The First Epistle to the Corinthians

This epistle was written during the apostle Paul’s long stay at Ephesus, of which we read in Acts 19; this was about twenty-five years after the crucifixion of the Lord. The Apostle had now been away from Corinth two or three years, and many things in the young assembly there, were not what they should be, the more important of these are discussed in the Epistle. This gives First Corinthians a character very distinct from that of the Epistle to the Romans.

It is well for us who are living in the last days of God’s present dealings with man, that all of the evils existing in the Church—and the world too—have been delineated in the Scriptures, together with clear directions for the guidance of His saints in regard to them. This was part of the divine design in giving us the Word of God, as we may gather from such widely separated passages as Josh. 1:8; Psa. 119:105; 2 Tim. 3:13-17. May it please Him to bless to us our study of this Epistle.

1 Cor. 1:1. Paul’s calling as an apostle of Jesus Christ was through (or by) the will of God. He had, and needed, no certificate from men, with such a calling as this. Writing to the Christians in Galatia (Gal. 1), the Apostle said, “But when it pleased God....to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the heathen, immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood; neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me....”

And in the twelfth chapter of this Epistle we are taught that “God hath set some in the Church, first, apostles, secondarily prophets,” and so as to other gifts. Neither the Church nor any man or men has divinely conferred authority to appoint the Lord’s servants.

What was an apostle? We may turn to Luke 6:13, where out of His disciples the Lord chose twelve, “whom also He named apostles.” Again, in Acts 1:2, we read of His having, through the Holy Ghost, before His ascension, given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen. Paul was not, however, one of the twelve; his appointment was made by the glorified Christ (Acts 26:16-18), and the field of his service was among the Gentiles, while the twelve, including Peter, were sent to the Jews. “Apostle” is from the Greek, and means one sent forth. From 1 Corinthians 9:1, it is evident that an apostle must have seen the Lord, and in 2 Corinthians 12:12, Paul writing of himself said, “Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs and wonders and mighty deeds.” Timothy and Titus were given special appointments by Paul (1 Tim. 1:3-4; Titus 1:5), but in Acts 20:17-35 not the slightest ground is afforded those who would claim apostolic succession. The apostles had no successors; if our reliance is on the Word of God.

Sosthenes, the brother named in the first verse: who was he? It has been thought that he may have been the man spoken of in Acts 18:17, as the chief ruler of the Corinth synagogue, the successor of Crispus (Acts 18:8); in that case we must suppose that Sosthenes, like Crispus, became a believer and gave up his position in the synagogue, and also that he accompanied or followed Paul to Ephesus. It is at least plain that the Sosthenes of 1 Cor. 1:1 must have been known in Corinth. In all of Paul’s Epistles addressed to assemblies (churches), except that to the Ephesians, he links one or more with himself at the beginning, but this does not mean that these shared with him the authorship of the letter.

1 Cor. 1:2. As the contents of the Epistle are studied, the form of the address in this verse is better understood. It is not, as in the preceding letter, “To all that be in Rome” (or in Corinth) “called to be saints,” or saints by calling; but, first, “Unto the Church of God which is at Corinth,” that is, to God’s assembly there. In Ephesians 2:22 it is said of believers, “In Whom” (Jesus Christ) “ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit;” and in 1 Timothy 3:15, “....the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground” (base) “of the truth.”

When the unbelief of the Jews was fully displayed after that the Lord had given them full proof of His Messiahship in both works and word, He foretold the building of His Church, (Matt. 16:18); and in Acts 2, after His cross and His being received up into glory, the Holy Spirit came down and formed all believers into one body, the Church. “Church” is a word of several meanings in the world nowadays; it may be a building, or the congregation meeting in it; or again, it may be a “denomination.” In the Scriptures, with but one exception—Acts 19:37—where heathen temples are referred to, the word translated “church” is a Greek one which means, “that which is called out,” or simply an assembly, the assembly, formed and indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

“Sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints,” or saints by calling, is the second part of the address or superscription of the Epistle. The word “sanctified” (set apart) here refers to the character before God of those addressed; they were separated to God in Christ Jesus.

And so are you, dear young Christian; set apart for God in Christ; detached from the world which once was your all. It stirs the heart; it speaks moreover to one’s conscience; this position, this character, which God has given to every believer in His Son. It is well for us when progressive sanctification is going on within the breast. Turn the leaves of your Bible to the Lord’s prayer in John 17, and reading John 17:15-17, let them sink down into your heart; engrave them upon the tablets of your mind. Young Christians and old ones are progressively sanctified—made holy in their daily living—through feeding upon the Word of God. Do not neglect the Scriptures.

The third part of the superscription of this Epistle is wide in its extent, taking in all everywhere, who profess to be Christ’s, whether true or false:

“With all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours.”

The Scriptures, it is well known, are for all believers (2 Tim. 3:16-17), but it is clear that the latter part of verse 2 in our chapter was designed by God, in view of the disregard by many Christians of no small part of the doctrine of this Epistle, expressly to show that the whole of it is binding upon all.

1 Cor. 1:3 brings in the message found in most of the Epistles, addressed in tender love to the children of God who are in the world, in all sorts of circumstances and trials: “Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.”

What a word of comfort and cheer from our Father and our Lord! It is not a promise to take away our distresses and troubles, but the assurance of divine favor and peace to carry us through them all until we leave this world. And what manner of persons ought we to be who are so favored!

1 Cor. 1:4-8. With much to speak of in condemnation, the Holy Spirit, by the Apostle testifies first in these verses of what was good. Paul could thank God—“my God”, as he says, writing from much knowledge of Him—always on behalf of His saints at Corinth, for the grace of God bestowed on them by, or in, Christ.

What this grace of God was that had been given the Corinthian saints is unfolded in 1 Cor. 1:5-7. Many, we are told in Acts 18:8, of the Corinthians hearing, believed, and were baptized, but here we learn that the Holy Spirit had followed that initial work of faith in them with further evidence of His power. They had been given the truth of God, and ability to make it known. As another has said, they were rich in every sort of expression of the truth and all knowledge, in what was preached or taught, as well as in apprehension, so that they came behind in no gift. And, it is added, they were waiting for, not exactly the coming, but the revelation (see marginal note in your Bible) of our Lord Jesus Christ.

You will have noticed that the Apostle is silent as to some things which mark happy Christians, children of God going on in communion with the Lord. Not a word about love, or grace, or faithfulness, or the proper Christian hope—the coming of the Lord for His heavenly saints, found in 1 Cor. 15:51-52. True, they had not been told how He would come, but every Christian heart is taught of God to look and long for the Lord to come, to wait for His coming when we shall be with and like Him in His own heavenly home, the Father’s house above. The “revelation” the Corinthian believers waited for, took in no more, it would seem, than that the Lord is hidden now, but will be revealed to sight; which of course is true; every eye shall see Him (Rev. 1:7).

1 Cor. 1:8 adds that the Lord “shall confirm you unto the end, blameless (if not now, then) in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Precious, comforting word!

1 Corinthians 1:8-17

The day of our Lord Jesus Christ, spoken of in 1 Corinthians 1:8, brings before the Christian’s mind God’s answer to His Son’s rejection by Israel and the world at large. The present is “man’s day” and that term is actually used in 1 Corinthians 4:3 (New Translation); but the Scriptures abound in assurance that the day of man’s rule is to be presently superseded by another day, another order of things, in which God will carry out what He has long purposed. Fifty-one times in the New Testament the term “day” is used with reference to what is to come, as “that day,” “the day of redemption,” “the day,” etc.

It is evident from these passages that this promised “day” has three distinct characters; first, in point of time will be the day “of our Lord Jesus Christ” as in the eighth verse of our chapter. It is called “the day of the Lord Jesus” in 1 Corinthians 5:5 and in 2 Cor. 1:14; “the day of Jesus Christ” in Philippians 1:6; “the day of Christ” in the tenth verse of that chapter, and in the 16th verse of the second chapter. This “day” will be heavenly in its sphere, beginning with the resurrection morning when we shall go to be with the Lord.

“The day of the Lord”, so much the theme of Old Testament prophecies, and named in 1 Thess. 5:2; 2 Thess. 2:2 (N.T.) and 2 Peter 3:10, will begin when He descends to the world to overthrow the wicked and begin His millennial reign.

“The day of God” (2 Peter 3:12) is at the end of the scenes of judgment, after the great white throne (Rev. 20:11-15). Then there will be new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness will dwell, the old creation, everything on which the unbelieving have rested, being dissolved and passing away. Here begins the eternal state, in which the kingdom, hitherto under the Lord’s dominion, will be given up to God the Father (1 Cor. 15:24).

1 Cor. 1:8 in our chapter suggests a reference to Jude 24; Eph. 5:7 and Rev. 19:5-9, which will have their fulfillment before the Lord descends from heaven to earth to begin His promised reign (2 Thess. 1:7-10; Rev. 19:11-21 and 6).

Every believer will be blameless in the day of Christ, because of the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. The Christians at Corinth were very blameworthy when the Apostle wrote, as he proceeds to show them from this first chapter and all through the Epistle; but he can speak to them of God’s faithfulness: God is faithful, though they were not; and by Him they had been called unto the fellowship, or communion, of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

You and I, too, dear young Christian, just as truly as the Corinthian believers of Paul’s day, have been spoken to by God concerning the fellowship of His Son. “Called,” in verses 1, 2 and 24, “calling” in verse 26, speak of the Christian’s vocation, but “called” in the 9th verse is used in quite a different sense, referring to an invitation, or we might say, a designation, from God for each of His children, to share in all the precious and holy fellowship of His beloved Son. Fellowship began as soon as the Church was formed by the descent of the Holy Spirit, as we see from Acts 2:41-42. It is linked with the death of Christ, and in the Lord’s supper it finds expression, as it is said in the tenth chapter of this Epistle: “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion (or fellowship) of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread (or loaf) and one body, for we are all partakers of that one bread.”

Fellowship is, as, another has said, having a part together with Christ, and in the blessings that are with Him.

These verses, 4 to 9, have brought before us very briefly the most singular favor of our God to His children. The subject is dwelt upon in far greater measure in the Epistle to the Ephesians, but the state of the believers at Corinth was such that the Holy Spirit, instead of bringing before them the glories of Christ and their own highly privileged place in God’s sight, had to address them strongly about their bad ways.

Verses 10 to 13 set out the first of the offenses, at Corinth. As yet it was only a party forming within the Assembly, but it was, as we know from what has taken place in Christendom, the beginning of a very great evil. God, who knew all from the beginning, all that would form the history of His Church here on earth, foreseeing the legion of sects and divisions that have developed, wrote by the Apostle the words which are before us in these verses. It is impossible to avoid their direct application; no words could be more plain, no instruction more precise.

In 1 Corinthians 14:37, we have this arresting statement: “If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord.”

These verses come to us therefore with all the authority of the Lord Jesus—to us, and not only to the saints at Corinth in Paul’s days, because, as we have already seen, the second verse of the Epistle takes in every Christian everywhere.

If 1 Corinthians 1:10 were regarded as the Word of God for today, by the many thousands of believers who are united with sectarian bodies and other divisional groups and parties, should they not make diligent search in order to learn the true path for faith, which is assuredly to be found from the Scriptures? There is one body and one Holy Spirit, and Christians are to endeavor (or use diligence) to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Eph. 4:3-4). Where He has liberty in every heart and conscience, verse 10 of our chapter is fulfilled.

It was through members of a woman’s household that the Apostle learned of the contentions within the Church of God at Corinth (1 Cor. 1:11). The entire company of the saints had entered into a party spirit; some were boasting of being “of Paul”; others “of Apollos”; yet others “of Cephas” (Peter), and lastly, and probably the most boastful of all, there were those who professed to be “of Christ,” as of a superior grade of sanctity. How pointed is the comment in the thirteenth verse: “Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?” Thus was the folly of their party-forming exposed.

Whenever a difference of opinion develops among the saints of God, it is plain that one or the other must have erred; perhaps, indeed, both are wrong. The infallible, unerring Word of God is in the hands of each of us as the only Guide Book of the children of God, and the Holy Spirit is present to apply that Word (John 16:13). Instead of resorting to argument and contention, the saints will, if they are subject to God and His Word (Acts 20:32; 2 Tim. 2:15, 3:15-17) resort to earnest and continued prayer, and in His time they will learn what is of Him. Then division, if it occurs, will be for Christ’s glory in the separation of the saints who are guided by the Word of God from those who are set upon a course of their own choosing.

The Apostle thanked God that he baptized none of the Corinth believers but Crispus and Gaius, and the household of Stephanas; he did not know if he had baptized any others. The twelve were commissioned to baptize (Matt. 28:19); not so was the Apostle to the Gentiles, although he baptized on occasion, and we are expressly told that the believers at Corinth were baptized (Acts 18:8).

Indeed, no other of the apostles was given to make known what is involved in baptism so fully as was Paul (Rom. 6:3-4; Gal. 3:27; Col. 2:12).

His work was the preaching of the good news of God’s grace, and this not in wisdom of words, that the cross of Christ might not be made vain (1 Cor. 1:17).

1 Corinthians 1:17-31

Paul’s commission from the ascended Lord is given in Acts 26:12-18, and his sending forth in His service is recorded in Acts 13:1-4. Galatians 1:1,11-24 should be referred to, also, as showing more fully the character of his commission.

He was not to preach with “wisdom of words;” so, as the Apostle wrote in the opening verse of the second chapter, “I, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God;” and in the fourth verse, “and my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.” In the 20th verse of the first chapter, the inquiry is made, “Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?” These are sobering considerations, particularly for the unsaved, but also for believers. God has not made the gospel of His grace palatable to men; the issues are the solemnest, involving the soul’s eternal destiny.

If the preaching were calculated to please the unsaved hearer, it might well be with wisdom of word—human wisdom; but the cross of Christ would be made vain. And what, dear young Christian, is involved in the cross of Christ? You will answer, I am sure, first of all, O, it was there that He died for my sins! This is the language of faith. We take our place solidly on such Scriptures as Romans 5:8, “But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us;” and 1 Corinthians 15:3 “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.”

And as we prayerfully ponder, with open Bible, upon the cross of Christ, we see that the issues dealt with there are many, indeed. Let us begin with reverence, from God’s side, as we view by faith what came out of the death of the Holy Sufferer. We see there the great love of God for the sinner; it is immeasurable. John 3:16 comes to mind with those familiar words,

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

We see, too, in the cross of Christ, God’s holiness, and His hatred of sin; for sin was judged there. Isaiah had written prophetically of Christ on the cross (chapter 53:6), that Jehovah hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all; and we are allowed by the Holy Spirit in Luke 22:41-44 to see the Holy One in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night of His betrayal, anticipating in His soul that time—the three hours of the next day when he was the Sin Offering, bearing the judgment of those who trust in Him.

Matthew (27:45-46), and Mark (15:33-34) record the occurrence of that solemn scene, for which David was inspired to write Psalm 22. God “spared not His own Son” (Rom. 8:32); the judgment of our sins, their full penalty, must be and was borne by Him. There Zechariah’s prophecy was fulfilled: “Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, and against the Man that is My Fellow, saith the Lord of Hosts” (Zech. 13:7).

And where did the grace of Christ shine out so much as when He was crucified? (Phil. 2:5-8; 2 Cor. 8:9). What believer could be unmoved by the Saviour’s humiliation and grace as he reads the accounts of the crucifixion in Matthew or Mark, Luke or John?

We have to consider, too, how that God was infinitely and eternally glorified in Christ on the cross. (John 17:4; Heb. 10:5-9; Rev. 1:4-5; Heb. 1:2-4; Col. 1:12-20; 2 Cor. 4:6). These passages are indicative; the body of Scripture is one united whole in setting forth the truth that in the death of Christ, God has been glorified as in no other way could He have been so fully.

And as to Satan, that old serpent, the devil—the cross of Christ marked the culmination of his supreme effort against the blessed One. Matthew 2:1-18 tells of Satan’s first attempt against Him, using Herod, the Idumaean ruler of the Jews for the purpose; and Matthew 3:1-11 with Luke 4:1-13, his second. Satan, we are told in Luke 22:3, entered into Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, before he went to the Jewish leaders to bargain for the betrayal of his Master; though unseen, he was present at the passover meal, actuating Judas to deliver up Christ that very night (John 13:27), instead of after the religious services of the period were over (Matt. 26:5); and we may be sure that Satan was in the garden of Gethsemane, in a last effort to turn Jesus away from the death which now lay immediately before Him. In Luke 22:53 the Lord, speaking to those who had come out there to take Him said, “this is your hour, and the power of darkness”—the hour for the Jewish leaders, and for Satan, united against the Son of God. Thus it was that Satan bruised His heel, but it will ere long be revealed that Satan’s head (a vital spot) as the result of the cross, is crushed (Gen. 3:15).

Satan is a vanquished enemy, since the cross; and believers are delivered from his power (Col. 1:13; Heb. 2:14-15). The day is near when he will be cast out of the heavens (Rev. 12:7-12); after which he will be shut up for a thousand years (Rev. 20:1-3), and finally will be cast into the lake of fire—hell (Rev. 20:10), the place prepared for him and his angels (Matt. 25:41), where also—solemn thought -all the rejecters of Christ will spend eternity.

Let us next consider man in relation to the cross of Christ. Our first parents lost the place of innocent happiness in a sinless sphere when Satan appeared with his guile (Gen. 3). About 1650 years afterward, God, seeing that “the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually,” cleansed the earth by a flood. Then, without profiting from the lessons of the past, men plunged more deeply into sin (Rom. 1:21-32). As to Israel’s chosen race, Acts 7:2-53 gives God’s account of their history, dark and growing darker as it went on.

John 1:10-11 speaks of the presence of His Son in the world, and His rejection. The inspired pens of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John bring out much of the effect of His presence among men, and describe the awful wickedness of those who united in putting Him out of the world. “They hated Me without a cause.” This came out in its fullness at the cross, Jew and Gentile uniting in His humiliation and crucifixion.

But all that is of man was judged at the cross. It was not to one recognizable in the world as a wicked person, but to a choice specimen of the race (as far as the Scriptures afford us light on him), that the Son of God said (John 3:3), “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 15:50) is to the same end: “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption” (or incorruptibility, N.T.) So also in Romans 3:9-18 is it said, “We have before proved (or “charged”, N.T.) both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; as it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one...and the way of peace have they not known; there is no fear of God before their eyes.”

So all the pretension of the natural man to a secure position before God is judged in the light of the cross. From the finest in one’s own esteem, or in the estimation of one’s fellows, to the lowest reprobates of town or country, all are condemned in the Saviour’s death. You will see this in figure, in illustration, in Numbers 19:6, where “cedar wood and hyssop”—the loftiest, finest tree of the forest, and the commonest weed of the Holy Land—were to be burned together with the sacrificed red heifer.

The subject of what is involved in the cross of Christ which has thus been before us has been only touched upon; may its prayerful study be blessed to the Christian reader.

Verse 18: “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.”

Have you not seen the proof of this? There is no doctrine more offensive to the natural mind and heart than this. But mark the two classes into which the human race is here divided: “them that perish,” and “us who are saved.”

Is there something then for me, a believer, to take pride in as being of a superior class by nature to my unbelieving neighbor? O, no! verse 29 distinctly says, “that no flesh should glory in God’s presence;” and the last verse of our chapter, “He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.”

1 Corinthians 1:18-31

“To them that perish, foolishness; but unto us which are saved, the power of God.”

How vivid is the contrast in the 18th verse! The subject is what God has done to effect salvation for men and women, for boys and girls; the one and only way whereby He could deliver anyone from the penalty of sin. And this blessed story of the cross is treated by many, when they hear of it, as foolishness! It is this to “them that perish”—those who are lost!

But God be praised that you and I, dear young Christian, have had our eyes opened to see that the word of the cross is the very power of God on our behalf, for salvation free and eternal!

The nineteenth verse calls to our attention the prophetic statement in Isa. 29:14, where it is said “The wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.”

