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The kingdom of God is

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motheus, who is my beloved | Lord will; and will know, not
son, and faithful in the Lord, the speech of them which are
puffed up, but the power.

who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ, as I teach every where in every church.

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20 For the kingdom of God

is not in word, but in power.

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21 What will ye? shall I come unto you

18 Now some are puffed up, as though I with a rod, or in love, and in the spirit of would not come to you.

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This is the same kind of sentiment which I have already quoted from Terence, Rom. xvi. 13.

Natura tú illi pater es, consiliis

ego.

Adelphi, Act i., scen. 2, ver. 47. Thou art his father by nature, I by instruction. Verse 16. Wherefore, I beseech you, be ye followers of me.] It should rather be translated, Be ye imitators of me; μμnrai, from which we have our word mimic, which, though now used only in a bad or ludicrous sense, simply signifies an imitator of another person, whether in speech, manner, habit, or otherwise. As children should imitate their parents in preference to all others, he calls on them to imitate him, as he claims them for his children. He lived for God and eternity, seeking not his own glory, emolument, or ease those sowers of sedition among them were actuated by different motives. Here then the apostle compares himself with them: follow and imitate me, as I follow and imitate Christ: do not imitate them who, from their worldly pursuits, show themselves to be actuated with a worldly spirit.

Verse 17. For this cause] That you imitate me, and know in what this consists :

I sent unto you Timotheus] The same person to whom he wrote the two epistles that are still extant under his name, and whom he calls here his beloved son, one of his most intimate disciples; and whom he had been the means of bringing to God through Christ. My ways which be in Christ] This person will also inform you of the manner in which I regulate all the churches; and show to you that what I require of you is no other than what I require of all the churches of Christ which I have formed, as I follow the same plan of discipline in every place. See the Introduction, sect. iii.

Verse 18. Some are puffed up] Some of your teachers act with great haughtiness, imagining themselves to be safe, because they suppose that I shall not revisit Corinth.

Verse 19. But I will come to you shortly] God being my helper, I fully purpose to visit you; and then I shall put those proud men to the proof, not of their speech eloquence, or pretensions to great knowledge and influence, but of their power-the authority they profess to have from God, and the evidences of that authority in the works they have performed. See the Introduction, sect. xi.

meekness?

2 Cor. i. 15, 23.- -- Acts xviii. 21. Rom. xv. 32. Hebr. vi. 3. Jam. iv.15.-h Ch. ii. 4. 1 Thess. i. 5.-12 Cor. x. 2. xiii. 10.

Verse 20. For the kingdom of God] The religion of the Lord Jesus is not in word-in human eloquence, excellence of speech, or even in doctrines; but in power, ev dvvape, in the mighty energy of the Holy Spirit; enlightening, quickening, converting, and sanctifying believers; and all his genuine apostles are enabled, on all necessary occasions, to demonstrate the truth of their calling by miracles; for this the original word often means.

Verse 21. Shall I come unto you with a rod, or in love] Here he alludes to the case of the teacher and father, mentioned in ver. 15. Shall I come to you with the authority of a teacher, and use the rod of discipline? or shall I come in the tenderness of a father, and entreat you to do what I have authority to enforce? Among the Jews, those who did not amend, after being faithfully admonished, were whipped, either publicly or privately, in the synagogue. If on this they did not amend, they were liable to be stoned. We see, from the cases of Ananias and Sapphira, Elymas the sorcerer, Hymenæus and Alexander, &c., that the apostles had sometimes the power to inflict the most awful punishments on transgressors. The Corinthians must have known this, and consequently have dreaded a visit from him in his apostolical authority. That there were many irregularities in this church, which required both the presence and authority of the apostle, we shall see in the subsequent chapters.

1. In the preceding chapter we find the ministers of God compared to STEWARDS, of whom the strictest fidelity is required. (1.) Fidelity to God, in publishing his truth with zeal, defending it with courage, and recommending it with prudence. (2.) Fidelity to CHRIST, whose representatives they are, in honestly and fully recommending his grace and salvation on the ground of his passion and death, and preaching his maxims in all their force and purity. (3.) Fidelity to the CHURCH, in taking heed to keep up a godly discipline, admitting none into it but those who have abandoned their sins; and permitting none to continue in it that do not continue to adorn the doctrine of God their Saviour. (4.) Fidelity to their own MINISTRY, walking so as to bring no blame on the gospel; avoiding the extremes of indolent tenderness on one hand, and austere severity on the other. Considering the flock, not as their flock, but the flock of

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Jesus Christ; watching, ruling, and feeding it according to the order of their Divine Master.

