IT is interesting to notice the particular circumstances in which we find these Corinthians. They were an assembly highly favored of God. Paul says: " I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ; that in everything ye are enriched in him, in all utterance, and 3 all knowledge, so that, ye come behind in no gift," and they were " called unto the fellowship of God's Son." It was not possible to get any higher than that. Everything that could be done was done for them 'on God's side. But on their own side they Were not " dead to sin," as Romans says they should have been; they did not walk in self-judgment.
The great subject of the Epistle is in 5:29: " That no flesh should glory in his presence." The point, therefore, that he presses between these verses, 9 and 29, is the cross. It is " Christ crucified," and that not in connection with sin; indeed, except in chap. 15., I do not remember that the word " sin " occurs in the Epistle; but it is " no flesh " is to glory, hence he dwells upon the cross: " We preach Christ crucified."
They were seeking wisdom; they Sought a Mental view of divine things. Wisdom was the great desire of the Corinthians. Hence it is, If you would have the wisdom of God you must reach it through crucifixion. It is " Christ Jesus, who from God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness; and sanctification, and redemption. That, according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." If you seek divine wisdom, wisdom of God, we preach Christ crucified; and if you learn Christ crucified, you then learn that He is the wisdom of God. They were looking for wisdom without the cross. He proposes to them wisdom through the cross. So he puts wisdom the first on the list.
In chap. 2. he opens out the subject more fully: " I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified." Now this is a very large subject. It is "Jesus Christ." It is no longer a subject but a person. The great aspect of His ministry, the specialty of it is " Jesus Christ, and him crucified." The more. you dwell upon this, the greater you find it. If you try and describe Jesus Christ you will find what an immense subject is before your mind. When you think of the person of the Son of God, you are lost. But when you bring this person down to a certain practical point, then that is a specialty. And that is what Paul does here.
In verses 5 to 10, he contrasts man's wisdom and God's wisdom, beginning with the former. And then comes the great point of his argument: But, before touching on this, just a word in explanation of the state of the Corinthians.
There are three steps in Christian infancy. The first is that everything that was against me is cleared away from the eye of God by the work of Christ; not a thing has God against me; He has placed me in His favor. That is the Epistle to the Romans. The second is that the Holy Ghost has come down and united me to Christ in glory. This is the Epistle to the Corinthians. The apostle was not at Corinth between writing his first two Epistles to the assembly there. What he speaks of in the second Epistle he had taught them when there. The third step is, that I go back to the cross of Christ to get rid of, in myself, everything that hinders the life of Jesus in me. Many saints only get so far as the second step. They are like the children of Israel, who, when they came through the Red Sea, got a sense of perfect deliverance, but who, when they got to Marah, could not drink the bitter waters-those waters which only the tree, the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, could sweeten. Do you bring the cross into your circumstances? If you do, your selfishness goes out, and they become sweet to you. It was in this that the Corinthians had failed, they had not " suffered in the flesh."
The first point of the apostle's argument is, The wisdom of God cannot be reached by the natural mind. " Eye has not seen it.", How then can you glory in the flesh? It cannot reach it. You will see a person in the first stage of infancy trying by his natural mind to grasp and be an expositor of the great things of God, and, as the result, failure comes in. They have "not entered into the heart of man, but God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit." It is the most conclusive argument. If I cannot grasp the truth of God with the natural mind, then the natural mind is of no avail here.
The first' point then is, that the natural mind cannot grasp God's wisdom (chap. 3.); and the second, that if the material be not divine, the fire of God will consume it. Take care what you bring into the church. Let the builders see to it what they do. If anything of the flesh be brought into God's building, the day will destroy it. That carnal thing that is brought into the building, it will not stand the fire. I, as a builder, may bring in that which is not sound; if so, it will come to naught. If it be not divine work it will not stand the fire.
