TEXT. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. 20 And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. 21 Therefore let no man glory in men: for all things are yours: 22 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. IV. 1 Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. 2 Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful. 3 But with me it is a very small thing, that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self. PARAPHRASE. and owning no other knowledge, but the simplicity of the 19 Gospel. For all other wisdom, all the wisdom of the world, is foolishness with God. For it is written, " He taketh the 20 wise in their own craftiness." And again, "The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain." 21 Therefore, let none of you glory in any of your teachers; 22 for they are but men. For all your teachers, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Peter, even the apostles themselves, nay, all the world, and even the world to come, all things are yours, for your sake and use: 23 As you are Christ's, subjects of his kingdom, for his glory; and Christ, and his kingdom, for the glory of God. Therefore, if all your teachers, and so many other greater things, are for you, and for your sakes, you can have no reason to make it a glory to you, that you belong to this, or that, particular teacher amongst you: your true glory is, that Christ's, and Christ and all his are God's; and not that you are this or that man's scholar or follower. you are 1 As for me, I pretend not to set up a school amongst you, and as a master to have my scholars denominated from me; no, let no man have higher thoughts of me, than as a minister of Christ, employed as his steward, to dispense the truths and doctrines of the Gospel, which are the mysterics which God wrapped up, in types and obscure predictions, where they have lain hid, till by us, his apostles, he now reveals them. 2 Now that, which is principally required and regarded in a steward, is, that he be faithful in dispensing what is com3 mitted to his charge. But as for me, I value it not, if I am censured by some of you, or by any man, as not being a faithful steward: nay, as to this, I pass no judgment on my TEXT. 4 For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord. 5 Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God. 6 And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself, and to Apollos, for your sakes; that ye might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another. 7 For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now, if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it? 8 Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without PARAPHRASE. 4 self. For though I can truly say, that I know nothing by myself, yet am I not hereby justified to you: but the Lord, whose steward I am, at the last day will pronounce sentence on my behaviour in my stewardship, and then you will know what to 5 think of me. Then judge not either me, or others, before the time, until the Lord come, who will bring to light the dark and secret counsels of men's hearts, in preaching the Gospel: and then shall every one have that praise, that estimate set upon him, by God himself, which he truly deserves. But praise ought not to be given them, before the time, by their 6 hearers, who are ignorant, fallible men. On this occasion, I have named Apollos and myself", as the magnified and opposed heads of distinct factions amongst you; not that we are so, but out of respect to you, that I might offend nobody, by naming them; and that you might learn by us, of whom I have written, that we are but planters, waterers, and stewards, not to think of the ministers of the Gospel above what I have written to you of them, that you be not puffed up, each party, in the vain-glory of their own extolled leader, to the crying down and contempt of any other, who is well esteemed of by 7 others. For what maketh one to differ from another? or what gifts of the Spirit, what knowledge of the Gospel has any leader amongst you, which he received not, as intrusted to him of God, and not acquired by his own abilities? And if he received it as a steward, why does he glory in that, which is not his 8 own? However, you are mightily satisfied with your present state; you now are full, you now are rich, and abound in 6 Vid. chap. iii. 4. NOTES. 1 Vid. chap. iii. 6, 9. chap. iv. 1. TEXT. us: and I would to God ye did reign, that we also might reign with you. 9 For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death. For we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men. 10 We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ: we are weak, but ye are strong: ye are honourable, but we are despised. 11 Even unto this present hour, we both hunger and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling-place; 12 And labour, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless: being persecuted, we suffer it : 13 Being defamed, we intreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day. 14 I write not these things to shame you; but, as my beloved sons, I warn you. PARAPHRASE. every thing you desire; you have not need of me, but have reigned like princes without me; and I wish truly you did reign, that I might come and share in the protection and 9 prosperity you enjoy, now you are in your kingdom. For I being made an apostle last of all, it seems to me as if I were brought last upon the stage, to be, in my sufferings and death, a spectacle to the world, and to angels, and to men. 10 I am a fool for Christ's sake, but you manage your Christian concerns with wisdom. I am weak, and in a suffering condition; you are strong and flourishing; you are honourable, 11 but I am despised. Even to this present hour, I both hunger and thirst, and want clothes, and am buffeted, wandering 12 without house or home; And maintain myself with the labour of my hands. Being reviled, I bless: being persecuted, I 13 suffer patiently: Being defamed, I intreat: I am made as the filth of the world, and the offscouring of all things unto this 14 day. I write not these things to shame you; but as a father to warn you, my children, that ye be not the devoted zealous partisans and followers of such, whose carriage is not like this; under whom, however you may flatter yourselves, in truth, you do not reign; but, on the contrary, ye are domineered over, and fleeced by them'. I warn you, I say, as NOTES. 