mh_parser/vol_split/46 - 1Corinthians/0 - Introduction.xml

<div2 id="iCor.i" n="i" next="iCor.ii" prev="iCor" progress="42.85%" title="Introduction">
<div class="Center" id="iCor.i-p0.1"><h2 id="iCor.i-p0.2">First Corinthians</h2>
<p id="iCor.i-p1">Completed by <span class="smallcaps" id="iCor.i-p1.1">Simon Browne</span>.</p>
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<div class="Center" id="iCor.i-p1.3">
<p id="iCor.i-p2"><b>AN</b></p>
<h3 id="iCor.i-p2.1">EXPOSITION,</h3>
<h4 id="iCor.i-p2.2">W I T H   P R A C T I C A L   O B S E
R V A T I O N S,</h4>
<h5 id="iCor.i-p2.3">OF THE FIRST EPISTLE OF ST. PAUL TO THE</h5>
<h2 id="iCor.i-p2.4">C O R I N T H I A N S.</h2>
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<p class="indent" id="iCor.i-p3"><span class="smallcaps" id="iCor.i-p3.1">Corinth</span> 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>Lechæum,</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, <scripRef id="iCor.i-p3.2" osisRef="Bible:Acts.18.1-Acts.18.18" parsed="|Acts|18|1|18|18" passage="Ac 18:1-18">Acts xviii. 1-18</scripRef>, compared with some
passages in this epistle, particularly <scripRef id="iCor.i-p3.3" osisRef="Bible:1Cor.12.2" parsed="|1Cor|12|2|0|0" passage="1Co 12:2">xii. 2</scripRef>, 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> <scripRef id="iCor.i-p3.4" osisRef="Bible:Acts.18.8" parsed="|Acts|18|8|0|0" passage="Ac 18:8">Acts xviii.
8</scripRef>. He continued in this city nearly two years, as is
plain from <scripRef id="iCor.i-p3.5" osisRef="Bible:Acts.18.11 Bible:Acts.18.18" parsed="|Acts|18|11|0|0;|Acts|18|18|0|0" passage="Ac 18:11,18">Acts xviii. 11 and
18</scripRef> compared, and laboured with great success, being
encouraged by a divine vision assuring him God <i>had much people
in that city,</i> <scripRef id="iCor.i-p3.6" osisRef="Bible:Acts.18.9-Acts.18.10" parsed="|Acts|18|9|18|10" passage="Ac 18:9,10">Acts xviii. 9,
10</scripRef>. Nor did he use to stay long in a place where his
ministry met not with acceptance and success.</p>
<p class="indent" id="iCor.i-p4">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 <scripRef id="iCor.i-p4.1" osisRef="Bible:1Cor.6.9-1Cor.6.20" parsed="|1Cor|6|9|6|20" passage="1Co 6:9-20">vi. 9-20</scripRef>. 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 class="indent" id="iCor.i-p5">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 <scripRef id="iCor.i-p5.1" osisRef="Bible:1Cor.1.1-1Cor.4.21" parsed="|1Cor|1|1|4|21" passage="1Co 1:1-4:21">first four
chapters</scripRef>. In the <scripRef id="iCor.i-p5.2" osisRef="Bible:1Cor.5.1-1Cor.5.13" parsed="|1Cor|5|1|5|13" passage="1Co 5:1-13">fifth</scripRef> 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, <scripRef id="iCor.i-p5.3" osisRef="Bible:1Cor.5.2" parsed="|1Cor|5|2|0|0" passage="1Co 5:2">v. 2</scripRef>. In the
<scripRef id="iCor.i-p5.4" osisRef="Bible:1Cor.6.1-1Cor.6.8" parsed="|1Cor|6|1|6|8" passage="1Co 6:1-8">sixth chapter</scripRef> 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 <scripRef id="iCor.i-p5.5" osisRef="Bible:1Cor.6.9-1Cor.6.20" parsed="|1Cor|6|9|6|20" passage="1Co 6:9-20">close
of the chapter</scripRef> warns them against the sin of
fornication, and urges his caution with a variety of arguments. In
the <scripRef id="iCor.i-p5.6" osisRef="Bible:1Cor.7.1-1Cor.7.40" parsed="|1Cor|7|1|7|40" passage="1Co 7:1-40">seventh chapter</scripRef> 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 <scripRef id="iCor.i-p5.7" osisRef="Bible:1Cor.8.1-1Cor.8.13" parsed="|1Cor|8|1|8|13" passage="1Co 8:1-13">eighth</scripRef> he directs them about meats offered
to idols, and cautions them against abusing their Christian
liberty. From this he also takes occasion, in the <scripRef id="iCor.i-p5.8" osisRef="Bible:1Cor.9.1-1Cor.9.27" parsed="|1Cor|9|1|9|27" passage="1Co 9:1-27">ninth chapter</scripRef>, 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 <scripRef id="iCor.i-p5.9" osisRef="Bible:1Cor.10.1-1Cor.10.33" parsed="|1Cor|10|1|10|33" passage="1Co 10:1-33">tenth chapter</scripRef> 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 <scripRef id="iCor.i-p5.10" osisRef="Bible:1Cor.11.1-1Cor.11.34" parsed="|1Cor|11|1|11|34" passage="1Co 11:1-34">eleventh chapter</scripRef> 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 <scripRef id="iCor.i-p5.11" osisRef="Bible:1Cor.12.1-1Cor.12.31" parsed="|1Cor|12|1|12|31" passage="1Co 12:1-31">twelfth
chapter</scripRef> 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 <scripRef id="iCor.i-p5.12" osisRef="Bible:1Cor.13.1-1Cor.13.13" parsed="|1Cor|13|1|13|13" passage="1Co 13:1-13">thirteenth
chapter</scripRef>, into the commendation and characteristics of
charity. And them, in the <scripRef id="iCor.i-p5.13" osisRef="Bible:1Cor.14.1-1Cor.14.40" parsed="|1Cor|14|1|14|40" passage="1Co 14:1-40">fourteenth</scripRef>, 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
<scripRef id="iCor.i-p5.14" osisRef="Bible:1Cor.15.1-1Cor.15.58" parsed="|1Cor|15|1|15|58" passage="1Co 15:1-58">fifteenth chapter</scripRef> is
taken up in confirming and explaining the great doctrine of the
resurrection. The <scripRef id="iCor.i-p5.15" osisRef="Bible:1Cor.16.1-1Cor.16.24" parsed="|1Cor|16|1|16|24" passage="1Co 16:1-24">last
chapter</scripRef> consists of some particular advices and
salutations; and thus the epistle closes.</p>
</div2>