Ye are washed, απελουσασθε; ye have been baptized into the Christian faith, and ye have promised in this baptism to put off all filthiness of the flesh and spirit: and the washing of your bodies is emblematical of the purification of your souls.
Ye are sanctified - Ἡγιασθητε; from α, privative, and γη, the earth; ye are separated from earthly things to be connected with spiritual. Ye are separated from time to be connected with eternity. Ye are separated from idols to be joined to the living God. Separation from common, earthly, or sinful uses, to be wholly employed in the service of the true God, is the ideal meaning of this word, both in the Old and New Testaments. It was in consequence of their being separated from the world that they became a Church of God. Ye were formerly workers of iniquity, and associated with workers of iniquity; but now ye are separated from them, and united together to work out your salvation with fear and trembling before God.
Ye are justified - Εδικαιωθητε· Ye have been brought into a state of favor with God; your sins having been blotted out through Christ Jesus, the Spirit of God witnessing the same to your conscience, and carrying on by his energy the great work of regeneration in your hearts. The process here is plain and simple: -
1. Paul and his brother apostles preached the Gospel at Corinth, and besought the people to turn from darkness to light - from idol vanities to the living God, and to believe in the Lord Jesus for the remission of sins.
2. The people who heard were convinced of the Divine truths delivered by the apostle, and flocked to baptism.
3. They were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, and thus took upon them the public profession of the Gospel.
4. Being now baptized into the Christian faith, they were separated from idols and idolaters, and became incorporated with the Church of God.
5. As penitents, they were led to the Lord Jesus for justification, which they received through faith in his blood.
6. Being justified freely - having their sins forgiven through the redemption that is in Jesus, they received the Spirit of God to attest this glorious work of grace to their consciences; and thus became possessed of that principle of righteousness, that true leaven which was to leaven the whole lump, producing that universal holiness without which none can see the Lord.
Verse 12
All things are lawful unto me - It is likely that some of the Corinthians had pleaded that the offense of the man who had his father's wife, as well as the eating the things offered to idols, was not contrary to the law, as it then stood. To this the apostle answers: Though such a thing be lawful, yet the case of fornication, mentioned [1Cor 5:1], is not expedient, ου συμφερει - it is not agreeable to propriety, decency, order, and purity. It is contrary to the established usages of the best and most enlightened nations, and should not be tolerated in the Church of Christ.
They might also be led to argue in favor of their eating things offered to idols, and attending idol feasts, thus: - that an idol was nothing in the world; and as food was provided by the bounty of God, a man might partake of it any where without defiling his conscience, or committing sin against the Creator. This excuse also the apostle refers to. All these things are lawful, taken up merely in the light that none of your laws is against the first; and that, on the ground that an idol is nothing in the world, there can be no reason against the last;
But I will not be brought under the power of any - Allowing that they are all lawful, or at least that there is no law against them, yet they are not expedient; there is no necessity for them; and some of them are abominable, and forbidden by the law of God and nature, whether forbidden by yours or not; while others, such as eating meats offered to idols, will almost necessarily lead to bad moral consequences: and who, that is a Christian, would obey his appetite so far as to do these things for the sake of gratification? A man is brought under the power of any thing which he cannot give up. He is the slave of that thing, whatsoever it be, which he cannot relinquish; and then, to him, it is sin.
Verse 13
Meats for the belly - I suppose that κοιλια means the animal appetite, or propensity to food, etc., and we may conceive the apostle to reason thus: I acknowledge that God has provided different kinds of aliments for the appetite of man, and among others those which are generally offered to idols; and he has adapted the appetite to these aliments, and the aliments to the appetite: but God shall destroy both it and them; none of these is eternal; all these lower appetites and sensations will be destroyed by death, and have no existence in the resurrection body; and the earth and its productions shall be burnt up.
