” Such is the sense in which the apostle exhorts the Corinthians to keep the feast. Th... [ Continue Reading ]
“I wrote unto you in my epistle not to company with fornicators; 10. not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous and extortioners or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.” Paul begins with recalling the terms of which he made use (1 Corinthians 5:9);... [ Continue Reading ]
The καί, _and_, which begins this verse in the T. R., is too little supported to be authentic. The words οὐ πάντως τοῖς πόρνοις naturally have the effect of an explanatory apposition added to the πόρνοις at the end of 1 Corinthians 5:9, in this sense: “When I spoke of fornicators in my letter, I did... [ Continue Reading ]
“But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one, no, not to eat.” The words _but now_ can only express a logical contrast. The νῦν contrasts Paul's... [ Continue Reading ]
“For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do ye not judge them that are within? 13. But them that are without, God judgeth. And put away from among yourselves that wicked person.” The first question is the justification (_for_) of 1 Corinthians 5:10: “We have not to judge unbeliev... [ Continue Reading ]
VV. 13 justifies by a remark, and moreover by a Scriptural quotation, the distinction laid down in 1 Corinthians 5:12. There are two domains, each subject to a different jurisdiction: the Christian judges the Christian; the man of the world is judged by God. It is needless to say that this contrast... [ Continue Reading ]