The epistles to the Corinthians and Galatians

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Preface

It has often seemed to me that BibUcal commentaries are not always as attractive as they might be. The scattered information given in the notes has to be carried back by the reader into the text with the result that the interpretation often seems to suffer from a certain sense of jerkiness and lack of continuity. I have sought to obviate this by weaving into the course of the comment a translation of my own which stands out prominently in black lettering, and which can thus be conveniently compared with the ordinary Biblical text which is printed at the top of the page, immediately above the commentary. The translation, running as it does through the continuous exposition, shows the reader how the words lie in the apostle's mind; and they make it easy for him to follow the sequence of an argument or to see the force of an appeal, without passing continually from the commentary to the text.

The volume does not attempt to say all that might be said, but only such things as seemed really to interpret the apostle's thought. Its object is to show how interesting, how vital, and how modern those ancient epistles are. I desire to record my special obligations to Die Schriften des Neuen Testaments, neu iihersetzt und fur die Gegenwart erkl'drt.

John E. McFadyen.

December, 1908.

FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS.

FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS.

Introduction

No book in the New Testament exhibits more graphically the magnitude and variety of the problems which Christianity had to face in its effort to subdue the ancient world to itself, than the first epistle of Paul to the Corinthians. Corinth was, in a very real sense, the meeting place of east and west, of their commerce and their thought. Of the brilliant and beautiful city, it has been said that " in her quickly pulsing life, in her luxury and vice, she may be described as the Paris of the ancient world." The atmosphere of Greece lies about the epistle : the eager mind is here that discusses and questions the resurrection (xv. 12), the spirit of faction is here that cursed the ancient democracies, and that now threatens to rend the church with party cries ; the large and tolerant outlook is here, and the deep and vivid interest in life and its problems.

In this city of art and commerce, of intellect and vice, there was a "church of God" (i. 2), founded by the apostle Paul (iii. 6). He claims to be the father of the Corinthian Christians, and they are his beloved children (iv. 14 f.). During the year and a half which he had spent at Corinth (Acts xviii. 11) "teaching the word of God among them," his evangelistic efforts had been crowned with a considerable measure of success (i Cor. i. 4-7) ; and though there, as everywhere, he had encountered bitter opposition from the Jews (Acts xviii. 6), yet not only Gentiles but Jews were won for the gospel, including even a ruler of the synagogue (Acts xviii. 8, i Cor. i. 14). Naturally, however, the bulk of the converts were Gentile (i Cor. xii. 2). Most of them were drawn from the lower classes, few were numbered among Corinth's wise or mighty or noble (i. 26) ; but doubtless there were a few. The graphic description of the celebration of the Lord's supper in xi. 20 ff. presupposes a variety of social conditions, and such a man as Stephanas (i. 16, xvi. 15) would probably be well off. Paul recognized the great strategic importance of Corinth. In the words of the vision. Be not afraid (Acts xviii. 9), we get a glimpse into the anxious emotion with which he began his labor ; but the eighteen months which he spent there were rewarded by the rise of a church, whose members were rich in Christian " utterance and knowledge, and came behind in no gift"(i.5f.).

The work of Paul had been very ably seconded by Apollos ; what Paul

INTRODUCTION.

had planted, Apollos had watered (iii. 6). It is clear from i. 12 that Paul and Apollos impressed the Corinthians in very different ways. Apollos was a brilliant speaker, and, as an Alexandrian, no doubt a master of the allegorical interpretation of the Old Testament (Acts xviii. 24 ff.), with which he confuted the Jews and proved that Jesus was the Messiah. On his arrival at Corinth, his influence began at once to tell powerfully : his eloquent and philosophic preaching would be more attractive to the average Greek, who worshipped " utterance and knowledge," than the simpler and more unadorned speech of Paul. To the credit of both men, however, neither looked upon the other as a rival. They were both God's fellow-workers (iii. 9). Paul recognizes that ''he that planteth and he that watereth are one " (iii. 8) ; and Apollos, who happens to be with Paul when he writes this letter to the Corinthians, refuses to take advantage of Paul's earnest request that he should visit Corinth with the brethren who are about to go (xvi. 12).