2. A minister of God should act with great caution: every man, properly speaking, is placed between the secret judgment of God and the public censure of men. He should do nothing rashly, that he may not justly incur the censure of men; and he should do nothing but in the loving fear of God, that he may not incur the censure of his Maker. The man who scarcely ever allows himself to be wrong, is one of whom it may be safely said, he is seldom right. It is possible for a man to mistake his own will for the will of God, and his own obstinacy for inflexible adherence to his duty. With such persons it is dangerous to bave any commerce. Reader, pray to God to save thee from an inflated and self-sufficient mind.

3. Zeal for God's truth is essentially necessary for every minister; and prudence is not less so. They should be wisely tempered together, but this is not always the case. Zeal without prudence is like a flambeau in the hands of a blind man; it may enlighten and warm, but it may also destroy the spiritual building. Human prudence should be avoided as well as intemperate zeal; this kind of prudence consists in a man's being careful not to bring himself into trouble, and not to hazard his reputation, credit, interest, or fortune, in the performance of his duty. Evangelical wisdom consists in our suffering and losing all things, rather than be wanting in the discharge of cur obligations.

incest reproved.

4. From St. Paul's account of himself we find him often suffering the severest hardships in the prosecution of his duty. He had for his patrimony, hunger, thirst, nakedness, stripes, &c.; and wandered about testifying the gospel of the grace of God, without even a cottage that he could claim as his own. Let those who dwell in their elegant houses, who profess to be apostolic in their order, and evangelic in their doctrines, think of this. In their state of affluence they should have extraordinary degrees of zeal, humility, meekness, and charity, to recommend them to our notice as apostolical men. If God, in the course of his providence, has saved them from an apostle's hardships, let them devote their lives to the service of that church in which they have their emoluments; and labour incessantly to build it up on its most holy faith. Let them not be masters, to govern with rigour and imperiousness; but tender fathers, who feel every member in the church as their own child, and labour to feed the heavenly family with the mysteries of God, of which they are stewards.

5. And while the people require much of their spiritual pastors, these pastors have equal right to require much of their people. The obligation is not all on one side; those who watch for our souls have a right not only to their own support, but to our reverence and confidence. Those who despise their ecclesiastical rulers, will soon despise the church of Christ itself, neglect its ordinances, lose sight of its doctrines, and at last neglect their own salvation.

CHAPTER V.

The

Account of the incestuous person, or of him who had married his father's wife, 1. apostle reproves the Corinthians for their carelessness in this matter, and orders them to excommunicate the transgressor, 2-5. They are reprehended for their glorying, while such scandals were among them, 6. They must purge out the old leaven, that they may properly celebrate the Christian Passover, 7-9. They must not associate with any who, professing the Christian religion, were guilty of any scandalous vice, and must put away from them every evil person, 10-13.

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Eph. v. 3.

IT

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T is reported commonly that the Gentiles, that one should
there is fornication among have his father's wife.
you, and such fornication as is
not so much as named among

a

b Lev. xviii. 8. Deut. xxii. 30. xxvii. 20.

NOTES ON CHAP. V.. Verse 1. There is fornication among you] The word oprea, which we translate fornication in this place, must be understood in its utmost latitude of mearing, as implying all kinds of impurity; for, that the Corinthians were notoriously guilty of every spedes of irregularity and debauch, we have already ; and it is not likely that in speaking on this stbject, in reference to a people so very notorious, he would refer to only one species of impurity, and that Ex the most flagitious.

and 2d And ye are puffed up, have not rather mourned, that

c2 Cor. vii. 12.

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d Ch. iv. 18.- - 2 Cor. vii. 7, 10.

That one should have his father's wife.] Commentators and critics have found great difficulties in this statement. One part of the case is sufficiently clear, that a man who professed Christianity had illegal connexions with his father's wife; but the principal question is, was his father alive or dead? Most think that the father was alive, and imagine that to this the apostle refers, 2 Cor. vii. 12, where, speaking of the person who did the wrong, he introduces also him who had suffered the wrong; which must mean the father, and the father then alive. After all that has

The transgressor to

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he that hath done this deed 5 d To deliver such an one
unto Satan for the destruction
of the flesh, that the spirit may

might be taken away from

among you.

