Commentary on Revelation & Paul 3

The Corinthians are Achaeans; and these likewise heard the word of truth from the apostles, and were subverted in manifold ways by false apostles. Some were led astray by the wordy eloquence of philosophy, others by the sect of the Jewish law. These the Apostle recalls to true evangelical wisdom, writing to them from Ephesus. Corinth is the metropolis, and therefore what he writes to them he writes to all Achaia. CHAPTER ONE. 'Paul.' It is a name of authority. 'Called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ.' Called on the way, that he might be an apostle. 'Through the will of God.' By the will of God called and enlightened, he believed. 'And Sosthenes a brother.' Not an apostle, but one who was knowledgeable from among themselves. 'To the church of God which is at Corinth.' It is a church, yet not of God. 'To them that are sanctified'—through baptism.

'In Christ Jesus.' By His grace, through which we are saved. 'Called to be saints, with all.' He shows what the Church of God is, which has been washed by the saving laver. He reproves the saints, that these may convict the rest, since not even they are without sin; as the Saviour, because of the Pharisees, says to His disciples, 'See and beware of all covetousness,' though they had nothing. 'Who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place of theirs and ours.' To call upon (invocare) is to call within (intus vocare), which, though it is permitted to all, yet most of all it pertains to priests to call upon; as there: 'Thus you shall bless the children of Israel, invoking My name.' And David says: 'And Samuel among them that call upon His name.'

For he was a priest, who both succeeded a priest and offered sacrifices, and of whom it was said according to the history: 'I will raise up for myself a faithful priest.' 'Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.' It is to be noted that he always sets grace before peace. 'I give thanks to my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you in Christ Jesus.' I give thanks indeed that you have knowledge, but I wish you to know what that knowledge is which agrees in all things with the catholic faith. As is his custom, he first exhorts them. 'That in all things you were made rich in him.' In all the teachings that are the gift of God through wisdom, which appointed the prophets and the friends of God. 'In all utterance and in all knowledge.'

As well of the Old Testament as of the New. 'Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you.' The testimony of Christ, which he spoke: 'Every scribe instructed is like a householder who brings forth from his treasure things new and old.' 'So that nothing is wanting to you in any grace.' As Solomon says: 'All things came to me together with her'—that is, with wisdom. 'Awaiting the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.' Who now, as though absent, is not seen. 'Who will also confirm you unto the end, without crime, in the day of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.' As the Prophet says: 'Confirm me in your words'; and that: 'Much peace to them that love your name, and there is no stumbling-block to them.' 'God is faithful, by whom you are called.'

Because the faithful God has confirmed them. 'Unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.' John shows this fellowship, saying: 'Because God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all: if we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie.' And Paul: 'If we die together, we shall also live together; if we endure, we shall also reign together'—if we have been partners of his manner of life and of his sufferings, we shall be partners also in glory. 'And I beseech you, brethren.' Thus far the preface with praise; from here he now pursues the cause of the dissension. 'By the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.' In which name you shall see signs done. 'That you all say the same thing, and that there be no schisms among you.' That you may be of one mind, or make the same confession. 'And be per[fect].'

'...joined in the same mind and in the same judgment.' If you both think and utter one and the same thing, then you will be able to be perfect. 'For it has been signified to me concerning you, my brethren, by them that are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.' How did the Apostle give credence concerning those absent, when it is written, 'Do not believe an idle report,' and much else? But he had this grace, that he knew what the absent were doing, as he says to the Colossians: 'Though absent in body, yet present in spirit, rejoicing and beholding your order.' 'Now this I say, that every one of you says: I indeed am of Paul, but I of Apollos, and I of Cephas.'

Under the person of the apostles he was speaking this of the false apostles, who had circumvented them through the wisdom of the world, because each one said he belonged to him whose teaching he loved, though they held diverse teachings; if therefore this is not to be said even of the true apostles, how much more of those who were nothing! 'But I am of Christ.' 'Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you?' Few were saying what all ought to have said. The body is divided when the members disagree. It can be said to those who, by Christ's example, wish to imitate Abraham: Was Abraham crucified for you? And that saying of the Lord, in which he teaches that we ought not to ask what he will command another disciple: for he says to Peter, 'What is that to you? Follow me.'

'Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?' These indeed had the sacrament of baptism, but through contention and zeal they were turning it into schism, and by thinking carnally they believed otherwise concerning God, since by their carnal sense they were fashioning for themselves a God such as they wished, and thus believed him to be as far different from what God is as vanity differs from truth: because 'the natural man perceives not the things that are of the Spirit of God.' Of such he says: 'And they are carried about with every wind of doctrine.' 'I give thanks to my God that I baptized none of you but Crispus and Gaius,' lest anyone say that you were baptized in my name. 'And I baptized also the household of Stephanas. Besides, I know not whether I baptized any other.'

'For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel.' Which came about so, that I baptized none of you; for perhaps you would have said that I baptized in my own name. 'Not in wisdom of speech, lest the cross of Christ be made void.' They make void the power of the cross who glory in human wisdom, which the cross condemned. For the word of the cross is the preaching of the Gospel. 'Of Christ crucified.' 'To them indeed that perish it is foolishness.' To the unbelieving and to those who understand not the power of God, it seems foolishness to call the Son of God crucified; but the faithful understand it to be the power of God, since he overcame both the devil and death. 'But to them that are saved, that is, to us, it is the power of God.' By pouring in faith he saved them.

