1 Corinthians 15

1 Corinthians 15:2

Now - That ye may not become reprobates, consider how highly favoured your fathers were, who were God’s elect and peculiar people, and nevertheless were rejected by him. They were all under the cloud - That eminent token of God’s gracious presence, which screened them from the heat of the sun by day, and gave them light by night. And all passed through the sea - God opening a way through the midst of the waters. Exodus 13:21 Exodus 14:22

1 Corinthians 15:3

And were all, as it were, baptized unto Moses - initiated into the religion which he taught them. In the cloud and in the sea - Perhaps sprinkled here and there with drops of water from the sea or the cloud, by which baptism might be the more evidently signified.

1 Corinthians 15:4

And all ate the same manna, termed spiritual meat, as it was typical, Of Christ and his spiritual benefits: Of the sacred bread which we eat at his table. Exodus 16:15.

1 Corinthians 15:5

And all drank the same spiritual drink - Typical of Christ, and of that cup which we drink. For they drank out of the spiritual or mysterious rock, the wonderful streams of which followed them in their several journeyings, for many years, through the wilderness. And that rock was a manifest type of Christ - The Rock of Eternity, from whom his people derive those streams of blessings which follow them through all this wilderness. Exodus 17:6.

1 Corinthians 15:6

Yet - Although they had so many tokens of the divine presence. They were overthrown - With the most terrible marks of his displeasure.

1 Corinthians 15:7

Now these things were our examples - Showing what we are to expect if, enjoying the like benefits, we commit the like sins. The benefits are set down in the same order as by Moses in Exodus; the sins and punishments in a different order; evil desire first, as being the foundation of all; next, idolatry, 1 Corinthians 10:7,14; then fornication, which usually accompanied it, 1 Corinthians 10:8; the tempting and murmuring against God, in the following verses. As they desired - Flesh, in contempt of manna. Numbers 11:4

1 Corinthians 15:8

Neither be ye idolaters - And so, “neither murmur ye,” 1 Corinthians 10:10. The other cautions are given in the first person; but these in the second. And with what exquisite propriety does he vary the person! It would have been improper to say, Neither let us be idolaters; for he was himself in no danger of idolatry; nor probably of murmuring against Christ, or the divine providence. To play - That is, to dance, in honour of their idol. Exodus 32:6.

1 Corinthians 15:9

And fell in one day three and twenty thousand - Beside the princes who were afterwards hanged, and those whom the judges slew so that there died in all four and twenty thousand. Numbers 25:1,9.

1 Corinthians 15:10

Neither let us tempt Christ - By our unbelief. St. Paul enumerates five benefits, 1 Corinthians 10:1 - 4; of which the fourth and fifth were closely connected together; and five sins, the fourth and fifth of which were likewise closely connected. In speaking of the fifth benefit, he expressly mentions Christ; and in speaking of the fourth sin, he shows it was committed against Christ. As some of them tempted him - This sin of the people was peculiarly against Christ; for when they had so long drank of that rock, yet they murmured for want of water. Numbers 21:4, &c

1 Corinthians 15:11

The destroyer - The destroying angel. Numbers 14:1,36

1 Corinthians 15:12

On whom the ends of the ages are come - The expression has great force. All things meet together, and come to a crisis, under the last, the gospel, dispensation; both benefits and dangers, punishments and rewards. It remains, that Christ come as an avenger and judge. And even these ends include various periods, succeeding each other.

1 Corinthians 15:13

The common translation runs, Let him that thinketh he standeth; but the word translated thinketh, most certainly strengthens, rather than weakens, the sense.

1 Corinthians 15:14

Common to man - Or, as the Greek word imports, proportioned to human strength. God is faithful - In giving the help which he hath promised. And he will with the temptation - Provide for your deliverance.

1 Corinthians 15:15

Flee from idolatry - And from all approaches to it.

1 Corinthians 15:17

The cup which we bless - By setting it apart to a sacred use, and solemnly invoking the blessing of God upon it. Is it not the communion of the blood of Christ - The means of our partaking of those invaluable benefits, which are the purchase of the blood of Christ. The communion of the body of Christ - The means of our partaking of those benefits which were purchased by the body of Christ - offered for us.