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3 For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have b judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed;

4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,

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a Col. ii. 5.- --b Or, determined.c Matt. xvi. 19. xviii. 18. John xx. 23. 2 Cor. ii. 10. xiii. 3, 10.—d Job ii. 6. Ps. cix. 6. 1 Tim. i. 20.- e Acts xxvi. 18. f Ver. 2. Ch.

been said on this subject, I think it most natural to conclude that the person in question had married the wife of his deceased father, not his own mother, but step-mother, then a widow.

be saved in the day of the Lord
Jesus.

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Know ye

6 Your glorying is not good. not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?

7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened.

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that sort of punishment which should be inflicted for this crime.

Verse 4. In the name of our Lord Jesus] Who is the head of the church; and under whose authority every act is to be performed.

And my spirit] My apostolical authority derived from Him; with the power, ovv duvaμe, with the miraculous energy of the Lord Jesus, which is to inflict the punishment that you pronounce:

Verse 5. To deliver such an one unto Satan] There is no evidence that delivering to Satan was any form of excommunication known either among the Jews or the Christians. Lightfoot, Selden, and Schoettgen, who have searched all the Jewish records, have found nothing that answers to this: it was a species of punishment administered in extraordinary cases, in which the body and the mind of an incorrigible transgressor were delivered by the authority of God into the power of Satan, to be tortured with diseases and terrors as a warning to all; but, while the body and

This was a crime which the text says was not so much as named among the Gentiles; the apostle must only mean that it was not accredited by them, for it certainly did often occur: but by their best writers who notice it, it was branded as superlatively infamous. Cicero styles it, scelus incredibile et inauditum, an incredible and unheard-of wickedness; but it was heard of and practised; and there are several stories of this kind in heathen authors, but they reprobate, not commend it. The word ovoyagerat, named, is | wanting in almost every MS. and Version of importance, and certainly makes no part of the text. The words should be read, and such fornication as is not amongst the Gentiles, i. e. not allowed. Some think that this woman might have been a proselyte to the Jewish religion from heathenism; and the rabbins taught that proselytism annulled all former relation-mind were thus tormented, the immortal spirit was ship, and that a woman was at liberty in such a case to depart from an unbelieving husband, and to marry even with a believing son, i. e. of her husband by some former wife.

Verse 2. Ye are puffed up] Ye are full of strife and contention relative to your parties and favourite teachers, and neglect the discipline of the church. Had you considered the greatness of this crime, ye would have rather mourned, and have put away this flagrant transgressor from among you.

Taken away from among you.] 'Iva ežaρly ek μeσov iron. This is supposed by some to refer to the punishment of death, by others to excommunication. The Christian church was at this time too young to have those forms of excommunication which were practised in succeeding centuries. Probably no more is meant than a simple disowning of the person, accompanied with the refusal to admit him to the sacred ordinances, or to have any intercourse or connexion with him.

Verse 3. Absent in body, but present in spirit] Perhaps St. Paul refers to the gift of the discernment of spirits, which it is very likely the apostles in general possessed on extraordinary occasions. He had already seen this matter so clearly, that he had determined on

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under the influence of the Divine mercy; and the affliction, in all probability, was in general only for a season; though sometimes it was evidently unto death, as the destruction of the flesh seems to imply. But the soul found mercy at the hand of God; for such a most extraordinary interference of God's power and justice, and of Satan's influence, could not fail to bring the person to a state of the deepest humiliation and contrition; and thus, while the flesh was destroyed, the spirit was saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. No such power as this remains in the church of God; none such should be assumed; the pretensions to it are as wicked as they are vain. It was the same power by which Ananias and Sapphira were struck dead, and Elymas the sorcerer struck blind. Apostles alone were intrusted with it.

Verse 6. Your glorying is not good.] You are triumphing in your superior knowledge, and busily employed in setting up and supporting your respective teachers, while the church is left under the most scandalous corruptions-corruptions which threaten its very existence if not purged away.

Know ye not] With all your boasted wisdom, do you not know and acknowledge the truth of a common maxim, a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?