This letter was written from Ephesus (xvi. 8) — where Paul stayed between two and three years (Acts xix. 10, xx. 31) after leaving Corinth — and apparently towards the conclusion of his stay (Acts xix. 21, i Cor. xvi. 5). It is written at any rate before Pentecost (xvi. 8), perhaps about Easter (of 57 A. D. ?). There was constant intercourse between Ephesus and Corinth, and Paul is obviously thoroughly well informed of the Corinthian situation. His own letter is indeed, in part, a reply to a series of questions he had received from the Corinthians (vii. iff.) regarding certain matters of practical importance : e.g. marriage and divorce, the partaking of the flesh of animals offered in sacrifice to idols (viii.-x.), (perhaps also whether women should be unveiled in the Christian assembly, xi.) the exercise of spiritual gifts (xii.-xiv.), the proper method of taking the collection for the poor of the Jerusalem church (xvi.). But Paul had other sources of information, some of which are named, others wx are left to infer. Members of the household of Chloe brought him news of the divisions in the Corinthian church (i. 11). Through Apollos (xvi. 12) and Stephanas with his two companions (xvi. 17) he would be kept in touch with the situation. He ''hears" how certain public services are being conducted (xi. 18), he knows the rumors about the moral life of the church (v. i), he is aware of what some people are saying about the resurrection of the dead (xv. 12). His own letter is written with an intimate knowledge of the situation — the first six chapters being suggested, roughly speaking, by the reports he has received, the other by the letter they had sent. He liad already written a letter before this one which appears to have been, perhaps wilfully, misunderstood (v. 9) : and the present situation is serious enough to justify him in sending Timothy to Corinth in advance of himself (iv. 17, xvi. 10 f.),

INTEODUCTION.

though whether Timothy reached Corinth or not is uncertain (cf. xvi. lo — if; and Acts xix. 22).

The two most conspicuous features of the Corinthian community were contentious intellectuahsm and immoraHty, — both features specially characteristic of decadent Greece ; and in harmony with this is the opening emphasis on the ideal sanctity and unity of the church (i. 2). The low morality is very intelligible when we consider that Corinth was one of the great seats of the worship of Aphrodite, who had over a thousand priestesses in the city devoted to her immoral cult. It was at Corinth that Paul drew his dark picture of heathen morality in Rom. i. 18-32. After a terrible Hst of offenders against the divine law, beginning with fornicators and including thieves and drunkards, Paul goes on, '' And such were some of you" (vi. 11) — a sentence which shows the tremendous task which Christianity had before it, and at the same time explains many of the unlovely features in the life of the church. Such men had to be spoken to as babes (iii. i). Equally conspicuoiis, however, with their low morality, was their intellectual conceit. Greece was the home of philosophy, and to the knowledge and wisdom of the Corinthians Paul makes many ironical allusions. Their knowledge " puffs them up " (viii. i, cf. iv. 6, 18) and one effect of this conceit is to create a divisive spirit in the community. One man claims to belong to Paul, another to Apollos, another to Peter (i. 12; see note). These watchwords no doubt represent tendencies rather than parties. The eloquent Apollos would have his admirers ; Paul, with his simpler gospel, would have his: the Petrine party probably represents a Palestinian type of piety — led perhaps by followers of Peter — of a narrower and less liberal type than that of Paul, e.g. in the matter of meat offered in sacrifice to idols. But despite the differences, there is no " schism " in the modern sense of the word : all together form the '' church of God in Corinth."

The epistle gives us more than one interesting glimpse into the conduct of a religious service at Corinth (xi. 17 ff., xiv. 2 ff.). Here the rhetorical gifts of the Greeks would have ample scope, and there must have been some very effective speaking, when the secrets of the heart were manifest, and unbelievers were convinced that the presence of God was in the meeting" (xiv. 24 f.). Often however, an unbridled individualism must have reigned, which gives point to Paul's warning that the object of a public religious exercise is practically frustrated '' unless the other }nan is edified " (xiv. 17). The natural mobility of the Greek temperament was heightened by its contact with the " spirit " of the new religion, and the most welcome manifestations of the spirit were the most sensational. The scenes at the services must often have been disorderly (xiv.) and sometimes disgraceful (xi. 21 f.). The passionate and convincing exhortation of a prophet would

INTRODUCTION.

be interrupted by the unintelligible speech of one who had the ecstatic gift of tongues. The gifts often contributed to display rather than to edification, and the worship seemed to be that of a God not of peace, but of confusion ; so much so that an ignorant or uncharitable stranger stepping into the meeting would at certain moments be inclined to believe that the w^orshippers were mad (xiv. 23). Even the women, smitten with the emancipating spirit of the new religion, were beginning to forget the decorum which every self-respecting Greek woman was expected to observe in public (xi. 5 ff.)-

