CHAPTER 6
1Co
6:1–11. Litigation of Christians in
Heathen Courts Censured: Its Very
Existence Betrays a Wrong Spirit: Better
to Bear Wrong Now, and Hereafter the Doers of Wrong Shall Be Shut Out of
Heaven.
1.
Dare—This word implies treason against
Christian brotherhood [Bengel].
before
the unjust—The Gentile judges are here so
termed by an epithet appropriate to the subject in question, namely, one
concerning justice. Though all Gentiles were not altogether unjust,
yet in the highest view of justice which has regard to God as the Supreme
Judge, they are so: Christians, on the other hand, as regarding God as the only
Fountain of justice, should not expect justice from them.
before
… saints—The Jews abroad were permitted to
refer their disputes to Jewish arbitrators [Josephus, Antiquities, 14.10, 17]. So the Christians
were allowed to have Christian arbitrators.
2.
Do ye not know—as a truth universally recognized
by Christians. Notwithstanding all your glorying in your “knowledge,” ye are
acting contrary to it (1Co 1:4, 5; 8:1). The oldest manuscripts have “Or”
before “know ye not”; that is, “What! (expressing surprise) know ye not,”
&c.
saints
… judge—that is, “rule,” including judgment:
as assessors of Christ. Mt 19:28, “judging,” that is, “ruling over.” (Compare
Ps 49:14; Da 7:22, 27; Rev 2:26; 3:21; 20:4). There is a distinction drawn by
able expositors between the saints who judge or rule, and the
world which is ruled by them: as there is between the elected (Mt 20:23) twelve
apostles who sit on thrones judging, and the twelve tribes of Israel that are
judged by them. To reign, and to be saved, are not necessarily
synonymous. As Jehovah employed angels to carry the law into effect when He descended
on Sinai to establish His throne in Israel, so at His coming the saints shall
administer the kingdom for, and under, Him. The nations of the earth, and
Israel the foremost, in the flesh, shall, in this view, be the subjects
of the rule of the Lord and His saints in glorified bodies. The mistake of the
Chiliasts was that they took the merely carnal view, restricting the kingdom to
the terrestrial part. This part shall have place with the accession of
spiritual and temporal blessings such as Christ’s presence must produce.
Besides this earthly glory, there shall be the heavenly glory of the saints
reigning in transfigured bodies, and holding such blessed intercourse with
mortal men, as angels had with men of old, and as Christ, Moses, and Elias, in
glory had with Peter, James, and John, in the flesh at the transfiguration (2Ti
2:12; 2Pe 1:16–18). But here the “world” seems to be the unbelieving world that
is to be “condemned” (1Co 11:22), rather than the whole world, including the
subject nations which are to be brought under Christ’s sway; however, it may
include both those to be condemned, with the bad angels, and those about
to be brought into obedience to the sway of Christ with His saints. Compare Mt
25:32, 40, “all nations,” “these my brethren” on the thrones with Him. The
event will decide the truth of this view.
judged
by you—or, before you (compare 1Co
3:22).
smallest
matters—The weightiest of earthly questions
at issue are infinitely small compared with those to be decided on the
judgment-day.
3.
judge angels—namely, bad angels. We who
are now “a spectacle to angels” shall then “judge angels.” The saints shall
join in approving the final sentence of the Judge on them (Jud 1:6). Believers
shall, as administrators of the kingdom under Jesus, put down all rule that is
hostile to God. Perhaps, too, good angels shall then receive from the
Judge, with the approval of the saints, higher honors.
4.
judgments—that is, cases for judgment.
least
esteemed—literally, “those of no esteem.”
Any, however low in the Church, rather than the heathen (1Co 1:28). Questions
of earthly property are of secondary consequence in the eyes of true
Christians, and are therefore delegated to those in a secondary position in the
Church.
