1 Corinzi 6:14 Commento

In this chapter the apostle, I. Reproves them for going to law with one another about small matters, and bringing the cause before heathen judges (Co1 6:1-8). II. He takes occasion hence to warn them against many gross sins, to which they had been formerly addicted (Co1 6:9-11). III. And, having cautioned them against the abuse of their liberty, he vehemently dehorts them from fornication, by various arguments (Co1 6:12 to the end).

INTRODUCTION TO 1 CORINTHIANS 6 The principal view of this chapter is to dissuade Christians from going to law with one another before Heathens, and also from fornication: the apostle begins with the first of these, and argues against it, from its being a daring, dangerous, and scandalous practice; and from the different characters of the persons, before whom controversies about civil things among Christians should and should not be brought; the one being saints, and so conscientious persons, and would do the right thing; the other unjust, and so justice could not be expected to be done by them, Co1 6:1, and that the former, and not the latter, should be appointed judges in such cases, is argued from the greater to the lesser; that seeing these will judge the world, much more then should they be employed in matters of less consequence, Co1 6:2 and by the same sort of argument it is further urged, that even angels themselves shall be judged by the saints; then much more might affairs appertaining to this life, be brought before them, and be decided by them, Co1 6:3 yea, even the things that were litigated by them, and which they had power of judging in, were such as might be determined by the men of the least capacity among them, and therefore had no need to bring them before Heathen magistrates, Co1 6:4 besides, it could not be spoken of, but to their shame, that after all their boast of their gifts, learning, and eloquence, there was not one man of wisdom and ability among them, to judge in matters of civil property, Co1 6:5 and this evil of commencing law suits in Heathen courts of judicature, is aggravated by its being done, not between Christians and heathens, but between one Christian brother and another, and that before men that were infidels, Co1 6:6 and which to do, showed a great deficiency of love, wisdom, and care; and much better it was to take and suffer wrong, than to be guilty of such criminal conduct, Co1 6:7 yea, those, that drew their brethren before such judgment seats, did them wrong, both by bringing them thither, and by getting their cause in an unjust manner, Co1 6:8 wherefore, to deter from such unrighteous procedures, the apostles declares, that all injurious persons, and wicked men in any way, and of any sort, should not inherit the kingdom of God, Co1 6:9 and whereas some of those the apostle writes to had been such, but now through the grace of God were otherwise, this should be considered as an argument, why they should not contend with one another before persons destitute of the grace they were partakers of, Co1 6:11 and now the apostle having mentioned fornication as a sin which excluded from the kingdom of God, and this being reckoned by the Gentiles an indifferent thing; he first observes of indifferent things in general, that are really so, that though they are lawful to be used, it is not expedient to use them at all times, and under all circumstances; and especially care should be taken, that by the use of them, we do not become slaves unto them, Co1 6:12 and then particularly instances in meats, which without distinction might be lawfully eaten, they being made for the belly, and the belly for them; which was answering the original design of them, though hereafter both will be destroyed; yet fornication must not be put upon a level with them, and reckoned indifferent as they are; since the body was not made to be abused and defiled, or for fornication: but to be redeemed and sanctified by the Lord, and to serve him, and who was appointed for the redemption and sanctification of that, Co1 6:13 moreover, the sin of fornication is dissuaded from, by the consideration of the resurrection of the body as a glorious one, by the power of God, of which Christ's resurrection is a pledge; and therefore should not be defiled with this sin, Co1 6:14 as also from the bodies of the saints being the members of Christ; and therefore should not be made the members of an harlot by fornication, these things being utterly absurd and inconsistent, Co1 6:15. Which is illustrated by observing, that he that is joined in unlawful copulation with an harlot, becomes one flesh with her, Co1 6:16 which is confirmed by a passage cited out of Gen 2:24 which regards carnal copulation in general; but one that is in union with Christ, and is become a member of him, is one spirit with him; and therefore since there is such a spiritual union between them, fornication, which joins, unites, and makes a man one with an harlot, should be carefully avoided, Co1 6:17 and in order the more to deter from this sin, the apostle observes, that it is not like some other sins, which are without the body, but this is by it, and with it, and against it; it is dishonourable, and may be hurtful to it, Co1 6:18 to which he adds, that the bodies of the saints are the temples of the Holy Ghost, where he dwells, and therefore should not be polluted with fornication, Co1 6:19 and closes all with an argument, taken from their bodies not being their own property, to use and abuse at pleasure, but the purchase of Christ's blood; and therefore it was incumbent upon them to glorify him with them, as well as with their spirits, and not defile them with fornication.

And God hath both raised up the Lord,.... God the Father has raised up from the dead the Lord Jesus Christ, though not exclusive of the Son, who was equally concerned in the resurrection of himself, whereby he demonstrated himself to be the Son of God, truly and properly God. And will also raise up us by his own power; for the resurrection of the dead, whether of Christ, or of his people, is an act of power, of God's own power, even of his almighty power, and is what the power of a mere creature could never effect. Now as Christ, the head, is raised, so shall all his members by the same power; their bodies will be raised powerful, glorious, incorruptible; and spiritual; an argument that they were never made for fornication, nor to be defiled with such uncleanness.

