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<TITLE>Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on the Whole Bible [First Corinthians, Introduction].</TITLE>
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<center><h1>Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry<BR><I>Commentary on the Whole Bible</I> (1721)
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<P><FONT SIZE=+3>First Corinthians</FONT>
<BR>Completed by S<FONT SIZE=-1>IMON</FONT> B<FONT SIZE=-1>ROWNE</FONT>.</P>
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<TR><TD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="4%">&nbsp;
</TD>
<TD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="15%">
<LI><A HREF="MHC46001.HTM">Chapter 1</A>
<LI><A HREF="MHC46002.HTM">Chapter 2</A>
<LI><A HREF="MHC46003.HTM">Chapter 3</A>
<LI><A HREF="MHC46004.HTM">Chapter 4</A>
</TD>
<TD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="15%">
<LI><A HREF="MHC46005.HTM">Chapter 5</A>
<LI><A HREF="MHC46006.HTM">Chapter 6</A>
<LI><A HREF="MHC46007.HTM">Chapter 7</A>
<LI><A HREF="MHC46008.HTM">Chapter 8</A>
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<TD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="15%">
<LI><A HREF="MHC46009.HTM">Chapter 9</A>
<LI><A HREF="MHC46010.HTM">Chapter 10</A>
<LI><A HREF="MHC46011.HTM">Chapter 11</A>
<LI><A HREF="MHC46012.HTM">Chapter 12</A>
</TD>
<TD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="15%">
<LI><A HREF="MHC46013.HTM">Chapter 13</A>
<LI><A HREF="MHC46014.HTM">Chapter 14</A>
<LI><A HREF="MHC46015.HTM">Chapter 15</A>
<LI><A HREF="MHC46016.HTM">Chapter 16</A>
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<P><B>AN</B></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=+2>EXPOSITION,</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=+1>W I T H &nbsp; P R A C T I C A L &nbsp; O B S E R V A T I O N S,</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=-1>OF THE FIRST EPISTLE OF ST. PAUL TO THE</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=+3><B>C O R I N T H I A N S.</B></FONT>
<HR SIZE=1 WIDTH=150>
</P></CENTER>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
C<FONT SIZE=-1>ORINTH</FONT> was a principal city of Greece, in that
particular division of it which was called <I>Achaia.</I> It was
situated on the isthmus (or neck of land) that joined Peloponnesus to
the rest of Greece, on the southern side, and had two ports adjoining,
one at the bottom of the Corinthian Gulf, called <I>Lech&aelig;um,</I>
not far from the city, whence they traded to Italy and the west, the
other at the bottom of the Sinus Saronicus, called <I>Cenchrea,</I> at
a more remote distance, whence they traded to Asia. From this
situation, it is no wonder that Corinth should be a place of great
trade and wealth; and, as affluence is apt to produce luxury of all
kinds, neither is it to be wondered at if a place so famous for wealth
and arts should be infamous for vice. It was in a particular manner
noted for fornication, insomuch that a <I>Corinthian woman</I> was a
proverbial phrase for a strumpet, and <B><I>korinthiazein,
korinthiasesthai</I></B>--<I>to play the Corinthian,</I> is to play the
whore, or indulge whorish inclinations. Yet in this lewd city did
Paul, by the blessing of God on his labours, plant and raise a
Christian church, chiefly among the Gentiles, as seems very probable
from the history of this matter,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+18:1-18">Acts xviii. 1-18</A>,
compared with some passages in this epistle, particularly
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Co+12:2">xii. 2</A>,
where the apostle tells them, <I>You know that you wee Gentiles,
carried away to those dumb idols even as you were led,</I> though it is
not improbable that many Jewish converts might be also among them, for
we are told that <I>Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed
on the Lord, with all his house,</I>
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+18:8">Acts xviii. 8</A>.
He continued in this city nearly two years, as is plain from
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+18:11,18">Acts xviii. 11 and 18</A>
compared, and laboured with great success, being encouraged by a divine
vision assuring him God <I>had much people in that city,</I>
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+18:9,10">Acts xviii. 9, 10</A>.
Nor did he use to stay long in a place where his ministry met not with
acceptance and success.</P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
Some time after he left them he wrote this epistle to them, to water
what he had planted and rectify some gross disorders which during his
absence had been introduced, partly from the interest some false
teacher or teachers had obtained amongst them, and partly from the
leaven of their old maxims and manners, that had not been thoroughly
purged out by the Christian principles they had entertained. And it is
but too visible how much their wealth had helped to corrupt their
manners, from the several faults for which the apostle reprehends them.