5.
your shame—Thus he checks their puffed-up
spirit (1Co 5:2; compare 1Co 15:34). To shame you out of your present unworthy
course of litigation before the heathen, I have said (1Co 6:4), “Set the least
esteemed in the Church to judge.” Better even this, than your present course.
Is
it so?—Are you in such a helpless state
that, &c.?
not
a wise man—though ye admire “wisdom” so much
on other occasions (1Co 1:5, 22). Paul alludes probably to the title,
“cachain,” or wise man, applied to each Rabbi in Jewish councils.
no,
not one—not even one, amidst so many
reputed among you for wisdom (1Co 3:18; 4:6).
shall
be able—when applied to.
brethren—literally, “brother”; that is, judge between brother and
brother. As each case should arise, the arbitrator was to be chosen from the
body of the church, such a wise person as had the charism, or gift, of church
government.
6.
But—emphatically answering the question
in the end of 1Co 6:5 in the negative. Translate, “Nay,” &c.
7.
utterly a fault—literally, “a shortcoming” (not so
strong as sin). Your going to law at all is a falling short of your high
privileges, not to say your doing so before unbelievers, which
aggravates it.
rather
take wrong—(Pr 20:22; Mt 5:39, 40); that is,
“suffer yourselves to be wronged.”
8.
ye—emphatic. Ye, whom your Lord
commanded to return good for evil, on the contrary, “do wrong (by taking
away) and defraud” (by retaining what is entrusted to you; or “defraud” marks
the effect of the “wrong” done, namely, the loss inflicted). Not only do
ye not bear, but ye inflict wrongs.
9.
unrighteous—Translate, “Doers of wrong”:
referring to 1Co 6:8 (compare Ga 5:21).
kingdom
of God—which is a kingdom of righteousness
(Ro 14:17).
fornicators—alluding to 1Co 5:1–13; also below, 1Co 6:12–18.
effeminate—self-polluters, who submit to unnatural lusts.
11.
ye are washed—The Greek middle voice
expresses, “Ye have had yourselves washed.” This washing implies the admission
to the benefits of Christ’s salvation generally; of which the parts are;
(1) Sanctification, or the setting apart from the world, and adoption
into the Church: so “sanctified” is used 1Co 7:14; Jn 17:19. Compare 1Pe 1:2,
where it rather seems to mean the setting apart of one as consecrated
by the Spirit in the eternal purpose God. (2) Justification from
condemnation through the righteousness of God in Christ by faith (Ro 1:17). So Paraeus. The order of sanctification
before justification shows that it must be so taken, and not in the
sense of progressive sanctification. “Washed” precedes both, and so must
refer to the Christian’s outward new birth of water, the sign of the inward
setting apart to the Lord by the inspiration of the Spirit as the seed of new
life (Jn 3:5; Eph 5:26; Tit 3:5; Heb 10:22). Paul (compare the Church of
England Baptismal Service), in charity, and faith in the ideal of the Church,
presumes that baptism realizes its original design, and that those outwardly
baptized inwardly enter into vital communion with Christ (Ga 3:27). He presents
the grand ideal which those alone realized in whom the inward and the outward
baptism coalesced. At the same time he recognizes the fact that this in many
cases does not hold good (1Co 6:8–10), leaving it to God to decide who are the
really “washed,” while he only decides on broad general principles.
in
the name of … Jesus, and by the Spirit—rather,
“in the Spirit,” that is, by His in-dwelling. Both clauses belong to the
three—“washed, sanctified, justified.”
our
God—The “our” reminds them. that amidst
all his reproofs God is still the common God of himself and them.
1Co
6:12–20. Refutation of the Antinomian
Defense of Fornication as if It Was Lawful Because Meats Are So.
12.