In chap. 4, the ministry itself is of God, and man only to be thought of as coming from God. If the ministry be of God, all those who are fruits of that ministry ought to be in keeping with it. But, says the apostle to the Corinthians, you are the very opposite of this; in plain language, you are not. a bit like your father; not at all like us; you are full, you are rich; God has set forth us, the apostles, as it were appointed to death. " We are fools for Christ's. sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honorable, but we are despised." " I beseech you, be ye followers of me." That they had not been. They were not like the stewards of the mysteries of God. Contrast yourselves with those that brought you the truth. See what you have got to through allowing the flesh to work. What they had lost by not bringing in the cross upon the flesh, by not going on to the third stage of Christian infancy: not only being clear before God, not only united to Christ by the Holy Ghost, but arming them: selves with the same mind (see 1 Peter 4).
In chap. 5. he turns to another side how their moral sense of what is due to God's house is lost. To show them how this sense had declined, he is actually obliged to give them a list of the people. from whom they must separate (v. 11.). Their moral sense had become so blunt through not judging the flesh, that they were content to go on in association with such. But if, Christ hag borne the judgment of the flesh, the flesh cannot be tolerated. The body really is to be the exponent here of the life of Christ; this body that used to be the exhibition of all the natural things of man's life, now becomes the exhibition, through divine grace, of the life and ways of the Lord Jesus Christ. He does not include in the list the worst characters; he does not say, you have no moral sense at all; for instance a murder is not mentioned; the grosser crimes are not alluded to. It is just a list to quicken their moral sense, but not one that supposes them entirely deficient of any.
Next comes out that, because they are wrong in their relations with God, they are not able to get on among themselves. Chapter 6 opens: "Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints? " They cannot judge the things of God in His own house, and, when all was so defective there, it was no wonder that they went to the world to settle their own private difficulties.
This leads to a very important truth at the end of the chapter, which is little known. " Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ?" The body is, the member of Christ.
Now the body is looked at in three aspects in Scripture. First: " In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die:" death is its portion. Second; the Son of God comes in and redeems it', so that that which Satan used to use as his own, Christ says is now mine. Therefore it is, "Glorify God in your body." The word " spirit" should not be read there. That we are members of the body of Christ is corporate truth; but that our body is the member of Christ is individual. Take care then what you do with your body; do not take it to a flower show; do not put a beautiful dress on it. We, in our bodies, are all members of Christ, but that does not make us members of one another. That which makes us members of one another is the baptism of the Holy Ghost; that makes us members of the body of Christ, which is another truth. Here it is my own individual responsibility to represent Christ. Thank God I am a member of the body of Christ too, but this framework of a body is not a member of the body of Christ, though it is a member of Christ, and is to express His life here below, and I am to receive according to the deeds done in it.
In chap. 7. comes failure in your own house. If you allow this dreadful intruder, the flesh, in, it will come out everywhere.
In chap. 8. they have fallen into the greatest snare that is possible, social intercourse mixed with false worship. It is Balaam. And the only cure for Balaam is Jordan: death. I say, I am a dead man; I cannot go to your feasts.
And now (chap. 9.), the apostle says, I go exactly in the very opposite way that you do. I might marry, but I do not; I might be paid for my services, but I am not; you—indulge yourselves, but I do not. I waive my rights;. those things that I might have I do not take. "I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection; lest that by any means, when have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway." A man might be greatly gifted and yet not be converted. They were boasting of their gifts, but, he says, Take care;-you might have wonderful gifts, and yet be lost. He has Shown them seven distinct ways in which they have given way to the flesh,-and he says, I do not ask you to do what I do not do myself; I show you that I waive even my positive rights, not indulgences. I reduce myself.. It is a path of self reducement that I may win others. Lastly, (chap. 10.), he adds, do not trust to your privileges; the children of Israel came out of Egypt and passed through the Red Sea, but their carcasses fell in the wilderness.
And now he turns the subject: " I speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say." I have shown you how foolish you have been not to judge the flesh, and now I speak to you as wise men. And mark where the start is from. It is from the Lord's table, not baptism, as in Romans, but the Lord's table; a word not used anywhere else in Scripture.