For it is written: 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and reject the prudence of the prudent.' This was fulfilled at the coming of Christ. 'Where is the wise? Where is the scribe?' By choosing fishermen, he rejected the philosophers. 'Where is the searcher of this age?' Who with his own wisdom, together with others, investigates hidden things, as concerning secret matters and the natures of individual things. Whence is this wisdom which God rejects, since all wisdom is from the Lord God? But such wisdom, being secular, does not descend from above, but is worldly; therefore it is refuted as foolish by the Lord, because it thinks itself to be something, and to know through its own wisdom the secret things of God: but this wisdom is natural and devilish.

Of such wise men God says: 'Because you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent.' 'Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For seeing that in the wisdom of God the world by its wisdom knew not God, it pleased God.' He made all things in wisdom, in which he who had made them ought himself to be known, who had also given wisdom to men themselves for knowing him. 'To save them that believe by the foolishness of preaching'—which was held to be foolishness among them. 'For the Jews also require signs'—after the custom of the prophets; and though they ought to have known even without signs, yet seeing they did not believe. 'And the Greeks seek after wisdom'—the reasoning of human wisdom. 'But we preach Christ crucified.'

He shows how greatly their wisdom differs from his own teaching. 'Unto the Jews indeed a stumbling-block.' It is a stumbling-block to the Jews if we preach that he is the very Christ whom they crucified: it is a scandal to them to hear that Christ died, as they were saying, 'We have heard out of the law that Christ abides forever.' 'But unto the Gentiles foolishness'—since they do not understand that it is the mercy of God, which was believed to be foolishness. 'For unless you believe' (says the Prophet), 'you shall not understand.' 'But unto them that are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.' Which one truly does not believe while he knows it not; but when he has believed, what he had thought weakness he understands to be power, because they understand it to be the mystery of godliness when they believe.

If Christ is the power of God, then he is everlasting. Christ therefore is everlasting, because it is said elsewhere: 'His everlasting power also, and divinity, and wisdom.' Not understanding this, the heretics blaspheme by making the Father imperfect, when they say that the Father was once without the Son; therefore he was without power, without word, without wisdom, without justice—which, how foolishly they say, let them acknowledge the power of God on account of the signs, and the wisdom of God on account of the teaching. 'For that which is foolish of God is wiser than men.' Because what seems foolish in the sight of God is wiser than all men: for they could not be saved by their own wisdom, who were set free through the cross of the Lord.

As if you should say: the rustic speech of an advocate is wiser than the speech of the most learned peasant. It was judged foolish of God when they heard that God had suffered; but this was wiser. 'And the weak thing of God is stronger than men.' Death, which not even the giants could escape, a man crucified, taken up into God, overcame. 'For behold your calling, brethren.' Prove in yourselves what I say. 'That there are not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble.' For few of the wise believed: for through the pride of secular wisdom, many were unwilling to be made subject to the wisdom of God. 'But God has chosen the foolish things of the world, that he may confound the wise.'

'God has chosen the weak things of the world, that he may confound the strong; and the base things of the world, and the things that are contemptible, God has chosen, and the things that are not, that he might destroy the things that are.' That is, God has chosen the people of the Gentiles, who were not the people of God, that he might destroy the people of the Jews, who gloried that they were of God. The boasting of those three things is always reproved, as it is written: 'Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, nor the strong man in his strength, nor the rich man in his riches.' The Lord himself also fulfilled in himself, for our example, what he had spoken through the prophet. Thus, in being born of a poor mother, he rejects riches; in not learning letters, he refutes the wisdom of the world.

In being betrayed, he does not resist—he who could overturn the whole world with a single word—yet he showed human strength to be nothing. Hence let them humble themselves before God, if they too wish to be chosen with the rest. But he said all this against those who claimed to be of the priestly line and skilled in the law and better than the apostles, and who were seducing them into many errors of doctrine: just as it can be said against the Pelagians, who say they were saved by their own wisdom. 'That no flesh should glory in his sight.' They are carnal who glory in their own merits: but they will quickly fall, like the flower of the grass. 'But of him are you in Christ Jesus.' If therefore you are of him, do not admire those whom he did not choose.

'Who is made unto us wisdom from God, and justice.' That he might make us wise, and just, and holy. This passage tells against the Arians, who say that the Father was once without the Son, who is Wisdom. 'And sanctification and redemption.' The redemption of our body at the resurrection. 'That, as it is written: He that glories, let him glory in the Lord.' Not in this world, nor in one's own merits, as do many who believe themselves Christians and are deceived by the Pelagian error. CHAPTER II. 'And I, when I came to you, brethren, came not in loftiness of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of Christ: for I judged not myself to know anything among you.'

Because he had shown that they ought not to admire human wisdom, he repeats his own example: that he himself had not preached through human wisdom. 'Save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.' Which among men seems foolishness. 'And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.' Not in boasting. 'And my speech and my preaching were not in the persuasive words of wisdom, but in the showing of the Spirit and of power.' Because these Corinthians were great disputants, he feared lest they should resist, or lest this too should seem to them some philosophy, and they should not believe: therefore he displayed rather power. 'That your faith might not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.' Human wisdom pleases for a short time:

because it is temporal, like man himself: but the power of God is eternal, even as God is. Therefore that faith endures which has been conferred upon man through the power of God. 'We speak wisdom among the perfect.' We too have divine wisdom, but you could not receive it: because you are still fed with milk, and are proved to be little in faith. 'Yet wisdom not of this world, nor of the princes of this world'—whether of kings, or of philosophers, or indeed of the princes of the Jews, or of the adverse power. 'Who are brought to nought'—with their wisdom and doctrine, at the coming of the grace of Christ. 'But we speak the wisdom of God'—which is understood to be Christ, who was also predestined, as he says to the Romans.

