English · KJV

Severian of Gabala

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

Commentary

41–60 of 135
1 Corinthians 14:10

There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification.

There is no language without meaning because all languages are human.

PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH

1 Corinthians 14:19

Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.

Paul wants to speak with a clear mind and in a normal language.

PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH

1 Corinthians 14:22

Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not: but prophesying serveth not for them that believe not, but for them which believe.

Tongues are a miracle in themselves. Prophecy, however, is a miracle in the substance of what it contains but not in the way in which it is uttered.

PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH

1 Corinthians 14:28

But if there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the church; and let him speak to himself, and to God.

The person who speaks in the Holy Spirit speaks when he chooses to do so and then can be silent, like the prophets. But those who are possessed by an unclean spirit speak even when they do not want to. They say things that they do not understand.

PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH

1 Corinthians 15:13

But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen:

Christ died and rose again for nothing if we are not to rise again as well.

PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH

1 Corinthians 15:22

For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

Strictly speaking, not everyone has died. Enoch and Elijah, for example, never did. Some will be found alive at the second coming of the Savior.

PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH

1 Corinthians 15:50

Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

Heretics get really mixed up about this. Paul did not say that flesh and blood would not rise from the dead but that they cannot inherit the kingdom of God. What this means is that the earthly flesh and blood which we now have is perishable, but it will be clothed with immortality, and in that state we shall enter the kingdom.

PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH

1 Corinthians 15:52

In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

In saying this Paul is showing that the heretics who say that there is a resurrection of the soul but not of the flesh are wrong. These people blaspheme concerning the divine dispensation, thinking that Christ did not really rise again in his flesh but only appeared to do so. But if it was not real flesh, what do words like “died,” “was buried” and “rose again” mean? If all this did not really happen, does it mean that we shall not really die either?

PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH

1 Thessalonians 1:3

Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father;

And labor:
Now faith raises us to labors, and love causes us to remain in those labors.

And enduring hope:
And he says "enduring", because persecution is not a one time thing, but it is continuous. All these things, he says, do from faith and hope, so that those circumstances will not only show their courage, but with assurance they might trust in their future rewards. For this reason God allows persecution to occur, in order that their zeal might be shown, and that their conviction might not be seen as coming from themselves, but from the power of God, which persuades the souls of believers so that they be prepared to face a myriad of dangers. But if the Gospel was not steadfast among them they then would not be able to endure.

1 Thessalonians 3:3

That no man should be moved by these afflictions: for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto.

Paul does not say that no one should occasionally grow weak with weariness but rather that no one should “stoop down” or bow to persecutors.

PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH

2 Corinthians 1:4

Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.

Paul sets this down beforehand because he is about to say that the man who had been condemned because of his sin should be reconciled by God’s comforting power.

PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH

2 Corinthians 1:6

And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.

If the apostles suffered, how much more are the others likely to suffer!

PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH

2 Corinthians 1:22

Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.

Shepherds brand their sheep so as to distinguish the ones which belong to them from others. This is what Christ has done to us.

PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH

2 Corinthians 3:3

Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.

Paul shows how much better the grace of the Spirit is than the law and how much higher the preaching of the apostles is than the dispensation of the prophets.

PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH

2 Corinthians 3:5

Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;

By “from us” Paul means “from one another.”

PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH

2 Corinthians 3:12

Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech:

What hope do we have? The hope that the grace of the Spirit will not be abolished like the law but that it will remain, even after the resurrection.

PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH

2 Corinthians 3:17

Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

The person who has been blessed with the Spirit of the Lord has been set free from the condemnation of the law, for the spiritual gifts are given their power through the Spirit. Moreover, the gift is given freely to those who are ready to receive it.

PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH

2 Corinthians 3:18

But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

We are being changed from knowledge of the law into the grace of the Spirit. And it must be remembered that from the glory of the Spirit working in us we come to the glory of our inheritance as sons. This is the work of the Spirit, for it must be held that here the word Lord refers to the Spirit and not to the Son of God.

PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH

2 Corinthians 4:3

But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:

It is veiled only to those who are unbelievers. It is not hidden from everyone, as the face of Moses was hidden from all Israel in the Old Testament..

PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH

2 Corinthians 5:3

If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.

Everyone, righteous and unrighteous alike, will put on immortality. But if the latter are consigned to hell, that is the same thing as being found naked.

PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH

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