9 The apostle seems here to allude to the custom of bringing those last upon the theatre, who were to be destroyed by wild beasts. 10. So he uses the word weakness, often, in his epistles to the Corinthians, applied to himself: vid. 2 Cor. xii. 10. 14 Vid. 2 Cor. xi. 20. St. Paul here, from ver. 8 to 17, by giving an account of his own carriage, gently rebukes them for following men of a different character, and exhorts them to be followers of himself. TEXT. 15 For though you have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel. 16 Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me. 17 For this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved son, and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways, which be in Christ, as I teach every where in every church. 18 Now some are puffed up, as though I would not come to you. 19 But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord will, and will know, not the speech of them which are puffed up, but the power. 20 For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. PARAPHRASE. 15 your father: For how many teachers soever you may have, you can have but one father; it was I that begot you in Christ, 16 i. e. I converted you to Christianity. Wherefore I beseech 17 you, be ye followers of me". To this purpose I have sent my beloved son Timothy to you, who may be relied upon: he shall put you in mind, and inform you, how I behave myself 18 every where in the ministry of the Gospel". Some, indeed, are puffed up, and make their boasts, as if I would not come 19 to you. But I intend, God willing, to come shortly; and then will make trial, not of the rhetoric or talking of those boasters, but of what miraculous power of the Holy Ghost is 20 in them. For the doctrine and prevalency of the Gospel, the propagation and support of Christ's kingdom, by the conversion and establishment of believers, does not consist in talking, nor in the fluency of a glib tongue, and a fine discourse, but in the miraculous operations of the Holy Ghost. NOTES. 16 This he presses again, chap. xi. 1, and it is not likely he would have proposed himself, over and over agaiu, to them, to be followed by them, had the questiou and contest amongst them been only, whose name they should have borne, his, or their new teacher's. His proposing himself, therefore, thus to be followed, must be understood in direct opposition to the false apostle, who misled them, and was not to be suffered to have any credit, or followers, amongst them. 17 This he does to show, that what he taught them, and pressed them to, was not in a pique against his opposer, but to convince them, that all he did, at Corinth, was the very same, and no other, than what he did every where, as a faithful steward and minister of the Gospel. SECTION II. No. 6. CHAPTER IV. 21.-VI. 20. CONTENTS. ANOTHER means, which St. Paul makes use of, to bring off the Corinthians from their false apostle, and to stop their veneration of him, and their glorying in him, is by representing to them the fault and disorder, which was committed in that church, by not judging and expelling the fornicator; which neglect, as may be guessed, was owing to that faction. 1. Because it is natural for a faction to support and protect an offender, that is of their side. 2. From the great fear St. Paul was in, whether they would obey him, in censuring the offender, as appears by the second epistle; which he could not fear, but from the opposite faction; they, who had preserved their respect to him, being sure to follow his orders. 3. From what he says, ch. iv. 16, after he had told them, ver. 6, of that chapter, that they should not be puffed up, for any other, against him, (for so the whole scope of his discourse here imports) he beseeches them to be his followers, i. e. leaving their other guides, to follow him, in punishing the offender. For that we may conclude, from his immediately insisting on it so earnestly, he had in his view, when he beseeches them to be followers of him, and consequently that they might join with him, and take him for their leader, chap. v. 3, 4, he makes himself by his spirit, as his proxy, the president of their assembly, to be convened for the punishing that criminal. 4. It may further be suspected, from what St. Paul says, ch. vi. 1, that the opposite party, to stop the church censure, pretended that this was a matter to be judged by the civil magistrate: nay, possibly, from what is said, ver. 6, of that chapter, it may be gathered, that they had got it brought before the heathen judge; or at least from ver. 12, that they pleaded, that what he had done was lawful, and might be justified before the magistrate. For the judging spoken of, chap. vi., must be understood to relate to the same matter it does chap. v., it being a continuation of the same discourse and argument: as is easy to be observed by any one, who will read it without regarding the divisions into chapters and verses, whereby ordinary people (not to say others) are often disturbed in reading the holy Scripture, and hindered from observing the true sense and coherence of it. The whole sixth chapter is spent in prosecuting the business of the fornicator, |