'In a mystery which is hidden, which God predestined before the ages unto our glory.' Whether in present reality, or in the thing before the times; or because many prophets desired to see, and though they knew particular things, yet no one fully knew it. 'Which none of the princes of this world knew.' Pilate and Caiaphas, or indeed all the chief priests. 'For if they had known it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory.' 'But, as it is written: That which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has entered into the heart of man, what God has prepared for them that love him.' The Lord of majesty was made Lord of every creature both by merit and by nature, and Jesus the man, in whom God could in a certain manner be crucified:

on account of which God also exalted him and gave him a name which is above every name—by reason of the unity of the person; and God is said to be crucified, and the Son of Man to be in heaven, though when the Lord said these things he was bodily on earth. Since therefore Christ is true man and true God, one person from a double substance, both man and God, the same King of glory and Lord of hosts, he was not crucified as to his inviolable divinity, yet was crucified in his manhood, by reason of the unity of the person: thus in a wondrous and inconceivable manner God suffered, and yet the Godhead did not suffer. 'But to us God has revealed it by his Spirit.'

Not by our merit did he reveal it to us, but by his grace, we who through faith in him received the Holy Spirit, who shows us the will of God. 'For the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man, but the spirit of a man that is in him? So too the things that are of God no one knows, but the Spirit of God.' Do not doubt him to be God, who is said to know not only human things, but even the secret things of God. 'Now we have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit that is of God.' He who thinks on worldly things—that is, who stains and entangles himself with worldly things—has the spirit of the world, and has not the Holy Spirit. 'That we may know the things that are given us by God—which also we speak.'

Through his coming, passion, and resurrection, by the gift of the Holy Spirit, which we also announce to you. Hear 'the things given,' and be silent about merits. 'Not in the learned words of human wisdom, but in the doctrine of the Spirit.' Taught not by philosophers, but by the Spirit of God. 'Comparing spiritual things with spiritual.' Affirming spiritual things to the spiritual, who are able to grasp them. 'But the natural man perceives not the things that are of the Spirit of God.' He who has not the Spirit of God is natural, because he lives after the manner of animals, thinking there is nothing after death, but that he must do this which the animals do—that is, eat, and indulge in luxury, and die. 'For it is foolishness to him, and he cannot understand, because it is spiritually examined.'

It seems foolishness to him: first, that God was born, suffered, rose again; secondly, to despise the things that are yours, to offer the cheek, and the rest. 'But the spiritual man judges all things.' He judges such a man to be empty, tests him, examines him, and himself is understood by no carnal man—nor by what spirit each one acts. 'And he himself is judged by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him?' Now he fears lest they say: The mind of God has all this which you have told us; that is, the mind of God is not lacking in me, but in you the power of hearing. 'But we have the mind of Christ.' We who receive the Holy Spirit. CHAPTER III. 'And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to carnal.'

For they, being already reborn through faith, are called carnal in a certain measure, not in the way of those who were still sold under sin: as if he said, you could not, as spiritual men, but only as carnal, grasp what I was speaking. 'For the natural man'—that is, he who is wise according to man (for he is called 'natural' [animalis] from the soul [anima], 'carnal' from the flesh, because the whole man consists of soul and flesh)—'perceives not the things that are of the Spirit of God,' that is, what grace the cross of Christ confers on believers. 'As to little ones in Christ, I gave you milk to drink, not meat: for you were not yet able,' and indeed not even now are you able, 'for you are still carnal.' Not in carnal age but in faith he shows Christ making them advance.

[making them advance], that in time they might be able, because in them the grace born spiritually had already been begun: they were therefore already vessels made unto honor, to whom it might still rightly be said, 'O man, who are you that you should answer God?' And if such is rightly said to these, much more rightly to those who are either not yet so regenerated, or even made unto dishonor. Let only this be held: that there is no iniquity with God; who, whether he gives freely or exacts what is due, neither can he from whom he exacts rightly complain of iniquity in him, nor ought he to whom he gives glory in his own merits. The one will render nothing but what is due; and the other has nothing but what he received. 'For whereas there is among you envying and contention,' blessed Peter says: 'Laying aside—'

'—all malice and guile, and as newborn infants desire the reasonable milk without deceit.' If therefore those are called little ones who have laid aside all malice, who have not yet done good works, what shall we think of ourselves, in whom all malice reigns? 'Are you not carnal, and walk according to man?' It must be considered on what account they are called carnal: which surely is not that they act carnally, but that it comes from the sense of the flesh. 'For when one says, I indeed am of Paul, and another, I of Apollos, are you not men?' He who has nothing greater than other men walks according to man. That is, he who loves only the one who loves him, and so on.

But in this place, because of the defense of individual men, they are called 'men'; he plainly shows that he wills us to be more than men. When he reproaches them for being men, because he knew they had contentions, he wills us to surpass human nature, when he thus reproaches: 'What then is Apollos? What indeed is Paul? Ministers of him in whom you believed.' If we are nothing, how much more are certain ones truly nothing—but feigned apostles. 'And to every one as the Lord has given. I planted, Apollos watered.' This very thing is not from us, but is the gift of God, who works in you, because he also gave us grace, that I should do signs, through which you might believe;

and that Apollos might confirm you by his teaching, because just as one who plants in a drought, so all teaching grows only if it be bedewed with the grace of God: if therefore both the plant is God's and the fountain, why do you ascribe it to us, as though anything were our own? In saying this, he commends grace. 'But God gave the increase.' See him commending grace; and yet men now dare to utter blasphemies, and to ascribe to themselves the things that are God's, when, if he does not give the increase, every man labors in vain. 'Therefore neither he that plants is anything, nor he that waters, but God who gives the increase. Now he that plants and he that waters are one.'

