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Ambrosiaster

Nicene & Post-Nicene · AD 325–500 · 1,043 passages across 16 books

Commentary

61–80 of 1,043
1 Corinthians 4:15

For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.

Paul is telling the Corinthians that nobody else will ever love them the way he does.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

1 Corinthians 4:16

Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me.

Paul wants them to be imitators of him in these things, so that just as he has endured many hardships from unbelievers for their salvation and is still doing so as long as he preaches the free gift of God’s grace day and night, so they too ought to remain in his faith and doctrine and not accept the evil teachings of false apostles.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

1 Corinthians 4:18

Now some are puffed up, as though I would not come to you.

Some of the Corinthians were angry that Paul had not come to them, not because they wanted him to but because they were proud and imagined that Paul thought they were unworthy of a visit. In fact, Paul wanted to go but had more important things to do.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

1 Corinthians 4:19

But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord will, and will know, not the speech of them which are puffed up, but the power.

Paul couches his promise to come in the will of God, because God knows more than man. If there was some advantage in Paul’s going to Corinth, God would make it known, and if he did not turn up, the Corinthians would know that the Lord had not wanted him to.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

1 Corinthians 5:1

It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife.

This person was clearly deserving of death for his crime, but those who supported him were not innocent either.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

1 Corinthians 5:2

And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.

Paul humbles their pride, but in such a way that instead of making them angry he makes them willing to cooperate with him.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

1 Corinthians 5:4

In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,

The Corinthians were to eject this man not only by common consent among themselves but also in the power of Christ, whose deputy Paul was.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

1 Corinthians 5:5

To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

If this man were not thrown out, the spirit of the church would not be saved on the day of judgment, because the source of the contamination was infecting them all.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

1 Corinthians 5:6

Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?

Just as the sin of one person contaminates many, if it is not dealt with once it is known, so also does the sin of the many who know what is happening and either do not turn away from it or pretend that they have not noticed it. Sin does not look like sin if it is not corrected or avoided by anybody.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

1 Corinthians 5:7

Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:

The old leaven has a double meaning here. On the one hand, it refers to false teaching, just as Jesus warned his disciples to beware the leaven of the Pharisees. On the other hand, it also refers to the sin of fornication being dealt with here. Paul teaches that the passover is the sacrifice, and not the exodus, as some people think. The sacrifice comes first, and then it is possible to make the transition from the old life to the new. For this reason it is the cross that is the saving reality signified by the passover in the Old Testament.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

1 Corinthians 5:8

Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Just as a little leaven leavens the whole lump, an evil life corrupts the whole man. Therefore Paul wants us to avoid not only evil acts but all interest in sin, so that sincerity may cleanse our lives and truth may exclude all deception.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

1 Corinthians 5:9

I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:

Paul tells us here that he has already written to the Corinthians once. Because they failed to take action then, he is now writing a second time.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

1 Corinthians 5:10

Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.

Paul means that it would be better to die than to mix with fellow believers who sin like the fornicator in question, because death would put an end to it sooner rather than later.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

1 Corinthians 5:11

But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.

Note that none of this applies to relations with unbelievers.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

1 Corinthians 5:12

For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?

A bishop cannot do anything about unbelievers. But a brother who is caught doing such things he can bar not only from the sacraments but also from common intercourse with his fellows, so that when he is avoided he may feel ashamed and repent.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

1 Corinthians 6:1

Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints?

The Corinthians were wrong in two ways. First, they were unfaithful, and second, they were expounding God’s laws with a show of respect but in reality attributing their authority to idols.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

1 Corinthians 6:2

Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?

The saints will judge this world because the unbelief of the world will be condemned by the example of their faith.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

1 Corinthians 6:3

Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?

Angels are to be judged by us in the same way as the world is to be judged.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

1 Corinthians 6:5

I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren?

Paul meant that they were so unmanageable and thoughtless that they might choose inexperienced brothers as judges. There must, he said, be some people in the church wise enough to judge such cases, and they should be allowed to do so. He said this, incidentally, because at that time there was no official leader in their church.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

1 Corinthians 6:7

Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?

A Christian ought not to engage in litigation at all, but if the matter is too serious to be disregarded he should bring the case to the church, so as not to incur an immediate penalty and personal downfall.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

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