All things are lawful unto me—These,
which were Paul’s own words on a former occasion (to the Corinthians, compare
1Co 10:23, and Ga 5:23), were made a pretext for excusing the eating of meats
offered to idols, and so of what was generally connected with idolatry (Ac
15:29), “fornication” (perhaps in the letter of the Corinthians to Paul, 1Co
7:1). Paul’s remark had referred only to things indifferent: but they
wished to treat fornication as such, on the ground that the existence of bodily
appetites proved the lawfulness of their gratification.
me—Paul giving himself as a sample of Christians in general.
but
I—whatever others do, I will not,
&c.
lawful
… brought under the power—The Greek
words are from the same root, whence there is a play on the words: All things are
in my power, but I will not be brought under the power of any
of them (the “all things”). He who commits “fornication,” steps aside from his
own legitimate power or liberty, and is “brought under the power” of an harlot
(1Co 6:15; compare 1Co 7:4). The “power” ought to be in the hands of the believer,
not in the things which he uses [Bengel];
else his liberty is forfeited; he ceases to be his own master (Jn 8:34–36; Ga
5:13; 1Pe 2:16; 2Pe 2:19). Unlawful things ruin thousands; “lawful” things
(unlawfully used), ten thousands.
13. The argument drawn from the indifference of meats (1Co 8:8;
Ro 14:14, 17; compare Mk 7:18; Col 2:20–22) to that of fornication does not
hold good. Meats doubtless are indifferent, since both they and the “belly” for
which they are created are to be “destroyed” in the future state. But “the body
is not (created) for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body”
(as its Redeemer, who hath Himself assumed the body): “And God hath raised up
the Lord, and will also raise up us” (that is our bodies): therefore the “body”
is not, like the “belly,” after having served a temporary use, to be destroyed:
Now “he that committeth fornication, sinneth against his own body” (1Co 6:18).
Therefore fornication is not indifferent, since it is a sin against one’s own
body, which, like the Lord for whom it is created, is not to be destroyed, but
to be raised to eternal existence. Thus Paul gives here the germ of the three
subjects handled in subsequent sections: (1) The relation between the sexes.
(2) The question of meats offered to idols. (3) The resurrection of the body.
shall
destroy—at the Lord’s coming to change the
natural bodies of believers into spiritual bodies (1Co 15:44, 52). There is a
real essence underlying the superficial phenomena of the present temporary
organization of the body, and this essential germ, when all the particles are
scattered, involves the future resurrection of the body incorruptible.
14. (Ro 8:11).
raised
up—rather, “raised,” to distinguish it
from “will raise up us”; the Greek of the latter being a
compound, the former a simple verb. Believers shall be raised up out of
the rest of the dead (see on Php 3:11); the first resurrection (Rev 20:5).
us—Here he speaks of the possibility of his being found in the
grave when Christ comes; elsewhere, of his being possibly found alive (1Th
4:17). In either event, the Lord’s coming rather than death is the great object
of the Christian’s expectation (Ro 8:19).
15. Resuming the thought in 1Co 6:13, “the body is for the
Lord” (1Co 12:27; Eph 4:12, 15, 16; 5:30).
shall
I then—such being the case.
take—spontaneously alienating them from Christ. For they cannot
be at the same time “the members of an harlot,” and “of Christ” [Bengel]. It is a fact no less certain
than mysterious, that moral and spiritual ruin is caused by such sins; which
human wisdom (when untaught by revelation) held to be actions as blameless as
eating and drinking [Conybeare and
Howson].
16. Justification of his having called fornicators “members of
an harlot” (1Co 6:15).
joined—by carnal intercourse; literally, “cemented to”: cleaving
to.
one
body—with her.
saith
he—God speaking by Adam (Ge 2:24; Mt
19:5). “He which made them at the beginning said,” &c. (Eph 5:31).
17.
one spirit—with Him. In the case of union with
a harlot, the fornicator becomes one “body” with her (not one “spirit,” for the
spirit which is normally the organ of the Holy Spirit in man, is in the carnal
so overlaid with what is sensual that it is ignored altogether). But the
believer not only has his body sanctified by union with Christ’s body, but also
becomes “one spirit” with Him (Jn 15:1–7; 17:21; 2Pe 1:4; compare Eph 5:23–32;
Jn 3:6).