We are hired laborers; we work with tools that are not our own; nothing is owed to us but the wage of our labor, because we work with the talent we have received. 'But every one shall receive his own reward according to his own labor.' Against Jovinian, who says the reward of all is one. 'For we are God's helpers; you are God's tillage.' Helpers in word, not in power: God's field and God's harvest. 'You are God's building.' The building of God's temple. 'According to the grace of God which is given to me.' Not according to my own strength. 'As a wise architect.' It belongs to a wise architect to lay a foundation. The Apostle therefore, first instilling faith into the Corinthians, laid Christ as the foundation by the grace of God:

And if he himself is the foundation, how do the Pelagians say that man begins and He completes? 'I have laid the foundation, but another builds thereon.' If Christ himself is the foundation, how do the Pelagians blaspheme, saying that they came to the faith of Christ by their own merits? 'But let every man take heed how he builds thereon.' That the wall may rise straight and strong: lest through evil conduct, like badly cemented stones, you fall from the building of God. 'For other foundation no man can lay, but that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus.'

No one can preach to you another Christ, besides Jesus, in whom, believing with your whole faith, stand firm. If Christ is the foundation, where are they who say that any good can be had without Christ, and who arrogantly presume to attribute to themselves the faith by which one believes in Christ, and give no thanks to God, from whom it is known to have been poured into them? 'But if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed in fire.' There are three kinds of good things in the Church—that is, good, better, best—and three kinds contrary to these—that is, bad, worse, worst—which are compared to wood, hay, and stubble.

Others understand this passage thus: that he builds gold, silver, and precious stones who, having given away or forsaken his possessions, either seeks a monastery, or lives withdrawn from the affairs of the world, or so lives amid his possessions as one not possessing, as though he possessed things lent to him as another's, and is ready to lose them for Christ's sake: so that if persecution should come for God's sake, he is found unencumbered and ready. But contrariwise, they build wood, hay, and stubble who are indeed Christians and faithful, and use their goods well, but are entangled by too great a love of their own things:

and when either persecution comes, or a decree that Christians should be deprived of their goods unless they deny Christ, these do not value their possessions more than Christ: but because they loved them more than was fitting, when they lose them, they lose them not without grief and tribulation, and therefore they are saved 'as by fire,' that is, through tribulation. 'And the fire shall try every man's work, of what sort it is: if any man's work abide, which he has built thereon, he shall receive a reward.' That is, the examination of judgment, or the present tribulation, which is very frequently compared to fire. For gold and silver are made brighter in the fire, but wood and hay and stubble will burn. 'If any man's work burn, he shall suffer loss.'

If anyone teach negligently, either by example or by word, he loses his labor, because he makes a weak work. 'But he himself shall be saved.' In his own righteousness. 'Yet so as by fire.' The word 'as' holds a truth, as in that place: 'As of the only-begotten of the Father.' If he who is just shall be saved by fire, why was he not careful that what he built should be strong and stable? What then of those who build by word and destroy by example? 'Know you not that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?' Do you not know whose temple you are? 'But if any man violate the temple of God'—whether in individuals, or in the whole Church. Note that here he called the Holy Spirit God, whose temple we are:

because we are the temple of him who dwells in us, whom he confesses to be God. 'God shall destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which you are.' Whether by sinning against his own body, or by seducing the people of the Church to depraved doctrine, or indeed by destroying it by his own example. This the Novatians put forward, to exclude penance. To whom it must be answered: If the Corinthians, being already baptized, had sinned, and if penance is not admitted, to what purpose does he write to them and say, 'That you may have the second grace'? Saint Jerome said on Galatians: 'This one thing I know, that whoever fornicates after the faith of Christ violates the temple of God.' 'Let no man deceive himself: if any man among you seem'—Let no one flatter himself, deceived by his own vanity.

'To be wise in this world.' Unto rendering evil for evil. 'Let him become a fool, that he may be wise.' He is judged a fool in this world who fulfills the Gospel by not rendering evil for evil. But he becomes a fool by will, not by nature. 'For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.' Nothing is more foolish than that he should wish to avenge himself who cannot, and who does not reserve his injury for God—which even he ought to do who is able to avenge himself in this world, or when he demands a reason for what he is bidden to believe. 'For it is written: I will catch the wise in their own craftiness.' The craftiness of men avails nothing, whereby to escape the hand of God: the rich man seems wise to himself, but the poor man of understanding reproves him. And again:

'The Lord knows the thoughts of men, that they are vain.' Wordy eloquence confers nothing profitable unto salvation. 'Therefore let no man glory in men'—in false apostles, nor indeed in any other, whether king or priest. 'For all things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death.' We are yours, not you ours. 'Whether things present, or things to come; for all are yours.' All things were created for the sake of the saints, 'as having nothing, and possessing all things.' Or if you would refer it to liberty: whatever you wish to choose—whether death or life, whether things present or things to come. 'And you are Christ's, and Christ is God's.' Thus Christ is God's, as God is Christ's, if you apply it to the divinity:

although he treats of him according to his manhood, who was anointed. CHAPTER IV. 'Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ and the dispensers of the mysteries of God.' Not as equals to Christ. Here now it is required among the dispensers that one be found faithful. It is the voice of one questioning: that is, do you now here think to judge consciences? 'But to me it is a very small thing to be judged by you, or by man's day: but neither do I judge my own self.' 'And I have not desired man's day'—that is, his time. For here 'man's day' is not unfittingly taken as the understanding, or the wise heart, which is able to judge. 'For I am conscious to myself of nothing.' Of nothing evil. 'Yet am I not hereby justified.'