Now the body is not for fornication - Though God made an appetite for food, and provided food for that appetite, yet he has not made the body for any uncleanness, nor indulgence in sensuality; but he has made it for Christ; and Christ was provided to be a sacrifice for this body as well as for the soul, by taking our nature upon him; so that now, as human beings, we have an intimate relationship to the Lord; and our bodies are made not only for his service, but to be his temples.
Verse 14
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.
Verse 15
Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? - Because he has taken your nature upon him, and thus, as believers in him, ye are the members of Christ.
Shall I then take, etc. - Shall we, who profess to be members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones, connect ourselves with harlots, and thus dishonor and pollute the bodies which are members of Christ? God forbid! These passages admit of a more literal interpretation. This, if given at all, I must give in a strange language.
Membra humana, ad generationem pertinentia, vocantur Membra Christi, quia mysterium conjunctionis Christi et Ecclesiae per conjunctionem maris et faeminae indigitatur, [Eph 5:32]. In Vet. Test. idem valebat de membro masculino, guippe quod circumcisione, tanquam signo faederis, honoratum est. Vide Schoettgen, Hor. Hebr.
Verse 16
He that is joined to a harlot is one body - In Sohar Genes., fol. 19, we have these remarkable words: Whosoever connects himself with another man's wife, does in effect renounce the holy blessed God, and the Church of the Israelites.
Verse 17
Is one spirit - He who is united to God, by faith in Christ Jesus, receives his Spirit, and becomes a partaker of the Divine nature. Who can change such a relationship for communion with a harlot; or for any kind of sensual gratification? He who can must be far and deeply fallen!
Verse 18
Flee fornication - Abominate, detest, and escape from every kind of uncleanness. Some sins, or solicitations to sin, may be reasoned with; in the above cases, if you parley you are undone; reason not, but Fly!
Sinneth against his own body - Though sin of every species has a tendency to destroy life, yet none are so mortal as those to which the apostle refers; they strike immediately at the basis of the constitution. By the just judgment of God, all these irregular and sinful connections are married to death. Neither prostitutes, whoremongers, nor unclean persons of any description, can live out half their days. It would be easy to show, and prove also, how the end of these things, even with respect to the body, is death; but I forbear, and shall finish the subject with the words of the prophet: The show of their countenance doth witness against them, and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not; wo unto their soul, for they have rewarded evil unto themselves.
Verse 19
Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost - What an astonishing saying is this! As truly as the living God dwelt in the Mosaic tabernacle, and in the temple of Solomon, so truly does the Holy Ghost dwell in the souls of genuine Christians; and as the temple and all its utensils were holy, separated from all common and profane uses, and dedicated alone to the service of God, so the bodies of genuine Christians are holy, and all their members should be employed in the service of God alone.
And ye are not your own? - Ye have no right over yourselves, to dispose either of your body, or any of its members, as you may think proper or lawful; you are bound to God, and to him you are accountable.
Verse 20
Ye are bought with a price - As the slave who is purchased by his master for a sum of money is the sole property of that master, so ye, being bought with the price of the blood of Christ, are not your own, you are his property. As the slave is bound to use all his skill and diligence for the emolument of his master, so you should employ body, soul, and spirit in the service of your Lord; promoting, by every means in your power, the honor and glory of your God, whom you must also consider as your Lord and Master.
There are strange discordances in MSS., versions, and fathers, on the conclusion of this verse; and the clauses και εν τῳ πνευματι ὑμων, ἁτινα εστι του Θεου, and in your spirit, which is God's, is wanting in ABC*D*EFG, some others, Coptic, Ethiopic, Vulgate, and Itala, and in several of the primitive fathers. Almost every critic of note considers them to be spurious. Whether retained or expunged the sense is the same. Instead of price simply, the Vulgate and some of the Latin fathers, read, pretio magno, with a great price; and instead of glorify, simply, they read glorificate et portate, glorify and carry God in your bodies. These readings appear to be glosses intended to explain the text. Litigious Christians, who will have recourse to law for every little difference, as well as the impure, may read this chapter either to their conviction or confusion.