These words are written with direct application to unbelieving Israel, but they are, as quoted in our chapter, of wide application. The Spirit of God is, undertaking here to show that the wisdom of man is incapable of dealing with the things of God. It has been said that not a single thought of God ever enters into man’s mind by intellect; it is always by conscience.

Isaiah 33:18 is reflected in the twentieth verse in the inquiry after the wise and other leaders of the world who leave God out of their thoughts, the Spirit here adding, “Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?” (1 Cor. 1:20). He has, indeed, and the next verses proceed with the evidence of it. Let us ponder them well.

Since, in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know Him, He was pleased, through the foolishness (as the world reckons it) of the preaching to save those who believe. Such is the plain declaration of 1 Cor. 1:21. It takes us back in thought to the time when sin came into the world (Gen. 3); and as we examine the inspired history of mankind down through the ages, whether in Gen. 3-6 or thereafter, we see that after sin entered, God left man to pursue his way alone, though not without communications from Himself from time to time.

Cain, the murderer of his brother, with his descendants, established a little world of their own (Gen. 4:16-22), and though that came to an end at the flood, the same order of things took fresh root in the renewed earth. It has continued unchanged in character to the present hour, morally at a distance from God. John 3:16-17 gives us that precious statement that “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” It is the preaching of the cross that God uses for the salvation of all who believe.

The Jews wanted signs (Matt. 12:38-39; 16:1-4; etc.) but were blind to the many signs which the Lord gave that He was Israel’s Messiah, come according to the terms of the Scriptures. And the Greeks sought after wisdom; this is well known as one of the boasts of ancient Greece, and the writings of their philosophers are still studied in modern schools of learning.

But, setting aside altogether the opinions and the reasonings of men, God caused Christ crucified to be preached—to the Jews a stumbling block, for they looked for a Messiah to come in power and glory; and to Gentiles foolishness, completely contrary to all their intelligence and wisdom. However, to those who are called, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is revealed as the power of God and the wisdom of God.

The foolishness of God—see 1 Cor. 1:18—is thus wiser than men; and the weakness of God—and did not the crucifixion and death of Christ have the appearance of weakness on God’s part, that He should permit His creatures to so treat His Son?—is stronger than men (1 Cor. 1:25). Eternally we shall admire the whole plan and design of our salvation; how worthy of God it is, and what a display of love and grace and mercy and wisdom and power is involved in it!

That the lesson of the entire worthlessness of human wisdom before God might be brought home to the believers at Corinth, they are next invited (1 Cor. 1:26) to look at their calling. Were there many in the assembly there, or in other places known to them, that were wise according to flesh; many powerful; many highborn? No; such were few among their number. Was this then, which skeptics of that day no doubt (as in this day also) pointed to as a reproach upon Christianity, a token of weakness in the scheme of the gospel? No; it was part of the very purpose of God. This is declared in the three following verses.

God has chosen the foolish things of the world that He might put to shame the wise, and the weak things that He might put to shame the strong things; and the low-born things of the world, and those despised,

He chose; and the things that are not, that He might bring to naught the things that are; so that no flesh should boast before Him. We can but own the wisdom of God in this, rejoicing when we learn of any of the world’s great ones as confessing Christ as their Saviour; thankful that He has said “not many,” rather than “not any” in 1 Cor. 1:26.

And now the closing verses of the chapter engage us, presenting for the believers consideration another part of God’s dealings. “But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus.” What a stupendous fact to engage our souls is this! Another has aptly said, concerning the verses before us,

“I am of God, and I have my wisdom and righteousness, and sanctification and redemption of God, all in Christ. I am of God in Christ, and have all there of God in Christ. It comes from Him; it is not my thinking about Him. And so man is totally set aside; flesh is put down.
“The world by wisdom was not to know God, but I am in Christ as a new being, a new creature, created again; and I have wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption all in Christ.
“These verses are a remarkably full statement of what a Christian is, with full redemption itself at the end—body and all.”

1 Corinthians 2

The Apostle is continuing the subject begun in the latter part of the first chapter—human wisdom, and what man glories in. When he had come to Corinth a few years before with the gospel, his preaching was not with excellent words or the wisdom that appeals to the natural mind; philosophy had no place in it. He had determined to know nothing among those who heard him, but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. This was the theme of the Apostle as he spoke from day to day to the people of Corinth: not the glorified, but the humble, the despised, Christ, and Him nailed to a cross to die. Just before this he had been in the near-by city of Athens, the great center of learning of that day; and only a few there had believed.

What a change had taken place in Paul since his conversion! He “was before a blasphemer and persecutor and an insolent, overbearing man,” as he said in his First Epistle to Timothy, (1 Tim. 1:13 JnD), but in Corinth he was with his hearers “in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling” (1 Cor. 2:3). This was the way of God’s power.

We may gather from Acts 18 that Paul was for some time in Corinth without finding many to receive the Word of God which he brought to them. It was then that he got a cheering message from his Master, as we read in the 9th and 10th verses:

“Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace; for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee; for I have much people in this city.”

The Apostle’s message from God made nothing of man; man, indeed, was set aside altogether in his preaching, “and my word and my preaching, not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not stand in men’s wisdom but in God’s power” (1 Cor. 2:4-5 JND). Of the Holy Spirit the Lord had said, when soon to depart from the world, “And when He is come, He will reprove (or bring demonstration to) the world of sin, and of righteousness and of judgment” (John 16:8).

Such was His work in power in human souls at Corinth, causing the Word of God as ministered by the Apostle Paul to reach the heart and the conscience of many. God be praised that this work of the Holy Spirit is still going on, and is finding lodgment in human breasts today!

1 Cor. 2:6, in its first clause is somewhat of a reflection on the believers at Corinth, as may be seen by referring to the opening verses of the next chapter, where the Apostle speaks more plainly. “Them that are perfect” as used here, means those that are of full age, as in Hebrews 5:14, where the same Greek word is employed. The Corinthian saints were not full grown, but babes in Christ, because they had not entered into the doctrine of the cross whereby man in the flesh is judged; the cross of Christ marks the end of man judicially before, God. All that flesh could glory in, is there brought to naught.

“Them that are perfect,” these are those who are in a Christian state, who are established in the doctrine of salvation in Christ. Among such the Apostle could bring out far more than he had unfolded to the Corinthians. This was, wisdom not of this age, nor of the rulers of this age who come to naught, but the wisdom of God. It was “in a mystery,” because not made known before; kept secret through the preceding ages of time; for God had predetermined it before the ages, for our glory (1 Cor. 2:7 JND).

The Epistle to the Ephesians brings out this truth (Eph. 1:9; Eph. 3:3-5), and presents in its fullness that wisdom of God of which the Apostle speaks in his letter to the Corinthians. It is given to the Church, to God’s heavenly saints, brought by the Holy Spirit out of the world for Christ in the period between the cross and the meeting in the air now close at hand. Alas! that there are so few Ephesian Christians, the many remaining like the Corinthian Christians, as we see them in these chapters.

1 Cor. 2:8: None of the rulers of this age knew this hidden wisdom; if they had seen the glory of God in Christ, they would not have crucified Him who is the “Lord of Glory.” That is His present place; what a contrast the title presents with the ignominy and shame of His cross!

In 1 Cor. 2:9 the Apostle turns to Isaiah 64:4 to quote it as showing what is not the Christian state, for he immediately adds “But God hath revealed unto us by His Spirit.” Sometimes children of God mistakenly quote the ninth verse without what is attached to it in the tenth. We may be very slow to apprehend what God has done for His children, but the fault is our own; we ought to be in the knowledge and enjoyment of all of His truth.

The 10th and following verses tell of the operations of the Spirit of God, who is present on earth, indwelling believers, guiding and energizing them, etc., as is brought out in the 8th of Romans. By the Spirit, God has revealed unto us the things which He has prepared for them that love Him, which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have they entered into the heart of man. What marvels of God’s grace flow out to the believer because of the cross of Christ!

We have been told that God has revealed these hidden things to us by His Spirit; then it is added, “for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.” He alone is competent to do this, for He is God. In the case of man, used as an example in the 11Th verse, it is plain that only the spirit of the man knows his unrevealed thoughts; just so the Spirit of God alone knows the things of God, and searches them out, even the deep things of God. Turning to 1 Peter 1:10-12, we find a most interesting statement about the Old Testament prophets. As a result of writing by inspiration of a time of unexampled blessing to be brought to pass, connected with a suffering Messiah, they inquired and searched diligently...searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow; unto whom it was revealed that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things which are now reported unto you, etc.” It is the Spirit of God, present in the saints, Who searches, reveals, and communicates all the counsels of God.

Now, says the Apostle in 1 Cor. 2:12, we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. This is broadly true of all believers, but the subject here is what Paul and others to whom the truth of God was committed by revelation, had received.

“Which things also we speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, communicating spiritual things by spiritual means” (1 Cor. 2:13 JnD). So the Epistles give us the Holy Spirit’s words, God’s words, not man’s. The Spirit of God is the source and the communicator, the teacher. The natural man (1 Cor. 2:14) does not apprehend these communications of God’s counsels; they are folly to him. But the spiritual man (1 Cor. 2:15) “discerns all things, and he is discerned of no one” (JND.).

The chapter closes with a reference to Isaiah 40:13, “Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord (Jehovah), or being His counselor hath taught Him?” The answer to this challenge of the prophet follows: “but we have the mind of Christ.” We have not, as another has said, the divine mind abstractedly, but we, believers, have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, and through Him the revelation of the mystery (1 Cor. 2:7).

1 Corinthians 3

Three classes of mankind are here set before us: the natural man (1 Cor. 2:14), i.e., man animated merely by his created soul, without the teaching and power of the Holy Spirit; the spiritual man (1 Cor. 2:15), that is, the believer who walks in the Spirit (Gal. 5:16), and feels and judges in Him; and the carnal or fleshly (1 Cor. 3:1). The Corinthian believers were of the last class, as the Apostle here proceeds to make plain to them.

He could not unfold at Corinth the deeper truths which have so large a place in the Epistle to the Ephesians.

“And I, brethren, have not been able to speak to you as to spiritual, but as to fleshly, as to babes in Christ. I have given you milk to drink, not meat, for hitherto ye have not been able, nor indeed are ye yet able, for ye are yet carnal” (1 Cor. 3:1-2 JnD).

We may well conclude that the Apostle’s plain words were humbling indeed to the self-satisfied saints at Corinth; they were far from thinking of themselves as “fleshly,” as “babes in Christ,” given only “milk” to drink.

Let us apply what we have read to ourselves, young Christians: Is our state before God such that the Holy Spirit is hindered in seeking to communicate to us the precious truths concerning Christ in which other believers delight? The believers at Corinth were attracted by things of flesh: man’s wisdom, eloquence, ability; not realizing that these have no place before God. Another has truly said,

“Flesh delights in what is of man, as the Spirit gives to enjoy what is of God.”

May God give grace to the Christian reader to seek conformity to Christ, and to refuse whatever makes something of man as such.

If in the opening verses of our chapter an unpleasant truth is plainly stated in language chosen by the Holy Spirit, in the third and fourth verses a particularly evident proof of that charge is given: “For whereas there are among you emulation and strife, are ye not carnal, and walk according to man? For when one says, I am of Paul, and another, I of Apollos, are ye not men?” (1 Cor. 3:3-4 JND)

Their eyes were off Christ, and on man; emulation and strife, which are works of the flesh (Gal. 5:20) followed.

“Who then is Apollos, and who Paul. Ministering servants, through whom ye have believed, and as the Lord has given to each” (1 Cor. 3:5. JND).

Thus a second time, early in the Epistle, the Holy Spirit takes occasion to rebuke the party spirit which issued finally in sectarianism.

Making a center out of any servant of Christ, however devoted he may have been, is contrary to the Word of God which points to Christ alone as the gathering center for His people, as in the well known passage, Matthew 18:20. We can truly thank God for raising up servants to faithfully proclaim His truth (would that there were many more of them!), but we must never exalt the servant. May all such remember that what they possess that God can use, was given them, as this fifth verse itself tells—“as the Lord has given to each.”

1 Cor. 3:6: At Corinth, Paul had “planted;” the first work there was instrumentally in his hands, laboring where none had gone before, as he wrote to the saints at Rome (Rom. 15:20). Apollos, of whom we first learn in Acts 18:24, followed Paul in ministering Christ at Corinth, and “helped them much which had believed through grace,” as we are told in Acts 18:27. But, whether we look at the “planter” or the “waterer,” it is God that gives the increase.

Of what use would all the farming be that is carried on in the world—all the plowing and sowing, the planting, the fertilizing and irrigating and cultivating, if God did not cause what is planted to grow?

Just so is it in the preaching of the gospel, and the printing and distributing of tracts; in seeking the spiritual growth of God’s saints, too.

“So that neither the planter is anything, nor the waterer, but God the giver of the increase.”

The planter and the waterer are one; both are engaged in doing servant work; and they are, or should be, exercising the gift the Lord has given to each for His service. He alone is capable of forming the right estimate of the work of each, and each shall receive his own reward according to his own labor.

“For we,” says the Apostle, speaking of himself and Apollos, and all others who labor in His service, “are God’s fellow-workmen; ye are God’s husbandry, God’s building.”

The Apostle has to this point used the figure of planting and watering—of husbandry. Now the subject becomes one of building; and there is a marked increase of solemnity, evidencing the Spirit’s knowledge of what, through the failure of man in responsibility, would be introduced during the history of the professing church.

As a wise “master-builder” (architect), according to the grace of God given to him, Paul had laid the foundation, but the building thereon is done by others. Let each see how he builds upon it! For other foundation can no man lay beside that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

“Now if anyone build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones”—things of value, and that will endure – “wood, grass, straw”—perishable things, readily consumed in flames—“the work of each shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it is revealed in fire, and the fire shall try the work of each, what it is. If the work of anyone which he has built upon the foundation shall abide, he shall receive a reward. If the work of anyone shall be consumed, he shall suffer loss, but he shall be saved; but so as through the fire” (1 Cor. 3:12-15 JND).

This is very solemn indeed, in view of the many professed servants of Christ there have been all the way down from the beginning of the Church, and those that are so today; also it is plain, when their work is compared with the teachings of Scripture, that many have been diligent in building what will not survive the trial of God’s judgment in the coming “day.” Only believers are in view in these verses, but the 15th verse suggests the possibility that much, if not all, of the work of some, professedly done in the name of Christ, will be seen to be worthless in that day. Is it necessary to say that Christians in general are not in view in these verses, but only those who are building, as serving Christ—teaching, preaching, etc., and it is their work that will be tested; the salvation of their souls is not questioned.

1 Cor. 3:16. The presence of the Holy Spirit according to the promise of John 14:16-17 is what constitutes believers the temple of God; they are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit according to Ephesians 2:22. This truth, it is feared, is slighted by many, to their own loss. Badly prone we Christians are, to be content with the barest outline of what God’s Word reveals, instead of searching the Scriptures which are able to make us wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Not a single truth of God is ignored by, or lost to the sight of, believers without corresponding loss in the soul.

1 Cor. 3:17. What God values, and Christians are apt to be careless about, Satan, our great enemy, seeks to corrupt or destroy. Here the instruments employed are men or women who bear the Lord’s name, but are false professors; such will be dealt with according to the enormity of their deeds.

“If any man defile (or corrupt) the temple of God, him shall God destroy, for the temple of God is holy, which ye are, (or, and such are ye).”

The word for what is translated here both “corrupt” and “destroy” is one and the same in the original Greek. He who teaches evil doctrine, corrupts or destroys; such shall God destroy. Solemn, but who shall say not merited, judgment? Did some think it so? Let no man deceive himself. It is better to give up worldly wisdom, to become foolish in the eyes of the world, that one may be wise.

1 Cor. 3:19-20. This world’s wisdom is foolishness with God. Is it not remarkable how the Holy Spirit takes Old Testament passages as here from Job 5:13, in the lengthy speech of Eliphaz the Temanite to the poor suffering saint, and in Psalm 94:11 which refers to the coming kingdom, and applies them to the subject before Him?

The last three verses sum up the matter: Let no one boast in men, for all things, are ours through God’s grace, since we are His children. All are ours—the God-given ministers of His Word, and all circumstances, as the Apostle briefly recounts, both present and future; and we are Christ’s, as He is God’s—so to be eternally.

How little place these considerations sometimes have in the lives of God’s children! Let us seek with purpose of heart to give His Word far more place in our lives; so shall we find true happiness, and God will be glorified.

1 Corinthians 4

In the fifth verse of the third chapter, the Apostle had asked, “Who then is Apollos, and who Paul?” and answered, “ministering servants, through whom ye have believed, and as the Lord has given to each” (N. T.).

This they were, truly, and not to be exalted as though they were the sources rather than the channels, through whom salvation, and the blessings of the believer had come to once darkened souls in Corinth.

But the solemn considerations that have been before us in the later verses of the third chapter are fitly followed by the opening verses of the fourth,

“Let a man so account of us as (official or appointed) servants of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God (1 Cor. 4:1 JnD).

They were to be looked upon as Christ’s servants, commissioned by Himself, not by men; and as stewards of the mysteries of God-of the things which in other ages were not made known to the sons of men. In Deuteronomy 29:29 we read, “The secret (or hidden) things belong unto the Lord our God, but those things that are revealed, belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this, law.” What God then kept to Himself, He revealed after the cross of Christ, as is abundantly shown in Ephesians 1:9; Colossians 1:26-27, and kindred passages. The ways and purposes of God are unknown to the world, but have been revealed to His saints.

It will profit the young Christian much to turn to Rom. 11:25; 1 Cor. 2:7; 1 Cor. 15:51-52; Eph. 5:29-32; Eph. 6:19; Col. 4:3; 1 Tim. 3:8,16, and Rev. 10:7, and prayerfully examine these references to the things now made known to believers, which were held secret in the counsels of God from eternity until revealed to the Apostle Paul for the Church.

The responsibility of any servant or steward is to his master; he must be faithful to the trust reposed in him. If this is true in regard to a man’s responsibility to his employer, is God’s standard lower? By no means.

The third chapter has shown us the solemn issue before the servants of Christ in regard to their work (1 Cor. 3:13-15). They are His servants, not men’s; not the servants of the Church, but responsible to their divine Master alone in the exercise of their service. This is true of all who serve Him, though many do not believe it, and in a large part of the Christian profession, the rule is that the Church regulates the ministry-an open disregard of the Word of God. As saints, the servants of Christ are, of course, subject to discipline for bad conduct, and bad doctrine, just as any other saint, but in their service, apart from such evil, they are responsible to Christ alone.

Accordingly, the Apostle goes, on to say 1 Cor. 4:3-4),

“But for me it is the very smallest matter that I be examined of you, or of man’s day. Nor do I even examine myself. For I am conscious of nothing in myself, but I am not justified by this; but He that examines me is the Lord” (JND). The reference here is really not to judgment; but to a preliminary inquiry or examination. The believer will never come into judgment (John 5:24 JND), but will give account of himself to God (Rom. 14:12); will appear (or be manifested) before the judgment seat of Christ, and receive according to the things done in the body (2 Cor. 5:10). How important it is that we, young Christians and old Christians alike, should maintain always a good conscience before God! (1 John 1:7; 2:1; Titus 2:11-14; Col. 2:6-7).

The Apostle says that he was conscious of nothing in himself, yet that he was not justified by that; the conscience may be dulled by self-will and other things, if we are not careful to test everything we allow in our lives by the Word of God. “He that examines me is the Lord”, and His discernment is as perfect as Himself. If I am in a right state of soul, I shall quickly learn His mind in regard to the things I am going on with; but in any case I shall learn it fully in eternity.

The believer, then, is to judge nothing before the time, or prematurely, until the Lord shall come, Who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts; and then shall the praise be to each from God. We are not to impute motives (the counsels of the heart), or to speak or act upon what we do not know, on supposition. This is safe, and needed, to prevent discord easily occurring between saints of God without due cause. The Lord will at His coming, when trials and difficulties are forever behind His people, expose in the light all that was done in the dark so as not to be seen, and will make evident the counsels of the hearts that are not known now. Then, if there be found that which is praiseworthy, each will have his praise from God.