In this time, or day; or truly, if no one blames me, I ought not therefore to flatter myself or be exalted: or if I have admitted no crime, perhaps I have not been altogether free of small faults. 'But he who judges me is the Lord.' Before the day of judgment. 'Therefore judge not before the time.' The hidden thoughts: because man looks upon the face, but God upon the heart. 'Until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts.' Because the Lord knows me better than either I or any man knows. 'And then shall every man have praise from God.' He indeed is praiseworthy whom God makes praiseworthy. 'But these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos, for your sakes, that in us you may learn.'

That from us you may take an example of humility. 'That not above what is written.' It is 'above' which is not written. 'That one be not puffed up against another for one man's sake.' That is, when contention has arisen, you are puffed up as to who is the better. 'For who distinguishes you?' Of what account are you? Here he turns to those puffed up with the knowledge of speech. Or truly: Who distinguishes you from the mass of perdition, save God? For neither your merits, nor your knowledge. It is said to the man presuming as it were about himself: 'For who distinguishes you'—namely, from the vessels of wrath, from the mass of perdition, which through one man sent all into damnation? Who distinguishes you? And as if he had answered, 'My faith distinguishes me, my resolve, my merit': 'For what have you,' he says, 'that you have not received?'

'But if you have received it, why do you glory, as if you had not received it?' That is, as though that whereby you are distinguished were from yourself; therefore he distinguishes you who imparts that whereby you are distinguished, by removing the debt of punishment and bestowing undeserved grace. 'But what have you that you have not received?' What have you of yourself, save perhaps sin? For whether it be knowledge, or any good in you, it is the gift of God: and if you believe it to be from yourself, it will be said to you, 'What have you that you have not received?' And if you ascribe anything to yourself, and not to God, there befalls you that word of the Gospel spoken of the ungrateful man: 'For he that has not'—that is, from God—'even that which he seems to have shall be taken away from him.' And therefore let us shun pride, and give glory to God, in whom is every best gift:

lest, if we believe that either faith or good works come from ourselves, we lose what we seem to possess. 'But if you received it, why do you glory as though you had not received it?' As though you had anything of your own. 'You are already filled, you are already made rich; you reign without us.' This is said in doctrine or knowledge, uttered with the feeling of one rebuking, because they were ascribing to themselves what they seemed to be. 'And would that you did reign, that we also might reign with you.' You have need of us in nothing, nor have you ever had need: whether you reigned and we reigned with you, or whether you reckoned us at least as companions, if not as masters. 'For I think that God has shown forth us apostles as the last, as men appointed to death.' Even as he promised in the Apocalypse that in the last time he would send two to death:

or rather us now, who have been sent to the Gentiles. 'For we are made a spectacle to the world, and to angels, and to men.' All await our injuries or our combat, both Christians and pagans; or else he speaks simply of angels. 'We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ.' We endure all things for Christ; but you wish to be Christians in such a way that you do not lose the prudence of the world, nor suffer anything for Christ. 'We are weak, but you are strong in Christ.' As though we could not repay in kind what worldly prudence can. 'You are noble, but we are without honour.' Because the false apostles, or certain believers, put forward both their own knowledge and their nobility of birth. 'Even unto this hour we both hunger,'

'and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted.' From the time we began to preach even unto this present time we have abounded in nothing. 'And we have no fixed abode.' Nowhere do we have a dwelling, or at least so it seems to you. 'And we labour, working with our own hands: we are reviled, and we bless: we suffer persecution, and we endure it.' So he worked, teaching all day and labouring by night, that the next day he might eat bread, not to lay up coin by spending day and night in such toil, but that both he himself and his disciples might live from it. 'We are blasphemed, and we entreat.' On behalf of those who blaspheme us. 'We are made as the offscouring of this world.' The just man is unclean in the sight of the wicked. 'The refuse of all, even until now.'

The most lowly of all, cast down and despised, a dishrag. 'I write not these things to confound you, but I admonish you as my dearly beloved sons.' They could have been confounded, had he not comforted them: I write not for your confusion, but for your profit. 'For though you have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet not many fathers.' All those who are set over the newly born cannot be fathers. 'For in Christ Jesus, by the Gospel, I have begotten you.' You believed at my first preaching of the Lord. 'I beseech you therefore, be imitators of me.' It belongs to good sons to imitate their parents in all things. 'For this cause have I sent to you Timothy, who is my dearly beloved son and faithful in the Lord.' The more faithful than the rest, the dearer to all. 'Who shall put you in remembrance.'

Who would teach you both by my letters and by his own example: for the one without the other could not be perfect. 'My ways, which are in Christ.' My life, my course, and my labours. 'As I teach everywhere in every Church.' My ways, my doctrine, and my manner of life, in which I everywhere walk uniformly, and from no one do I take any gain or advantage of the present time. 'Now some are puffed up, as though I would not come to you.' A man remains puffed up so long as he does not come who has true knowledge: not that knowledge which is folly with God. 'But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord will: and I will know, not the speech of them that are puffed up, but the power.' The power of faith, which is in the works of Christ, or in signs.

