Commentary on 1 Corinthians

Contents

In a few places the lemma printed in a passage belongs to a neighbouring verse (the digital text misnumbers verses); the passage keeps its staged number.

Reading pages: 0.1–1.31 · 2.1–3.23 · 4.1–5.13 · 6.1–7.9 · 7.10–7.40 · 8.1–9.26 · 10.1–10.33 · 11.1–11.33 · 12.1–13.13 · 14.1–15.18 · 15.19–15.58 · 16.1–16.23

1. 0.1Ambrosiaster lists the reasons Paul wrote 1 Corinthians: factions, worldly eloquence, pride, the fornicator, an earlier letter, lawsuits, apostolic support, marriage, and virgins.
2. 1.1Paul calls himself an apostle by God's will to mark himself off from false teachers and to distinguish the Son from the Father.
3. 1.2Paul greets the Corinthians as sanctified though some had been misled by false apostles who, like Marcion and Mani, denied the real crucifixion and the resurrection of the flesh.
4. 1.3Naming both the Father and Christ in the greeting shows two persons who are one in divinity, with the Father's authority first.
5. 1.4Paul's praise and blame address two groups in one church; the grace given in Christ is that the believer is saved without works, by faith alone.
6. 1.5The Corinthians who remained faithful were enriched with spiritual knowledge.
7. 1.6The faithful set all their hope in Christ, not in men.
8. 1.7The revelation of Christ is the coming judgment, which will confound unbelievers and surprise believers with good.
9. 1.8Praising the steadfast, Paul invites the misled to repent.
10. 1.9God faithfully grants believers adoption as sons, a brotherhood with Christ in which they must persevere.
11. 1.10Paul urges the whole church to return to the one faith they had received.
12. 1.11Paul still calls the misled 'brothers'; Ambrosiaster reports three views of who 'those of Chloe' were.
13. 1.12The names of good teachers stand in for the unnamed false apostles; only those who say 'I am of Christ' are praised.
14. 1.13Factions named after men divide Christ, as the heretical sects of Ambrosiaster's day do by claiming parts of the one God-man.
15. 1.14Paul's thanks that he baptized few show that baptism's grace belongs to Christ, not the baptizer, against the Novatians and Donatists.
16. 1.17Preaching ranks above baptizing, and preaching Christ in worldly eloquence empties the cross, as the false apostles did by denying the incarnation and resurrection.
17. 1.18Those who scorn the cross remain under the death of the underworld.
18. 1.19The cross is God's power, and God confounds the wise by doing what they declared impossible.
19. 1.20Jews and gentiles alike scorn the idea that God has a Son, and astrologers and those who deny providence are made foolish by God's coming judgment.
20. 1.21Because people worshipped created things instead of God, God chose preaching that seems foolish to save believers.
21. 1.22Jews want a visible sign like those of their history, Greeks want only what worldly reason allows.
22. 1.23Christ's divine sonship offends Jews, while the virgin birth and resurrection seem senseless to gentiles.
23. 1.25Christ is God's power and wisdom; God's apparent foolishness and weakness, seen in the cross, overcome the few worldly-wise who boast of antiquity.
24. 1.27God chose what the world calls foolish and weak, the virgin birth and the cross, to shame the worldly-wise.
25. 1.28What the world calls contemptible is chosen to destroy the truly contemptible teaching of error.
26. 1.29God shames the wisdom of the flesh, which doubts his power.
27. 1.30Through Christ God teaches the truth of the Trinity and shows mercy in redemption.
28. 1.31Christ is God's gift of wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption, and boasting belongs only in the Lord.
29. 2.1Paul preached Christ crucified in plain speech, unlike the eloquent heretics who denied the virgin birth and real crucifixion.
30. 2.3Preaching Christ crucified brought Paul hatred and persecution.
31. 2.4God commended the gospel by acts of power, not by rhetoric.
32. 2.5The wisdom Paul speaks among the mature belongs to the coming age and destroys the errors sown by the rulers of this age.
33. 2.7God's hidden wisdom, unknown to the powers, was predestined before the ages for believers' glory.
34. 2.8The 'rulers of this age' who crucified Christ are chiefly spiritual powers acting in ignorance of his divine sonship; the impassible Lord is said to die because the Word became flesh.
35. 2.9Ambrosiaster traces the quotation to the Apocalypse of Elijah and applies it to the incarnation, hidden even from heavenly powers.
36. 2.10The Spirit, who is from God and knows his depths, revealed through Paul to men and heavenly powers what the rulers did not know.
37. 2.11As only a man's spirit knows his thoughts, only God's Spirit, who is also Christ's, knows and teaches the things of God.
38. 2.12The worldly spirit that speaks through soothsayers and the Sibyl cannot know what God's Spirit reveals.