1 Cor. 4:6-7: The Apostle, in discussing himself and Apollos, had in mind the leaders who had set up themselves at Corinth to the damage of the saints there. He has shown what God’s servants ought to be, and as to himself and Apollos at least, what they actually were. How wrong it was to be puffed up, one against another!

“For who maketh thee to differ (or, who distinguisheth you?) And what hast thou that thou didst not receive.” But if what you have, you received, why boast as not having received? Thus does the Holy Spirit proceed to expose the folly of these saints at Corinth.

But there is more: “Already ye are filled; already ye have been enriched; ye have reigned without us; and I would that ye reigned, that we also might reign with you” (1 Cor. 4:8 JND). Through bad teaching at Corinth the true place of the Christian in the world had been lost, the present is not the time for reigning, but for following Christ in His path of rejection here. When He reigns, we shall reign with Him; it is of that time that the Apostle wrote, “I would that ye reigned, that we might reign with you.”

Shame surely must have mantled the faces of the Corinthians when they read what immediately follows, telling them of the place the apostles, and most of all Paul, had-the very opposite of their own attitude in the world.

“For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last” as appointed to death-a spectacle in the amphitheater of the world, unto angels and unto men. Christ crucified was the first and supreme spectacle: God’s Son rejected and cast out when come in grace, He who knew no sin being there made sin offering for us that we who believe might be made righteousness of God in Him. In his path of suffering the apostles trod, fools for Christ’s sake; weak; in dishonor; knowing hunger and thirst, nakedness, buffeting; become homeless wanderers, laboring, working with their own hands; railed at, persecuted, insulted, become as the offscouring of the world, the refuse of all. Nor had the passage of time, nor the gradual spreading of the gospel brought a change for the better to the Lord’s servants, for the circumstances to which the Apostle alludes continued, as he says, “even unto this present hour” (1 Cor. 4:11), and “unto this day” (1 Cor. 4:13).

And has the world changed, think you, since the Apostle’s days? Should the servants of Christ now court its favor, or seek a high place in it? Are they worthy of their Master when they do?

Paul has been called the pattern-servant of Christ, because he trod so closely in the path of his Master; because of his untiring devotedness, and the deep affection he bore to all the children of God. How tenderly he writes to the Corinthian saints, as in this chapter, concerning their faults! O, for more like Paul today, to seek out and restore the wandering sheep, to minister Christ to hearts growing cold toward Him!

Not to shame or chide them, did the Apostle write contrastively of the widely different positions in the world occupied by the Corinthian believers and himself; but as his beloved children he admonished them. For if they should have ten thousand instructors (child-guides, as it is in the Greek, which is here the origin of our English word pedagogues) yet not many fathers, for in Christ Jesus he had begotten them through the gospel, Therefore Paul beseeches his beloved children to be followers, or more exactly, imitators of himself.

For this reason he was sending Timothy, his beloved and faithful child in the

Lord, who would put them in mind of Paul’s ways as they were in Christ, according as he taught everywhere in every church (assembly). Of Timothy we first read in Acts 16:1-3, and to him was the Apostle’s last inspired letter written (2 Timothy) when his martyrdom drew near. Both this young man and the Corinthian Christians were called Paul’s “beloved children”, but in addition of: “faithful” was made in Timothy’s case, not in theirs; the reason for the omission in speaking of the Corinthians is not hard to seek.

May you, dear young Christian, be to God both a “beloved” and a “faithful” child, keeping His Word in heart and ways.

Some at Corinth had been puffed up, concluding that the Apostle shrank from coming there again; but he tells them that he will surely come, and quickly, if the Lord will; and he will know, not the word of those who are puffed up, but the power, for the kingdom of God is not in word but in power. What did they desire? that he come to them with a rod, or in love, and in a spirit of meekness? In the Second Epistle, Paul tells the Corinthians that to spare them he had not yet come there (1 Cor. 1:23).

1 Corinthians 5

The fifth chapter is the beginning of the second section of the Epistle, in which divine light is shed upon personal conduct in a variety of circumstances. The subject of this chapter is sin, and sin of such character that the guilty must be put away from among the gathered saints. We have already had some preparation for this in the third chapter, 1 Corinthians 3:16-17; and in our consideration of the second chapter reference was made to Ephesians 2:22: “In Whom (Christ) ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.”

From these and other passages it is plain that God views His children, not only in their individual responsibilities, but also in a collective or corporate responsibility; the Church or Assembly of God as seen in the Scriptures is not a voluntary banding together of professed followers of Christ, and its rules are not left to the wisdom of man; they are set forth in the Word of God. There is much ignorance, but the whole order and discipline of the Church are to be found plainly written in God’s Book, and to it alone should believers go for direction.

The Christians at Corinth had not long been delivered from the gross darkness of idolatry and its attendant evils, but the instruction they had received from the Apostle during his long stay there, with the priceless boon of the new nature conferred by God on all believers, should have kept them from the spiritual condition here revealed, if there had been an exercised conscience present. We learn from the Second Epistle, chapters 2 and 7, that through this First Epistle the consciences of the many were reached, and deep exercise followed, with resultant blessing.

“It is universally reported that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not even among the nations, so that one should have his father’s wife. And ye are puffed up, and ye have not rather mourned, in order that he that has done this deed might be taken away out of the midst of you” (1 Cor. 5:1-2 JnD). The charge was indeed a grave one, and its gravity was increased by the attitude of the saints toward the wickedness in their midst.

Instead of being puffed up with pride, which seems to have been the general state in the Corinthian Assembly (for this is the fourth time that the term has been applied in the Epistle) there should have been the deepest mourning. It is evident that they lacked instructions for dealing with sin in the Assembly, but regard for God and their own sense of what is wrong, should have led to earnest prayer that the guilty person might be taken away from among them. He would have answered their prayers either by removing the man, or giving the directions here laid before the saints by the Apostle. If a believer does not know what he should do when a problem arises, and the Word of God does not appear to afford an answer, let him pray; earnest prayer for guidance is certain to be answered.

Paul, absent in body, but present in spirit, had already judged as present, to deliver in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Corinthian saints and his spirit being gathered together with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ) the guilty man to Satan for destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus (1 Cor. 5:3-4). How solemn the decision! Here is an example of apostolic power added to the authority given to the Church (Assembly) of God by the Lord Jesus in Matthew 18:18-20:

“Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven....For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.”

It is the duty of the local Assembly to clear itself by putting away evil, but the power to deliver to Satan is not committed to it, though the Apostle and the Assembly are joined together in the action called for in the 4th and 5th verses.

In 1 Timothy 1:20 the apostle writes of Hymenaeus and Alexander whom he had delivered unto Satan, that they might learn not to blaspheme. What is meant by deliverance to Satan? We can form some idea of it from the first two chapters of the book of Job, where all that that saint had, was put in the adversary’s hand (Job 1:12), and afterward he himself was given into Satan’s power, except for his life (Job 2:6). It was for Job’s blessing, in removing from him pride and self-righteousness, that God acted as He did in the scenes spread out for us in the book.

The man of 1 Corinthians 5 was to be delivered to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that he might learn in the breaking down of his health, even to death, what sin is in God’s sight. And does God now deliver wayward children of His to Satan for their good? We may judge that He does, and pray that we may never be wayward. “That the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus”, at the close of the fifth verse shows that the putting of the sinning saint in Satan’s hands was for his ultimate blessing; God will never forego His purpose to bless His children, though He may have to chasten them sorely.

The Corinthian boasting was not good. Did they not know that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? The same expression is used in Galatians 5:9 in connection with bad teaching, as here in connection with conduct. Leaven is an unvarying symbol of evil in the Scriptures. We find it first mentioned in the 12Th and 13th chapters of Exodus, and it is referred to in seven passages in the New Testament. These seven passages are, Matt. 13 and 16; Mark 8; Luke 12 and 13; 1 Cor. 5, and Gal. 5; a profitable hour can be spent in examining them for the truth they unfold as to the secret working of evil in what God ordained. Sin is in the nature of man; and though believers have a new nature in which there is no sin, they retain the old nature while here on earth; but it is to be kept in the place of death; its operations never to be allowed.

Direction to the Corinthian Church or Assembly to “purge out the old leaven” follows, that they may be a “new lump”, according “as ye are unleavened.” No compromise could be made with sin, the “old leaven” of the old nature, which had found expression in the man here to be dealt with. The assembly was in its position before God as an unleavened lump; for He sees it in the new nature in Christ. It ought to be an unleavened lump practically, and by the power of the Holy Spirit; and it will be, so long as evil is refused, purged out when it is found to have entered. The result of persisting in the allowance of sin, after it has become known, and after all efforts to reach the consciences, of the saints have proved unavailing, must be that the local gathering is no longer recognized as an Assembly of God.

The last sentence of the 7th verse is more exactly rendered, “For also our pass-over, Christ, has been sacrificed.” There is in this and the following verse a reference to the passover appointed in Exodus 12 to be kept by the children of Israel. We do not look back as they to a sacrificial offering made in Egypt, whereby God passed over the Israelites when He executed judgment upon what represented the world of that day; instead, we look to Calvary, beholding there the Lamb of God dying for our sins. Israel could not unite the celebration of the passover in Egypt with leavened bread, because it typified sin. Nor can we “keep the feast”-unite in partaking of the bread and wine of the Lord’s supper-acceptably to Himself, if there be unjudged sin; it is to be accompanied with the “unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” This “keeping the feast,” it is plain, must necessarily include the constant practice in life and associations, of those who partake of the emblems, just as in the directions given to Israel in Exodus 12:15 for the passover period, “even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses,” and this was to continue for “seven days”-the whole week, signifying to faith that it must be continually before one’s soul that sin in all its branches and connections is judged.

1 Cor. 5:9. Not a previous epistle or letter is meant, but the present one. An exact translation would be, “I have written unto you in the epistle,” as in the eleventh verse it is said, “But now I have written unto you, etc.” It is a Greek form of expression, referring to what the writer is now presenting for the guidance of those to whom he is writing.

The saints of God should not keep company with fornicators; not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners or idolaters, since to do that they must go out of the world. It would not be possible to avoid mingling with persons in the world whose character is such. But for Christian associations, the line is drawn sharply in the 11Th verse: “But now I have written to you, if anyone called brother be fornicator, or avaricious, or idolater, or abusive, or a drunkard, or rapacious, not to mix with him; with such a one not even to eat” (1 Cor. 5:11 JnD).

This is very plain, and it is binding upon “all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Cor. 1:2); so that a company of professed Christians which does not enforce the rule here laid down, cannot be considered an Assembly of God. They thereby connect the name of the Lord with allowed sin. The list of sins, given in the 11Th verse is plainly not complete, but must be viewed as indicative; otherwise, for example, a murderer or a thief might be in the company of the gathered saints.

The last two verses of the chapter leave those outside to God. The Christian’s path is apart from the world, which he leaves as he finds it. God will judge and condemn the world bye and bye. But as to those within the Assembly, the Word is explicit: “Do not ye judge them that are within?” The saints may not be able to deliver wicked persons to Satan, but they are bound by the Word of God to put out from among themselves those who are found to be such in the light of His Word.

1 Corinthians 6

As we survey these chapters of First Corinthians, we may wonder why God allowed so much that is wrong and sinful, and dishonoring to Him, to develop in the early history of His Church. With the Holy Spirit present in the Church, and in believers, then as He is now, but in those days on occasion acting in power beyond anything we see in these closing days; with the apostles living and going about teaching and preaching; and amid freshness and spiritual energy far more manifest among Christians then than today, how was it that evil of all sorts came out in bud, if not in full flower, so that many pages and even entire Epistles of the New Testament had to be devoted to exposing and correcting these bad ways and wrong teachings?

The answer is not far off. Let us seek it in the Word of God itself. Turn to Acts 20, and read the chapter from the 17th verse to the end, noticing the important place that verse 32 has, following, as it does, the solemn prophecy of the 29th and 30th verses. Next, let us turn to 2 Tim. 3, wherein is much about the “last days” of which there is much evidence nowadays; here again, in the last four verses, the believer’s resource is seen to be the Bible:

“All Scripture... is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”

Other Scriptures may well be referred to in the same connection, but space here forbids. The testimony of all of them leads to the conclusion that God, who foresaw the evils that were to come, allowed all to appear in one form or another before the New Testament Scriptures were completed, in order that His children might find in the Book of Books that which would afford guidance for them when the early restraints upon the natural will would be gone. Christians are never to lose sight of their constant need for full dependence upon God, and prayer and His Word are their safe resource in days such as the present.

The early part of the 6th chapter takes up the subject of the setting right of wrongs in the affairs of life. Altogether out of place would it be for a believer to go to law to seek correction of some real or supposed injustice done to himself. Other weighty reasons for not seeking redress of wrong abound in other Epistles; here it was sufficient for the Holy Spirit, by the apostle, to remind the Corinthian saints first of all that we shall judge the world and angels.

“The unjust,” verse 1, is the character of man, the character we had before we knew the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Savior. This term is used by God with reference to man six times in the New Testament-in Matt. 5:45 and Acts 24:15, where both the present and the future are in view; in 1 Peter 3:18 and 2 Peter 2:9 where the Cross of Christ, and the day of judgment to come are spoken of; and twice in this chapter (verses 1 and 9). Let him try ever so hard, man with all his philosophy, ethics and laws cannot attain to the character of being just or righteous in God’s sight; apart from receiving God’s salvation, he is still unjust.

When Christ judges the world (Acts 17:31) and angels (2 Peter 2:4; Jude 6; Matthew 25-41; Rev. 21:10) His saints will be associated with Him in the judgments (Zech. 14:5; Jude 14-15; Rev. 19:14 and 20:4).

There is a certain obscurity of meaning in the latter part of the third verse as given in the King James translation; this is removed in J. N. Darby’s New Translation (1880): “Do ye not know that we shall judge angels? and not then matters of this life?”

Judgments of things pertaining to this life, far from being beyond the capacity of the gathered saints, should be given to those to decide who are little esteemed in the Assembly. Such matters do not require spirituality, but only ordinary intelligence and fair-mindedness.

So the apostle continues to treat of the subject in verses 5, 6, 7, seeking to put the Corinthian believers to shame. Was there indeed not a wise man among them? Not one able to judge between his brethren? Why did they not rather suffer wrong? Why not submit to being defrauded? Those whose future involves sharing in the coming judgment of the world and of angels, ought, viewing the matter on the very lowest ground, to care little about what injury may be done to themselves, or their possessions during this life’s short term.

But the inspired penman must tell those to whom he was writing that it was not only a question of their submitting to injustice; they themselves did wrong, and defrauded their brethren (verse 8). Solemnly then he warns them:

“Do ye not know that unrighteous persons shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not err; Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor those who make women of themselves; nor who abuse themselves with men; nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor abusive persons, nor the rapacious, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And these things were some of you; but ye have been washed, but ye have been sanctified, but ye have been justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” (verses 9, 10, 11. N. T.)

From the connection it is plain that the causes of the lawsuits at Corinth were in part, at least, contained in the list of verses 9, 10. The people of that city were notorious for ways such as these, and it was not only that the Christians there had grown up in such an atmosphere, and as the apostle says, “and such were some of you”, but there is always the tendency in our hearts to be affected by what goes on in the world around us. It takes spiritual power to combat and overcome these things.

“But ye have been washed” in verse 11 speaks of the cleansing power of the blood of Christ (Rev. 1:5; 1 John 5:6; John 13:10) by which the sinner is cleansed of his sins. This is done but once, and cannot be repeated. The New Testament Scriptures tell of another needful cleansing,-that of the saint-which is to be a constant thing: cleansing by the Word of God (Eph. 5:26; John 13:10 and 14).

The believer contracts defilement which hinders his growth and mars his communion with the Lord, unless and until confessed and removed through the active power of the Word of God applied to the conscience by the Holy Spirit. It is however the once-for-all cleansing by blood that is referred to in verse 11 of our chapter.

“Ye are” (or have been) “sanctified” speaks of another divine work in the bringing of a soul to Christ. It is the setting apart of the believer to God which is effected in his conversion (2 Thess. 2:13; 1 Peter 1:2; Acts 20:32 and 26:18). This is his fitness for heaven. The Father hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, as it is said in Col. 1:12.

Progressive sanctification is abundantly referred to in the Epistles, but this is a distinct thing (See John 17:17; Eph. 5:26 (already mentioned above), 1 Thess. 5:23). One of the offices of the Word of God is to practically set His children apart from the world, to separate them from all that defiles both mind and body, to be for Him.

Are you, dear young Christian, proving daily in your own life the value of the Word of God in cleansing and sanctifying you, a chosen vessel for Christ?

“But ye are” (or have been) “justified”, is the third link of this wonderful chain of truth concerning him who trusts in Jesus. He stands acquitted of all charge before God, being put into the value of Christ’s work (Rom. 3:26; 5:1 and 9; 8:33; Acts 13:39; Titus 3:7). How marvelous is the grace of God!

Verse 12. All things are lawful to the Christian; he is free, but all things are not expedient (or, do not profit; see the marginal note in your Bible). “All things are lawful to me”, says the apostle, “but I will not be brought under the power of any.” Thus the believer’s liberty is preserved; he is not to be under the control of anything that would be unprofitable to him. Food is given to sustain life, not to become a governing object; then it is lust. So it is said in verse 13, “Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats, but God will bring to nothing both it and them” (N. T.). Nor is the body for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

The Lord has taken up the believer’s body as well as his soul, though the body has not yet been redeemed out of its present state. (Rom. 12:1; 1 John 3:1-3; Phil. 3:17-21). And God has both raised up the Lord and will raise us up from among the dead by His power (Rom. 8:11).

Have you noticed in your reading of the Scriptures the interest God has in your body, young Christian? Here is a list of passages rich in profit to the soul (Rom. 6:12, 13, 19; 8:10; 12:1; Eph. 5:23; Phil. 1:20; 3:17-21; Col. 2:23; 1 Thess. 4:1-7; 5:23; 1 Tim. 4:3-5; James 3:6).

That our bodies (not our souls) are members of Christ is a truth brought out in the 15th verse; that he that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit, following in the 17th. The Holy Spirit who dwells in me- for our bodies are His temples (verse 19)- unites me to Christ. I am not my own; I have been bought with a price; therefore I ought to glorify God in my body (verse 20). What weighty reasons are here given, that His children may be kept from sin!

1 Corinthians 7:1-24

The Christians at Corinth had written to Paul regarding a question of the rightness or wrongness of marriage. They knew that he was unmarried, and this Epistle as well as 1 Thessalonians shows that the Greeks of that day were the victims of depraved habits; immorality was widely prevalent. In 1 Thess. 2:3 the apostle wrote to those young Christians from whom he had not long before parted in Thessalonica.

“For our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile”; and further, in the 4th chapter,

“For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication; that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor; not in the lust of concupiscence (or passionate desire) even as the Gentiles (or nations) which know not God... for God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.”

Marriage is an institution of God, provided in Gen. 2; and the apostle has quoted from that passage (verse 24) in the 6th chapter, verse 16. In Heb. 13:4 he afterward wrote,

“Let marriage be held every way in honor, and the bed be undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers will God judge” (N. T.).

In this day, when moral restraints are being laughed at, it is well that Christians have God’s unchanging Word to guide them.

“Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to Thy Word.” Psa. 119:9.

What then is the will of God in these days with regard to the relationship between man and woman? The apostle answers in this chapter, and what he says is, of course, in fullest accord with the Lord’s words in Matt. 19:3-12. That the highest state, if one be equal to it, is to remain unmarried (verses 1, 7, 8, 32-34, 37, 38, 40) follows from what the Christian is while here on earth, as is brought out in the latter part of the 6th chapter, and summed up in the last two verses.

It is not that a greater measure of holiness (which some claim) is attained by remaining unmarried, but as another has said,

“They do well who remain outside of this relationship in order to walk with the Lord according to the Spirit, and not to yield in anything to their nature. God had instituted marriage-woe to him who should speak ill of it; but sin has come in, and all that is of nature, of the creature, is marred. God has introduced a power altogether above and outside nature-that of the Spirit. To walk according to that power is the best thing; it is to walk outside the sphere in which sin acts. But it is rare; and positive sins are for the most part the effect of standing apart from that which God has ordained according to nature.”