I turn to chap. 11 first, for many more saints understand the eleventh chapter than the tenth. Verses 23 to 26, each individual at the Lord's supper ought to know. The Lord comes into the midst of His gathered people. Man slew Him and turned Him out of the world. Now He says, I come back into the midst of my people to listen to the memories of my people, to see how they " remember me." Many spoil the Lord's day morning meetings by dwelling on the remembrance of what He did; but it is Himself, in what He did, that is before us. When the soul is awakened, first it looks at the death of Christ to get to Him. Now I have got to Him, I look back at His death, as the way in which he suffered for me. If a soul is at a distance from Christ, he is always dwelling upon His death as the way to Him; but if he is close beside Him, he thinks of how Christ went through that death for him. Many true hearted in themselves are occupied with thus remembering how Christ has cleared them before God, but such are deficient in the knowledge of grace. I am so at leisure from myself that I can be occupied not merely with what He has done, but with the One who has done it. So the twelve stones were placed on the other side of Jordan, not beside the Red Sea. I am on God's ground, on God's territory; there is not a single charge against me; and there I remember Him.
In chap. 10, it begins with the cup, not the bread first, as in chap. 11. It is the responsibility that is looked at here, and not so much the heart as in chap. 11, though the heart likes this too. In chap 11 you are very happy; and nine out of ten who are very happy at the Lord's supper have no sense of the responsibility as we find it in chap. 10. But if you are identified with the death of Christ here, how can you go on indulging the flesh? The Lord says to us: I am entitled to everything on the earth, but I give it all up for you; Well then, the soul answers, I can give it all up or Thee, and I have not a regret as I see human hopes all end. I used to be burdened with my own death; He has relieved me by His cross from that burden, and now I go about this world bearing company with his death. It is in the communion of the blood and of the body of Christ. This comes in as a corrective to the liberty and self-indulgence in which the Corinthians were walking.
In chap. 12 we have an entirely new subject; it is the Spirit now, no longer the flesh. It is all important to understand that at all times it is with us either the flesh or the Spirit. We may try to make excuses for ourselves, but there are but the two, and everything we do is either the one or the other. We start from the Lord's table on new ground; fellowship of the death of Christ; this is the responsibility of being at the Lord's supper.
The Corinthians were boastful of their gifts, and so they made way for the flesh. The flesh is in us; we are relieved from it by the death of Christ, but still it surrounds us; and notwithstanding this I am called to live out the life herein the Spirit. There is no excuse for walking in the flesh at all, because there is a greater thing in me than the flesh. We start here with this truth, but in reality we do not get practical life at all in this Epistle, or very little, for they are not up to it. When showing how they had been damaged by the flesh he just refers to their house, but that is all.
He starts then with, " There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord." Now there are diversities of gifts all over Christendom; gifts are to be found in every system where Christians are. Where then is the failure? It is in the administration. It 18 not enough to have gift; two other truths must be taken in connection with it. The same Spirit " gives. the gifts, but it is " the same Lord" who administers them. " The Lord" is for the individual. For instance, I might have been preaching in some other place this evening; I must know whether the Lord would have me here, and I must know whether the Lord would have me preach at all.
But in Christendom everything is upside down. I see a young man beginning to do some little service for the Lord; his delight is in visiting a poor sick old woman, reading to her, and leading her soul on in the things of God. Presently I hear that he has been sent out to China as a missionary. His gift is all right but the administration is wrong. Then I hear of another young man whose delight has been talking to navies in a lane, seeking to bring sinners to Christ; and presently I hear that he has been set as minister over a congregation in London. Just as if in a house where there are many different candles, I were to take a dip into the drawing room, and a wax candle into the stable. It is all wrong administration. You may have a gift, but the question is, are you using it in the right place?
Thus individually with the saints Christ is Lord;. when I speak of Him corporately, in connection with the church, He is Head.
Everything, even in my private life, should be determined by my relation to the church. If you are wrong in your relation-to the assembly, you will be wrong in your own house.
And if wrong at home you must be wrong in the assembly. The. assembly is the first circle of interest. In every Epistle it is so, Ephesians begins with " keeping the unity of the Spirit," and ends with the " servants " in the home. Romans in like manner. We begin with " one body in Christ," and end with " living peaceably with all men."