1 Corinthians 15:18

For it is this communion which makes us all one. We being many are yet, as it were, but different parts of one and the same broken bread, which we receive to unite us in one body.

1 Corinthians 15:19

Consider Israel after the flesh - Christians are the spiritual “Israel of God.” Are not they who eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar - Is not this an act of communion with that God to whom they are offered? And is not the case the same with those who eat of the sacrifices which have been offered to idols?

1 Corinthians 15:20

What say I then - Do I in saying this allow that an idol is anything divine? I aver, on the contrary, that what the heathens sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils. Such in reality are the gods of the heathens; and with such only can you hold communion in those sacrifices.

1 Corinthians 15:22

Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils - You cannot have communion with both.

1 Corinthians 15:23

Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy - By thus caressing his rivals? Are we stronger than he - Are we able to resist, or to bear his wrath?

1 Corinthians 15:24

Supposing this were lawful in itself, yet it is not expedient, it is not edifying to my neighbour.

1 Corinthians 15:25

His own only, but another’s welfare also.

1 Corinthians 15:26

The apostle now applies this principle to the point in question. Asking no questions - Whether it has been sacrificed or not.

1 Corinthians 15:27

For God, who is the Creator, Proprietor, and Disposer of the earth and all that is therein, hath given the produce of it to the children of men, to be used without scruple. Psalms 24:1

1 Corinthians 15:29

For his sake that showed thee, and for conscience’ sake - That is, for the sake of his weak conscience, lest it should be wounded.

1 Corinthians 15:30

Conscience I say, not thy own - I speak of his conscience, not thine. For why is my liberty judged by another’s conscience - Another’s conscience is not the standard of mine, nor is another’s persuasion the measure of my liberty.

1 Corinthians 15:31

If I by grace am a partaker - If I thankfully use the common blessings of God.

1 Corinthians 15:32

Therefore - To close the present point with a general rule, applicable not only in this, but in all cases, Whatsoever ye do - In all things whatsoever, whether of a religious or civil nature, in all the common, as well as sacred, actions of life, keep the glory of God in view, and steadily pursue in all this one end of your being, the planting or advancing the vital knowledge and love of God, first in your own soul, then in all mankind.

1 Corinthians 15:33

Give no offence - If, and as far as, it is possible.

1 Corinthians 15:34

Even as I, as much as lieth in me, please all men.

1 Corinthians 15:36

Even as I, as much as lieth in me, please all men.

1 Corinthians 15:37

I praise you - The greater part of you.

1 Corinthians 15:38

I would have you know - He does not seem to have given them any order before concerning this. The head of every man - Particularly every believer. Is Christ, and the head of Christ is God - Christ, as he is Mediator, acts in all things subordinately to his Father. But we can no more infer that they are not of the same divine nature, because God is said to be the head of Christ, than that man and woman are not of the same human nature, because the man is said to be the head of the woman.

1 Corinthians 15:39

Every man praying or prophesying - Speaking by the immediate power of God. With his head - And face. Covered - Either with a veil or with long hair. Dishonoureth his head - St. Paul seems to mean, As in these eastern nations veiling the head is a badge of subjection, so a man who prays or prophesies with a veil on his head, reflects a dishonour on Christ, whose representative he is.

1 Corinthians 15:40

But every woman - Who, under an immediate impulse of the Spirit, (for then only was a woman suffered to speak in the church,) prays or prophesies without a veil on her face, as it were disclaims subjection, and reflects dishonour on man, her head. For it is the same, in effect, as if she cut her hair short, and wore it in the distinguishing form of the men. In those ages, men wore their hair exceeding short, as appears from the ancient statues and pictures.

1 Corinthians 15:41

Therefore if a woman is not covered - If she will throw off the badge of subjection, let her appear with her hair cut like a man’s. But if it be shameful far a woman to appear thus in public, especially in a religious assembly, let her, for the same reason, keep on her veil.