The divine approval of marriage is accordingly again affirmed in the 2nd verse, where the translators have somewhat weakened the force of the original text by inserting “to avoid” where the true sense is “on account of” the immorality prevalent in that day, and always a danger in this present world.

What follows is a striking example of the difference between the Old and New Testaments in the revelation of the mind of God. Nothing like the instruction given in verses 3 to 5 is found anywhere from Genesis to Malachi. But when the blood of Christ has been shed (redemption’s awful price!), and He is risen and ascended; and the Holy Spirit has come down, forming a new thing,-the Church which is Christ’s body, out of those who were sinners, now saved by grace, and putting His seal upon them unto the day of redemption; it is then that God communicates to His saints His purposes as never before, and reveals His thoughts concerning what they should be in both large and small details of their lives.

Accordingly, that two are become one by marriage is given in Gen. 2:24; but that in that relationship, being one, involves that each partner should render to the other what is due (“benevolence” in verse 2 appears to be an unwarranted addition); and that as to the body the husband belongs to his wife, and the wife to her husband, is blessed instruction in conduct given for Christians. Happiness comes from obedience to the Word of God, as surely every Christian knows.

Verse 6: The expression, “by permission” means “as consenting to”, or as giving permission, and not by way of command. The apostle wished all men to be even as him-self (unmarried), but acknowledges that every one has in this respect his own gift from God; one man thus, and another thus. To the unmarried and widows he says that it is good for them that they remain as he was. But if they have not control over themselves, let them marry.

Verses 10-11: “But to the married, I enjoin, not I, but the Lord, Let not wife be separated from husband (but if also she shall have been separated, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband) and let not husband leave wife” (N. T.).

Divorce because of the trivial grounds often alleged in these days, is contrary to Scripture, as is remarriage of persons so separated. Wife is not to be separated from husband, but if she shall have been separated, she is to remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband. Husband is not to leave wife.

It is good to have the mind of the Lord about these things in a day like the present when the laws of men are arranged to meet popular demand, so that what is altogether legal under state or national laws, may be sin before God. And it is His Word that is the rule for the believer.

Verses 12-14. When husband or wife is converted, and the other remains in unbelief, if the unbeliever consents to live with the believer, the union is not to be broken, the Christian partner is not to leave nor put away the unbelieving. This is the contrary of what was required of Israel; and Ezra (chapters 9 and 10), tells of what had happened through neglect of God’s law, and the anguish that it must have brought when Israelites had to put away their Gentile wives and the children they had begotten with them. Under grace the unbelieving husband is sanctified, not by, but in the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified in the husband; their children are holy; family ties forbidden by the law of Moses, are allowed in the order of divine grace in which God is now dealing with man. Sanctification here, and holiness, are of course not the inward work of the Holy Spirit; God has been pleased to attach an outward sanctification to the unbelieving members of the mixed household, so that contrary to the requirement of the law, there need be no breaking of family ties when one only of the married couple is saved. (But what sorrow the Christian heart must feel because of the unequal yoke!).

Verses 15-17. What if the unbelieving husband or wife separates, refusing to continue in a union with the Christian partner which has become distasteful? In such a case the believer is not to try to force the other to return. But God has called us in peace; the Christian is not to seek such a release; it might indeed be that through the godly life and testimony of the believing wife or husband the unbelieving one would be saved. What a joy that would be! However,

“As the Lord has divided to each, as God has called each, so let him walk; and thus I ordain in all the assemblies.” verse 17, (N. T.). Thus we are to go on in subjection to God, owning Him in the circumstances in which we find ourselves.

Verses 18-24. In these verses Christians are instructed further on the subject with which the 6th chapter closed:

“All things are lawful unto me; but all things are not profitable; all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any... Now the body is... for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by His own power. Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ?... What? Know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith He, shall be one flesh. But he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit... What, know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.” (omitting the last words of the chapter which are not in the best copies) (chapter 6:12-20).

In view of these weighty words, present advantage is seen to be of little account; I am to seek instead to have God before my soul. He who was a Jew when God had called him, and he who was a Gentile when called, need give their former state no consideration; what is important is the keeping of God’s commandments.

“Servant,” in verses 21, 22, 23, is really “bondman,” in substance a slave. The Christian slave need not worry about his condition, but if there was a way whereby he might gain his freedom, become a freeman, he should take advantage of it. For he that is called in the Lord, being a bondman, is the Lord’s freeman; likewise, he that is called, being a freeman, is Christ’s bondman.

We are bought with a price; so are we again reminded; we belong to the Lord; let us not become the bondmen of men; such we shall be if led away from simple dependence in the path of obedience into following leaders who serve not God but their own selves.

The subject is closed with a needed guard against indifference as to what Christians go on with. We are to abide in our line of things with God.

1 Corinthians 7:25-40

The apostle returns to the subject of marriage in order to give his own opinion, as having received mercy of the Lord to be faithful, regarding those who had never entered into any relationship with the opposite sex. In the unerring wisdom of God Paul was given no commandment of the Lord on this subject. You will note that the apostle was careful to tell us when his own opinions are given; he was inspired to give us his spiritual judgment regarding this matter just as in the 12Th verse,-”But (as) to the rest speak I, not the Lord,” and we do well to give heed to what he says, as clearly not contrary to the Lord’s mind.

Verse 26: “I think then that this is good, on account of the present necessity, that it is good for a man to remain so as he is” (N.T.). It is good, on account of what the world is in its opposition to Christianity, to avoid marriage since it has, after all, somewhat the character of settling down in a scene where God has made us strangers and pilgrims (1 Peter 2:11).

Verses 27, etc. There follow further instructions which throw heavenly light on the Christian’s earthly relationships. If bound to a wife, seek not to be loosed; if free from a wife, do not seek one. Marriage is not sinful for either brother or sister; “nevertheless, such shall have trouble” (or tribulation) “in the flesh”, and the apostle wished that they should be spared this experience. It may be questioned if there ever has been a married couple who from the beginning found themselves in entire accord in all things. No other relationship in life is likely to involve so much of the disclosure of one’s inner self-self-love and self-will are in everyone by nature-and to require so much of Christian grace in one form or another. Sometimes, through in-subjection to the plain words of Scripture on the part of wife or husband (or both), these “troubles” continue through life, instead of the cause being judged, confessed and done away with. And then parenthood brings in a train of responsibility and care; some cares remaining unless or until the parents are given the joy of seeing their children grown to manhood and womanhood and walking in the light of God’s Word. “But this I say, brethren, the time is short” (or straitened, or a constrained one) “for the fashion of this world passeth” (verses 29, 31). Believers should be expecting the Lord’s coming as an event which may occur at any time. God’s amazing grace has allowed the day of the gospel to lengthen out until nineteen hundred years have elapsed since its beginning, but the Christian who draws his instructions as to the path of life from the Word of God has learned that the coming of the Lord for His heavenly saints is always to be looked upon as an imminent prospect. That that event, which will mark the end of the day of grace, did not take place while you were a stranger to God, is a cause for deep thankfulness, is it not? How much longer have you left to stay on earth? You do not know; nor does any one, but God only. “The time is short”, even though it may sometimes in one’s thoughts seem to be long; let us live in the prospect now before us of being soon with our Savior and Lord.

In verse 31 “as not abusing it” is really “as not disposing of it as their own” (N.T.), or “as not using it for themselves”. Many believers have daily contacts with the world, in working to support themselves and their loved ones; they are to remember that their part in it is to serve faithfully in the duties committed to them,- and never to take a place in it that would be out of conformity with the principles of God’s Word.

Verses 32-35. The apostle wished that the saints should be without care or distraction that would interfere with waiting on the Lord. When married they were concerned with earthly things that in varying measure shut out occupation with and for Christ. If nature’s claims, on the other hand, were refused, they might serve Him without distraction. The wisdom of these counsels of the apostle is apparent. Doubtless more than one servant of the Lord has been hindered in his path of service by marriage and the bringing up of a family. Happy for him in such circumstances if his wife seeks diligently to become a true “helpmeet” (Gen. 2:18) for him. Yet those Scriptures that we have been going over are surely meant for us all who are God’s children by faith in Christ Jesus. Is it not plain that He looks for you and me, dear young Christian, whether married or single, to give Himself the first place in our lives?

Verses 36-38 relate, not to a man’s daughter or ward, but to himself: “But if anyone think that he behaves unseemly to his virginity, if he be beyond the flower of his age, and so it must be, let him do what he will, he does not sin; let them marry. But he who stands firm in his heart, having no need, but has authority over his own will, and has judged this in his heart to keep his own virginity, he does well. So that he that marries, himself does well; and he that does not marry does better.” (N.T.)

Verses 39-40. The words “by the law” are not in the best copies of the original text; they appear to have been added from Rom. 7:2. God’s Word does not recognize the easy divorce practices that have been incorporated in many human laws. “A wife is bound for whatever time her husband lives; but if the husband be fallen asleep she is free to be married to whom she will, only in the Lord” (verse 39, N.T.) The apostle is still writing about marriage for believers, and, we may have noticed, he has until this verse said nothing as, to whom a believer should marry. Aptly, this subject is reserved for the close, when it is expressly said that a Christian widow is at liberty to be married “to whom she will”, and immediately it is added, “only in the Lord”.

What is “only in the Lord”? Not far from twenty other passages in Paul’s epistles are at hand to help in the answer to this question. A few of them are: Rom. 16:2, 8, 11, 12, 22; 1 Cor. 16:19; Eph. 6:21; Col. 3:18; Philem.1:16. “In the Lord” means more, we gather from these Scriptures, than “in Christ”. (Rom. 16:7 and 10) or “in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1, Phil. 4:21). It refers not so much to all believers, we think, as to those of them whose walk is in subjection to Christ as their Lord; sadly we own that this leaves out many of the dear children of God.

Young Christians, and older ones too, should never lose sight of the truth that God is more interested in their happiness, a great deal more interested in it, than they are apt to think. He has chosen a path for every child of His that will, if there be submission to His guidance, yield the truest happiness in this world as well as in that eternity toward which everyone of us is hurrying. Just as surely as the servant of Abraham was guided by God in finding a wife for Isaac (Gen. 24:27- “I being in the way, the Lord led me”), so surely will the Christian who truly waits for God’s direction be guided by Him in the momentous step of marriage.

Alas, many young Christians have stored up for themselves sorrow upon sorrow by entering upon marriages contrary to God’s word, and it is saddest of all when the heart has become attached to a stranger to His grace. “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers; for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?...” (2 Cor. 6:14-18).

Verse 40. The apostle gives his judgment that the Christian widow is happier if she remain unmarried; and none was better qualified than he as a servant of the Lord to speak. We doubt not that in thus expressing himself he was guided by the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 8

Verse 1. “But concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know, (for we all have knowledge; knowledge puffs up, but love edifies.” N. T.). There is a parenthesis, beginning in the first verse and ending with the third, which is not marked in the Authorized version.

This chapter establishes principles of wide application for the government of the children of God, and we shall do well to give earnest heed to what it contains. How admirable is the Word of God! Within its pages, the sacred volume holds the fullest instruction for the saints in their relations one with another, as well as for themselves individually in all the varied circumstances of life. Yet it is sadly true that almost all of the errors into which they fall, and have fallen with loss to themselves and dishonor to Christ, are very plainly the subjects of instruction in the Word of God that even a young child may understand. But when the conscience is not in due exercise before God, a believer, though he may be ever so familiar with the Scriptures, may allow the old nature to act as though it and all its doings were not condemned at the cross of Christ.

Dear young Christian, cultivate the habit of a clear conscience, as Paul could say of himself in Acts 24:16:

“And herein do I exercise myself, to have always (or, in everything) a conscience void of offense toward God and toward men.”

The apostle is going to say that we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and there is no other God save one, but first he must point out that knowledge puffs up, but love builds up (edifies). How true! Let us not only remember this brief word from God’s Book, but also practice what it teaches.

Verse 2. In the first chapter we learned that the natural man, no matter what his qualifications may be, of wisdom, power, or high-birth, cannot boast before God. No flesh may glory in His presence. This verse deals another blow to the pride and self-sufficiency that are innate in us.

“If any man think that he knoweth” (has inward conscious knowledge of) “anything, he knoweth” (here a different word is used in the original, carrying the meaning of an acquaintance with; objective knowledge; knowledge in the ordinary sense) “nothing yet as he ought to know.”

But if any man love God, the same is known of Him (verse 3). This is precious knowledge indeed, and a happy conclusion of the discussion of knowledge which in us, apart from love, as we see from the first verse of our chapter, is worth nothing.

The Christian knows that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is but one God. The heathen have many gods, and many intermediate beings or lords, in their superstitions, but to us there is but one God, the Father, of Whom are all things, and we for (not “in”) Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by Him.” (verse 6).

There are three divine Persons, equally God, as other Scriptures tell: Matt. 28:19; Phil. 2:11 (the Father); Rom. 9:5 and Heb. 1:8 (the Son); 1 Cor. 2:11; Acts 5:3,4 (the Holy Spirit); and other passages, among which chapter 12 of this Epistle may be referred to.

There, as here, it is not a question of nature, as to Who is God; but a setting forth of position. The Father remains in absolute deity; the Son took Manhood, and in that, has taken the place of Lord; the Holy Spirit, not named in our chapter, but in the 12Th, has also a special place in the work of God, as every Christian knows, and the four Gospels (and particularly John 14, 15 and 16), the Acts, and the Epistles and Revelation display.

Verses 7-13. To find and study all the passages of Scripture which deal with the weak, the “slow of heart” and the “lame”, the fainthearted and the poor, would be a lengthy though happy occupation. We may, however, compare, in this connection, the latter part of our chapter with Rom. 14 and the opening verse of the 15th chapter of that Epistle; or turn to Luke 24:13-35, and marvel at the Lord’s way of recovery for two spiritually sick saints. How tender His care is for His discouraged ones, we may see from Isa. 40:27-31, among many passages.

All the children of God should be growing in intelligence, in knowledge and in grace, through giving place to the desires of the new nature, which needs, daily food from the Word of God, and exercise too. But from one cause or another, some believers seems to grow very little, or very, very slowly; yet they may be quite conscientious. There were such at Corinth, where idolatry was almost, if not quite universal before the light of Christianity entered. They ought to have realized that an idol is nothing in the world, for there is but one God, the living and true one; but they are looked at here (verses 7-13) just as they were; and the approved course of the better taught, or more intelligent believers toward them is set out in divine wisdom.

“With conscience of the idol” and “their conscience being weak is defiled” (verse 7) mean that these believers, not being fully delivered from former things, were influenced to some extent by the thought of a real and powerful being, once an object of worship; and so they had a conscience about eating food that had been offered to an idol; to them it was evil. They must follow their consciences, or else defile them.

Meat does not commend us to God; neither if we should not eat do we come short, nor if we should eat have we an advantage; and we who have no conscience concerning the matter are enjoined to see that this liberty, or right to eat, shall not be in any way a stumbling block to the weak.

Better far would it be for the brother of superior knowledge to forego his right to eat meat in an idol house, knowing that the idol is nothing, than that a weak one should be injured through seeing him there. Would not his conscience, as a consequence, be emboldened to eat of the meat as an idol-offering, and thus he be estranged from God? Thus, as far as the act of the “strong” brother is concerned, the weak one- the brother for whose sake Christ died-will perish through the former’s knowledge. It is not that God will not interfere so that he shall not perish; from other Scriptures we are assured that He will; but what is pressed is the tendency of my conduct, using my liberty to the detriment of one for whom Christ died.

Thus sinning against the brethren and wounding their weak conscience, I sin against Christ. Injury to one of His weak ones is an injury to Himself, as Saul of Tarsus learned to his amazement near Damascus in Acts 9:4, 5.

“Therefore,” says he, now, Paul the apostle of Christ Jesus, “if meat be a fall-trap to my brother, I will eat no flesh forever, that I may not be a fall-trap to my brother.”

Dear young Christian, here is a lesson to learn, concerning the desire in us all to please ourselves, perhaps in what is right in itself; we ought to consider the effect of it on others who are also Christ’s.

1 Corinthians 9

When Christians grow careless about the things of God, they become the easy prey of Satan, who, we may be sure, is ever quick to detect any deficiency in their armor (Eph. 6:10-18). A really bad state had developed among the believers at Corinth, as we have before noticed in our study of this Epistle. It is not likely that it came about suddenly; rather would it be a gradual thing, for the children of God are not weaned away in a moment from the heavenly food given them in His Word. O, let us all profit by the failure and sin of others, and be careful to keep close to God and His Word!

The low spiritual state of the Corinthian saints, and lack of watchfulness on their part, had been the occasion for the coming in among them of some false professors who were really servants of the devil, but posed as apostles of Christ and acquired much influence in the local assembly (2 Cor. 11:12-15). Thus it was that the apostle Paul came to be spoken against in Corinth where, through his preaching, the gospel was received into thousands of hearts and consciences theretofore without knowledge of the true God.

An apostle, we gather from the first verse, together with Acts 1:21-26, must of necessity have seen the Lord. It does not appear from the Scriptures which tell of Paul’s early life as an enemy of the Lord (Acts 22 and 26) that he ever saw Him in life on earth. Because his calling and ministry were derived from Christ in glory, we conclude that it was when as Saul of Tarsus he was, struck down in his wicked course (Acts 9), or afterward that he was privileged to see Him.

Paul’s apostleship was not from men, nor through man, but through Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised Him from among the dead, as he records in the first chapter of Galatians; and the Corinthian saints were his work in the Lord, as they surely knew. If not an apostle to others, Paul certainly was to the Christians at Corinth, as he tells them: “for the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord.” He had gone alone to Corinth (Acts 18) after Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea and Athens; there Silas and Timothy came presently and he remained a year and six months teaching the Word of God; evidently leaving only when he believed that for the present his work there was finished. Nowhere else in his missionary travels, up to this time, does the apostle appear to have remained so long, and if the Corinthian believers were not well established in the Word, it was because of their own allowance of self; they were yet carnal (chapter 3). None the less they were the seal of Paul’s apostleship.

Verses 3-14: Without a shadow of rancor, Paul takes up the challenge of his opponents. Had he not a right to eat and to drink?; had he not a right to take round a sister as wife, as also the other apostles and the brethren (or kinsman) of the Lord, and Cephas (Peter)? Or he alone and Barnabas, had they not a right not to work?

Illustrating his position and that of the other servants of the Lord by reference to things common in the world, the apostle asks, Who ever carries on war at his own charges? who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? or who herds a flock and does not eat of the milk of the flock? But a far higher authority than man had laid down the principle of compensation, even for the ox when he treads out the corn (Deut. 25:4. This passage is also cited in 1 Tim. 5:18).

Is God then occupied about the oxen, or does He in this communicate His mind as to His own servants? asks Paul. For our sakes it has been written, he continues, that the plower should plow in hope, and he that treads out corn, in hope of partaking of it.

Then (verse 11) it is asked, If we have sown to you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things? Here is a matter regarding which there is much failure on the part of God’s people. Absorbed in their own circumstances, many lose sight of the duty and privilege of providing for the support of the Lord’s servants. Can it be well with us when those who labor in the gospel and among the saints to the Lord’s glory are but sparsely provided for, are at times almost, if not actually, in want?

Paul had not used the right to support from the saints, choosing instead to pay his own expenses, that he might put no hindrance in the way of the gospel of Christ. Did those to whom he wrote, not know that they who labor at sacred things (or perform the sacred rites) eat of the offerings offered in the temple? they that attend at the altar partake with the altar? Such was the divine provision in the system of sacrifices ordained for Israel, and so also the Lord has ordained to those that announce the gospel, to live of the gospel. Yet Paul had used none of these things, nor did he write about them in order that the saints should support him by their means. It were good for him rather to die, than that any one should make vain his boast (verse 15).

If Paul, or any other saint of God should preach the gospel, he has nothing to boast of, for it is a duty owed to the Lord. Necessity, says the apostle, is laid upon me, for it is woe to me if I should not preach the gospel. It is the Lord who calls to His service, and gives to His servants fitness for the work to which He has called them; they are not, in the Scriptures, appointed by men at all.