Christians must not associate

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For even Christ our
over is sacrificed for us:

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b | 10 ' Yet not altogether with
pass-
the fornicators of this world,

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8 Therefore d let us keep * the | or with the covetous, or extorfeast, not with old leaven, : tioners, or with idolaters; for neither with the leaven of malice and wick

edness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

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then must ye needs go 'out of the world.
11 But now I have written unto you not to
keep company, Ꭵf any man that is called a

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9 I wrote unto you in an epistle not to brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an company with fornicators:

Isai. iii. 7. John i. 29. Ch. xv. 3. 1 Pet. i. 19. Rev. v. 612 -- John xix. 14. Or, is slain. -d Exod. xii. 15. x. 6. Or, holiday.- Deut. xvi. 3.-— Matt. xvi. 6, 12. Mark viii. 15. Luke xii. 1.-- See ver. 2, 7.

idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an ex

2 Cor. vi. 14. Eph. v. 11. 2 Thess. iii. 14. Ch. x. 27. k Ch. i. 20.--John xvii. 15. 1 John v. 19.-- Matt. xviii. 17. Rom. xvi. 17. 2 Thess. iii. 6, 14. 2 John 10.

If this leaven―the incestuous person, be permitted to every thing that is implied in πονηρίας, wickedness; remain among you; if his conduct be not exposed | whereas topvstag, as being the subject in question, see by the most formidable censure; the flood-gates of | mpurity will be opened on the church, and the whole state of Christianity ruined in Corinth. Verse 7. Purge out therefore the old leaven] As it is the custom of the Jews previously to the passover to search their houses in the most diligent manner for the old leaven, and throw it out, sweeping every part clean; so act with this incestuous person. I have already shown with what care the Jews purged their houses from all leaven previously to the passover; see the note on Exod. xii. 8-19, and on the term praeter, and Christ as represented by this ancient | Jewish sacrifice; see on Exod. xii. 27, and my Disare on the Nature and Design of the Eucharist. Verse 8. Therefore let us keep the feast] It is very likely that the time of the passover was now approaching, when the church of Christ would be called to extraordinary acts of devotion, in commemorating the passion, death, and resurrection of Christ; and of this circumstance the apostle takes advantage in his exhortation to the Corinthians. See the Introduction, sect. xii.

ver. 1, would come more pointedly in here : Not with wickedness and fornication, or rather, not with wicked men and fornicators: but I do not contend for this reading.

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Verse 9. I wrote unto you in an epistle] The wisest and best skilled in biblical criticism agree that the apostle does not refer to any other epistle than this; and that he speaks here of some general directions which he had given in the foregoing part of it; but which he had now in some measure changed and greatly strengthened, as we see from ver. 11. The words typaya tv rp Erorong may be translated, I HAD written to you in THIS EPISTLE; for there are many instances in the New Testament where the aorist, which is here used, and which is a sort of indefinite tense, is used for the perfect and the plusquam-perfect. Dr. Whitby produces several proofs of this, and contends that the conclusion drawn by some, viz. that it refers to some epistle that is lost, is not legitimately drawn from any premises which either this text or antiquity affords. The principal evidence against this is 2 Cor. vii. 8, where ev ty ɛmioroλy, the same words as above, appear to refer to this first epistle. Possibly the apostle may refer to an epistle which he had written though not sent; for, on receiving further information from Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus, relative to the state of the Corinthian church, he suppressed that, and wrote this, in which he considers the subject much more at large. See Dr. Light foot.

Not with old leaven] Under the Christian dispensation we must be saved equally from Judaism, Henthenism, and from sin of every kind ; malice and swickedness must be destroyed; and sincerity and truth, inward purity and outward holiness, take their place. The apostle refers here not more to wicked principlea than to wicked men; let us keep the feast, not with the old leaven-the impure principles which actuated you while in your heathen state; neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, Kaktas Kal Town pias, wickedness, radical depravity, producing unrighteousness in the life; nor with the persons who Verse 10. For then must ye needs go out of the are thus influenced, and thus act; but with the un-world.] What an awful picture of the general corletrened bread, all' ev asupos, but with upright and ruption of manners does this exhibit! The Christians pidly men, who have sincerity, surpvua, such purity at Corinth could not transact the ordinary affairs of of affections and conduct, that even the light of God life with any others than with fornicators, covetous editing upon them discovers no flaw, and truth-who persons, extortioners, railers, drunkards, and idolhave received the testimony of God, and who are in-aters, because there were none others in the place! wardly as well as outwardly what they profess to be. The word novnpas, which we translate wickedness, is s very like to Topvetas, fornication, that some very atient MSS. have the latter reading instead of the former; which, indeed, seems most natural in this place ; as raaas, which we translate malice, includes |

Not to company with fornicators] With which, as we have already seen, Corinth abounded. It was not only the grand sin, but staple, of the place.