39. 2.13Spiritual truths are known by faith, not by learning or astrology; the natural man mocks the divine generation, virgin birth and resurrection because he judges all by sense.
40. 2.15Believers, holding the truth, judge unbelief and cannot rightly be condemned.
41. 2.16No one can correct God's counsel; the Creator of all from nothing can surely beget a Son, and believers share his mind.
42. 3.1Baptized Corinthians who returned to the old life are called carnal; the Spirit departs from the unrepentant and returns on repentance, and Paul taught each according to capacity.
43. 3.2Unlike the false apostles, Paul, following Christ's example, adapted his teaching to the hearers' maturity.
44. 3.3Hope placed in men is carnal; hope in God is spiritual.
45. 3.4Those who glory in God are called gods by adoption; those who glory in men remain mere men, which is close to paganism.
46. 3.5Paul and Apollos are only servants, often sent unwillingly; the gift and the thanks belong to God.
47. 3.6Preachers and baptizers only plant and water; forgiveness and the Spirit are God's gift, which he can give even without the outward rite.
48. 3.7Ministers are necessary servants but nothing compared with God, who gives life.
49. 3.8Planter and waterer are fellow workers, but the preacher, especially one who keeps teaching pure, earns the greater reward.
50. 3.9The apostles are God's helpers as Christ's vicars.
51. 3.10Paul laid the foundation according to Christ's teaching; later teachers' additions must fit it, or they will perish while the foundation stands.
52. 3.11Even heretics build on Christ's name, using it to make their errors acceptable.
53. 3.12Gold, silver and gems stand for good teaching; wood, hay and straw for corrupt teaching.
54. 3.13The fire of judgment will expose bad teaching and show who taught well.
55. 3.14A faithful teacher will pass through the fire unharmed like the three youths and receive eternal life.
56. 3.15A believer who taught falsely will be saved, but only after suffering a purifying punishment by fire, unlike unbelievers in eternal fire.
57. 3.16Since believers are God's temple and the Spirit dwells in them, the Spirit is God.
58. 3.17The warning against violating God's temple prepares for the case of incest and, compared with 6:19, shows that the Holy Spirit is God.
59. 3.18To be wise one must accept being called foolish by the world, believing the incarnation which the false apostles denied.
60. 3.19God shows worldly wisdom foolish by doing what it denies possible.
61. 3.20Scripture shows God exposing the vanity of the wise.
62. 3.21Glory belongs to God, not to fallible men.
63. 3.22All things, including the apostles, the world, life and death, serve believers, who must use them according to God's will.
64. 3.23Believers belong to Christ, the Father's proper Son who does his will, and must not hope in men.
65. 4.1Paul presents himself as Christ's servant and steward, preaching as plainly as the fishermen, and so disowns the false apostles' teaching.
66. 4.2Stewards must be faithful and rebuke error boldly, as Paul did at the risk of his life.
67. 4.3Paul is not subject to human courts; a 'human day' of judgment points by contrast to the fixed day of the Lord's judgment.
68. 4.4Though Paul's conscience is clear, only Christ's judgment can reveal faults hidden even from a holy man.
69. 4.5Judgment must wait for the Lord's coming, when all hidden deeds and thoughts will be exposed and true praise given.
70. 4.6Paul applied his criticisms to himself and Apollos so as to rebuke the false apostles without naming them.
71. 4.7The factions had received everything from Paul, yet boasted in eloquent teachers who repeated his teaching.
72. 4.8Paul's words are ironic; true reigning is security in Christ's promises and joy in suffering for him.
73. 4.9Paul compares the apostles' sufferings with those of Enoch and Elijah, the two end-time witnesses of Revelation who will be killed and made a spectacle.
74. 4.10The Corinthians' 'wisdom' resembles that of Marcion and Photinus; Paul's ironic praise inverts what he means.
75. 4.11The apostles suffered hunger, beatings and contempt, and worked with their hands rather than take gifts from those in error.
76. 4.14Paul admonishes the Corinthians as their father in the gospel, whose love exceeds any tutor's.
77. 4.16Paul asks them to imitate his steadfastness by resisting the false apostles' teaching.
78. 4.17Timothy is sent to recall them to the teaching Paul gives in every church.
79. 4.18Some resented Paul's absence out of pride, though more urgent work kept him away.
80. 4.19Paul will come if God permits, to test the arrogant by their deeds, not words.
81. 4.20As God's kingdom is shown by power, the Corinthians must prove themselves by works.
82. 4.21Paul threatens the rod so that they will purify themselves before his visit.
83. 5.1The incest at Corinth is worse than anything among pagans, and those who tolerated it share the guilt.