Verse 17. If one preached voluntarily, without the Lord’s sending him into the work, then of course he has a reward; but if it is not of his own will, an administration or stewardship (not, in the present meaning of the word, a dispensation) is entrusted to him. And God looks for faithfulness in stewards, as we noted in the fourth chapter.

What then is Paul’s reward? that in making known the glad tidings of God’s grace he made it costless to others, so as not to have made use, as belonging to him, of his right in announcing it. “Abuse”, in verse 18, like “abusing” in verse 31 of the 7th chapter, means not using what is referred to as something to which you have title of possession.

For, being free from all (as he said at the beginning of the chapter), the apostle had made himself servant (bondman) to all, that he might gain the most possible. To the Jews he became as a Jew, in order that he might gain the Jews; to those under the law, as under law, not being himself under law, in order that he might gain those under law; to those without law, as without law (not as without law to God, but as legitimately subject to Christ) in order that he might gain those without law. To the weak he became as weak, in order that he might gain the weak. To all he had become all things, in order that by all means he might save some. And he did all things for the sake of the glad tidings, that he might be fellow-partaker with them (not, “with you”). What is meant is partaking in the joy of salvation, in seeing souls saved. Truly the apostle Paul was the pattern servant of the Lord,- so like his Master!

Verses 24-27 present an aspect of the truth of God to which the Corinthian Christians had paid little heed. The subject is considered in the early verses of the 10th chapter, also, and it is a searching word for both believers and unbelievers.

“Know ye not that they who run in the race-course run all, but one receives the prize. Thus run in order that ye may obtain. But everyone that contends for a prize is temperate in all things; they then indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. I therefore thus run, as not uncertainly; so I combat, as not beating the air. But I buffet my body, and lead it captive, lest after having preached to others I should be myself rejected.” (N.T.)

Christians are apt to be occupied with the cares and burdens of life, if not with its pleasures; and we have to be reminded three times in the Epistles in terms that suggest the Athenian athletic competitions of many centuries ago, that present things must not be allowed to have an undue place in our lives (2 Tim. 2; Heb. 12:1). All the athletes participating in a race run, but only one receives the winner’s prize; so run that ye may obtain, is the word addressed to each of us in 1 Cor. 9:24. And, too, we are to be “temperate”, not at ease, pleasing ourselves in this world, but subjecting ourselves in everything to the call of God.

And what of the unsaved professor? No believer will be lost, but some professors, even preachers of the gospel, will be rejected.

1 Corinthians 10:1-10

The ninth chapter, as we have seen, is much more than an answer to the earthly-minded Corinthians in their challenge of the apostle Paul regarding his apostleship. From first to last it is designed to reach the conscience, and when this part of the Epistle was read at Corinth the accusers could not but feel that God had a controversy with them, while justifying His servant. The course of Paul is seen to have his Master’s approval, and it is the pattern for the true-hearted servant to follow in the measure in which grace is given him.

Heaven’s realities were before the apostle, and he sought to bring them home to the consciences and hearts of the Corinthians. Using as illustration the Olympian games, he speaks of himself as running the race set before him with one aim: to win the prize.

“I therefore so run, as not uncertainly.”

In combat (for there is that too) he did not beat the air; the power of the devil is arrayed against the Christian, and must be resisted unceasingly with the end in view. Finally, as a contender for a prize in the games is necessarily temperate in all things, so Paul kept his body under-

“I buffet my body and lead it captive, lest after having preached to others I should be myself rejected.”

There were others beside himself who preached; some were false, as undoubtedly in our own times.

“Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name? and in Thy name have cast out devils? and in Thy name have done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you; depart from Me, ye that work iniquity.” Matt. 7:22, 23.

Need it be repeated that not one that is Christ’s can ever be lost? This is abundantly shown on many pages of Scripture; among the passages being John 3:15, 16; 5:24; 10:27-30; Rom. 8. With equal plainness God’s Word reveals what lies before those who profess but do not possess Christ (Matt. 24:48-51; 25:11, 12). Profession without reality will be worthless in that day.

The tenth chapter continues the subject with which the ninth closed, beginning rightly with

“For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that all our fathers were under the cloud, etc.”

There were professors in those days, just as now, without the true knowledge of God. Outwardly they were on the same footing as the believers in Israel. All, whether of faith or marked by unbelief, were “under the cloud” of Jehovah’s presence (Ex. 13:21, 22); all were associated with Moses in the cloud and in the Red Sea; “baptized unto Moses”, as it is said here. All ate the same spiritual meat (Ex. 16:4, 5, 14-36), and drank the same spiritual drink (Ex. 17:1-6). But none of these privileges was of any value as touching the soul’s eternal destiny.

Just so in God’s present dealings with man, baptism and partaking of the Lord’s supper give no security for heaven. One might go on all one’s life in an outward observance of Christianity, and be lost. “Ye must be born again.”

A lip service of God, in which heart and conscience are not joined, is estimated by Him at its true worth; so we are told in verse 5,

“Yet God was not pleased with the most of them, for they were strewed in the desert” (N. T.). (See Num. 14.)

Verse 6. “But these things happened as types of us, that we should not be luster’s after evil things, as they also lusted” (N. T.)

How good of God it is to provide in His Word, out of the history of His earthly people Israel, types or figures to serve as patterns for us! Every incident in their history that the Old Testament records, has a purpose of blessing to Christians, if they will receive it.

Have you, young Christian, in your reading of the Bible, found occasion to thank God for the instruction you have received from the history recorded in Genesis and Exodus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, Joshua, etc.? It was written for you.

Verses 7 to 10 deal with things as to which the Corinthians were particularly in danger. The seventh verse takes us to Ex. 32, when in the absence of Moses, a calf was made out of gold and worshiped. Idolaters some of them had been; but how quickly they now turned away from the living and true God to idols!

The eighth verse is connected with the sorrowful incidents of Num. 25. It is interesting to note that while verse 9 in that chapter gives the number that died in the plague as twenty-four thousand, 1 Cor. 10:8 tells how many died in one day,-all but a thousand!

In the ninth verse the reference is to Num. 21:4-9; while in the tenth verse. Num. 11:4-34 and 16:41-50 appear to be referred to.

Idolatry was all around in Corinth; it was part of the life of the place, and of the whole Gentile world of that day. We need not wonder, then, that the believers at Corinth had to be warned against the danger of their becoming idolaters. The world has changed since then, but for Christians the warning still stands in God’s word, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols”: the last verse in John’s First Epistle. The reason is that anything in the heart which takes the place of Christ is an idol. In that sense the world is full of idolatry today, for God and Christ are not in the thoughts of the men of today.

Is self, or any other object in your heart, taking the place there which Christ should have, young Christian? It marks the beginning of decline in the believer’s walk.

Along with idol worship in the world of nineteen hundred years ago, was gross immorality; there is much reason to believe that this sin is increasing rapidly in the world today; and Christians need to be very careful indeed to maintain personal purity (1 Tim. 5:22; 1 Thess. 4:3-7). God’s standards of right and wrong do not change.

Only four times in the New Testament is the Greek word found which is translated in the ninth verse of our chapter “tempt”. The other passages are in the Lord’s words to Satan in the temptations in the wilderness at the beginning of His ministry in Israel’s land,

“It is written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God” (Matt. 4:7; Luke 4:12).

The reference there is to Deut. 6:16, and thus to Ex. 17. Whether we look at Ex. 17 or Numbers 21, what is seen, is at heart rebellion against God. Let us beware that there be no such spirit in us!

1 Corinthians 10:10-33

Verse 10. If in the ninth verse there is a solemn warning with regard to turning against God as in Num. 21, in this verse is an equally needed word on the subject of murmuring, pointing to the flagrant case of this kind among the children of Israel which is recorded in Num. 16:41. The believer who habitually walks with God, is not likely to be found finding fault with what He does.

The 11Th verse is, like the 6th, an important one, throwing a flood of light on much of Old Testament history as recorded therein by the divine Penman:

“Now all these things happened to them as types, and have been written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages are come” (N. T.) Another has said of this verse:

“There cannot be a more important canon for our intelligent and profitable reading of these Old Testament oracles. The facts happened to them, but they were divinely cast in systematical figures or forms of truth for admonishing us, who find ourselves at so critical a juncture of the world’s history. They contain therefore far more than moral lessons, however weighty. They do disclose man’s heart, and let out God’s mind and affections, but they have the larger and deeper instruction of events which illustrate immense principles such as sovereign grace on the one hand, and pure law on the other, with a mingled system of government on legal ground, while mercy and goodness, availed through a mediator, which came in when the people worshiped a calf at Horeb. There is thus an orderly, as well as prophetic, character in the mode these incidents are presented, which, when lit up with the light of Christ, and His redemption and the truth now revealed, prove their inspiration in a self-evident way to him who has the teaching of the Holy Ghost. Israel only witnessed the facts, and the writer was enabled by the Spirit of God to record them in an order which was far beyond his own thoughts, or the intelligence of any before redemption; but now that this mighty work of God is accomplished, their figurative meaning stands out in the fullness of a wide system, and with a depth which reveals God, not man, as the true Author. Be it our happiness not only to know, but to do the truth! The scriptural history of Israel is thus exceedingly solemn as well as instructive. It was so recounted by the Spirit as to be typical of us.” (W. Kelly: Notes on 1 Corinthians.)

Let him then that thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. God has made abundant provision for the guidance of His children through the world, but let them avail themselves of it! It is all ready for them, plainly written in His word.

Another verse for the saint of God who may be passing through trial is that which follows (verse 13):

“No temptation has taken you but such as is according to man’s nature; and God is faithful, Who will not suffer you to be tempted above what ye are able (to bear), but will with the temptation make the issue also, so that (ye) should be able to bear it” (N. T.)

No load ever too great to be borne; and the issue of the trial, made with the trial itself; this the gracious and kind provision of our God.

The apostle now returns to the subject of idolatry, a great danger, as we have seen, to the Corinthian believers. At the outset he enjoins them to flee from it; that is not to temporize with it in the least. The believer is on dangerous ground when he thinks to compromise in the smallest degree with anything God has not sanctioned. Flee from it! Flee from it!

He speaks as to wise, or rather intelligent persons; they are to judge what he says,

“The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The loaf which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? Because we (being) many are one loaf (or bread), one body; for we all partake of that one loaf (or bread).”

The apostle is speaking of the Lord’s supper, the moral center and object of the assembly, as it has been called, and the token of association of all who are linked together in Church fellowship; is this not, at least in symbol, fellowship with the blood and body of Christ? They blood is mentioned first, as that which speaks most powerfully to the Christian heart; the loaf is mentioned last, because it expresses both the body of Christ offered in death, and the fellowship of the saints with Christ as one loaf, one body. In the comparative case, brought out in the 18th verse, of Israel according to flesh, they who eat the sacrifices are in communion with the altar. How holily we should guard in personal life, and in our associations, what is committed to our trust!

In the eighth chapter it is brought out (verse 4) that an idol is nothing; there is none other God but one. Does the apostle then say now that the idol is anything, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is anything? No;

“But that what the nations sacrifice they sacrifice to demons, and not to God. Now I do not wish you to be in communion with demons. Ye cannot drink the Lord’s cup, and the cup of demons; ye cannot partake of the Lord’s table, and of the table of demons. Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?” (Verses 20-22, N. T.)

That idol sacrifices were sacrifices to demons, is stated at least twice in the Old Testament (Deut. 32:17; Psa. 106:37). And some of the Corinthian believers, as was pointed out in the eighth chapter, puffed up with their knowledge (knowledge puffs up, but love edifies), sat down to eat in an idol house. How wrong it was! and doubly so, because of the truth brought now to bear upon their consciences in these two highly instructive chapters. He who partook of what was offered to an idol, had fellowship with the idol, no matter how little (if at all) he was aware of it.

“All things are lawful, but all are not profitable; all things are lawful, but all do not edify” (verse 23, N. T.).

“Let no man seek his own, but every man another’s wealth”-or advantage (verse 24).

Here are general rules which God has provided for the guidance of His children in their path through life in many circumstances such as those discussed in the verses which follow.

It was the custom to sell carcases for food in the common way, after the animals had been offered in an idol’s temple.

“Everything sold in the shambles”-the market-”eat, making no inquiry for conscience sake: for the earth is the Lord’s, and its fullness. But if any one of the unbelievers invite you, and you are minded to go, all that is set before you eat, making no inquiry for conscience sake. But if anyone say to you, This is offered to holy purposes (or, to a god), do not eat, for his sake that pointed it out, and conscience sake; but conscience, I mean, not thine own, but that of the other; for why is my liberty judged by another conscience? If I partake with thanksgiving, why am I spoken evil of, for what I give thanks for?” (verses 25-30 N. T.).

Since the earth is the Lord’s, I may eat all food that is sold in the market, and what is on an unbeliever’s table, if I should be there for a meal. But the circumstances are altered for the Christian, if there were present one who had just come out of idolatry, whose conscience is not free; for his sake I am not to eat, though to me all is common meat. By this self denial, I do not expose my liberty to be judged by another, or bring about evil speaking for a thing for which I give thanks; and the scruples of the weakest saint are respected.

And now the subject is drawn to a close with the laying down of a golden rule for Christian conduct (verse 31). How far reaching it is, and no room is left for the natural will, so prone to assert itself!

May you and I, dear young Christian, know more and more of this verse in the practice of our own lives! No occasion of stumbling should be, given to any,-to Jew, or Gentile, or to the Church of God, the apostle presenting himself as an example in godly walk with the qualification,

“Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ” (verses 32, 33, and 1 of the following chapter).

1 Corinthians 11:1-16

The first verse is by its subject linked with the chapter just closed, rather than with the eleventh,

“Be ye followers of me” (or my imitators) “even as I also am of Christ”, should be read with verses 31, 32 and 33.

In the second verse, practically alone in the Epistle, the Holy Spirit in the apostle Paul could commend something in the ways of the believers at Corinth,

“Now I praise you, that in all things ye are mindful of me, and that, as I have directed you, ye keep the directions” (N. T.).

They had not then, as we have, the complete written Word of God, but the instructions they had received from Paul they had kept.

Fitly at this point the Holy Spirit introduces the subject of divine order in the conduct of believers. God has been pleased to make His Word full of instruction for the Christian; indeed He has left nothing to the activities of the human mind, though that has not kept back men, and believers too, from substituting their own ideas for what is written. As far as verse 16, the instructions set forth the divine order with regard to men and to women; after that, the Church or Assembly of God is in view through succeeding chapters.

In our day, there is not a little disregard of what the Scriptures set out as the place for women to occupy, but let us give close heed to the infallible Word of God; better far to have God’s Word to lean upon, than all the opinions of human kind.

Verse 3. Christ or “the Christ”, as it is in the original-viewing Him not as what He ever was, God over all, blessed for evermore, but in the place He took as the Anointed, — Christ is the head of every man, but woman’s head is the man; and the Christ’s head is God. Later verses make plain the wisdom of the divine ordering in so setting the positions of Christian women and men here on earth. This is not for eternity, not in new creation; for there, as we read in Gal. 3:28, 29,

“There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither bond nor free; there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.”

“Every man praying or prophesying, having anything on his head, puts his head to shame; but every woman praying or prophesying with her head uncovered, puts her own head to shame, for it is one and the same as a shaved woman. For if a woman be not covered, let her hair also be cut off. But if it be shameful to a woman to have her hair cut off, or to be shaved, let her be covered. For man indeed ought not to have his head covered, being God’s image and glory; but woman is man’s glory. For man is not of woman, but woman of man. For also man was not created for the sake of the woman, but woman for the sake of the man” (verses 4-9 N. T.).

Here we are led back to what God instituted in the beginning. See Gen. 1:26, 27; 2:7, 8, 18-23. “Image” is in Scripture not likeness but representation. Adam was to represent God in the earth; he fell, and the race fell in him, but as another has said, however man may have fallen, divine order in creation never loses its value as the expression of the mind of God. And man keeps the place, though he has fallen in it, -the same place in which God put him.

The first man was the image of Him that was to come (Rom. 5:14), the Second Man (1 Cor. 15:47). And Eve, the companion and help meet of Adam, is very plainly a type of the bride of Christ, the Church for whom He gave Himself. It is striking how the angels are brought in, in the consideration of the subject of woman’s place. In Heb. 1:14 they are seen as ministering spirits sent out for service on account of those who shall inherit salvation; and in 1 Peter 1:12 we learn that they desire to look into the present dealing of God in grace with man but here in verse 10 they are spectators of the effect of those dealings in Christians. The Christian woman therefore should have authority on her head-should wear a covering-on account of the angels.

Man is not of woman, but woman of man; man was not created for the sake of the woman, but woman for the sake of the man. However (verses 11, 12) neither is woman without man, nor man without woman, in the Lord. For as the woman is of the man, so also is the man by the woman, but all things of God.

The subject believer, delights in these unfoldings of the mind of God, and seeks to walk in the light of them, but how contrary to what we have read, is the behavior of many women in this age!

In verse 13 comeliness calls for the covering of a woman’s head while praying (verses 14, 15). Even nature itself teaches that man, if he have long hair, it is a dishonor to him; but woman, if she have long hair, it is glory to her, for the long hair is given to her in lieu of a veil. The twentieth century has brought in many innovations, among them, in extreme cases, the cutting of women’s hair similar to man’s. In view of what we have in the Scriptures now before us, this cannot be of God.

Verse 16. At Corinth, it is evident, some Christian women were not following what is here revealed as of God for them; and it may be that some Christian men were at fault similarly.

“But if any one think to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor the Assemblies of God” (verse 16, N. T.). The Corinthian “custom” was an innovation, and neither the apostle sanctioned it, nor did the assemblies elsewhere.

Before leaving this section of the Epistle, it may be well to point out that the praying and prophesying of women referred to in this chapter was and is of necessity outside of the meetings of the Church (or Assembly). It could not have been in a public way, for in chapter 14, silence is called for in the Assemblies (verses 34, 35), and in 1 Tim. 2:8-15 further instruction is given regarding the place of women. Nothing in Scripture closes the door to service for them; an important work (among many) is teaching the young, or their own sex, in or out of Sunday Schools.

Philip the evangelist had four daughters who prophesied (Acts 21:8, 9).

Three women at Rome whom the apostle names in Rom. 16:12-Tryphena and Tryphosa, and the beloved Persis, labored in the Lord. What they did, the Holy Spirit has not recorded in the Scriptures.

Priscilla, the wife, is always mentioned with her husband, Aquila, and on occasion, before him (Acts 18; Rom. 16:3-5).

Prophesying, in the Scriptures, is by no means limited to the foretelling of what is to come; it is literally “speaking forth” a communication received from God.

1 Corinthians 11:17-34

We now turn to that part of the Epistle which takes up order in the Assembly.

Verse 17. In the second verse, the apostle could praise; but as to the subject upon which he now enters, he did not praise, because the Corinthian saints came together not for the better, but for the worse. For, first, when they came together in Assembly, Paul tells them that he hears there exist divisions among them. This was party making, which at first, as it seems, drew a line between the rich and the poor, but easily led into other distinctions, forming the basis of sects. The apostle tells the Corinthians that he partly believes, gives credit to, what he has heard.

“For there must also be sects” (schools or parties after a man’s own opinion) “among you, that the approved may become manifest among you” (verse 19 N. T.).

It is painful to the spiritual Christian to consider how widespread is, sectarianism today.

In the 22nd chapter of Luke, the Lord, on the night of His betrayal by Judas Iscariot, laid before the apostles His desire that He should be remembered in the time of His absence in the loaf and cup-memorials of His body and His shed blood. The second chapter of Acts, verse 42, shows that at the Church’s beginning the breaking of bread (the Lord’s supper) had a prominent place; and in Acts 20:7, the central purpose of gathering is briefly stated: “And the first day of the week, we being assembled to break bread, Paul, etc.” (N. T.)