How necessary was Christianity in that city!

Verse 11. But now I have written] I not only write this, but I add more: if any one who is called a brother, i. e. professes the Christian religion, be a fornicator, covetous, idolater, railer, drunkard, or eatortioner, not even to cat with such-have no

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communion with such an one, in things either sacred or civil. You may transact your worldly concerns with a person that knows not God, and makes no profession of Christianity, whatever his moral character may be; but ye must not even thus far acknowledge a man professing Christianity, who is scandalous in his conduct. Let him have this extra mark of your abhorrence of all sin; and let the world see that the church of God does not tolerate iniquity.

parts of the preceding chapter.

d

13 But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.

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c Ch. vi. 1, 2, 3, 4. d Deut. xiii. 5. xvii. 7. xxi. 21. xxii. 21, 22, 24.

the wilderness of this world. But what judgment, prudence, piety, and caution, are requisite in the execution of this most important branch of a minister's duty! He may be too easy and tender, and permit the gangrene to remain till the flock be infected with it. Or he may be rigid and severe, and destroy parts that are vital while only professing to take away what is vitiated. A backslider is one who once knew less or more of the salvation of God. Verse 12. For what have I to do to judge them also Hear what God says concerning such: Turn, ye that are without?] The term without, rovç ežw, sig- | backsliders, for I am married unto you. See how nifies those who were not members of the church, and unwilling He is to give them up! He suffers long, in this sense its correspondent term hachitso- and is kind: do thou likewise; and when thou art nim, those that are without, is generally understood obliged to cut off the offender from the church of in the Jewish writers, where it frequently occurs. The Christ, follow him still with thy best advice and word kat, also, which greatly disturbs the sense here, heartiest prayers. is wanting in ABCFG, and several others, with the Syriac, Coptic, Slavonic, Vulgate, and the Itala; together with several of the Fathers. The sentence, I think, with the omission of xa, also, should stand thus: Does it belong to me to pass sentence on those which are without-which are not members of the church? By no means (ovxı). Pass ye sentence on them which are within-which are members of the church: those which are without-which are not members of the church, God will pass sentence on, in that way in which he generally deals with the heathen world. But put ye away the evil from among your selves. This is most evidently the apostle's meaning, and renders all comments unnecessary. In the lasting into their spirit. It is impossible to associate clause there appears to be an allusion to Deut. xvii. 7, where the like directions are given to the congregation of Israel, relative to a person found guilty of idolatry: Thou shalt put away the evil from among | you-where the Version of the Septuagint is almost the same as that of the apostle: και εξαρείς τον πονηρον εξ ύμων αυτών.

There are several important subjects in this chapter which intimately concern the Christian church in general.

1. If evil be tolerated in religious societies, the work of God cannot prosper there. If one scandal appear, it should be the cause of general humiliation and mourning to the followers of God where it occurs; because the soul of a brother is on the road to perdition, the cause of God so far betrayed and injured, and Christ re-crucified in the house of his friends. Pity should fill every heart towards the trangressor, and prayer for the backslider occupy all the members of the church.

2. Discipline must be exercised in the Christian church; without this it will soon differ but little from

3. A soul cut off from the flock of God is in an awful state! his outward defence is departed from him; and being no longer accountable to any for his conduct, he generally plunges into unprecedented depths of iniquity; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. Reader, art thou without the pale of God's church? remember it is here written, them that are WITHOUT God judgeth, verse 13. 4. Christians who wish to retain the spirituality of their religion should be very careful how they mingle with the world. He who is pleased with the company of ungodly men, no matter howsoever witty or learned, is either himself one with them, or is drink

with such by choice without receiving a portion of their contagion. A man may be amused or delighted with such people, but he will return even from the festival of wit with a lean soul, Howsoever contiguous they may be, yet the church and the world are separated by an impassable gulf.

5. If all the fornicators, adulterers, drunkards, extortioners, and covetous persons which bear the Christian name, were to be publicly excommunicated from the Christian church, how many, and how awful would the examples be! If however the discipline of the visible church be so lax that such characters are tolerated in it, they should consider that this is no passport to heaven. In the sight of God they are not members of his church; their citizenship is not in heaven, and therefore they have no right to expect the heavenly inheritance. It is not under names, creeds, or professions, that men shall be saved at the last day; those alone who were holy, who were here conformed to the image of Christ, shall inherit the kingdom of God. Those who expect it in any other way, or on any other account, will be sadly deceived.

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