THE glorious, but at the same time, thoroughly practical, passage before us begins with an acknowledgment of the free and infinite mercy of God in making us His children. So great and wonderful is the condescension, that the world cannot comprehend it. The news is too good to be true. Even as the world did not receive Christ, because it would not believe that the Most High could take the likeness of sinful flesh, so now it refused to recognise the sonship of God's children,-it knoweth us not, because it knew Him not. But there is a temptation to all of us, to disbelieve in our sonship. We may be tempted to say of ourselves, "I was God's child once, but I have sinned so much that I doubt my sonship now." Such a fear is fatal to all hope of holiness. There can be no holiness without faith in God. Therefore St. John repeats the assertion, Now are we the sons of God. But this does not exhaust God's Love. There are glory, joy, peace yet to come; so high and blessed, that it has never been seen by mortal man-it was never yet manifested what we shall be. Thus much, however, we do know, that we shall be like God. That follows from our being His children; being made in His image we shall behold His face, and shall reflect His glory. We shall see Him as He is. This joyful expectation is the ground of Christian morality. He that hath this hope in Him, i. e. on God (for all our hopes rest on His promises), purifieth himself. Believing that this expectation is his true glory, the Christian longs for its fulfilment, and strives for it. He desires to make himself pure, even as God is pure. St. John has thus far declared that our sonship does not depend on our own righteousness, but on God's free mercy. He has also shown that the belief in this sonship is the incentive to holiness. He next shows how we are delivered from transgression of God's law. This transgression, that is, outward breach of the commandments, arises from sin, inward evil, and selfishWe are delivered from transgression by being delivered from the evil root within us, even sin. Christ was manifested that He might take away our sins. He will do it, He can do it, because He is pure and holy. In Him is no sin. He and sin are at enmity with each other. ness. The Apostle proceeds to show that Christ and sin are antagonistic. He who believes in Christ, looks to Him and confesses Him, does not sin. As far as the Christian thus believes, he is safe. It is when he forgets Christ, loses sight of Him, that sin gains the mastery. Sometimes persons, calling themselves believers, regard their belief as an excuse for committing sin. St. John denounces this. All sin is unchristian, he says; whosoever sinneth seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him. Let no man deceive you.] There are false teachers among you, who boast much about their superior knowledge (see Introduction, p. 44). Let me tell you this, he who doeth righteousness, not he who talks about it, is righteous. There is the sign for you. Do the thing which is right, and you will grow more and more like Christ, nearer to His perfections: you will be righteous, even as He is righteous. St. John next tells them how they became sinful. It was by holding intercourse with the spirit of unrighteousness. Not that the sinner is begotten of the devil, but his sin is. Adam was born of God, but when he sinned he was born of the devil. The devil sinneth from the beginning. The devil was the first sinner. The law of God was perfect and good; the devil was the first to swerve from that law. And from the creation of man he tempted man to do likewise. But Christ was at length manifested to destroy the works of the devil, i. e. first his works against God and against man. The devil, as his name means, was the Accuser of God; had told men that God was a hard, stern master. Christ destroyed this work by manifesting God's love. The devil had accused men to each other, by setting them at variance; Christ destroyed this by setting up a kingdom of universal brotherhood and unity. ST. PAUL has been showing, in the preceding part of the chapter, how earnest he is in his desire to win souls for Christ. For that, he says, he is willing to give up everything else. He will work gratuitously, though he might have received hire from them; he will defer to the prejudices of Jew and of Gentile, that he may prove to all men their share in the Divine fellowship. This is the prize which he sets before him; he has it steadily before his eyes; he will make every exertion to win it. Such is the introduction to the passage before us. It must be borne in mind at the outset, as it shows us what St. Paul means when he speaks of "the prize" as regards himself. In carrying on this subject, he draws illustrations from the Grecian games or contests of strength, which were held on the Isthmus of Corinth as well as in other parts of Greece, and with which therefore the Corinthians were conversant. Know ye not-have you not often seen-that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize. All of them hope for it; each one runs in hope of being the winner; each one throws all his energy into the race,-though they know that there is only one who can win.. So run with the same eagerness, the same determination, which you see them display-that ye may obtain the Christian prize. And every one that striveth for the mastery, whether in running or in any other contest, is temperate-keeps himself under control, practises self-restraint-in all things. He is under severe training for a long time. Now they do this to obtain a corruptible crown, made of ivy or parsley, but we an incorruptible,—a heavenly, eternal crown. I therefore, seeing what a prize I have set before me, even an abundant gathering of the souls of men for Christ,-I therefore so run, straining every nerve to that end; not as uncertainly, not with faltering steps, as though I had no hope of winning,-no man could win who should do that (cf. Matt. xvii. 20, So fight I.] Here he changes his illustration, and draws it from another YE SEXAGESIMA SUNDAY, 2 Cor. xi. 19-31. E suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise. For ye suffer if a man bring you into bondage, if a man ensnare devour you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face. I speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been weak: how beit, whereinsoever any is bold, (I speak foolishly,) I am bold also. Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they Israelites? so am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? so am I. Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool,) I am more: in labours more abundant; in stripes above measure; in prisons more frequent; in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one; thrice was I beaten with rods; once I was stoned; thrice I suffered ship wreck; a night and a day I have been in ST. PAUL is here in the middle of the defence of his own character and authority He addresses the Corinthians as a people who are very wise in their own "Ye suffer fools, such as I am in your esteem; ye suffer them gladly, seeing that ye yourselves are wise. You can afford to do it, being so far elevated above me." This is what is called ironical language, used with the design of exposing the hypocrisy of the gainsayers and of making the Corinthians ashamed of themselves for their unworthy conduct. "For," he goes on, "it is plain that you are ready to suffer; you have shown it in the matter of these new-fangled teachers; ye suffer if they make slaves of from those things these, you, devour you, entrap you, exalt themselves over you, smite you on the face." How differently the Apostle had treated them, he shows in other parts of the Epistle (see Ch. xi. 8-9; xii. 13–18). 66 Seeing, then, that you can suffer as much as this from them, I am sure that you can bear with a little boasting from such an insignificant person as myself. I speak as concerning dishonour, I use disparaging words of myself, as though I had been weak. I certainly cannot show the signs of power which these newfangled acquaintances of yours have shown among you." The sentence is still ironical. Here, however, the irony ceases for a while. "Howbeit," he continues, "if they have really anything to boast of, I am certain that I have as much; I could bear comparison with the best of them, whereinsoever any is bold, I am bold also. Let us see. Do they boast that they are Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. Are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a madman when I answer that, if they are, I am Madness indeed it would be, if I really were to boast that I am doing any favour to God. I am but an unprofitable servant." He speaks in deep humility from a sense of his own unworthiness. But he knows also, and they have forced it upon him to say so, that he is better, more self-denying, more zealous than those who are made his rivals. "I have suffered more than they all. My apostleship is proved in (better by ') my labours, imprisonments, deaths, (that is, deadly perils)." more. Then he proceeds to his proofs: Of the Jews, &c.] As the Jews were commanded never to inflict more than forty stripes (Deut. xxx. 3), they were in the habit of giving one less than forty, lest by chance the law should be broken. Thrice he was beaten with rods (i. e. by the Romans), a punishment so severe as frequently to cause death. There is no record of the Jewish beatings in the Acts, and only one of the Roman, viz. in Ch. xvi. 23. The stoning was at Lystra (Acts xiv. 19). No record of either of the three shipwrecks is given, for, as is noted elsewhere, this Epistle was written before the event of Acts xxvii. A night and a day, &c., i. e. probably, in one of the shipwrecks, tossed about on a plank. Perils of rivers, i. e. of swollen mountain-torrents; such are very common in Asia Minor, and very dangerous to travellers. Robbers also infested the same country, chiefly round Ephesus and in Cilicia. Perils by mine own countrymen (see Acts ix. 23, 29, xiii. 50, xiv. 5, 19, xvii. 5, 13, xviii. 12); by the heathen (see Acts xvi. 20, xix. 23). "In the city, the desert, and the sea," is equivalent to "everywhere," by land, whether inhabited or uninhabited, and by sea. False brethren are Judaizing teachers. Watchings.] See Acts xvi. 25, xx. 7, 11, 31; 2 Thess. iii. 8. Fastings, either involuntary, i. e. want of food, or more probably, voluntary fastings, intended to subdue the flesh to the spirit (cf. 1 Cor. ix. 27). Apart from those other things, &c., i. e. besides the many things which I am obliged to omit,* for want of time,-besides all these, there is that which cometh upon me daily; literally, "the daily crowd upon me;"† apparently of persons who came to hear his preaching (cf. Acts xviii. 11, xix. 9). And lastly, there is Not "which are without." The A. V. makes "the pressure upon him daily" to be "the care of all the churches." So the care of all the churches. The Greek word means, as indeed the word "care" meant formerly more exclusively than it does now, anxiety. St. Paul does not mean merely that he had charge of the congregations of Christians, but that this charge was a source of deep and unceasing anxiety to him. But he gives another sign of his apostolic character, namely, his intense sympathy with the weak and the tempted: Who is weak, and I am not weak? That is, "When I see a man's faith weak or his energy growing less, then I feel so strongly for him that I become a fellow sufferer with him, and share in his sorrows and anxieties." Who is offended, and I burn not? "When I see a man falling into sin, through temptation (the reader will hardly need reminding that this is the meaning of the word 'offended' in Scripture), when he is so overcome with temptation that he seems near to being lost, then I burn with indignation against the sin which is separating him from his Father." If I must needs glory (or boast, he goes on, I will glory in those things which concern mine infirmities. He will not boast of his talents, or his righteousness, or his miracles, but of his weakness; because in that the power of Christ is made manifest in him. Were he strong and needing no help or support, the goodness and love of Christ toward him would not be made manifest, as now they are,--Christ is with him, mighty to save. Under infirmities and burdens Christ has supported him; in his "daily deaths" Christ's life has been manifested. "Seeing the false teachers have driven me to boast,” he says, “I will boast of these things." And then, he appeals solemnly yet simply to God in confirmation of his words,-He knoweth that I lie not. QUINQUAGESIMA SUNDAY. 1 Cor. xiii. 1–13. THO men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have no charity, I am nothing. 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. Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not [easily] provoked, th not thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, up but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all 1 things, believeth all things, hopeth all Alford. The view in the notes, that they are two distinct things, is that of Stanley and I have be come 3 greater |