The believers at Corinth had lost sight of the spiritual character of the Lord’s supper, and the apostle tells them that their coming together into one place was not to eat it, but for each to eat his own supper. Instead of occupation of mind and heart with the Lord in His death, there was a disgraceful and dishonorable display of greediness as each of them tried to satisfy his hunger and thirst in disregard of the rest of the company. One was hungry, and another drank to excess.

Though they were, as appears likely, in the habit of coming together, first to partake of what was called a love feast- a meal eaten together socially- and afterward, to break the bread in remembrance of Christ in death, they were wrong in combining a social time with that solemn memorial. But, beside this grave error, there was the shameful misconduct of verse 21, with the rich seeking their own gain at the expense of the poor. Did the well-to-do not have houses for eating and drinking, asks the apostle in the 22nd verse, or did they despise the assembly of God, and put to shame those who had not such accommodations? What should he say to them? Should he praise them in this as he had praised them at the beginning of this chapter? “I praise you not”, is the apostle’s word, and then he proceeds to tell of the revelation the Lord had given him concerning the breaking of bread in remembrance of Him.

How important this is in the eyes of the Lord may be judged by the fact that only twice in the Epistles does the apostle speak as he does here of a special revelation made to himself to be delivered to the saints: here and in 1 Thess. 4:15-17; the one passage referring to the Lord’s supper, and the other to the manner of His coming for His heavenly people, and their going to be with Him forever.

Paul, of course, was not present at that meeting in the upper room on the night of the betrayal; no follower of Christ was he then, and when his name first appears in the Scriptures (Acts 7:58; 8:1,3), he is an open enemy of Him in Whom alone is salvation. Turned about from his mad course, he learns in time that he is the once hated Christ’s apostle to the Gentiles, while the twelve continue to minister among the Jews. Is it not then particularly fitting that the revelation of the Lord here spoken of should be made to that apostle through whom was made known the truth of the Church, the one body composed of those who had been Jews and Gentiles, and the heavenly calling?

And what communication could the heavenly saints- those of the children of men who have been brought to own the risen Christ as Savior, and to wait for His promised return to bring them to their heavenly home- have been given that could bring before them as this does His unchanged and unchangeable tender love for them, His desire for their love, His knowledge of their needs, as exposed to the rude blasts of this world? for nothing short of communion with Him can sustain the Christian here below.

How quickly the Corinthians had forgotten, or let slip what the apostle had taught them only a few years before! Now, however, they were given it in writing; the very words that you and I have to direct us at the end of the day of grace, were sent to them nearly nineteen hundred years ago. And they produced an effect in those Christians at Corinth, as the 2nd Epistle, Chapter 7, indicates at its close.

What then of yourself, young Christian? What is your response to the Lord’s, “This do in remembrance of Me”? Can you say, I do Lord?

There is a divine object in view in the different names that are used in the Scriptures for Him; at the beginning of the chapter we had “Christ”, but in the eleventh verse, and afterward, it is “the Lord”. He is both, and “the Lord Jesus”, and “Christ Jesus”, and on occasion simply “Jesus”; to the spiritual mind it is generally plain why one of these names and not another is used.

“I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus the same night in which He was betrayed, etc.”, brings before our minds Himself as the One who having died for us, now has authority over us.

Perhaps you have compared Luke 22 with 1 Cor. 11, noticing that these are the fullest accounts of the institution of the Lord’s supper, Matthew’s and Mark’s being shorter. All of course, were penned under the inspiration of God, but only one of the four writers (Matthew) was present on the occasion of which they wrote; and Paul expressly says that he received his account from the Lord.

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in their accounts of what took place in the upper room that night, all show that the thought of His betrayal was before our blessed Lord there; in none is this more marked than in John 13:21-30 where the Lord’s supper is not mentioned. A deep sorrow it must have been to Him, though far deeper and more intense was the soul agony that lay just beyond, on the morrow. But the Lord would have His people recall the particular circumstance in connection with the institution of the supper of remembrance, that it was “the same night in which He was betrayed.”

“He took bread, and when He had given thanks, He brake it, and said,... This is My body which is... for you; this do in remembrance of Me. After the same manner also He took the cup, when He had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament (or covenant) in My blood; this do ye, as oft as ye drink its in remembrance of Me.”

How simple is the account, and how touching to the believer’s heart! We remember Him in death, recalling to our hearts what brought Him there-our sins, our guilt; His love, His grace, obedience as the sent One; the depth of His sufferings as the Sinbearer; His sufferings too at the hands of His creature, man. Of that scene a Christian poet has written,

“O, what a load was Thine to bear

Alone in that dark hour;

Our sins in all their terror there;

God’s wrath, and Satan’s power.”

“Broken” for you in verse 24 is not correct; the word seems to have crept in through an early copyist’s or translator’s assumption that the breaking of the loaf referred to a “breaking” of the Lord’s body. John 19:36 is explicit that a bone of His was not broken, and in our chapter the verse should be read “... My body which is for you.”

“New testament” in verse 25 is really new covenant, referring to the promise in Jer. 31:31-34, quoted in Heb. 8:6-13. It will be made with Israel in the coming day, but we who believe are in the good of it without being under it.

“As oft as ye drink it” (verse 25): At the beginning, the Lord’s supper was evidently partaken of daily (Acts 2:46), but Acts 20:7 points to the Lord’s day as the weekly day of remembrance; no word of Scripture warrants a less frequent observance of the memorial supper. Should we who have been won to Christ, who are united to Him in the glory, ever avoidably miss this most privileged remembrance of Him?

“For as often as ye shall eat the bread and drink the cup, ye announce the death of the Lord, until He come” (N. T.). We show His death until He, rejected here, shall return to receive us to Himself; and in so doing we in substance declare that the blood of the new covenant has been shed.

Verses 7 to 32 solemnly state that the exercise of the high and holy privilege we have been considering, involves self-judgment, or we shall come under God’s hand in discipline. To treat with disrespect this ordinance, to partake unworthily, is to be guilty in respect of the body and blood of the Lord.

“But let a man prove himself, and thus eat of the bread, and drink of the cup. For the eater and drinker eats and drinks judgment to himself, not distinguishing the body. On this account many among you are weak and infirm, and a good many are fallen asleep. But if we judged ourselves, so were we not judged. But being judged, we are disciplined of the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world” (verses 28-32 N. T.).

1 Corinthians 12:1-11

“Now concerning spiritual gifts” (it is rather spiritual manifestations, or spiritual things or spirituals; for the presence of the Holy Spirit in the Church is dealt with in this chapter, as well as the spiritual gifts which are connected with His presence), “brethren, I would not have you ignorant” (verse 1).

Another has said, “Nothing more important, more distinctive, more marvelous than the presence of the Holy Ghost here below in the midst of Christians; the fruit to us of the perfect work of Christ, but in itself the manifestation of the presence of God among men on the earth. The providence of God manifests His power in the works of creation, and His government which directs all things; but the Holy Ghost is His presence in this world, the testimony that He bears of Himself, of His character. He is among men to display Himself, not yet in glory, but in power and in testimony of what He is.

“Christ having accomplished redemption, and having presented the efficacy of His work to God, Sovereign and Judge, the Assembly, being ransomed and cleansed by his blood, and united to Him as His body, became also the vessel of the power which acts in His members. Thus she ought to display this power in holiness-she is responsible to do so. But in this way, as to its exercise, man becomes in fact individually the vessel of this spiritual energy. It is a treasure committed to him.
“Now the Spirit is, in the first place, the link between the Assembly and Christ, as well as between the Christian and Christ. It is by the Spirit that communion is realized and maintained; it is the primary function of the Spirit, and man must be in communion in order to realize the character, and discern the will of God, and that, according to the testimony intended to be borne by the Spirit come down to earth.
“But if the Assembly does not maintain this communion, she loses her strength as the responsible witness of God on earth, and in fact her joy and her spiritual intelligence also. God is ever sovereign to act as He chooses, and Christ can not fail in His faithfulness to His body; but the testimony committed to the Assembly is no longer so rendered as to make it felt that God is present on the earth.”

(Synopsis of the Books of the Bible; 1 Corinthians; by J. N. Darby.)

The quoted words were written some eighty or ninety years ago; the great decline in spiritual strength that has taken place since then gives added solemnity to the last paragraph. May it speak to many of the children of God in this day of small things!

The apostle begins by reminding the Corinthian believers of what they had been before their conversion:

“Ye know that when ye were of the nations, ye were led away to dumb idols in whatever way ye might be led. I give you therefore to know that no one speaking in the power of the Spirit of God, says Curse on Jesus; and no one can say, Lord Jesus, unless in the power of the Holy Spirit” (verses 2, 3, N. T.)

Both in the Gospels and in the Acts, the presence in the world, and the power, too, of evil spirits are disclosed. Matt. 8:16, 28-34; Mark 1:23-27; Luke 9:37-42; Acts 8:7 and 16:16-18, are examples, but it is evident that these unseen beings are under Satan’s authority who hid behind the idols the Corinthian believers had worshipped before their conversion endeavored to get in among them now that they were delivered from that enemy, and gathered to the Lord’s name. Nor was this done at Corinth only (1 John 4:1-6; 2 John 7). They would speak or act, pretending to be the Spirit of God. The writer already quoted, referring to this demonstration of Satan’s power, said,

“Christians of the present day hardly believe in such efforts of the enemy as these. Spiritual manifestations are no doubt less striking now than at the time of which the apostle speaks, but the enemy adapts his means of deception to the circumstances in which man and the work of God are found. As Peter says in a similar case, “As there were false prophets among the people, so shall there be false teachers among you.” The enemy does not cease to act. `Forbidding to marry’, etc., (1 Tim. 4:15) was the doctrine of devils. In the last days his power will be manifested still more. God can restrain him by the energy of His Spirit, and by the power of the truth; but if he is not bridled, he still acts, deceiving men, and that by such things as one would suppose it impossible (if not deceived oneself) that a man of sober sense could believe. But it is surprising what a man can believe when he is left to himself, without being kept by God, when the power of the enemy is there. We talk of common sense, of reason (very precious they are); but history tells us that God alone gives them, or preserves them to us.

“Here the Spirit of God manifested Himself by the effects of His power, which broke forth in the midst of the Assembly, attracting the attention even of the world. The enemy imitated them. The greater part of the Christians at Corinth having been poor Gentiles without discernment, and stupidly led by the delusions of the enemy, they were the more in danger of being again deceived by this means.
“Strange to say, this demoniac power exercised such an influence that they forgot the importance even of the name of Jesus, or at least forgot that His name was not acknowledged by it. The enemy transforms himself into an angel of light, but he never really owns Jesus Christ as Lord. He will speak of Paul and Silvanus, and would have his part with Christians, but Christ is not acknowledged; and at last it is the breaking up and ruin of those who follow him. An unclean spirit would not say, Lord Jesus, and the Spirit of God could not say, Anathema to Jesus. But it is a question here of spirits, and not of conversion, nor of the necessity of grace working in the heart for the true confession of the name of Jesus-a very true thing, as we know, but not the subject here.”

Verses 4-64 Referring now to what is of God, we are told of distinctions of “gifts”, of “administrations” (or services) and of “operations”; of the Spirit, of the Lord, and of God. In Satan’s realm there might be a legion of evil spirits (Mark 5:9), or seven demons in one person (Luke 8:2), but here is one Spirit, “that one and the selfsame Spirit”, who distributes gifts among men that through them He may manifest His presence. In the exercise of these gifts they who receive them are administrators or servants of Christ, under Whom and for Whose glory they should ever act. Yet it is God who works effectually in the gifts.

Verse 7 is rightly read, “But to each the manifestation of the Spirit is given for profit.” It does not follow that every believer is given a gift by the Holy Spirit, but that those who receive them are to exercise them for the profit of souls, not for display.

Verses 8-10: Several of the gifts are mentioned,-the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, operations of miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, kinds of tongues, interpretation of tongues.

Wisdom, it has been said, is the application of divine light to right and wrong, and to all the circumstances through which we pass. The Holy Ghost furnishes some in a peculiar way with this wisdom-a perception of the true nature of things, and of their relationship to each other, and of conduct with regard to both, which, coming from God, guides us through the difficulties of the way.

Knowledge is intelligence in the mind of God as it is revealed to us in the Scriptures.

Faith is not here simple faith in the gospel, but the energy given by God which overcomes difficulties, rises above dangers.

The discerning of spirits is the knowing how to discern the actings of evil spirits, and to bring them to light, if necessary.

Verse 11. “But all these things operates the one and the same Spirit, dividing to each in particular according as He pleases” (N. T.).

What a picture these verses afford us of the Assembly of God as it was in the beginning, and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit! Nothing was left in the hands of man to plan and direct.

1 Corinthians 12:12-31

We cannot read this Epistle and carefully note its contents without the fact being brought home to us that much of what it teaches is sadly neglected in our day by Christians generally. Did not God design this matchless book for His children’s guidance at all times and in all seasons, and has He not sent down the Holy Spirit to take charge of them, leaving them without the slightest need to resort to making rules and establishing systems of man’s devising? And are not these human substitutes an affront to God?

We come now to the “one body,” spoken of in Rom. 12; Eph. 1:22, 23; 2:13-16; 4:4-16; 5:30; Col. 1:18, 24. “There is one body,” and it still exists on earth, though the truth of it is ignored in practice by the Christian profession in general.

Here as in Rom. 12:4, the natural body is used to illustrate the “one body”. Our natural body has many members, but all the members of the body, being many, are one body; so also is the mystical body of Christ; or using the precise language of the Scriptures, “so also is (the) Christ.” When Saul of Tarsus was struck down while seeking to rid the world of the followers of the Lord (Acts 9:4), he heard a voice speaking to him, and saying, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?” And he said, “Who art Thou, Lord?” And the Lord said, “I am Jesus whom thou persecutest...” He and His people are one; the Church is His body (Eph. 1:22, 23).

This new body was formed on the day of Pentecost in the power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5; 2:1-4), but it is quite plain that neither Peter nor John, nor James, nor the other apostles realized at first, except in a very limited way, what had then taken place.

They knew that “that same Jesus” whom the house of Israel had crucified, God had made both Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36), and that the Holy Spirit had come down as promised; that Israel’s blessing now depended on their acknowledging Christ.

Very interesting it is to note in the book of Acts the gradual unfolding of the truth of God as the saints were able to receive it. A special line of things was given to the converted Saul of Tarsus, when as the apostle Paul he was directed to make known the truth of the Church, Christ’s body, with much more than is contained in his Epistles, that, to the Ephesians notably.

“For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into (or of) one Spirit” (verse 13).

This, the only body of believers that God recognizes on earth, is, entirely the work of the Holy Spirit; Christians do not “join” it; they are brought into it when they receive Christ as Savior; water baptism is not in view here, as is plain from Acts 1:5, and 11:15, 16. Indeed in Mark 10:38, 39, and Luke 12:49, 50 the Lord speaks of His suffering and death as His “baptism”, and in the former passage also He refers to the cup of which He was to drink; this brings before us the scene in the garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22:42).

Verse 14. God’s thoughts and ways are always far higher than our own. In the body are many members, and each has his (or its) own place to fill; there variety is seen in unity, for all the members together constitute one body, and if in a healthy, normal state, all of them are altogether subject to the head.

Should any of the members of Christ’s mystical body be discontented with their lot, as it is said, If a foot shall say, Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body; or if an ear should say, Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body? The hand is more useful than a foot, truly, and an eye would be more difficult to have to do without than an ear, but each is exactly needful for the body. So, rather than being discontented because your place, or mine, in the body of Christ seems inferior to that of another, let us see that we are, each of us, fulfilling our little individual part as members of that one body. And we must not forget that God has set us as members, every one of us, in the body, as it has pleased Him; if this be realized, there is contentment in the heart.

If all were one member, there would be no body, after all; but now are there many members, yet but one body. To this point (verse 20) the Holy Spirit has been occupied with the feebler or less important members of Christ’s body. What tender regard God has for those that are His own, even the feeblest!

Verse 21. But the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee; nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. This supposes a more important member, conscious of his importance, looking with disdain on a less useful member. Let him remember, that, much rather, the members of the body which seem to be weaker, are necessary, and those members of the body which we esteem to be the more void of honor, these we clothe with more abundant honor, and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness; but our comely parts have not need (verses 22-24). So we drape, or clothe our bodies and limbs and feet, but not our faces.

But God has tempered (or blended) the body together, having given more abundant honor to the part that lacked, that there might be no division in the body, but that the members might have the same care one for another. So there would be some without outward honor put on them who may be very useful in the assembly; others like Epaphras in Col. 4:12, who “labored fervently” in prayers, for the saints he knew; such are far more important in the body of Christ than were some at Corinth who displayed themselves in miracles or tongues, for God uses and honors what we are apt to think little of. It is well to have His thoughts about those that are His own; then we shall have a loving interest in all of them.

Verse 26. If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; and if one member be glorified, all the members rejoice with it. This is noticeable as to our human bodies; how quickly an injury to one part, however slight, is felt all over the body! And when it is healed, the whole man feels better.

Now in the present divided state of the Church of God, there is great hindrance to the practical exposition of verse 26, but it is certain from the language of the verse that if saints unknown to us and far away, even on the opposite side of the world, are suffering, are worldly, or are blessed in their souls, we are affected by it, because we are one body in Christ.

Verse 27 states an important principle. The local assembly stands as the body of Christ, of which it is the local expression. The writer already quoted, says in this connection,

“The general expression shows that in the walk of the assembly, and in its general interests, a local assembly can not be separated from the whole body of Christians on earth; and the language employed here shows that as to their position before God, the Christians of one town were considered as representing the whole assembly as far as regarded that locality; not as independent of the rest, but on the contrary as inseparably united to the others, living and acting with respect to that locality as members of the body of Christ, and looked upon as such in it, because every Christian formed a part of that body, and they formed a part of it likewise.
From the verses that follow we see that the apostle, while looking upon the Christians there as the body of Christ, the members of which they were, has in his mind the whole assembly as the assembly of God.”

Verse 28. We have traced the forming of the Assembly, or Church, and the distribution of gifts, the Holy Spirit dividing to each severally as He wills; we have seen the Assembly as the body of Christ, the members every one set in the body as it hath pleased Him.

Now we come to the provision which in the saints God has made for the care and upbuilding of the Assembly. “God hath set some in the Church, first apostles; secondarily prophets; thirdly teachers; after that miracles, etc.” Apostles and prophets were provided for the Assembly’s beginning. Strictly speaking, they are not found today, but the apostles’ inspired writings form a most important part of revealed truth; in that sense, too, apostles and prophets are at the head of the list of Christ’s gifts to the Assembly in Ephesians 4:11, which are to continue until we reach the glory.

Some of the provisions God made, as given in 1 Cor. 12:28, have been called sign-gifts, because it is said that they were a sign to unbelievers. They were, no doubt, and needed for the beginning of Christianity, but there is no intimation that they were to continue, and they are not found in the list in Ephesians 4.

In Mark 16:20, we are told of the beginning,

“And they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the Word with signs following.”

Moses, it has been remarked, wrought miracles, and Elijah too, but the later prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and others did not. The “tongues” and other alleged tokens of the Holy Spirit which some are building much upon at the present time do not bear the marks of divine approval.

Verses 29-31. In these God-given provisions for the carrying on of His work, all could not hold office, but all may, and should, covet earnestly the best gifts, i.e., those by which the Assembly should be built up. And yet, says the apostle to the power-seeking Corinthians, show I unto you a more excellent way,-which is given in Chapter 13.

1 Corinthians 13

More excellent than all the gifts with which the twelfth chapter deals, is love. “Charity” is a translator’s mistake which crept into the first complete Bible in the English language, before the invention of printing.

It has been said that the gifts were manifestations of the power and wisdom of God, while love is the manifestation of His nature., Surely every young Christian knows. John 3:16,

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Not so well known is 1 John 3:16,

“Hereby perceive we the love” (or, Hereby we have known love) “because He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”

You have believed the first passage to the salvation of your soul; what is your answer to the second?

Turning back in our Bibles to John’s inspired account of the night of the betrayal, what Christian heart can fail to be deeply impressed with almost the first words spoken by the Lord after the traitor left the upper room (chapter 13:34, 35), “A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another.”