Introduction
A solution of several difficult cases concerning marriage and married persons, [1Cor 7:1-6]. God has given every man his proper gift, [1Cor 7:7]. Directions to the unmarried and widows, [1Cor 7:8], [1Cor 7:9]. Directions to the married, [1Cor 7:10], [1Cor 7:11]. Directions to men married to heathen women, and to women married to heathen men, [1Cor 7:12-16]. Every man should abide in his vocation, [1Cor 7:17-24]. Directions concerning virgins, and single persons in general, [1Cor 7:25-28]. How all should behave themselves in the things of this life, in reference to eternity, [1Cor 7:29-31]. The trials of the married state, [1Cor 7:32-35]. Directions concerning the state of virginity or celibacy, [1Cor 7:36-38]. How the wife is bound to her husband during his life, and her liberty to marry another after his death, [1Cor 7:39], [1Cor 7:40].
Verse 1
The things whereof ye wrote unto me - It is sufficiently evident that the principal part of this epistle was written in answer to some questions which had been sent to the apostle in a letter from the Corinthian Church; and the first question seems to be this: "Is it proper for a man to marry in the present circumstances of the Church?" The question concerning the expediency or inexpediency of marriage was often agitated among the ancient philosophers; and many, though inclined to decide against it, because of the troubles and cares connected with it, tolerated it in their opinions; because, though an evil, it was judged to be a necessary evil. The words of Menander are full to this effect: Γαμειν, εαν τις την αληθειαν σκοπῃ, κακον μεν εστιν, αλλ' αναγκαιον κακον· "If a man consider marriage in a proper point of view, it is an evil; but then it is a necessary evil." Metellus Numidicus spoke of it nearly in the same way. Si sine uxore possemus, Quirites, esse, omnes ea molestia careremus; sed quoniam ita natura tradidit, ut nec Cum Illis salis commode, nec Sine Illis ullo modo vivi possit, saluti perpetus potius quam brevi voluptati consulendum. "If, O ye Romans, we could live unmarried, we should be saved from a great deal of trouble; but, seeing that nature has so ordered it that we cannot live very comfortably with wives, and without them cannot live at all, marriage should be adopted, not for the sake of the short-lived pleasure, but rather for perpetual safety." But this was not the common opinion; the Jews absolutely required that every man should marry, and reputed those as murderers who did not. - See on [1Cor 7:6] (note). By the laws of Lycurgus unmarried persons were prohibited from seeing the public games. By the laws of the Spartans bachelors were punished. And Plato declares all such unworthy of any honor. And to this the commentator says, Amen.
Not to touch a woman - Γυναικος μη ἁπτεσθαι· The learned reader need not be informed in what sense ἁπτομαι is used among the Greeks, and langere among the Latins. For examples Wetstein may be consulted.
Verse 2
To avoid fornication - Δια τας πορνειας· verto, propter exercendam libidinem, vel ut libidinem licite exercere liceat. Probo hanc notionem ex Hebraeo, ibi זנה, zanah, est libidinem exercere, [Hos 4:10] : For they shall eat and not have enough; they shall commit whoredom, תזנו, libidinem exercebunt, and shall not increase. Here the prophet certainly does not speak of whoredom in our sense of the word; for the persons he mentions expected to have children, which cannot be said of those who are addicted to improper connections: the prophet speaks concerning married persons, whom he threatens with a privation of children, notwithstanding libidinem exercebant in order to have numerous families. See Schoettgen. The following verse shows that this is the apostle's meaning.
Let every man have his own wife - Let every man have one woman, his own; and every woman one man, her own. Here, plurality of wives and husbands is most strictly forbidden; and they are commanded to marry for the purpose of procreating children.
In the Jewish constitutions there are some things not only curious, but useful, respecting marriage. "There are four causes which induce men to marry:
1. Impure desire;