@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 Re 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 (@Jude 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 Joh 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 PARÆUS. 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 (@Joh 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
(@Joh 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 @Mr 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 (@Re 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 (@Joh 15:1-7 17:21 2Pe 1:4; compare @Eph 5:23-32 Joh 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
(@Mr 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
@Joh 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 Re 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 (@Isa 26:13).
in your body--as "in" a temple (compare
@Joh 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.