'For the kingdom of God is not in speech, but in power.' The New Testament. 'What will you?' A kindly master, who placed the correction of his disciples in their own will. If you do not amend, it shall be with the rod; but if you do, in consolation. 'Shall I come to you with a rod, or in charity and the spirit of meekness?' With the rod of justice, the rod which Peter used against Ananias and Sapphira, and Paul against the Magus: and at the same time it must be considered that this very anger is placed within our own power, not we within its power: and it is roused when an injury done to God is avenged. Chapter 5. 'It is altogether reported that there is fornication among you.' In the Church over which you preside. 'And such fornication as is not even among the Gentiles.' He shows why he set anger before it. 'So that someone should have his father's wife.'

He has taken his father's concubine to himself. 'And you are puffed up.' You are puffed up with vain knowledge or with pride, and you have no care for those who perish, that they may be gathered together and either corrected or cast out. 'And you have not rather mourned.' Good shepherds have always wept for the sins of the people, as Jeremiah says: 'Who will give water to my head?'—he to whom not the will, but only tears, were lacking. 'That he might be taken away from among you who has done this deed.' Whether he who did it, or Satan, be taken away, so long as he has no one through whom to work. 'I indeed, absent in body, but present in spirit, have already judged, as though present, him who has so done, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, you being gathered together.' Lest he should be thought to judge only from hearsay.

'And with my spirit.' By the judgement of my letters. 'With the power of the Lord Jesus.' Nor shall the Lord's power be lacking. 'To deliver such a one over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh.' That Satan may have power to receive him, so that at least in this way he may be converted, when he sees that he shall have rest neither here in the flesh nor hereafter in the spirit. It must be guarded against: because whoever is excommunicated is delivered over to Satan. 'That the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.' But if Satan has not received power over the spirit, when he corrects him, he is reserved to the judgement of the Lord alone. 'Your glorying is not good.' You who admit such a one in the Church. 'Do you not know that a little leaven corrupts the whole lump?'

Do you not know that by the example of one evil man many can perish, and that through the transgression of one the wrath of God fell upon the whole people, upon the people of the Jews? 'Purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, as you are unleavened.' Let nothing of your former manner of life remain in you. 'For Christ our passover is sacrificed.' Being made clean through baptism from the vices of the world, let us pass over to the virtues of the Lord. 'Therefore let us keep the feast, not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.' 'I wrote to you in an epistle not to keep company with fornicators.'

Not the lamb, which was a figure of Christ—and they indeed ate unleavened bread for seven days, but we always, if we are pure, because the world too was made in seven days: daily the lamb is slain for us, daily the passover is celebrated—by him who has not the leaven of malice and wickedness. Not in fullness of belly, which does not pertain to God, but in simplicity of mind and purity of heart. For what is leaven but the corruption of nature, that same thing which from sweet has become sour? 'Not indeed with the fornicators of this world, or the covetous, or the rapacious, or those who serve idols.' Not the fornicators of the Gentiles. 'Otherwise you would have needed to go out of this world.' By another manner you would have had to depart, not in this way; or at least if in this way, it were better for you to die.

'But now I have written to you not to keep company.' This very thing I have now written, which I say: 'If any man that is named a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or a server of idols, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner.' He is to be called a brother not from the name alone, but from his deed. But if anyone is named a fornicator—which is found also in the Old Testament: 'He who joins himself to fornicators shall be wicked: rottenness and worms shall inherit him.' 'With such a one not so much as to take food.' 'For what have I to do to judge those who are outside? Do you not judge those who are within?' Nor do I forbid that common fellowship which I have conceded, if you wish to go about with the Gentiles. 'For those who are outside God will judge.' Outside the Church are the Jews, heretics, and Gentiles.

'Put away the evil one from among yourselves.' Not from among the Gentiles, but from among you. Chapter 6. 'Dare any of you, having a matter against another.' Someone has dared to go against the precept of the Lord who says: 'If any man will contend with you in judgement and take away your coat, let him have your cloak also.' Here it is understood that they were accused in the secular court chiefly on account of fornications: because he here inserted this in the very midst of the case of fornication. 'To be judged before the unjust, and not before the saints?' Here it is proved that the judges were Gentiles, because they are called unjust. 'Do you not know that the saints shall judge the world?' As the Saviour says: 'You shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.'

But what he said to them, he said to all who shall have imitated them. For of those twelve one perished, and another who had not heard him succeeded in his place: and Paul and Barnabas were apostles. 'And if the world shall be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters?' Whether by yourselves, or by your example. 'Do you not know that we shall judge angels?' Those angels who sinned against nature shall be judged by these who, above nature, preserved chastity with God's help. 'How much more the things of this world?' Concerning the affairs of the world. 'If therefore you have secular matters of judgement, set those to judge who are of least account in the Church.'

Even those who are least in the Church can judge these matters, or at least those who despise their own wrongs. It is to be noted that he calls those 'least' who are not instructed in the law of God, but in that of the world. 'I speak to your shame.' What I am about to say, that such men may blush. 'Is it so that there is not a wise man among you who can judge between his brother?' Is there really none? But brother contends with brother in judgement, and this before unbelievers. They double their sin, both that they go to law, and that they go to law before unbelievers. 'Now indeed there is altogether a fault in you, that you have lawsuits among yourselves.' First, because you despise the precept of Christ, you already have sin. 'Why do you not rather accept the wrong?'

'Why do you not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?' He speaks to those who were doing the wrong, not to those who were suffering it: To bear it is meet, if anyone does you an injury. 'But you do wrong and defraud, and that to your brethren. Do you not know that the unjust shall not possess the kingdom of God?' They to whom it is not even permitted to repay their enemies in kind. 'Do not err: neither fornicators, nor those who serve idols, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor liers with mankind, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor railers, nor the rapacious shall possess the kingdom of God.' Do not be seduced, thinking that punishment is for many sins and not also for a single one. 'And such some of you were.' Do not fear concerning things past: only commit nothing criminal after baptism.