In the same manner, therefore, as Christ did rise in the substance of flesh, and pointed out to His disciples the mark of the nails and the opening in His side (now these are the tokens of that flesh which rose from the dead), so "shall He also," it is said, "raise us up by His own power." And again to the Romans he says, "But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies." What, then, are mortal bodies? Can they be souls? Nay, for souls are incorporeal when put in comparison with mortal bodies; for God "breathed into the face of man the breath of life, and man became a living soul." Now the breath of life is an incorporeal thing. And certainly they cannot maintain that the very breath of life is mortal. Therefore David says, "My soul also shall live to Him," just as if its substance were immortal. Neither, on the other hand, can they say that the spirit is the mortal body. What therefore is there left to which we may apply the term "mortal body," unless it be the thing that was moulded, that is, the flesh, of which it is also said that God will vivify it? For this it is which dies and is decomposed, but not the soul or the spirit. For to die is to lose vital power, and to become henceforth breathless, inanimate, and devoid of motion, and to melt away into those [component parts] from which also it derived the commencement of [its] substance. But this event happens neither to the soul, for it is the breath of life; nor to the spirit, for the spirit is simple and not composite, so that it cannot be decomposed, and is itself the life of those who receive it. We must therefore conclude that it is in reference to the flesh that death is mentioned; which [flesh], after the soul's departure, becomes breathless and inanimate, and is decomposed gradually into the earth from which it was taken. This, then, is what is mortal. And it is this of which he also says, "He shall also quicken your mortal bodies."

A temple will therefore pass away with its god, and its god with the temple. You see, then, how that "He who raised up the Lord will also raise us up." In the body will He raise us, because the body is for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

"Moreover, God both raised up the Lord, and will raise up us through His own power; " on account, to wit, of the union of our body with Him.

But if in Holy Scripture discipline is frequently and everywhere prescribed, and the whole foundation of religion and of faith proceeds from obedience and fear; what is more fitting for us urgently to desire, what more to wish for and to hold fast, than to stand with roots strongly fixed, and with our houses based with solid mass upon the rock unshaken by the storms and whirlwinds of the world, so that we may come by the divine precepts to the rewards of God? considering as well as knowing that our members, when purged from all the filth of the old contagion by the sanctification of the layer of life, are God's temples, and must not be violated nor polluted, since he who does violence to them is himself injured. We are the worshippers and priests of those temples; let us obey Him whose we have already begun to be. Paul tells us in his epistles, in which he has formed us to a course of living by divine teaching, "Ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a great price; glorify and bear God in your body." Let us glorify and bear God in a pure and chaste body, and with a more complete obedience; and since we have been redeemed by the blood of Christ, let us obey and give furtherance to the empire of our Redeemer by all the obedience of service, that nothing impure or profane may be brought into the temple of God, lost He should be offended, and forsake the temple which He inhabits. The words of the Lord giving health and teaching, as well curing as warning, are: "Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee." He gives the course of life, He gives the law of innocency after He has conferred health, nor suffers the man afterwards to wander with free and unchecked reins, but more severely threatens him who is again enslaved by those same things of which he had been healed, because it is doubtless a smaller fault to have sinned before, while as yet you had not known God's discipline; but there is no further pardon for sinning after you have begun to know God. And, indeed, let as well men as women, as well boys as girls; let each sex and every age observe this, and take care in this respect, according to the religion and faith which they owe to God, that what is received holy and pure from the condescension of the Lord be preserved with a no less anxious fear.

Having now sufficiently condemned the glutton, he uses also the hope of things to come to divert us from this wickedness: saying, "And God both raised up the Lord, and will raise up us also through His power." Do you perceive again his Apostolical wisdom? For he is always establishing the credibility of the Resurrection from Christ, and especially now. For if our body be a member of Christ, and Christ be risen, the body also shall surely follow the Head. "Through his power." For since he had asserted a thing disbelieved and not to be apprehended by reasonings, he hath left entirely to His incomprehensible power the circumstances of Christ's own Resurrection, producing this too as no small demonstration against them. And concerning the Resurrection of Christ he did not insert this: for he did not say, "And God shall also raise up the Lord;"-for the thing was past and gone;-but how? "And God both raised up the Lord;" nor was there need of any proof. But concerning our resurrection, since it has not yet come to pass, he spoke not thus, but how? "And will raise up us also through His power:" by the reliance to be placed on the power of the Worker, he stops the mouths of the gainsayers. Further: if he ascribe unto the Father the Resurrection of Christ, let not this at all disturb thee. For not as though Christ were powerless, hath he put this down, for He it is Himself who saith, "Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up:" and again, "I have power to lay down My life, and I have power to take it again." And Luke also in the Acts says, "To whom also He shewed Himself alive." Wherefore then does Paul so speak? Because both the acts of the Son are imputed unto the Father, and the Father's unto the Son: For He saith, "Whatsoever things He doeth, these the Son also doeth in like manner." And very opportunely he here made mention of the Resurrection, keeping down by those hopes the tyranny of gluttonous desire; and all but saying, Thou hast eaten, hast drunk to excess: and what is the result? Nothing, save only destruction. Thou hast been conjoined unto Christ; and what is the result? A great and marvellous thing: the future Resurrection, that glorious one, and transcending all utterance!

