English · KJV

Severian of Gabala

Nicene & Post-Nicene · AD 325–500 · 135 passages across 12 books

Commentary

21–40 of 135
1 Corinthians 7:32

But I would have you without carefulness. He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord:

Here Paul explains why virginity is preferable to marriage. It has nothing to do with the rightness or wrongness of sex. Rather it is a question of anxieties which prevent the mind from concentrating on the worship of God.

PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH

1 Corinthians 7:40

But she is happier if she so abide, after my judgment: and I think also that I have the Spirit of God.

What Paul means is that she is blessed if she marries and has a husband to protect her, but she is more blessed if, for the sake of piety, she refuses marriage and devotes herself entirely to God.

PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH

1 Corinthians 8:6

But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.

The Father is one, just as the Son is one. If the Son is called Lord, that does not make the Father any less Lord, just as when it is said that God the Father is one, the Son is no less God.

PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH

1 Corinthians 10:13

There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

Paul did not pray that we should not be tempted, for a man who has not been tempted is untried, but that we should be able to bear our temptations as we ought.

PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH

1 Corinthians 10:14

Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.

You see that everything Paul has been saying up to now is to reinforce this single point.

PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH

1 Corinthians 10:25

Whatsoever is sold in the shambles, that eat, asking no question for conscience sake:

The conscience referred to here is not the conscience of the one who knows that idols do not exist but the conscience of the one who sees somebody else buying food which has been sacrificed to idols and thinks that it is wrong for that reason.

PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH

1 Corinthians 10:31

Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.

Do everything with care so that others may glorify God through you and not be scandalized.

PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH

1 Corinthians 11:3

But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.

Since man did not make woman, the question here does not concern the origin of woman. Rather it concerns only [the relation of] submission. The nature of God and Christ is the same. Similarly the nature of man and woman is the same.

PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH

1 Corinthians 11:4

Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoureth his head.

There is a difference between ancient and recent prophets, as follows. The ancients prophesied about the redemption of Israel, the calling of the Gentiles and the incarnation of Christ, whereas recent prophets prophesy about particular things or people, as Peter prophesied about Ananias, for example..

PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH

1 Corinthians 11:7

For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.

From this we learn that man is not the image of God because of his soul or because of his body. If that were the case, woman would be the image of God in exactly the same way as man, because she too has a soul and a body. What we are talking about here is not nature but a relationship. For just as God has nobody over him in all creation, so man has no one over him in the natural world. But a woman does—she has man over her.

PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH

1 Corinthians 11:19

For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.

Paul is not talking here about doctrinal error but about moral failures.

PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH

1 Corinthians 12:2

Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led.

Paul shows that there is a very big difference between Christian prophecy and pagan soothsaying. Pagans do not address the unclean spirit but are possessed by it and say things which they do not understand. The soothsayer’s soul is darkened, and he does not know what he is saying, whereas the prophet’s soul is enlightened and reveals what the prophet has learned and understood.

PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH

1 Corinthians 12:3

Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.

When the demoniac Legion acknowledged Jesus as Lord, he did not do so in a believing sense, but he merely confessed his knowledge of the lordship and rule of Christ over all things.

PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH

1 Corinthians 12:8

For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;

The utterance of wisdom means understanding what God has said through the prophets and evangelists and communicating this to those who are listening. The utterance of knowledge is the revelation of things which have been forgotten, which someone learns for the first time and then shares with others.

PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH

1 Corinthians 12:14

For the body is not one member, but many.

Paul says this in order not to overlook the humbler members of the church. For even if someone is lesser by nature, he still belongs to the body of the church.

PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH

1 Corinthians 12:27

Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.

We are not individual members who elect to join together to form a whole but rather organic members of a wider whole, which is the whole body.

PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH

1 Corinthians 13:1

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

The tongues of angels refer to the different languages spoken on earth since the destruction of the tower of Babel. As Moses says in Deuteronomy [32:8]: “God has set the boundaries of the nations according to the number of angels.” It is therefore the task of each angel to defend the distinction of nations. The tongues of men on the other hand are languages which we learn; they do not come to us naturally.

PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH

1 Corinthians 13:3

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

The one who loves fulfills the law. The one who fulfills the law is well respected. The one who is well respected receives a spiritual gift.

PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH

1 Corinthians 13:8

Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

Love never fails, which means that it never falls into sin.

PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH

1 Corinthians 13:13

And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

Love is the greatest because it is the fulfilling of the law.

PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH

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