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Ambrosiaster

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

Commentary

81–100 of 1,043
1 Corinthians 6:8

Nay, ye do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren.

Paul is rebuking the people whose wrongful behavior has started the quarrels. Not only are they liable to be charged for the fraud which they have committed; they also share in the fault of those who, compelled by their injurious or fraudulent actions, call upon unbelievers to pass judgment.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

1 Corinthians 6:9

Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,

Paul indicates that they are not sinning unknowingly, and so it is that much harder to excuse them.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

1 Corinthians 6:10

Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

Paul did not say this because the Corinthians did not know it already. He was rather reawakening their reverence for the divine commandment and bringing them closer to readiness for the kingdom of heaven.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

1 Corinthians 6:11

And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

The Corinthians had received all the benefits of purity in their baptism, which is the foundation of the truth of the gospel. In baptism the believer is washed clean from all sins and is made righteous in the name of the Lord, and through the Spirit of God he is adopted as God’s child. With these words, Paul is reminding them how great and how special is the grace which they have received in the true tradition. But afterward, by thinking which is contrary to this baptismal rule of faith, they had stripped themselves of these benefits. For this reason he is trying to bring them back to their original way of thinking, so that they can recover what they had once received.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

1 Corinthians 6:12

All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.

By “all things” Paul presumably means those things which are contained in the natural law and which were also lawful for his fellow apostles. It would not refer to the law of Moses, because Moses forbade many things owing to the hardness of heart of an unbelieving and stiff-necked people.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

1 Corinthians 6:13

Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.

The body, being dedicated to God, will be rewarded with a spiritual reward for the merit of its ruler, which is the rational soul.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

1 Corinthians 6:16

What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.

Paul says this because the person who involves himself in contamination is united with the person with whom he involves himself. Sexual immorality makes them both one, in nature as well as in sin. Commentary on Paul’s Epistles.

1 Corinthians 6:17

But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.

The Spirit of God is shared between God and human beings when we are united to the Lord.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

1 Corinthians 6:18

Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.

If someone hangs himself or kills himself with a dagger, he does not sin against his body but against his soul, on which he inflicts violence. But to fornicate is a sin of the body which touches both the body and the soul.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

1 Corinthians 6:19

What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

Paul said this with the intention that we should keep our bodies uncontaminated, so that the Holy Spirit may dwell in them.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

1 Corinthians 6:20

For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

Someone who has been bought does not have the power to make decisions, but the person who bought him does. And because we were bought for a very high price, we ought to serve our master all the more, so that the offense from which he has bought our release may not turn us back over to death.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

1 Corinthians 7:1

Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman.

Stirred up by the depraved minds of the false apostles, who in their hypocrisy were teaching that marriage ought to be rejected in order that they might appear to be holier than others, the Corinthians wrote to Paul to ask him about these things. Because they were unhappy about this teaching, they ignored everything else and concentrated exclusively on this.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

1 Corinthians 7:3

Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband.

Husband and wife must submit to one another in this matter, since the two of them are one flesh and one will, according to the law of nature.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

1 Corinthians 7:6

But I speak this by permission, and not of commandment.

No one should be forced to do something unlawful on the ground that he is forbidden to do what is lawful. It is up to each person to discern which path to follow.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

1 Corinthians 7:7

For I would that all men were even as I myself. But every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that.

Paul’s intention is to avoid fornication, not to put hindrances in the way of those seeking a higher way of life.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

1 Corinthians 7:11

But and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband: and let not the husband put away his wife.

A woman may not marry if she has left her husband because of fornication or apostasy, if he wishes to have sexual relations with her. But if the husband turns away from the faith or desires to have extramarital sexual relations, the wife may neither marry another nor return to him. The husband should not divorce his wife, but one should add the clause “except for fornication.”

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

1 Corinthians 7:13

And the woman which hath an husband that believeth not, and if he be pleased to dwell with her, let her not leave him.

Paul says this in the case of two Gentiles, one of whom has become a believer. Normally, a pagan detests Christianity, and a Christian does not want to be contaminated by paganism, which is why Paul says that if they are happy to stay together, they should continue to do so.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

1 Corinthians 7:14

For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy.

These unbelievers have the benefit of good will, which protects them from detesting the name of Christ.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

1 Corinthians 7:15

But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases: but God hath called us to peace.

A marriage contracted without devotion to God is not binding, and for that reason it is not a sin if it is abandoned because of God. But the unbelieving partner sins both against God and against the marriage, because he or she is unwilling to live in a marriage relationship dedicated to God. It is not right to go to court over this because the one who leaves the marriage is doing so out of hatred for God, and for this reason he or she is not to be considered worthy of such attention.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

1 Corinthians 7:16

For what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband? or how knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife?

Paul says this because it is always possible that the unbelieving partner will come to believe if he or she does not detest the name of Christ.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

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