Paul did not write this because of Christ’s resurrection, which had already taken place, but because of ours, so that we might believe and silence our opponents.

Do not be troubled upon hearing that God raised the Lord; for the apostle speaks thus, condescending to them as to infants. And since concerning the Father, as the source, all unanimously held the highest conceptions, the apostle attributes the resurrection to the Father and declares that He will raise us also. For just as He raised our head, I mean Christ, so He will raise the remaining members of the body, that is, us. Furthermore, in confirmation of his words he added: "by His power," as if saying: do not doubt what I say, for the power of God, which accomplishes great things, will fulfill this also. And that he attributes the resurrection of Christ to the Father as the cause is evident from what the Lord said concerning Himself: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up" (John 2:19). And again it is written of Him that He presented Himself alive (Acts 1:3). Thus, although He Himself also raised Himself, yet this deed is ascribed to the Father as the cause.

Then when he says, and God raised the Lord, he indicates the end of the above-mentioned ordination. First, he indicates what God had done in regard to the Lord, saying: And God raised the Lord, namely, the Lord Jesus Christ, from the dead, from whom Christ Himself petitions in Ps 41 (v. 10): "Do thou, O Lord, be gracious to me and raise me up." But God is the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; hence Christ Himself, who is the Son of God, also raised Himself and arose by His own power, as it says in Ps 3 (v. 5): "I will lie down and sleep; I wake again, for the Lord sustains me," and in 2 Cor (13:4): "He was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God." Secondly, he indicates what he will do in regard to us saying: God will also raise us up by his power, by which He also raised up Christ, as it says in Rom (8:11): "He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies." It should be noted that when speaking above about food and stomach, which pertain to the use of animal life, he said that they would be destroyed by God; but now, speaking of the body and of the Lord, he makes mention of the resurrection, because when animal life ceases, the nature of the body will be transformed into something better. Hence it is clear that the body should not be used for fornication, which impedes future incorruption according to Gal (6:8): "He who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption."

The Corinthians are reproved for their litigious disposition; brother going to law with brother, and that before the heathen, Co1 6:1-6. They should suffer wrong rather than do any, Co1 6:7, Co1 6:8. No unrighteous person can enter into the glory of God, Co1 6:9, Co1 6:10. Some of the Corinthians had been grievous sinners, but God had saved them, Co1 6:11. Many things may be lawful which are not at all times expedient, Co1 6:12. Meats are for the belly, and the belly for meats; but the body is not for uncleanness, Co1 6:13. Christ's resurrection a pledge of ours, Co1 6:14. The bodies of Christians are members of Christ, and must not be defiled, Co1 6:15-17. He that commits fornication sins against his own body, Co1 6:18. Strong dissuasives from it, Co1 6:19, Co1 6:20.

And God hath both raised up the Lord - He has raised up the human nature of Christ from the grave, as a pledge of our resurrection; and will also raise us up by his own power, that we may dwell with him in glory for ever.

LITIGATION OF CHRISTIANS IN HEATHEN COURTS CENSURED: ITS VERY EXISTENCE BETRAYS A WRONG SPIRIT: BETTER TO BEAR WRONG NOW, AND HEREAFTER THE DOERS OF WRONG SHALL BE SHUT OUT OF HEAVEN. (Co1 6:1-11) Dare--This word implies treason against Christian brotherhood [BENGEL]. before the unjust--The Gentile judges are here so termed by an epithet appropriate to the subject in question, namely, one concerning justice. Though all Gentiles were not altogether unjust, yet in the highest view of justice which has regard to God as the Supreme Judge, they are so: Christians, on the other hand, as regarding God as the only Fountain of justice, should not expect justice from them. before . . . saints--The Jews abroad were permitted to refer their disputes to Jewish arbitrators [JOSEPHUS, Antiquities, 14.10,17]. So the Christians were allowed to have Christian arbitrators.

(Rom 8:11). raised up--rather, "raised," to distinguish it from "will raise up us"; the Greek of the latter being a compound, the former a simple verb. Believers shall be raised up out of the rest of the dead (see on Phi 3:11); the first resurrection (Rev 20:5). us--Here he speaks of the possibility of his being found in the grave when Christ comes; elsewhere, of his being possibly found alive (Th1 4:17). In either event, the Lord's coming rather than death is the great object of the Christian's expectation (Rom 8:19).