Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary

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Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (1721)

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First Corinthians

Completed by SIMON BROWNE.

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4

Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8

Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12

Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16

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AN

EXPOSITION,

W I T H   P R A C T I C A L   O B S E R V A T I O N S,

OF THE FIRST EPISTLE OF ST. PAUL TO THE

C O R I N T H I A N S.

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CORINTH was a principal city of Greece, in that

particular division of it which was called Achaia. It was

situated on the isthmus (or neck of land) that joined Peloponnesus to

the rest of Greece, on the southern side, and had two ports adjoining,

one at the bottom of the Corinthian Gulf, called Lechæum,

not far from the city, whence they traded to Italy and the west, the

other at the bottom of the Sinus Saronicus, called Cenchrea, at

a more remote distance, whence they traded to Asia. From this

situation, it is no wonder that Corinth should be a place of great

trade and wealth; and, as affluence is apt to produce luxury of all

kinds, neither is it to be wondered at if a place so famous for wealth

and arts should be infamous for vice. It was in a particular manner

noted for fornication, insomuch that a Corinthian woman was a

proverbial phrase for a strumpet, and korinthiazein,

korinthiasesthai—to play the Corinthian, is to play the

whore, or indulge whorish inclinations. Yet in this lewd city did

Paul, by the blessing of God on his labours, plant and raise a

Christian church, chiefly among the Gentiles, as seems very probable

from the history of this matter,

Acts xviii. 1-18,

compared with some passages in this epistle, particularly

xii. 2,

where the apostle tells them, You know that you wee Gentiles,

carried away to those dumb idols even as you were led, though it is

not improbable that many Jewish converts might be also among them, for

we are told that Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed

on the Lord, with all his house,
Acts xviii. 8.

He continued in this city nearly two years, as is plain from

Acts xviii. 11 and 18

compared, and laboured with great success, being encouraged by a divine

vision assuring him God had much people in that city,
Acts xviii. 9, 10.

Nor did he use to stay long in a place where his ministry met not with

acceptance and success.

     

Some time after he left them he wrote this epistle to them, to water

what he had planted and rectify some gross disorders which during his

absence had been introduced, partly from the interest some false

teacher or teachers had obtained amongst them, and partly from the

leaven of their old maxims and manners, that had not been thoroughly

purged out by the Christian principles they had entertained. And it is

but too visible how much their wealth had helped to corrupt their

manners, from the several faults for which the apostle reprehends them.

Pride, avarice, luxury, lust (the natural offspring of a carnal and

corrupt mind), are all fed and prompted by outward affluence. And with

all these either the body of this people or some particular persons

among them are here charged by the apostle. Their pride discovered

itself in their parties and factions, and the notorious disorders they

committed in the exercise of their spiritual gifts. And this vice was

not wholly fed by their wealth, but by the insight they had into the

Greek learning and philosophy. Some of the ancients tell us that the

city abounded with rhetoricians and philosophers. And these were men

naturally vain, full of self-conceit, and apt to despise the plain

doctrine of the gospel, because it did not feed the curiosity of an

inquisitive and disputing temper, nor please the ear with artful

speeches and a flow of fine words. Their avarice was manifest in their

law-suits and litigations about meum–mine, and

tuum–thine, before heathen judges. Their luxury appeared in more

instances than one, in their dress, in their debauching themselves even

at the Lord’s table, when the rich, who were most faulty on this

account, were guilty also of a very proud and criminal contempt of

their poor brethren. Their lust broke out in a most flagrant and

infamous instance, such as had not been named among the Gentiles, not

spoken of without detestation–that a man should have his father’s wife,

either as his wife, or so as to commit fornication with her. This

indeed seems to be the fault of a particular person; but the whole

church were to blame that they had his crime in no greater abhorrence,

that they could endure one of such very corrupt morals and of so

flagitious a behaviour among them. But their participation in his sin

was yet greater, if, as some of the ancients tell us, they were puffed

up on behalf of the great learning and eloquence of this incestuous

person. And it is plain from other passages of the epistle that they

were not so entirely free from their former lewd inclinations as not to

need very strict cautions and strong arguments against fornication: see

vi. 9-20.