Pride, avarice, luxury, lust (the natural offspring of a carnal and
corrupt mind), are all fed and prompted by outward affluence. And with
all these either the body of this people or some particular persons
among them are here charged by the apostle. Their pride discovered
itself in their parties and factions, and the notorious disorders they
committed in the exercise of their spiritual gifts. And this vice was
not wholly fed by their wealth, but by the insight they had into the
Greek learning and philosophy. Some of the ancients tell us that the
city abounded with rhetoricians and philosophers. And these were men
naturally vain, full of self-conceit, and apt to despise the plain
doctrine of the gospel, because it did not feed the curiosity of an
inquisitive and disputing temper, nor please the ear with artful
speeches and a flow of fine words. Their avarice was manifest in their
law-suits and litigations about <I>meum--mine,</I> and
<I>tuum--thine,</I> before heathen judges. Their luxury appeared in more
instances than one, in their dress, in their debauching themselves even
at the Lord's table, when the rich, who were most faulty on this
account, were guilty also of a very proud and criminal contempt of
their poor brethren. Their lust broke out in a most flagrant and
infamous instance, such as had not been named among the Gentiles, not
spoken of without detestation--that a man should have his father's wife,
either as his wife, or so as to commit fornication with her. This
indeed seems to be the fault of a particular person; but the whole
church were to blame that they had his crime in no greater abhorrence,
that they could endure one of such very corrupt morals and of so
flagitious a behaviour among them. But their participation in his sin
was yet greater, if, as some of the ancients tell us, they were puffed
up on behalf of the great learning and eloquence of this incestuous
person. And it is plain from other passages of the epistle that they
were not so entirely free from their former lewd inclinations as not to
need very strict cautions and strong arguments against fornication: see
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Co+6:9-20">vi. 9-20</A>.
The pride of their learning had also carried many of them so far as to
disbelieve or dispute against the doctrine of the resurrection. It is
not improbable that they treated this question problematically, as they
did many questions in philosophy, and tried their skill by arguing it
<I>pro</I> and <I>con.</I></P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
It is manifest from this state of things that there was much that
deserved reprehension, and needed correction, in this church. And the
apostle, under the direction and influence of the Holy Spirit, sets
himself to do both with all wisdom and faithfulness, and with a due
mixture of tenderness and authority, as became one in so elevated and
important a station in the church. After a short introduction at the
beginning of the epistle, he first blames them for their discord and
factions, enters into the origin and source of them, shows them how
much pride and vanity, and the affectation of science, and learning,
and eloquence, flattered by false teachers, contributed to the
scandalous schism; and prescribes humility, and submission to divine
instruction, the teaching of God by his Spirit, both by external
revelation and internal illumination, as a remedy for the evils that
abounded amongst them. He shows them the vanity of their pretended
science and eloquence on many accounts. This he does through the
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Co+1:1-4:21">first four chapters</A>.
In the
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Co+5:1-13">fifth</A>
he treats of the case of the incestuous person, and orders him to be
put out from among them. Nor is what the ancients say improbable, that
this incestuous person was a man in great esteem, and head of one party
at least among them. The apostle seems to tax them with being puffed up
on his account,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Co+5:2">v. 2</A>.
In the
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Co+6:1-8">sixth chapter</A>
he blames them for their law-suits, carried on before heathen judges,
when their disputes about property should have been amicably determined
amongst themselves, and in the
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Co+6:9-20">close of the chapter</A>
warns them against the sin of fornication, and urges his caution with a
variety of arguments. In the
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Co+7:1-40">seventh chapter</A>
he gives advice upon a case of conscience, which some of that church
had proposed to him in an epistle, about marriage, and shows it to be
appointed of God as a remedy against fornication, that the ties of it
were not dissolved, though a husband or wife continued a heathen, when
the other became a Christian; and, in short, that Christianity made no
change in men's civil states and relations. He gives also some
directions here about virgins, in answer, as is probable, to the
Corinthians' enquiries. In the
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Co+8:1-13">eighth</A>
he directs them about meats offered to idols, and cautions them against
abusing their Christian liberty. From this he also takes occasion, in
the
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Co+9:1-27">ninth chapter</A>,
to expatiate a little on his own conduct upon this head of liberty.
For, though he might have insisted on a maintenance from the churches
where he ministered, he waived this demand, that <I>he might make the
gospel of Christ without charge,</I> and did in other things comply
with and suit himself to the tempers and circumstances of those among
whom he laboured, for their good. In the
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Co+10:1-33">tenth chapter</A>
he dissuades them, from the example of the Jews, against having
communion with idolaters, by eating of their sacrifices, inasmuch as
they could not be at once partakers of the Lord's table and the table
of devils, though they were not bound to enquire concerning meat sold
in the shambles, or set before them at a feast made by unbelievers,
whether it were a part of the idol-sacrifices or no, but were at
liberty to eat without asking questions. In the
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Co+11:1-34">eleventh chapter</A>
he gives direction about their habit in public worship, blames them for
their gross irregularities and scandalous disorders in receiving the
Lord's supper, and solemnly warns them against the abuse of so sacred
an institution. In the
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Co+12:1-31">twelfth chapter</A>
he enters on the consideration of spiritual gifts, which were poured
forth in great abundance on this church, upon which they were not a
little elated. He tells them, in this chapter, that all came from the
same original, and were all directed to the same end. They issued from
one Spirit, and were intended for the good of the church, and must be
abused when they were not made to minister to this purpose. Towards the
close he informs them that they were indeed valuable gifts, but he
could recommend to them something far more excellent, upon which he
breaks out, in the
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Co+13:1-13">thirteenth chapter</A>,
into the commendation and characteristics of charity. And them, in the
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Co+14:1-40">fourteenth</A>,
he directs them how to keep up decency and order in the churches in the
use of their spiritual gifts, in which they seem to have been
exceedingly irregular, through pride of their gifts and a vanity of
showing them. The
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Co+15:1-58">fifteenth chapter</A>
is taken up in confirming and explaining the great doctrine of the
resurrection. The
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Co+16:1-24">last chapter</A>
consists of some particular advices and salutations; and thus the
epistle closes.</P>
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