1 Corinthians 15:42

A man indeed ought not to veil his head, because he is the image of God - In the dominion he bears over the creation, representing the supreme dominion of God, which is his glory. But the woman is only matter of glory to the man, who has a becoming dominion over her. Therefore she ought not to appear, but with her head veiled, as a tacit acknowledgment of it.

1 Corinthians 15:43

The man is not - In the first production of nature.

1 Corinthians 15:45

For this cause also a woman ought to be veiled in the public assemblies, because of the angels - Who attend there, and before whom they should be careful not to do anything indecent or irregular.

1 Corinthians 15:46

Nevertheless in the Lord Jesus, there is neither male nor female - Neither is excluded; neither is preferred before the other in his kingdom.

1 Corinthians 15:47

And as the woman was at first taken out of the man, so also the man is now, in the ordinary course of nature, by the woman; but all things are of God - The man, the woman, and their dependence on each other.

1 Corinthians 15:48

Judge of yourselves - For what need of more arguments if so plain a case? Is it decent for a woman to pray to God - The Most High, with that bold and undaunted air which she must have, when, contrary to universal custom, she appears in public with her head uncovered?

1 Corinthians 15:49

For a man to have long hair, carefully adjusted, is such a mark of effeminacy as is a disgrace to him.

1 Corinthians 15:50

Given her - Originally, before the arts of dress were in being.

1 Corinthians 15:51

We have no such custom here, nor any of the other churches of God - The several churches that were in the apostles’ time had different customs in things that were not essential; and that under one and the same apostle, as circumstances, in different places, made it convenient. And in all things merely indifferent the custom of each place was of sufficient weight to determine prudent and peaceable men. Yet even this cannot overrule a scrupulous conscience, which really doubts whether the thing be indifferent or no. But those who are referred to here by the apostle were contentious, not conscientious, persons.

1 Corinthians 15:53

In the church - In the public assembly. I hear there are schisms among you; and I partly believe it - That is, I believe it of some of you. It is plain that by schisms is not meant any separation from the church, but uncharitable divisions in it; for the Corinthians continued to be one church; and, notwithstanding all their strife and contention, there was no separation of any one party from the rest, with regard to external communion. And it is in the same sense that the word is used, 1 Corinthians 1:10; 1 Corinthians 12:25; which are the only places in the New Testament, beside this, where church schisms are mentioned. Therefore, the indulging any temper contrary to this tender care of each other is the true scriptural schism. This is, therefore, a quite different thing from that orderly separation from corrupt churches which later ages have stigmatized as schisms; and have made a pretence for the vilest cruelties, oppressions, and murders, that have troubled the Christian world.

Both heresies and schisms are here mentioned in very near the same sense; unless by schisms be meant, rather, those inward animosities which occasion heresies; that is, outward divisions or parties: so that whilst one said, “I am of Paul,” another, “I am of Apollos,” this implied both schism and heresy. So wonderfully have later ages distorted the words heresy and schism from their scriptural meaning. Heresy is not, in all the Bible, taken for “an error in fundamentals,” or in anything else; nor schism, for any separation made from the outward communion of others. Therefore, both heresy and schism, in the modern sense of the words, are sins that the scripture knows nothing of; but were invented merely to deprive mankind of the benefit of private judgment, and liberty of conscience.

1 Corinthians 15:54

There must be heresies - Divisions. Among you - In the ordinary course of things; and God permits them, that it may appear who among you are, and who are not, upright of heart.

1 Corinthians 15:55

Therefore - That is, in consequence of those schisms. It is not eating the Lord’s supper - That solemn memorial of his death; but quite another thing.

1 Corinthians 15:56

For in eating what ye call the Lord’s supper, instead of all partaking of one bread, each person brings his own supper, and eats it without staying for the rest. And hereby the poor, who cannot provide for themselves, have nothing; while the rich eat and drink to the full just as the heathens use to do at the feasts on their sacrifices.

1 Corinthians 15:57

Have ye not houses to eat and drink your common meals in? or do ye despise the church of God - Of which the poor are both the larger and the better part. Do ye act thus in designed contempt of them?

1 Corinthians 15:58

I received - By an immediate revelation.