Only a man of unusual versatility would have been able to deal eflfectively with such a situation as that presented by Corinth. The problems which clamored for solution were both practical and speculative. Out of the confusion presented by those vivid and complex elements of Greek life, a world of order had to be created ; and the nimble Greek intellect would expect to be satisfied with a speculative solution of its difficulties. In both these directions the greatness of Paul is manifest, and he more than justifies his claim to be all things to all men (ix. 22) — a Greek to the Greeks no less than a Jew to the Jews. In this connection, the collocation of chs. xv. and xvi. is very striking. As at Athens (Acts xvii. 32) so at Corinth, difficulties were felt about the resurrection (i Cor. xv. 12). In an argument of much power and eloquence, which shows his great constructive intellect, Paul answers those difficulties, and then in the very next breath, begins to deal in the most practical way with the question of the collection (xvi.). The early days of Christianity needed a great organizing genius — one who could organize thoughts and affairs and men — and such a man they found in Paul. *

Yet he would not himself have spoken of genius, but of grace ; it was by the grace of God that he was what he was, and did what he did (xv. 10). In this epistle we get a few glimpses of his unique career. He thinks with sorrow of the days in which he persecuted the church of God (xv. 9), but by the infinite grace of that God whose church he had persecuted he is now an apostle — indeed an apostle by a triple right : first, because he has seen the Lord (ix. i, cf. xv. 8) ; secondly, because his work has been crowned with success (ix. 2) ; lastly, because he has suffered for Jesus' sake. The last argument is elaborated in the second epistle, but this epistle also describes the hardships which he had to bear for the gospel's sake — hungry and thirsty, naked and bruised, hunted and doomed, a spectacle to men and angels (iv. 9-13). His mission in life is to preach — that is why he was ** sent " (i. 17) ; and this he does with passion but with simplicity, without rhetorical or philosophical devices (i. 17, ii. i), though he is well aware how dear these are to the Corinthian heart. This does not mean, of course,

INTRODUCTION.

that Paul has no theological construction to offer of the Christian facts. The facts are no doubt of unique importance (xv. i-8, xi. 23 ff.), but the discussion of the resurrection shows how ready and competent Paul was to present a constructive interpretation of those facts in terms of contemporary thought. There is no little irony in his disclaimer of " wisdom " on his own part, and his acknowledgment of the wisdom of the Corinthians (cf. iv. 10, etc.). At the same time, in the eyes of Greeks, his gospel of a crucified Messiah was foolishness, and he made no attempt to commend it by excusing it or by dressing it in the language of philosophy. He held plainly before the eyes of the Corinthians (i. 23) as of the Galatians (GaL iii. i) the figure of Christ upon the cross. That was the gospel, and "woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel" (ix. 16). The resurrection is no doubt the other half of the gospel, and of no less importance (xv. 14). But to Paul, neither has any meaning apart from the other: it was the crucified Christ who rose. The one doctrine offended Greek pride, the other Greek scepticism; but the Christian religion, as Paul understood it, turns upon them, and he presses them both home in his preaching with inflexible persistency. The ambition of his life is that he may never, by any word or deed of his, cause any hindrance to this gospel of Christ (ix. 12), and that by all means he may save some (ix. 22). It is never his own profit that he seeks, but always ** the profit of the many, that they may be saved" (x. 33).

This salvation is not simply an other-worldly thing: this epistle is a fine illustration of how it affects the whole range of human affairs. The great principles of the gospel are here applied to the problems of ordinary life. The letter has been aptly described by Findlay as " the epistle of the cross in its social application," and by Sabatier as " the expansion of the Christian principle as it spreads into the sphere of practical affairs." Its influence upon society is primarily not revolutionary, but transforming: let each man abide in the calling wherein he was called (vii. 20) — transformed, because he abides with God (vii. 24). Less directly, but hardly less powerfully than the epistle to the Galatians does this epistle emphasize the liberty that is ours in Christ. "All things are lawful" (vi. 12, x. 23) ; but the use which may be made of this liberty will depend upon the effect it may have upon others. It must not become a stumbling-block to the weak (viii. 9, X. 32). Conduct, whether in the church or in the world, should be governed by the law of edification (x. 23), which is only another name for the law of love: for it is the function of love to build up (viii. i). In all things, every Christian man is to seek the glory of his God (x. 31), and the good of his neighbor: as a member of a corporate body, he must never fail to consider '' the other man." '* Let no man seek his own good, but the good of the other man" (x. 24; cf. xiv. 17).

Especially must this law of love hold in the church, among those that are of the household of faith (Gal, vi. 10). They come together to worship God, and to help one another — not for the worse, but for the better (xi. 17). The test of the value of a religious service is its power to "edify," to build up the worshippers. If '' the other man is not edified " (xiv. 17) by the exercise, then we may well ask what is its value and place in the church. Spiritual gifts are of many kinds, but love must determine how they shall be exercised (xii. 28 flf.), and in any case the most helpful are the most desirable. Into his wonderful eulogy of love, which Alford describes as '' perhaps the noblest assemblage of beautiful thoughts in beautiful language extant in this our world," the apostle pours the fulness of his heart (xiii). This conception of the church as a body with members, every one of which is necessary to. the welfare of the whole, and every one of which needs every other, is worked out with great suggestiveness (xiv.).'