These gifts are " given to every man to profit withal; " not for his own profit, but for another person's. You have not only drunk into this Spirit for yourself, but for others; for the one body. See then, how. you -stand in relation to it.
When you come into the assembly your gift is a member of it, because you drop into the corporate thing; you leave your individuality, and become a member; it may be a month or an eye. If a man be a teacher he is a gifted member. He may, at any time, ask his fellow members to come together to hear what he has to say, but this is not in the assembly. The moment he comes into the assembly he is simply a member of the body, though a very useful one.
Suppose a man says, " I have been reading and enjoying during the week a portion in the 2 Chron; I will read it now." He is acting as an individual if at the time he is not consulting for the good of the assembly. Suppose he comes with a hymn marked in his hymn book ready to give out, he comes into the assembly as an individual, and not as a member. He says perhaps," I have it on my heart," but that is no reason for giving out a hymn. I hope sister's have hymns on their hearts as much as brothers. It was this thought that gave rise to Quakerism. Suppose he says " I thought there was a pause." A pause! Is that the way to minister in the assembly of God? It is little understood how responsible a thing it is to give out a hymn. To avail yourself of a silence without faith, is the most terrible thing, for it is intruding in the most holy place.
A stranger, in the power of the Spirit, will walk into an assembly, and bring Out the very truth that is needed in the place. He will not need 'to be told of the state of things there, indeed he will prefer not to hear it, for he will be guided. In all my service for Him, I may walk in the confidence that the Lord would have Me do it. You ask me why I give out such a hymn. I answer, Because the Lord would have me. And in all this I have a certain proof from Scripture whether it is so or not, and that proof is whether it edifies the body.
If you see a person very anxious to minister in the assembly, you may be sure that person does not know the responsibility of it. Those who really do know what a grave thing it is will more likely err on the side of timidity, though timidity may be as much nature as forwardness. By keeping back I may give an opportunity to some person who is not in the Spirit to make an intrusion.
In one way, there is nothing happier than being in a meeting where one is not called upon to take any part, for the sense of responsibility in a certain way checks one’s happiness. Of course, one is happy after it, but I mean at the time. But I would add that when taking no part it is not that one has no responsibility, but rather that the responsibility is in another direction, for hearing is as much responsibility as seeing; it is simply the difference between being an ear and a mouth for the body. So that sisters do not escape the responsibility.
Health in the body is when it is " fitly joined together, and compacted by that -Which every joint supplieth." To have health, both food and exercise are needed. If you say you do—not need gifts, then you do not need food; and if so, there cannot be health.
But while, as we have seen, when a soul is wrong in the assembly he will be wrong at home, it is equally true that if his own house be in a disorganized state he must bring wrong elements into the church. If he can but get right with God in the assembly, he will go back to his house and say, I can no longer allow things to be as they are; I have judged them in God's presence. There never was a man who was unfaithful to God that he was faithful to anyone. You may hear it said, " What a nice man So-and-so is, " but I tell you if he has been unfaithful to God, you need not expect that he will be faithful to you. If he does not love the greater, how can he love the lesser? The relations of a man with God in the assembly affect all his other relations.
There are then the two sides to the ministry in the assembly: there is the responsibility of caring for the Lord in His body, and there is the danger of intruding in His holy things.
In chap. 13. he goes on to say, while it is very good to have gifts, one who has them cannot in consequence take a prominent position, cannot take leadership; he must be the servant of the assembly, and nothing more. My eye is the servant of my body; it does not assume to lead my body. The more excellent way for this is charity. If we were divested of our own selfishness we should become useful to the assembly of God. Two or three things may perhaps occur to me to say in the church. I wait then on the Lord; I turn to Him to get His support, and then I do not trouble myself about how I shall get it out, how I shall express it. It is not a question of long prayers or long sermons. People often think that by making long prayers they shall make great impression. But, says the apostle, it is not the possession of gifts, but it is the getting rid of yourself that is charity. You are then like a well trained horse ready to go in any direction it is required; you have got rid of the selfishness which prevents your being useful to others, and in the grace of Christ you become a great benefactor. The most charitable man in the world is the man who is sell-divested. Charity is generally supposed to consist in doing for another that which he wishes; but charity in God's thought is removing from another. that which hinders his communion. If I remove a little worldliness from you, that is charity; also if I remove anything from myself that hinders my being useful to you, and I. cultivate all that will, that is charity.