It is evident that the believers at Corinth had entered but little into this, as in general they fell short of a normal Christian state (chapter 3:1-3.) To the infant assembly at Thessalonica, all of them recently emerged from idolatry and associated evil works, the apostle could however write (1 Thess. 4:9),

“But as touching brotherly love, ye need not that I write unto you, for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.”

This, then, is true in principle of all the children of God. In 1 John 3:14, indeed is this word, a means of assurance to every one who is a possessor of God’s gift of eternal life,

“We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren.”

Much more on the subject of divine love in the believer, and its exercise, is found in John’s first epistle, and a search of all the epistles from Romans to Jude in the same connection will be very profitable to the young Christian.

The special needs of the believers at Corinth were, of course, before the mind of the apostle as he wrote, under inspiration, the thirteenth chapter; but as

“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works”, (2 Tim. 3:16,17), the chapter was written for us too, for our blessing.

Verse 1. “Though” (or, if) “I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling (clanging) cymbal.”

The Corinthians were vain over their gifts. In everything they were enriched by God in Christ, in all utterance and all knowledge, so that they came behind in no gift (chapter 1:5-7); but without love, he who spoke, though possessing the tongue even of an angel, was only comparable to an inferior musical instrument, producing sounds without effect, except momentarily upon the ears of the hearers.

Verse 2. Without love, too, he who has prophecy, and knows all mysteries and all knowledge; who has all faith so as to remove mountains, is nothing. Further yet (verse 3) if one should dole out all his goods in food, and should deliver up his body that he may be burned, but has not love, he profits nothing. To the Corinthians, fond of display, verses 1-3 must have been humbling indeed; but they are intended for the consciences of the saints of God, irrespective of time or place. They teach us that, apart from the action of divine love in the soul, nothing one may say or do is of value in God’s reckoning, no matter how devoted he may appear to be.

This love is not in us by birth, but by new birth. It has its source in our being made partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4), but it is only active in us as we are in communion with God.

Young Christian, jealously guard with constant watchfulness your communion with Him; Satan will seek to destroy it; self, (the old enemy within your breast) is ever ready to assert itself, robbing you of communion.

Verses 4 to 8 set out sixteen qualities of divine love which should characterize the Christian; almost all of them are negative- the true opposites of the selfishness in us by nature. Love suffereth long (or has long patience); it is kind; it is not looking with envious or jealous eye at others; it does not boast, and it is not puffed up with pride. It does not behave in an unseemly manner; does not seek what is its own; is not quickly provoked; does not impute evil, and does not rejoice at iniquity.

Love rejoices with the truth; it bears (or covers) all things; it believes all things, it hopes all things; it endures all things; and, it never fails. These are positive showing the energy of love sustained in communion with God through all the difficulties of the pathway that leads to glory with Christ.

Now if we would bring joy to the heart of God, and be in our individual measures channels of blessing for Him here below, these qualities of divine love must be in exercise.

Will you not, dear Christian reader, resolve at this moment that with God’s help, you will henceforth live out, not just one or half a dozen, but all sixteen, looking to Him for divinely given strength for each need?

Verse 8: Though we often have failed in showing it out, love never fails; the supply is inexhaustible, and God is its source (1 John 4:7). In 1 John 4:17 love with us looks on without fear to the day of judgment, but in Eph. 1:4, and 2: 4-7, His love is foreseen as active toward us in the endless ages of eternity.

Prophecies are for time; they will be done away; tongues, we are told in the 8th verse shall cease, and they have. Knowledge shall be done away, because we know only in part. Although the whole truth of God has been revealed to us in His Word, our minds are not equal to taking it all in at one time. We now lay hold of it in detail, and bless Him for the knowledge we gain, but in eternity we shall understand the truth as a whole in its unity.

So the apostle gives the example of a child, with a child’s apprehension, but manhood being reached, the things of a child no longer suffice. Now, he continues, we see through a dim window; but then face to face; now, I know in part; then, shall I know even as also I am known.

Verse 13 presents three provisions God has made for His people on earth; faith that centers in Christ; hope to cheer them on the way, the hope of His coming; and love. And the greatest of these is love; faith and hope will presently have performed their office; the journey to glory with Christ is now nearing its end; then love alone will remain.

May we not say with the Psalmist in Psalm 23,

“My cup runneth over”?

1 Corinthians 14

It is plain that one general subject occupies the twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth chapters; it is the presence of the Holy Spirit in the Church or Assembly of God, and His gifts, with their proper exercise. No other subject has so large a place in this Epistle, and we may with sorrow add that it would appear that few other portions of 1St Corinthians have been more slighted in the practice of the religious systems of our day.

Verse 1. The thirteenth chapter has shown the way of surpassing excellence (chapter 12:31), and the opening words of our chapter leave no room for doubt as to the preeminent place of love in the assembly: Follow after love, and desire (or earnestly desire) spiritual manifestations, but rather that ye may prophesy. Evidently the believers at Corinth were most impressed by those gifts of the Holy Spirit which gave opportunity for display; speaking in tongues was of that character. The apostle tells them that prophesying was what they should desire.

Verses 2, 3. He that speaks in a tongue speaks not to men, but to God, for no one understands him, though in spirit he speaks mysteries. It is evident that such a one is not edifying-building up-the children of God. But he that prophesies, speaks to men to edification, and exhortation (or, more exactly, encouragement) and comfort. Thus souls are blessed and God is glorified.

It will be seen that prophesying is, in the Scriptures, not at all limited to foretelling events. Old Testament prophets did, it is true, on occasion foretell many things, but this was in every case only part of God’s design to reach the consciences and hearts of His wayward people Israel. Acts 11:28, and 21:10, 11 tell of things foretold by a New Testament prophet named Agabus; and in Acts 13:1, and 15:32 we read of prophets about whom nothing is said as to foretelling.

It has long been rightly said, that prophesying is not so much foretelling, as it is forth telling, and that, the mind of God. Since the completion of the Bible, prophesying may have somewhat changed in character, because the Word of God is now complete and in our hands, but in the language of another,

“A prophet is one who is so in communication with God, as to be able to communicate His mind.”

Prophecy “might contain an application of the thoughts of God, and address on the part of God to the soul, to the conscience, which would be more than knowledge, but which would not be a new revelation. God acts therein without revealing a new truth or a new fact.”

“When any one teaches, he who is spiritual profits by it; when one prophesies, even he who is not spiritual may feel it; he is reached and judged; and it is the same thing with the Christian’s conscience.”

Teaching is explaining the Word of God, and very much needed; but of greater value is that sort of ministry which brings a message from God exactly suited to the needs of the consciences of the saints. May He be pleased to bestow much more of it!

Verse 4. He that speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he that prophesies, edifies the Assembly,-how much more important! Indeed it is that which is given prominence in this chapter.

Verse 5. The Corinthians seem to have coveted the gift of tongues in a special way; the large hearted apostle says, I would that ye all spake with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied, for greater is he that prophesieth, than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret, that the Assembly may receive edifying. The gift of tongues, with other gifts of the Holy Spirit, ceased long ago, with the spread of the gospel throughout the civilized world, the need for it having passed. Very useful it was on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:4-11), we can see, and no doubt it was employed many times in the early history of the Church; but to be of value, the language spoken had of course to be understood by the hearers.

In the 6th verse the apostle begins to show by a series of examples how mistaken the Corinthians were in using the Spirit’s gift of tongues as they did. First, a visit from himself is supposed: If he came to them speaking with tongues-and he possessed that gift more than all of the Corinthians (verse 18)-what should he profit them except he should speak to them either in revelation of truth, not theretofore made known, or in knowledge of truth already revealed? In the former case he would be prophesying; in the latter he would, we gather, be teaching, but in either he would be seeking their profit.

He turns to speak of lifeless things (musical instruments) giving a sound; if they give no distinction to the notes, how shall it be known what is piped or harped? And (verse 8) if the trumpet gives an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself for war? Thus also (verse 9) those to whom the apostle writes, unless with their tongues they gave a distinct speech, how should it be known what is spoken? for they would be speaking to the air.

There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of undistinguishable sound. If, therefore, says the apostle, I do not know the power of the sound, I shall be to him that speaks a barbarian, and he that speaks a barbarian to me. Even so ye, he continues, forasmuch as ye are desirous of spirits (see the marginal note in your Bible), seek that ye may abound for the edification of the Assembly (verses 10-12).

How profited the children of God are, where the character of ministry reflects this seeking to abound to the edifying of the Assembly! And why should it ever be otherwise? Would that every brother, young and old, should realize in his own soul the important place which this chapter gives to the building up of the saints; and seek, through knowledge of the Scriptures and prayerful dependence upon God, to serve Him and His people in this way!

Verse 13. One having the Spirit’s gift of tongues, should, realizing that it was not intended for the Assembly (verse 22), pray that he may interpret; not human intellect, but a further gift of God is needed, that the saints may be edified.

Verses 14-20. The edification of the Assembly continues to be the theme, and praying in a tongue, though one’s spirit be engaged in it, is out of place there, because one’s understanding is unfruitful; those present and hearing do not know what is said. Praying and singing and giving of thanks are to be not only the action of my spirit within me-for man is a tripartite being, spirit, and soul and body (1 Thess. 5:23)-but the understanding must be engaged; it follows then of necessity that I shall pray, or sing or give thanks in the language known to all; then the others will understand. Endowed beyond all to whom he wrote, with the gift of tongues, the apostle desired to speak five words with his understanding, that he might instruct others also, rather than ten thousand words in a tongue. A needed word of admonition follows (verse 20):

“Brethren, be not children in your minds, but in malice be babes; but in your minds be grown men” (N. T.).

In the 21St verse the quotation is from Isa. 28:11, 12, where God warned Israel who would not listen to His servants, that He would speak to them with the stammering lips of foreigners; that would be a sign of their distance from Him, and of His judgment that would fall upon them. Tongues therefore (verse 22) were not for believers, but for the unbelieving; but prophecy is not to the latter, but to those who believe.

Finally the apostle, by an example of what might occur in Corinth, if the whole Assembly came together in one place, pictures the deplorable effect upon simple persons or unbelievers entering in and finding all to be speaking with tongues; will they not say, he says, ye are mad? But if instead, all were prophesying, and some unbeliever or simple person came in, he would be convicted of all, judged of all; the secrets of his heart are manifested; and thus, falling on his face he would do homage to God, reporting that God was indeed among them.

The day when the whole Church or Assembly of God might come together in one place has long passed, yet the original ground of gathering (Matt. 1:8: 20; Eph. 4:4, etc.), remains the refuge of all who in a time of ruin and failure cling to God’s Word as sufficient for even the darkest day.

In verses 26-40 the apostle applies that which has been brought out in the three chapters (12, 13 and 14) to the regulation of the Assembly. There was much gift at Corinth (chapter 1:5), but little sense of responsibility to God, and every one came with a psalm, a teaching, a tongue, a revelation, an interpretation. All should be done to edification. If any should speak in a tongue, two, or at the most three should do so, and one must interpret; if there were no interpreter, silence was called for; such should speak to themselves and to God.

Two or three prophets might speak, and the others were to judge, or discern what was said, if it really came from God. But if there be a revelation to another sitting there, let the first be silent, says the inspired apostle. All might prophesy one by one. The spirits of the prophets were subject to the prophets; they were, as another has said, masters of themselves in the exercise of this marvelous power which wrought in them, unlike the frenzy which characterized those under the power of demons. For God is not a God of disorder, but of peace, as in all the Assemblies of the saints (verse 33, N. T.). Women are to be silent in the Assemblies; they are to be in subjection, as in the Old Testament.

The Corinthians had departed from the order of the Holy Spirit in the Assembly, and the apostle in closing the subject, dis cussed in these three chapters, inquires, Did the Word of God go out from you, or did it come to you only? And he lays down this rule,that if anyone thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him recognize that the things which he wrote to them are the Lord’s commandments. If any were ignorant that he wrote by the Holy Spirit with God’s authority, it was ignorance indeed; let such be given up to their ignorance.

In conclusion, the brethren were to desire to prophesy, and were not to forbid the speaking with tongues; but all things should be done decently and in order.

1 Corinthians 15:1-20

The subject of the resurrection, which occupies the fifteenth chapter, because of its special importance has been reserved almost to the last of the Epistle.

Without the resurrection of Christ there could have been no glad tidings of God’s grace to reach our ears, our consciences and our hearts; therefore the believers at Corinth, beguiled by Satan into doubting or denying the resurrection of the body, are reminded first of all of the gospel which had been announced to them.

They had received it, and in it they stood; by it they were saved (if they held fast the word announced to them as the gospel) unless indeed they had believed in vain, or lightly. In verse 2 Salvation is looked at as now going on in the life of the believer; it is so, frequently in the Epistles, but not always; for example, in 2 Tim. 1:9, and Titus 3:5, it is a thing long completed; both are, of course, true. Our souls are saved and we, believers, are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed. The righteous, referring to all true Christians, are with difficulty saved because Satan throws every hindrance in their path that he may, and there is an evil nature within us that delights in sin (1 Peter 1:9, 5, and 4:18).

“Able to save to the uttermost”, is our Lord Jesus, “seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them” that come unto God by Him. Heb. 7:25.

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31). So, in our chapter, the proof that it was a real work of God in their souls would be in their “holding fast”, as the marginal note correctly reads, not merely “keeping in memory” what they had heard.

Verses 3, 4. What Paul had received in the first place, that he passed on to his hearers for their faith to rest in, like his own; and it was this, that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried; and that He was raised the third day, according to the Scriptures.

The Old Testament witnessed to the necessity for His dying for our sins (plainly, but by no means only in Isa. 53), and to His rising again (Psa. 16:10, but many passages which foreshadowed His death indicated His living again).

What a burden is taken off the anxious, convicted before God of sin, when once it is apprehended that Christ died for our sins! Not every one’s sins, mark you, were laid upon Him.

“And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment, so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” Heb. 9:27, 28.

He died for the sins of all who put their trust in Him, not for those who reject Him.

“Come unto Me,” is His word, “all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls, for My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.” Matt. 11:28-30.

You are not in truth a Christian, unless you have made the 28th verse your very own; and you are not a happy Christian, unless you have made the 29th verse your own too.

Verses 5-7: The fullest proof is afforded of the fact of Christ’s resurrection. Mary Magdalene (John 20:14-18 and Mark 16:9,10) saw Him first, but her report (and that of others of her sex) was not given much acceptance then, as we learn from Mark 16:10,11. The first witness of His resurrection named in 1 Cor.15 is the better known Cephas or Simon Peter (see Luke 24:33,34), and the twelve are named next, passing by the two of Luke 24 who did not know Who the stranger was that walked with them, until He was about to vanish out of their sight. The third instance cited is of “above five hundred brethren at once”, of whom the greater part were living when Paul wrote. Of this meeting, and that with James, no account is given in Matthew, Mark, Luke or John’s inspired writings, though in Acts 1:3 it is said that the Lord “showed Himself alive after His passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them (the apostles) forty days.”

“And last of all,” says Paul in the 8th verse, “He was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.” The occasion was when he as Saul of Tarsus was going to Damascus, an open enemy of Christ, and suddenly there shone about him a light from heaven, and he fell to the earth, hearing a voice saying to him,

“Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?” Acts 9.

With becoming lowliness the apostle writes, “For I am the least of the apostles, who am not fit to be called apostle, because I have persecuted the assembly of God” (verse 9, N. T.). The twelve had never been guilty of that, but Paul before his conversion had passed all others in sin against Christ, as he says in 1 Tim. 2:15, 16... “sinners, of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting.”

And so in verse 10 of our chapter he says,

“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace which was bestowed upon (or, was toward) me was not (or has not been) in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”

In the Acts there is little mention of the twelve apostles except Peter and John, and they only to the 12Th chapter, and again in chapter 15 where Peter is named. The risen Lord had given them a work to do, in Matt. 28:18-20, which it is evident they did not carry out, and we do not know from the Scriptures to what extent they really acted on those instructions. The Holy Spirit in the Acts, after the martyrdom of Stephen (chapter 7) by the Jews (“Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost; as your fathers did, so do ye”- verse 51), is concerned with the Gentiles much more than with the children of Israel who had both rejected and crucified their Messiah and rejected the Holy Spirit in Stephen whom they stoned to death. The salvation of God was therefore being offered to the Gentiles (See Acts 28:23-29). This is no doubt the reason why we are told so little about the twelve, whose mission was primarily to Israel.

Verses 11-14. Whether Paul or the twelve preached the message of salvation depended upon the resurrection of Christ. So Paul had preached at Corinth, and so they believed. Now, he says, if Christ be preached that He rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen; and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.

Verses 15-17. It would necessarily follow then, that Paul and those with him, and all others who were making the way of salvation known, were false witnesses of God, because they had testified of Him that He raised up Christ, whom He raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not raised, and if He be not raised from the dead, the faith of the Corinthians (and of all others, necessarily) is vain; ye, says the apostle, are yet in your sins.

What a test of any new teaching we have here! How, we may ask, does it affect Christ, His person, His work, His glory? In denying a bodily resurrection, the bold advocates of human reasoning overlooked the vital fact of His rising from the grave everything depends upon His resurrection; take only one passage: Rom. 4:24-25,

“Who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification.”

He was delivered up to the death of the cross, bearing our sins’ judgment; but His raising again is proof that He had exhausted that judgment, so that it can never fall upon the believer.

“God will not payment twice demand;

Once at my bleeding Surety’s hand,

And then again at mine.”

“He that raised up Christ from the dead, shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you.” Rom. 8:11. We who trust Him as Savior, will be raised as surely as He was raised.

But the resurrection of Christ has other aspects. It was the seal of the miracles He had performed, and of His grace Who had gone down into death to deliver men from Satan’s chains and from death.

Do not these verses show how fully Christ took His place with men-with his saints-

“If there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen” (ver. 13).

“If the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised?” (ver. 16).

He was taken out from among the dead, from the rest of the dead- the seal, as another has said, of His perfect acceptance; and we who believe shall be taken out from among the dead in the same manner; it is only a question of time. Beside this, the resurrection of Christ is evidence that all that have died shall rise again; not only the saints but the wicked; but each in his own order (John 5:28, 29).

Verse 18 speaks of those who have died in faith; they would be lost eternally if Christ is not raised; and verse 19 measures up the case of living believers, if there be then no hope beyond this life, they are of all men most miserable, because the world has no attraction for them; they are indeed spoiled for this world. But now (verse 20) is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of the sleeping saints. He, seated in glory, is my assurance that I shall be there also, through grace.

1 Corinthians 15:21-28

Verse 21. “By man came death”, carries us back in thought to the first man, to Adam and his wife at the dawn of human history. Then it was that, as we read in Rom. 5:12,

“By one man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.”

What a scene of sorrow this world has become through sin! Earlier or later, sickness and death are the common lot of man, because man is by nature a sinner.

But the Spirit of God here mentions the first man and his family in order to present in bright contrast another Man, concerning whom it is written,

“And ye know that He was manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is no sin.” 1 John 3:5.

Coming into the world as man, but without sin; indeed, the sinless One, Christ at every step in His earthly pathway glorified God; and dying, gave His life that we might live eternally with Him. Death could not retain Him in its grasp, and He rose from among the dead. That victory was for us who trust in Him, and He in rising, was the first fruits of those fallen asleep, i.e., the dead in Christ; by Him is the resurrection of the dead.

Verse 22. There are thus in the world two families: the original stock or Adam family; and the new creation of God, the Christ family, which includes all that are truly His. Adam brought death into his family; Christ imparts life in the power of resurrection. And what are the identification marks of the Christ family? O, there are many of them. One is found in Rom. 10

“The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart; that is, the word of faith which we preach; that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed.” (verses 8-11.)

“As in Adam all die” has been true ever since the days of our first parents. There had been a solemn warning given (Gen. 2:15-17) which seems to have been (perhaps momentarily) forgotten by Eve; at least, she listened to the devil, fell into his snare, and was followed by her husband. Then they heard the decree (Chapter 3:19).