Sometimes Paul's teaching is colored by his views of the near coming of Christ. The fact that the time is short, appears, for example, to influence his discussion of marriage (vii. 26-29, ^f. x. 11). But in any case the eschatological background of the epistle does not interfere with our direct appropriation of its teaching. In its protest against discord and faction and its plea for holiness and unity within the church, in its emphasis upon bodily purity and the maintenance of an inexorable moral standard in matters affecting the relations of the sexes, in its fine combination of tolerance for all that is not inimical to the spirit of Christianity with practical consideration for the brother whom that tolerance might mislead, in its lofty sense of the place and power of public worship and of the obligation of each member of the Christian community to contribute to the good of the whole, in its emphatic assertion of the resurrection, and in the supreme place which it assigns to love, the message of the epistle is immortal. The light of the world to come is shed back upon the world that now is. While bracing its readers to face their earthly problems and do their earthly duties, it holds steadily before their eyes the great consummation of history, when all things shall have been subjected to the Son, and God shall be all in all (xv. 28).

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE

TO THE CORINTHIANS.

Chapter I

I Paul called to he an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother.

2 Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to he saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours :

The Greeting (i. 1-3).

Paul, by divine vocation, an apostle of Jesus Christ,

And brother Sosthenes,

To the church of God at Corinth,

Whose members ha\t been sanctified through union with Christ Jesus, and WHO are therefore saints by vocation :

And not to you only, but to all who anywhere call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is their Lord as WELL as ours :

To ALL OF you be GRACE AND PEACE FROM

God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

1. Paul is an apostle of Jesus Christ,

sent by Him and sent to proclaim Him, That was the work of his life from his conversion, and it is in his capacity as an apostle that he writes to the Corinthians, But he has not sought this task of himself : he was called to it by an express act of the will of God. His words will therefore have special weight. There are many unlovely features in the conduct of the Corinthian church which will call for grave reproof, and the claim Paul makes in these words to be divinely called to his apostleship justifies in advance the authority with which he will subsequently speak. It was all the more necessary to throw this well into the forefront, as some of the Corinthians appear to have challenged or depreciated his apostleship. Am I not an apostle? (ix. 2),

2. And Paul associates with himself Sosthenes, whom he calls the brother. Who this man was, we cannot be sure, as the name was not uncommon : it is not impossible that he is to be identified with the ruler of the synagogue mentioned in Acts xviii, 17, If, as has been conjectured, he was converted, after the departure of Paul from Corinth, by the preaching of Apollos, there would be a peculiar propriety about the mention of him here, considering the party spirit which existed in Corinth, and which Paul takes a very early opportunity of rebuking (ver, 12), Apollos was no rival, and his converts Paul regarded as friends. In any case, Sosthenes must have been a person of some importance, and the naming of him at the beginning of the letter, rather than at the end, and in immediate conjunction with Paul's own name, shows that he is not to be regarded as a mere amanuensis, but that he shared, if not in the composition of the letter (ist pers,, sing, is used in i, 4, 10; plu. in ver. 23), at any rate in its sentiments.

The letter is addressed to the church of God, the ecclesia, which had been called by- God out of the world, and which belonged to Him, The church includes all who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ in every place, but it has also local centers; and the specific destination of this letter is the church which existed and flourished in Corinth. The church of God in Corinth! the words seem like a contradiction or a dream. Corinth, the home of idolatry and immorality, an immorality more unblushing perhaps than in any other part of Greece; yet the church of God is there. Again, that church is very far from being what it should be : Paul has to censure repeatedly and earnestly its disputatious spirit and its low ideals. All the more remarkable, therefore, are the chaste and lofty words in which he proceeds to describe the Corinthian church. It consists of men who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, that is, who have been separated from the world, and made holy, not so much by Him as in Him, that is, through abiding in Him, And just as Paul was called to his apostleship, so they are no less really called to this life of holiness. Considering the real state of the Corinthian church, as disclosed by this epistle, Paul's repeated emphasis on its holiness sounds strange; but we have to remember that he

I CORINTHIANS.

3 Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

4 I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ;

5 That in every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge;

is speaking here of the church as a whole, not of individual members, and again that he is contemplating the church on its ideal side. Despite its grave blemishes, it does not cease to be a church, so long as its members are, in some real sense, in Christ.