I have not much to say on chap. 14, which is the working of the gifts in the assembly. One interesting thing we may notice in verses 23-25. The Holy Ghost is actually dwelling in the house of God on earth; but it is not the simple fact of His dwelling there that affects people; it is His activity in the house.
A teacher is one who expounds the word. A prophet is one who brings out the character of the word so as to expose one to oneself. It is the opening out of the word so lucidly and so effectively that the heart is searched by it. It is not great eloquence there may be nothing very striking or stirring in what is said, but people are nevertheless subdued into quietness and Attention, listening, and the conscience is reached. Let everything be done to edifying is the great point of chap. 14.
In chap. 15 a very important thing comes out. The apostle goes into the exposure and correction of the heresy that was held in Corinth. This heresy is very current in Christendom without being openly avowed. All self-indulgent. people hold it without avowing it. They may profess to believe in resurrection; but that this very same body in which they now indulge self, shall one day stand before the judgment-seat of Christ to receive all that has been done in it, that they do not believe. In this very body, though not in its present state, we shall receive from Him the reward of all that has been good, whilst all the bad will be burnt up. But man's thought is, "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." " The people sat down to eat and drink, and-rose up to play." Paul does not say a word about the idol that was in their midst; he just says it was something that was not God.
As to the beginning of the chapter we read " I delivered unto you first of all that which. I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures." Many- evangelists stop here, but this is not all: " And that he was buried," to show that He was actually dead; " And that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures." It is not only that He died, but that He was buried, and that He rose again according to the Scriptures. Now " If Christ be not raised ye are yet in your sins," " But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept."
And then comes the question, "What body?" I only touch it for a moment. " That which thou sowest is not quickened except it die; and that which thou sowest, thou sowest not the body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat or of some other grain; but God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him." You lay the seed in the ground and the grain comes up as we see it. So, though you are raised in a different way, it is still the same thing that comes up. So he goes on, " To every seed his own body as one star differeth from another star in glory, so also is the resurrection of the dead." Not that there are different states of glory, but that there are different Conditions in which you may be in that glory. Not that there are varieties of glory, not " different degrees " of it, as people say, but that there are distinctions in it. There are natural bodies and there will be heavenly ones. It is the same body, the same person come up again in a new condition. I cannot explain it to you, but I see in the Lord Himself in resurrection a body that can walk in through closed doors, "that can pass any way, and yet there are the marks in His hands and His side. And we shall be like Him. " In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and- the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." If Christ were to come into this room at this moment we should all have spiritual bodies: " When he shall appear we shall be like him, and we shall see him as he is."
In chap. 16 we get a little, but very little, practice; and that connected with the church. He lays down a general rule as to collecting for the saints. If this laying by as God prospered had been carried out, it would have prevented any accumulation of wealth. It is sometimes asked where there is Scripture for handing round a box. I say here it is. I have here a general principle. It is always those at a distance from God who want direct precepts for everything. There may at times be reasons why people are unable to give, but I have no doubt it is the mind of the Lord that there should be a weekly gathering. This was for saints at a distance, but if for those at a distance how much more for those who are near? If -I do not care for those who are near to me, I certainly shall not for those at a distance.
He lastly presses on them to respect the ministry of God, and also lets us into a very interesting thing connected with his own private history: that, while he would not be a recipient from the Corinthians as an assembly, as a whole, he was glad of the coming of Stephanas, who was a Corinthian, and who ministered to him. An individual going on faithfully with God is not shut out from happy individual service because of the state of the assembly in which he is.
The Lord lead us to see what a blessed place it is to be in the assembly, to belong to His body here on earth.
(J. B. S.)