18.
Flee—The only safety in such temptations
is flight (Ge 39:12; Job 31:1).
Every
sin—The Greek is forcible. “Every
sin whatsoever that a man doeth.” Every other sin; even gluttony,
drunkenness, and self-murder are “without,” that is, comparatively external to
the body (Mk 7:18; compare Pr 6:30–32). He certainly injures, but he does not
alienate the body itself; the sin is not terminated in the body; he rather sins
against the perishing accidents of the body (as the “belly,” and the body’s
present temporary organization), and against the soul than against the body in
its permanent essence, designed “for the Lord.” “But” the fornicator alienates
that body which is the Lord’s, and makes it one with a harlot’s body, and so
“sinneth against his own body,” that is, against the verity and nature
of his body; not a mere effect on the body from without, but a contradiction
of the truth of the body, wrought within itself [Alford].
19.
What? know ye not? &c.—Proof that “he that
fornicates sinneth against his own body” (1Co 6:18).
your
body—not “bodies.” As in 1Co 3:17, he
represented the whole company of believers (souls and bodies), that is, the
Church, as “the temple of God,” the Spirit; so here, the body of each
individual of the Church is viewed as the ideal “temple of the Holy Ghost.” So
Jn 17:23, which proves that not only the Church, but also each member of it, is
“the temple of the Holy Ghost.” Still though many the several members form one
temple, the whole collectively being that which each is in miniature
individually. Just as the Jews had one temple only, so in the fullest sense all
Christian churches and individual believers form one temple only. Thus “your [plural] body” is
distinguished here from “his own [particular
or individual] body” (1Co 6:18). In sinning against the latter, the
fornicator sins against “your (ideal) body,” that of “Christ,” whose “members
your bodies” are (1Co 6:15). In this consists the sin of fornication, that it
is a sacrilegious desecration of God’s temple to profane uses. The unseen, but
much more efficient, Spirit of God in the spiritual temple now takes the place
of the visible Shekinah in the old material temple. The whole man is the temple;
the soul is the inmost shrine; the understanding and heart, the holy place; and
the body, the porch and exterior of the edifice. Chastity is the guardian of
the temple to prevent anything unclean entering which might provoke the
indwelling God to abandon it as defiled [Tertullian,
On the Apparel of Women]. None but God can claim a temple; here the Holy
Ghost is assigned one; therefore the Holy Ghost is God.
not
your own—The fornicator treats his body as
if it were “his own,” to give to a harlot if he pleases (1Co 6:18; compare 1Co
6:20). But we have no right to alienate our body which is the Lord’s. In
ancient servitude the person of the servant was wholly the property of the
master, not his own. Purchase was one of the ways of acquiring a slave.
Man has sold himself to sin (1Ki 21:20; Ro 7:14). Christ buys him to
Himself, to serve Him (Ro 6:16–22).
20.
bought with a price—Therefore Christ’s blood is
strictly a ransom paid to God’s justice by the love of God in Christ for our
redemption (Mt 20:28; Ac 20:28; Ga 3:13; Heb 9:12; 1Pe 1:18, 19; 2Pe 2:1; Rev
5:9). While He thus took off our obligation to punishment, He laid upon us a
new obligation to obedience (1Co 7:22, 23). If we accept Him as our Prophet to
reveal God to us, and our Priest to atone for us, we must also accept Him as
our King to rule over us as wholly His, presenting every token of our fealty
(Is 26:13).
in
your body—as “in” a temple (compare Jn 13:32;
Ro 12:1; Php 1:20).
and
in your spirit, which are God’s—not
in the oldest manuscripts and versions, and not needed for the sense, as the
context refers mainly to the “body” (1Co 6:16, 18, 19). The “spirit” is incidentally
mentioned in 1Co 6:17, which perhaps gave rise to the interpolation, at first
written in the Margin, afterwards inserted in the text.
Excerpt from:
A Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
by Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown
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