“In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” After that, “and he died” became the rule, beginning in the fifth chapter.

“Even so in Christ shall all be made alive”, treats of the members of Christ’s family in resurrection-life-”they that are Christ’s”, as in the 23rd verse.

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature” (2 Cor. 5:17: or, it is a new creation).

“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” Rom. 8:1.

“Wherefore remember that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh... that at that time ye were without Christ... having no hope, and without God in the world; but now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ.” Eph. 2:11, 12, 13. Are you “in Christ”, dear reader?

Verse 23. The resurrection of the lost is not in view here, but only of Christ and His own. Each is in his own rank, the first fruits, Christ; then those that are Christ’s at His coming, when what in John 5:29 is called the resurrection of life, takes place.

“Then the end. when He gives up the kingdom to Him (who is) God and Father, when He shall have annulled all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign until He put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy (that) is annulled (is) death. For He has put all things in subjection under His feet. But when He says that all things are put in subjection, it is evident that (it is) except Him who put all things in subjection to Him. But when all things shall have been brought into subjection to Him, then the Son also Himself shall be placed in subjection to Him who put all things in subjection to Him, that God may be all in all” (verses 24-28, N. T.).

The resurrection of the lost, in order that they may be judged, forms only a secondary part of the Holy Spirit’s theme in this chapter; it is, however, evident that verse 21, “by man came also the resurrection of the dead”, while primarily applying to Christ’s resurrection and that of those who are His own, takes in also the raising of the rest of the dead, which will follow by the space of a thousand years the raising of believers who have died (Rev. 20:5; John 5:25-29 and 17:2). So also, in the quoted verses 24-28, the resurrection of the lost is included, though not mentioned specifically.

The Father has given Christ power over all flesh (John 17:2) and in the exercise of that power He will, after the resurrection of those that are His, rule as man according to the 8th Psalm-a passage which is in fact referred to in our verse 27. Among many passages dealing with the subject, we may refer to Rev. 19:11-16 and following; Matt. 24:27-44, and 25:31-46.

“The end”, in verse 24 is the end of Christ’s kingdom as Son of man, and the dawn of eternity in its fullest sense; then the judgment of the great white throne will have followed the thousand years’ reign, and hell will have received both the lost, and the devil that deceived them. Then will He deliver up the kingdom to Him who is God and Father, having put down (or annulled) all rule and all authority and power.

He must reign until He has put all enemies under His feet. The nineteenth and twentieth chapters of the Revelation reveal these closing dealings with most of these enemies; and other prophetic Scriptures tell of others.

God has decreed that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of heavenly and earthly and infernal beings, and that every tongue shall confess Jesus Christ as Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:9, 10).

The last enemy to be annulled is death; this involves the resurrection of those that are not Christ’s, to meet their judgment, but as has been indicated, the subject of the chapter is the resurrection of believers, and the resurrection of the remainder of mankind is passed over in silence.

The 27th and 28th verses will perhaps be made clearer if the reader will refer to Rev. 5, where the Son, as man, takes over the execution of the divine judgments expressed in the book. Just so in these verses of 1 Cor. 15, He is looked at as man, ruling in the kingdom given to Him until that special kingdom has served its purpose; then He as man will be subject to Him that put all things under Him, that God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) may be all in all. He will be eternally man, and as such He will be subject as He was during His life on earth; but He is and ever will be God, and one with the Father, even as He also was here on earth. (John 10:30). As Man He will be forever the Head of the whole redeemed family, the Church His Bride.

1 Corinthians 15:29-42

In the 29th verse the apostle returns to the subject directly before him to the 19th verse, for verses 20 to 28 form a parenthesis in which he made known the place in God’s purposes that His Son has and will have as man, consequent upon His cross. Verse 29 closely connects with the 18th verse, and verses 30-32 with the 19th.

The 29th verse has been and is the subject of needless controversy; it involves little difficulty for the simple believer. The nature and meaning of Christian baptism is made clear in Rom.6: it is unto Christ’s death; believers are buried with Him by baptism unto death.

“They... which are baptized for the dead” refers to this primarily, and it appears to take in also the thought of those who are baptized, filling up the ranks of believers depleted by reason of death- their taking the places of those who are fallen asleep in Christ, as new men are brought into a regiment of soldiers to take the place of those killed in battle.

If Christ is not risen, and if dead believers will not rise again, Christian baptism is a delusion; but He is risen, and the dead in Christ shall rise, according to an abundance of Scriptures. Likewise, Paul’s endangering his life constantly (verses 30, 31) for his Master’s sake was folly, unless the dead arise.

The incident at Ephesus referred to in the 32nd verse, takes us to Acts 19:29, and the Apostle here uses a figure of speech.

See the marginal note, which makes the verse read,

“If, to speak after the manner of men, I have fought with beasts of Ephesus, etc.”

They were human beasts, seeking his life because he preached Christ. What advantage was it to Paul that he should have such an experience, if the dead rise not?

In the latter part of verse 32, and in verses 33 and 34, it is made plain that the teaching that the dead do not rise, is a Satanic delusion.

“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad” (2 Cor. 5:10), is one Scripture out of many that carry the assurance of the resurrection of the body.

“Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die,” springs from the arch-deceiver who would tempt men into the belief that death ends all. Some believers at Corinth, who ought to have been wary of Satan’s wiles, had taken up with this delusion, and as the apostle says,

“Evil communications corrupt good manners.”

We should never give heed to that which is contrary to the Word of God, and in this case it is clear that the corruption of “good manners” was a result of that, in opening the door to the unbridled desires of the natural man. Therefore the word is, (verse 34).

“Awake to righteousness, and sin not!”

Their consciences must be stirred, the path of danger exposed. Some had not the knowledge of God, though at Corinth it was natural to boast of knowledge, as we have seen.

“I speak to your shame”, says the apostle. The knowledge of God is a deeper thing than the knowledge of Christ as your Savior; ignorance concerning Him leads to a careless walk in believers.

It is instructive to observe the wisdom of God in meeting, as in the verses that follow, the curiosity of man.

“But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?” (verse 35).

Natural curiosity is not satisfied in the explanatory verses which follow; indeed it is rebuked in pointing out what the worldly-minded Corinthians well knew. You sow seed, whether in your garden or in the field; it is not quickened unless it dies. Turn back the soil after the seed has germinated, and see, the thing you planted has died.

“And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that 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, and to every seed his own body” (verses 37, 38). So will it be with the new and eternal body designed of God for His children; but more of this further on in the chapter.

Verses 39, 40, 41 point to the evident fact that God is not limited to the designing of bodies; each species has its own flesh, and there are heavenly bodies and earthly ones, differing in glory from one another. Each body is suited for the particular sphere for which it is made.

Verse 42. “So also is the resurrection of the dead”, that is, of the believing dead; for as we have seen, the resurrection of the lost is not the subject of this chapter. As the bare grain of wheat is sown, and out of its death there grows up a living thing of beauty, yet of the same nature; so, after the same order is it to be with the heavenly saints. The believer’s body is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruptibility. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body (a body which had an animal life from the soul); it is raised a spiritual body; if there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual one. How great is the change that awaits us!

1 Corinthians 15:42-52

The young Christian will perceive from verses 42, 43, 44 that at the resurrection, we shall have bodies of glory; such is the completeness of God’s redemption work that we shall not come into judgment (John 5:24, N. T.); foreknown, predestined, called and justified already, we are waiting to be glorified (Rom. 8:29, 30; see also Phil. 4:20, 21, and 1 John 3:2). We can see the pattern of the heavenly body in the Lord’s, when He rose triumphant over death (Luke 24; John 20, 21).

Verse 45 refers to Gen. 2:7; “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.”

“The first man Adam became a living soul; the last Adam a quickening (making alive) spirit.” (verse 45, N. T.).

The name “Adam”, is used here as a title for the head of the race, and the first Adam is placed in contrast with the last, (last, because there will be no third) Adam.

“Was made”, in italics in the end of verse 45, should be left out; as Son of God, He always quickened. He became, as the Head of a new and spiritual race, a quickening Spirit, and to them He gives all that belongs to the position He has acquired as man before God. How great the contrast with what we were born into, as connected with the first Adam, who was a poor sinner before he had begotten any of his offspring!

Verses 46 to 49, bring out yet further the contrast between what is of the first man, and what is of the Second: When the first man fell from his place of innocence, God began to work in grace, and has continued ever since. It is out of poor sinners that He makes heirs of salvation.

The first man is “of the earth earthy”, or (more exactly) “out of the earth, made of dust” (see Gen. 2:7; 3:19); the Second Man “out of heaven”, as the end of verse 47 should be read, omitting “the Lord.” The next verses are rightly read thus:

“Such as He made of dust, such also those made of dust; and such as the heavenly (one), such also the heavenly (ones). And as we have borne the image of the (one) made of dust, we shall bear also the image of the heavenly (one) (verses 48, 49, N. T.).

“Conformed to the image of His (God’s) Son”, is in Rom. 8:29.

All of this magnifies the grace of God. Wonderful, amazing, that He should ever have purposed to bring into such a position of favor ourselves who, with nothing to commend ourselves to Him, have been led to put our trust in His Son! We have taken God at His word, and found happiness, peace, comfort, hope that is sure and abiding, in a new and eternal relationship He has Himself formed.

Verse 50 makes it very plain, if anyone thinks to attain God’s kingdom in his own (imagined) sufficiency of goodness, that it is impossible; “flesh and blood” can not inherit that kingdom, neither doth “corruption” inherit incorruption. Could He speak more plainly? Only through Christ, and in Christ, is there salvation. “Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.” Acts 4:12.

Verses 51-52. This chapter has set out the truth of the resurrection, particularly as it affects God’s children; we have no salvation unless Christ is risen, and His rising from among the dead is our assurance that we shall rise like Him. Here we have learned, too, of the glorious change that awaits the believer; having borne likeness to the first man, by whom sin and death came into the world, we are going, in the resurrection, to be like the Second Man, the heavenly One, and the Giver of life. Thirdly, we are introduced in verses 51, 52, to the manner of the resurrection, a secret given to the apostle Paul to reveal to the saints.

We shall not all fall asleep; surely by far the most of the heavenly saints have already fallen asleep, for the day of grace is manifestly drawing to its close, and those who remain alive now, are apparently few; their number would seem to be decreasing, though souls are still being saved. Before all are gone, so that not a single true Christian is left on earth, the resurrection will take place. The writer believes that that moment is now near.

“But we shall all be changed”. Not one of those who trust in Jesus, not a single lamb of His flock, will be forgotten then. Some of us will be asleep in our beds, for while it is daytime in part of the world, it is night at the opposite side; some of us may be at our daily tasks, or at school, when that moment comes. The very thought of it acts as a check on our minds, our ways, our words, for we that are Christ’s do not want to be in any way displeasing to Him.

“In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.” There is no warrant for supposing that believers will know of it even a moment beforehand, that they might have time to say goodbye to the unconverted of their acquaintance, or to give them a last warning. The twinkling of an eye is probably the shortest measure of time our bodies take knowledge of; a second on your watch dial is a much longer period.

The trumpet sounding the last trump is like the last signal given to a body of soldiers ready to break camp; they are off in an instant. The dead in Christ shall be raised incorruptible, and we, His own who are living at that moment, shall be changed without passing through death. “This corruptible” and “this mortal” refer to our bodies even while we are alive; whether passing through death or preserved alive till then, we must put on incorruption and immortality; and that having taken place, Isa. 25:8 will have its fulfillment, as far as the great body of the heavenly saints are concerned.

Hos. 13:14, supplies the second Old Testament Scripture reference.

Not at the moment 1 Cor. 15:51,52 presents, will these Old Testament Scriptures have their complete and final enactment; Israel’s deliverance comes later, but the resurrection of the heavenly saints is to be the first exhibition of that power which will completely annul the work of Satan, in the triumph of God’s grace.

Verses 56, 57. The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law, but death has lost its sting for the believer; for him, the grave has lost its victory. The law, by which is no deliverance for the guilty, rather provoked man to sin because of his rebellious will. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory by our Lord Jesus Christ; and meanwhile (verse 58) we are to be firm, immovable, abounding always in the work of the Lord, knowing that our toil is not in vain in the Lord. We know what awaits us, by divine grace, and though Satan may try to hinder, the end will be sweet.

1 Corinthians 16:1-15

The “collection for the saints” was for the believers in Judea who were in poor circumstances, it may be because of sharing all they possessed with one another (Acts 4:32-37), and by reason of the great persecution at the time of Stephen’s martyrdom (Acts 8:1). This collection is referred to in a number of passages: (Gal. 2:10; 2 Cor. 8 and 9; Rom. 15:25-28, and Acts 24:17). The children of God are enjoined in Rom. 12:13 to care for one another’s needs in a practical way, “distributing to the necessity of saints”,a word from which we may learn that God allows some of His children to have needs beyond their power to fill, so that those with plenty may have the privilege of sharing with them.

Verse 2. The first day of the week, the Lord’s day (Rev. 1:10) is the day which Christians, as far as they can be free from secular employment, rightly set apart for Him. If at first they broke bread daily in remembrance of the Lord in His death for them, Acts 20:6,7 gives us to know that ere long the disciples came together to break bread on the first day of the week.

On this day of memory (John 20, Luke 24, Mark 16, Matt. 28) when the Lord rose from the dead in resurrection life, it was fitting that each should lay by at home in whatever degree he had prospered, part of the gift that all would soon be sending to Jerusalem. There is no thought here of Old Testament tithing, for the Christian is not under law; but young Christians and old Christians alike may profitably study 2 Cor. 8:1-5 and estimate, if they can, what share of the income of the Macedonian believers was devoted to the needs of the Lord’s people in Judea. Is there a lesson for us to learn in the way of Christian giving, here, do you think?

Verses 3, 4. It was fitting that the Corinthian believers should send their gifts by messengers from among themselves, rather than that the apostle should carry the responsibility of it, though he might have them in his company. Acts 19:21, 22 indicates the time of the writing of this Epistle; it was written at Ephesus (verse 8), notwithstanding the uninspired note at the end of the letter; and Acts 20:4 gives the names of some of those that were with Paul on this journey to Jerusalem.

Verses 5-8. The apostle was not free to go to Corinth at this time, nor was Apollos (verse 12), because of the low spiritual state there, as he explains in the 2nd Epistle, 1St chapter, verse 23. Paul wrote this first letter out of much tribulation and distress of heart, and with many tears (chapter 2, 2nd Epistle), sending it with Titus; and, anxious to learn how it was received at Corinth, he crossed over from Troas to Macedonia to meet Titus on his return. Then he wrote the 2nd Epistle before fulfilling his purpose of going to Corinth.

Verse 9. God had opened a “great door” and an effectual one for the apostle’s labors on behalf of his Master at Ephesus; and there were many adversaries, for Satan does all he can to hinder the work of God. Thus were there two reasons, beside the one not mentioned until the 2nd Epistle, why Paul did not at this time go to Corinth.

Verses 10, 11. Timothy and Erastus had been sent by the apostle into Macedonia (Acts 19:22). Timothy was young, as is shown by 1 Tim. 4:12; tender personal regard for him is evidenced by the verses in our Epistle, but it was because he worked the work of the Lord, even as Paul did, that the Corinthians were to receive him and set him forward on his way.

Verse 12. Not a suggestion of jealousy of Apollos as a fellow laborer for Christ is recognizable in the apostle’s references to him. Shameful it is when such fruits of the old nature are allowed in any saint of God; thorough self judgment is needful in all; in none is it more essential than in those who seek to serve the Lord.

Verses 13 and 14. The Epistle is drawing to its close; not doctrine now, but responsibility, and the Lord’s service occupy the last chapter, and Paul’s thoughts turn again to the Corinthian saints whose state pressed heavily upon him. “Watch ye” (or, be vigilant), for they had grown careless and negligent of what had been committed to them; “stand fast in the faith”: the Epistle has shown them many things in which human reasoning, and not faith, had been in exercise; most of all, perhaps, in the denial on the part of some that there is a resurrection of the dead.

“Quit you like men; be strong” for they had followed an easy path of their own choosing, which avoided reproach for Christ’s sake.

“Let all your things be done in love”; this was the “more excellent way” of chapter 13. Weighty words of divine wisdom for the believer’s earthly path are all these, and suited for every Christian in this day of weakness and departure from the written Word of God. Let us each take them to heart as written for ourselves.

1 Corinthians 16:15-24

Verses 15, 16. The household of Stephanas were mentioned in the first chapter (verse 16) as having been baptized by Paul. They were the first at Corinth to open their hearts to receive the good news of God’s salvation. In Rom. 16:5 Epaenetus is called the first fruits of Achaia, but this is a copyist’s mistake, and the true reading is Asia, referring to the Roman province of that name.

The language used in connection with Stephanas’s household leaves no room for the conclusion that they occupied an official position; they had addicted, or devoted, themselves to the saints for service; indeed one trustworthy translator makes the passage read, “and that they appointed themselves to the saints for service.” It was, after all, service for Christ; as is plain from Matt. 25:40, though the reference there is to Jewish believers in the coming day; and will be recognized at the judgment seat of Christ (2 Cor. 5:10). Subjection to such is called for, and to every one joined in the work and laboring. This service for the saints is open to us all, wherever we may be. May the Lord exercise the hearts of many to serve Him in this needed way.

Verses 17, 18. Three brothers in the Lord at Corinth had taken it on themselves to go to Paul with provision for his needs; they were not sent by the assembly, but if there had been a happy Christian state at Corinth all would have joined together in ministering to the Lord’s servant. There would thus seem to be a word for their consciences in the last clause of the 17th verse. The three brothers had refreshed the apostle’s spirit, and he regarded it as sure that the assembly as a whole was refreshed too by what these had done in love to Paul.

Verse 19. The churches (really assemblies) of Asia were within the Roman province of that name which is now the most westerly part of Turkey, facing Greece (the ancient Achaia) across the Aegean Sea, Ephesus was the capital of the province, and we may gather that when the apostle Paul wrote to Corinth there were at least assemblies at Troas. Colosse and Miletus, beside Ephesus. The seven addressed in Rev. 2 and 3 were in existence when Paul wrote, and of course there may have been others also at this time, joining in salutation to their brethren across the sea.

Aquila and Priscilla were at Corinth when the apostle first visited that city; they had then lately come from Rome, and when he left for Ephesus this couple accompanied him (Acts 18:1-3, 18, 26). They may have been much with Paul, but were in Rome again when he wrote the Epistle to the Romans (chapter 16:3-5), not however, when the 2nd Epistle to Timothy was writ ten (chapter 4:19). The assembly “in their house” reminds us that in those days when sects and divisions were unknown, Christians, if at all numerous in a town or neighborhood, would have to meet in groups as they were able, though all together constituted the assembly of God in that town or district.

Verses 20 and 21 Complete the brief chain of messages of Christian love from saints in Asia to saints in Corinth, one with them in Christ. How real that bond is, that unites all the children of God! Paul’s signature on his letters which were commonly dictated to another (Rom. 16:22; Col. 4:18; 2 Thess. 3:17), was the token of their genuineness. One letter only seems to have been written by Paul’s own hand-the Epistle to the Galatians (chapter 6:11).

Verse 22 is solemn: “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maran-atha”. Anathema is a Greek word left without translation; it is found also in Rom. 9:3; 1 Cor. 12:3 and Gal. 1:8 and 9, in each of these cases translated “accursed”. In the common use of the word, it meant an offering in a heathen temple, which could not be redeemed. The translators gave the true meaning of the word as applied in the Epistles,-accursed-in each case, except that before us, preferring here to leave the connected words i n their original languages: Anathema (Greek) Maran-atha (two Aramaic or Syriac words meaning “the Lord cometh”): His coming will mean for us the beginning of eternal joys; for the Christless professor there will be no redemption, instead the woes of a lost eternity.

The last two verses are precious:

“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. My love be with you all in Christ Jesus.”

Much there had been to speak against, of what they had allowed to come in, to Christ’s dishonor; and Paul had not hesitated to point it out, but now as he ends his letter, the grace which is in our Lord Jesus, and his own love for them, occupy his heart. Was he not like his Master?