It is singular, but no doubt intentional, that Paul should not extend his greetings to the Corinthian church alone, but that he associates with that church all who in any place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. The first rebuke that Paul administers is to the sectional and party spirit of the Corinthians (ver. loff.). Here he, as it were, admonishes them in advance and by implication, gently reminding them that the church, which they were dismembering by their divisions, was a great and impressive unity, with a scope and a membership far beyond themselves, and that it embraced all who acknowledged the lordship of Jesus. To make this point still more plain, he adds, theirs and ours. Some take this phrase with the word place — in every place, theirs and ours; but this is tame. The meaning seems rather to be, their Lord and ours; and the phrase is a delicate reminder that the one Jesus is Lord of all.

3. The names of the writers and of the people addressed are followed by the greeting proper : Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace is the loving favor of God, which issues in peace for the men who are conscious of it. To a church torn by internal dissensions, this initial prayer for peace would be specially appropriate. The ultimate source of this grace and peace is divine : it can only come from God and Jesus Christ. It is very significant that these two names can be thus set together under the government of a single preposition. This co-ordination of the names is a subtle, but significant evidence that Paul conceived of Jesus as occupying an altogether unique relation to God.

Incidentally, one cannot help noticing

in this section (a) the importance attached to a divine call. It is the consciousness of his call to be an apostle that gives to Paul's career its unity, and to his words their authority: similarly the life-work of any man may be done with concentration and enthusiasm if it be begun and continued in the inspiration of such a call. And again (b) there are here suggested the marks of a true church. Its members are men who are sanctified by union with Jesus Christ, who acknowledge Him as Lord, and the aim of whose life is holiness.

Paul expresses his gratitude for the gifts of grace enjoyed by the Corinthian Christians (i. 4-9).

4, 5. Paul begins, as is his custom, with a note of thanksgiving ; and so utterly selfless is his life, that his recorded thanksgivings are nearly always expressions of gratitude for what God has done for others — as here, I thank God continually concerning: you (ver. 4). This introductory expression of his solemn joy in the Corinthian church is peculiarly skilful and tactful, as so much of the subsequent letter is occupied with reproof of their shortcomings : he wins their good will at the outset by his frank recognition of their Christian attainments. He was grateful because of the grace of God which was given to you in Christ Jesus — not by Jesus, as A. V. reads: this is to miss the truth that the grace was dependent upon union with Him. What Paul precisely means by grace is made plain by the next clause : (I mean), that in everything ye were enriched in Him (ver. 5) — union with Christ had expanded and enriched their nature, especially in utterance of every kind and knowledge of every kind: that is, it had touched and quickened their natural powers of expression and insight. The Greeks had for centuries, been famous as speakers and thinkers, and the influence' of Christ is manifest in the new power that has come to them in both those directions; they have a richer power of apprehending truth, and of expressing the truth they apprehend. Or perhaps it is significant that Paul speaks here in the past tense : the gift was given, and they zvcre enriched. The present condition of the church leaves much to be desired, as we see from the immediate sequel ; and it is perhaps ominous that Paul puts speech before knowledge. The glibtongued, nimble-witted Greeks wert ever ready for an argument.

Ch. I]

I CORINTHIANS.

6 Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you :

7 So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ :

8 Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may he blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

9 God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

6-8. You were enriched, says Paul, inasmuch as the testimony concerning Christ, that is, the gospel, was confirmed among you or in you — whether that confirmation took some external form as, e.g. of miracles wrought by the spirit (cf. Gal. iii. 5), or showed itself as deep inner conviction and new or quickened spiritual powers : the words that follow perhaps rather suggest the latter interpretation. So the consequence of this confirmation was that there is no endowment of grace in which you feel yourselves behind. But this consciousness could only be maintained by fixing their hearts upon the better thing beyond, upon the full unveiling of Christ when He should come again : so to this they earnestly looked forward, patiently awaiting the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (ver. 7). And this same Jesus Christ in whom they had been sanctified and enriched in the past, is He who vail also for the future confirm you, even till the end of this dispensation (that is, till He comes again), and will ensure that no charge be laid against you in the day of our Lord Jesus (Christ) when He comes in judgment — a phrase modelled on the Old Testament day of the Lord or Jehovah. The who at the beginning of ver. 8 has been referred by some to God, on the ground that, if it referred to Christ, its immediate antecedent, the sentence would more naturally end in this day instead of in the day of our Lord Jesus. But against this, it has to be noticed that, in these opening verses, the name of the Lord Jesus occurs ten times, obviously repeated with deliberate and solemn emphasis : more probably therefore the who refers, as it most naturally does, to Christ.