'But you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.' Washed in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, sanctified through the Holy Spirit. Here understand the whole Trinity. 'All things are lawful to me, but all things are not expedient.' Because he is treating of fornication, he wishes to show the occasion of fornication. 'All things are lawful to me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.' It is lawful for us to eat and drink, but if we subject ourselves to gluttony, this very lawful thing will lead us to what is unlawful, that is, to fornication. So too concerning marriage, and riches, and other such things it can be understood, which are not sin, but can lead to the occasion of sins.

'Food for the belly, and the belly for food: but God shall destroy both this and these.' Both these two, that is, both the belly and the food, and the man himself who is engaged in them. 'But the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.' God is with you, so long as you are with him: but if you forsake him, he will forsake you. 'And God has raised up the Lord, and will also raise us up by his power.' If he raised the Lord, he will also raise us by the same power. If we are his members, therefore we ought to sanctify our members, that we may be worthy to abide in him. 'Do you not know that your bodies are the members of Christ?' The whole Church is the body of Christ; individuals are its members. 'Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of a harlot? God forbid.'

He did not say 'of a fornicator,' but 'of a harlot': to show that the man is of the same crime and name as the harlot with whom he fornicates: because to men the man seems to sin less than the woman. At the same time it is to be noted that he takes away the members of Christ who is about to make them members of a harlot: in this the fornicator is guilty of the greater crime, because he takes away the members of Christ and makes them the members of a harlot. 'Do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is made one body? For the two, he says, shall be in one flesh.' Just as with a wife lawfully, so also with a harlot one flesh is made through unlawful love. 'But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.' Just as he who does the works of the flesh is flesh, so also he who does the works of God is one spirit. 'Flee fornication.'

Seeing how grievous it is. 'Every sin, whatever a man does, is outside the body.' Every sin can be committed by one person, who cannot be called a body but a member: but in fornication two perish, and the two can be called a body: it is therefore more grievous where two perish than where only one: because the other sins can be committed even without a body. 'But he who commits fornication sins against his own body.' Some think this is said of the body of the Church; but he says 'against his own body': either he thus declares fornication to be more grievous—which he knew to be, among them, in those matters that seemed to them trivial, because it had passed into custom. 'Do you not know that your members are the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you? whom you have from God, and you are not your own.'

'For you are bought with a great price.' He who is not his own ought not to live for himself, but for him whose he is, having been purchased with his blood. 'He who wishes,' he says, 'to come after me, let him deny himself.' If a man demands continual servitude from a slave bought with a small sum of money, how much more he who had nothing greater to give for us than his very self? 'Glorify God.' Do this, that God may be glorified through you and through your works. 'And carry the Lord in your body.' That we may carry the heavenly image. It is to be noted that here he calls the God whom we are bidden to carry the Holy Spirit: of whom above he testified that our members are the temple, saying: 'You are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you.'

And now he says, 'Glorify and carry God in your body,' surely God the Holy Spirit. Chapter 7. 'Now concerning the things whereof you wrote to me.' Being asked, he answers: 'It is good for a man not to touch a woman.' That was good which I proclaimed as the best: if therefore it is good for one who has a wife not to touch her, how much more if he has not married is it better! Incontinence is prevented by time, and age, and infirmity: but chastity can always be preserved, with God as helper and guardian. That therefore is more to be sought which is eternal. Why then, 'Increase and multiply and fill the earth'? but now even the earth itself no longer holds the men. 'But could he,' he says, 'have made all men from the earth?' He could, but he would not:

for he could have made men both winged and horned. But he made all things best, according to a reason known to himself. Eve herself, indeed, he willed not to make from the earth, but from a rib. But if you think that this is to be done thus in all cases, imitate Cain and the others who married their own sisters. If therefore it was thus, let us believe that God ordained all things for their times according to the foreknowledge whereby he is God. This too is to be believed: that even now, if they marry according to the law, they do not sin; for the law permits marriage for the sake of children, not for the sake of lust. In this men make themselves worse even than the beasts, that when they spare not even pregnant women, they show that they took wives not for the sake of children.

But he who abstains himself solely for the sake of children—after the woman has given birth, and while the infant is being nursed, and perhaps when by reason of age childbearing has now ceased—ceases also from the marriage act: 'not to touch,' according to use, not according to simple touch. 'But on account of fornication let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. Let the husband render the debt to the wife: and likewise the wife to the husband.' To fornicators he conceded that they might marry, lest the incontinent man commit fornication: as if a physician should say to a sick man, 'It was good for you not to eat apples': and he cannot restrain himself but wishes to eat figs: afterward the physician grants him a hearty meal, only that he not eat what would kill him. Hence perfection is to be proclaimed:

but to him who cannot, the remedy of marriage is to be given. 'The woman has not power over her own body, but the husband.' Because she of her own accord took away her freedom from herself. 'And likewise the husband has not power over his own body, but the wife.' Let husbands acknowledge that it is not lawful for them to know another besides their wife, because by equal lot they are mutually subject to and debtors of one another. 'Do not defraud one another, except perhaps by consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to prayer: and return again together.' He who is incontinent cannot give himself to prayer. Not only in the New Testament is continence praiseworthy, but also in the Old Testament: when God was about to descend upon Mount Sinai, he bade the people be sanctified from women for three days;

how much more, then, shall he be able to see God who has willed to be always chaste? Likewise the priest also forbade David the holy bread until he should learn that he was clean from women: and Peter bids us abstain even from lawful things. 'Lest Satan tempt you because of your incontinence.' Lest, one withdrawing herself, the other commit fornication, and Satan find room for tempting. 'But this I say by way of indulgence, not by way of command.' 'For I wish all men to be as myself.' This I indulge to the weak, I do not enjoin upon the perfect—I who would wish all men to imitate me in all things, I who know how greatly chastity avails with God. 'But each has his own gift from God, one indeed after this manner, and another after that.'