The pride of their learning had also carried many of them so far as to

disbelieve or dispute against the doctrine of the resurrection. It is

not improbable that they treated this question problematically, as they

did many questions in philosophy, and tried their skill by arguing it

pro and con.

     

It is manifest from this state of things that there was much that

deserved reprehension, and needed correction, in this church. And the

apostle, under the direction and influence of the Holy Spirit, sets

himself to do both with all wisdom and faithfulness, and with a due

mixture of tenderness and authority, as became one in so elevated and

important a station in the church. After a short introduction at the

beginning of the epistle, he first blames them for their discord and

factions, enters into the origin and source of them, shows them how

much pride and vanity, and the affectation of science, and learning,

and eloquence, flattered by false teachers, contributed to the

scandalous schism; and prescribes humility, and submission to divine

instruction, the teaching of God by his Spirit, both by external

revelation and internal illumination, as a remedy for the evils that

abounded amongst them. He shows them the vanity of their pretended

science and eloquence on many accounts. This he does through the

first four chapters.

In the

fifth

he treats of the case of the incestuous person, and orders him to be

put out from among them. Nor is what the ancients say improbable, that

this incestuous person was a man in great esteem, and head of one party

at least among them. The apostle seems to tax them with being puffed up

on his account,

v. 2.

In the

sixth chapter

he blames them for their law-suits, carried on before heathen judges,

when their disputes about property should have been amicably determined

amongst themselves, and in the

close of the chapter

warns them against the sin of fornication, and urges his caution with a

variety of arguments. In the

seventh chapter

he gives advice upon a case of conscience, which some of that church

had proposed to him in an epistle, about marriage, and shows it to be

appointed of God as a remedy against fornication, that the ties of it

were not dissolved, though a husband or wife continued a heathen, when

the other became a Christian; and, in short, that Christianity made no

change in men’s civil states and relations. He gives also some

directions here about virgins, in answer, as is probable, to the

Corinthians’ enquiries. In the

eighth

he directs them about meats offered to idols, and cautions them against

abusing their Christian liberty. From this he also takes occasion, in

the

ninth chapter,

to expatiate a little on his own conduct upon this head of liberty.

For, though he might have insisted on a maintenance from the churches

where he ministered, he waived this demand, that he might make the

gospel of Christ without charge, and did in other things comply

with and suit himself to the tempers and circumstances of those among

whom he laboured, for their good. In the

tenth chapter

he dissuades them, from the example of the Jews, against having

communion with idolaters, by eating of their sacrifices, inasmuch as

they could not be at once partakers of the Lord’s table and the table

of devils, though they were not bound to enquire concerning meat sold

in the shambles, or set before them at a feast made by unbelievers,

whether it were a part of the idol-sacrifices or no, but were at

liberty to eat without asking questions. In the

eleventh chapter

he gives direction about their habit in public worship, blames them for

their gross irregularities and scandalous disorders in receiving the

Lord’s supper, and solemnly warns them against the abuse of so sacred

an institution. In the

twelfth chapter

he enters on the consideration of spiritual gifts, which were poured

forth in great abundance on this church, upon which they were not a

little elated. He tells them, in this chapter, that all came from the

same original, and were all directed to the same end. They issued from

one Spirit, and were intended for the good of the church, and must be

abused when they were not made to minister to this purpose. Towards the

close he informs them that they were indeed valuable gifts, but he

could recommend to them something far more excellent, upon which he

breaks out, in the

thirteenth chapter,

into the commendation and characteristics of charity. And them, in the

fourteenth,

he directs them how to keep up decency and order in the churches in the

use of their spiritual gifts, in which they seem to have been

exceedingly irregular, through pride of their gifts and a vanity of

showing them. The

fifteenth chapter

is taken up in confirming and explaining the great doctrine of the

resurrection. The

last chapter

consists of some particular advices and salutations; and thus the

epistle closes.

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Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (1721)

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