His own gift, because God divides to each as he wills, for not all can receive this word. But if all can, how does Scripture say that no one can be continent unless you have granted it? 'A gift from God, one indeed after this manner, and another after that.' You hear 'gift'—let presumption cease. 'But I say to the unmarried and to widows.' He begins concerning those who have no wives, and concerning widows. 'It is good for them if they so remain, even as I.' Who can say that is not good which he himself says is good? Who, I ask, could, unless perhaps Jovinian? 'But if they do not contain themselves, let them marry.' Either you will suffer incontinence, or you ought not to marry, if you wish to be continent. 'For it is better to marry than to burn.'

Fornication is punished by fire, as Judah says concerning his daughter-in-law: 'Let her be brought forth,' he says, 'and burned.' In comparison therefore with fornication, it is better to marry. 'But to those who are joined in matrimony I command, not I, but the Lord.' Here he speaks properly to the married, that they should not put away their wives and marry others either beautiful or rich, as the Jews were doing. 'That the wife depart not from her husband. If any man put away his wife, save for the cause of fornication, he makes her to commit adultery. But if she depart, let her remain unmarried.' Not to depart so as to marry another: if for some cause she departs, let her not marry another. 'Or be reconciled to her husband. And let not the husband put away his wife. For to the rest I speak, not the Lord.'

It is better if she return to her own husband than that she marry another. 'If any brother has an unbelieving wife, and she consents to dwell with him, let him not put her away. And if any woman has an unbelieving husband, and he consents to dwell with her, let her not put away her husband.' If one of the two believed: not that he permitted the unbeliever not to be joined to the believer, but he speaks of those already joined. 'For the unbelieving husband is sanctified in the believing wife.' Often it has happened that he was won through the wife. Therefore blessed Peter says that if any believe not the word, they may be won without the word through the manner of life of the wives, and when they see, from drunkards, sober women, from proud, humble women, they may say: 'Truly it is the law of God, which was able so to change ingrained habits.'

I believe it had already come about that some women through believing husbands, and some men through believing wives, came into the faith: and although he does not give names, yet by examples he exhorted them to confirm his counsel. 'And the unbelieving woman is sanctified through the believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy.' If you were both unbelievers, of necessity the children would imitate you: but now perhaps they imitate the believer, and are holy: because even if they be born of two believers, they are so born as if a wild olive from an olive tree. I say 'wild olive' on account of original sin, and on account of this they are under the devil, unless they be born again in Christ: because the devil is the author of fault, not of nature.

I now believe that there were little Christian children who, whether through one parent being the author, or through both consenting, had been sanctified: which would not happen if, one believing, the marriage were dissolved. 'But if the unbeliever departs, let him depart. For the husband is not greater than God. For a brother or a sister is not made subject to servitude in such cases.' Is she to marry in such a way that she serve and perish on account of another unbeliever? And it is to be noted that they are mutually servants. 'In such cases.' In such a matter or cause. 'But God has called us in peace.' In freedom: therefore we ought not of our own accord to depart. 'For how do you know, O wife, whether you shall save your husband? Or how do you know, O husband, whether you shall save your wife? Only as the Lord has distributed to each:'

as God has called each one. He has left it in doubt: but always, if anything is ambiguous, the understanding is to be led to the better part. 'So let each walk: and so I teach in all the churches.' Whether with a wife or without a wife. Whether circumcised or in uncircumcision: whether slave or free. 'Is any called being circumcised? let him not bring on uncircumcision.' Whether he is called with a wife, let him not put her away; whether without a wife, he has no need to marry, if he acquiesces in that counsel, and if he can contain himself. For the circumcised man, since he had had a foreskin, cannot recall himself to being uncircumcised—that which was needful in its own time was superfluous: let him not say, 'It would have been better had I not been circumcised,' let him not live after the manner of the Gentiles. 'Is any called in uncircumcision?'

let him not be circumcised. Let him not think the faith of the Lord to be a cause of division. 'And circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing; but the keeping of the commandments of God. Let each abide with God in that calling wherein he was called.' It neither hinders nor profits in this present time. 'Are you called being a slave? let it not be a care to you.' Some wish servitude to be understood as marriage. 'But if you can be made free, use it rather.' Because God regards not conditions, but mind and will: nor say, 'How can I please God? I am a slave.' 'For he who is called a slave in the Lord is the Lord's freedman: likewise he who is called free is Christ's slave.' He who is man's slave is free before God: and he who is free before men is God's slave:

therefore both are one. For there is no respect of persons with God. 'You are bought with a price, do not become the slaves of men. Let each, brethren, abide with God in that state wherein he was called.' Let him not serve for men's sake with eye-service, to please men: but let him do all things for God's sake, believing that you will receive a reward from God. 'Now concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord.' He answers to what was written: because they were saying, 'Where is virginity commanded?'—that they might show it to be superfluous, because what is under commandment, if not fulfilled, is punished, but if fulfilled, has no reward. He gives counsel, the Saviour saying, 'Not all receive this word: but those to whom it is given.' For if it were general, what one can do, all could also do.