84. 5.2The church shared the guilt by tolerating a public sin; only one without power or proof is excused, as Christ did not expel the unaccused Judas.
85. 5.5The incestuous man is to be expelled, 'handed to Satan' in the lust of the flesh, so that he may repent and so that the Holy Spirit is not lost to the whole church.
86. 5.6Tolerated sin, like leaven, defiles the whole church; teachers who failed to rebuke it are like Eli.
87. 5.7The old leaven is both sin and false teaching; Christ the sacrificed Passover calls for a new life, and 'Passover' means sacrifice, not passing over.
88. 5.8The Christian feast is kept by putting away shameful living and malice, with sincerity and truth.
89. 5.9Paul clarifies his earlier letter: the ban on association applies to immoral fellow believers, not to outsiders.
90. 5.11Believers must not even eat with an immoral fellow believer, though they may eat with unbelievers.
91. 5.12The bishop judges only church members, who are to be shunned at table and sacrament until they amend.
92. 5.13Believers judge fellow members by discerning whom to avoid, while outsiders are left to God's judgment.
93. 6.1Christians should settle disputes before the church's ministers rather than unbelieving judges.
94. 6.2This world is an image of a higher one; the saints will judge it by the example of their faith, and so are fit to judge small worldly matters.
95. 6.3The saints will judge even the fallen spiritual powers by the example of their faith.
96. 6.4Paul shames the Corinthians into choosing wise members, not the least capable, as arbiters, since no bishop had yet been ordained there.
97. 6.6Brothers were taking their disputes to pagan arbitrators or public judges.
98. 6.7Lawsuits between Christians are a fault; serious matters should be brought to the church.
99. 6.8Those who wrong their brothers are guilty both of the wrong and of driving the victims to pagan courts.
100. 6.9Paul reminds the Corinthians that the unrighteous, including the sexually immoral, will not inherit God's kingdom.
101. 6.11In baptism the Corinthians were washed of all sins, justified and adopted, benefits they lost by following bad teachers.
102. 6.12Ambrosiaster rejects reading 'all things are lawful' as permitting fornication; Paul means his right to support, which he waived so as not to be beholden to those he rebuked.
103. 6.13Food and belly will pass away, but the body belongs to the Lord, who will raise it to immortality.
104. 6.14Christ, God's power, raised his own body and will raise ours.
105. 6.15Bodies joined to a harlot cease to be Christ's members.
106. 6.16Sexual union makes two one body, even in sin, as Gen 2:24 says.
107. 6.17Union with the Lord makes one spirit through the shared Spirit of God.
108. 6.18Fornication binds the soul to the flesh and sins against one's own body, the wife being a portion of the man; Ambrosiaster rejects Novatian's view that it is an unforgivable sin against Christ's body and the Holy Spirit.
109. 6.19Calling the body both God's temple and the Spirit's temple shows the Spirit is of the same substance as God.
110. 6.20Bought with Christ's blood, believers belong to him and must glorify God by living according to his law.
111. 7.1The Corinthians asked about marriage because false apostles condemned it; Paul grants that abstaining is good but not as an absolute rule.
112. 7.2To avoid fornication each should have a spouse; renouncing lawful marriage leads to unlawful acts, as among the Manichees.
113. 7.3Husband and wife owe each other the marriage debt and have mutual authority over each other's bodies.
114. 7.5Spouses may abstain by agreement for a time of prayer, as Nazirites abstained even from permitted things, but must then come together lest Satan tempt them.
115. 7.6Marriage is permitted, not commanded; Paul wishes all were celibate like himself, but each has his own gift and must not be forced.
116. 7.8Paul counsels the unmarried and widows to remain as he is, which Ambrosiaster takes to show that Paul was a lifelong virgin.
117. 7.9The unmarried and widows who cannot contain themselves should marry; 'to burn' means to be overcome by desire, not merely to feel it.
118. 7.10Ambrosiaster holds that a wife who leaves her husband, even for his sexual immorality or apostasy, may not marry again, while a husband who puts away a wife guilty of sexual immorality may take another wife.
119. 7.12Ambrosiaster explains Paul's “I, not the Lord” as authority granted by the Lord, who also speaks through Paul.
120. 7.13Ambrosiaster explains that Paul's rule concerns pagan couples of whom one has converted, and requires the believer to stay if the unbeliever is willing.
121. 7.14Ambrosiaster explains the sanctification of the unbelieving spouse and of the children, and says that believers who put away willing unbelievers and married others would be adulterers.
122. 7.15Ambrosiaster holds that when an unbelieving spouse leaves out of hatred of God the marriage is dissolved, and the deserted believer may marry another believer without sin, citing Ezra's dismissal of foreign wives.
123. 7.16Ambrosiaster explains that an unbelieving spouse who does not hate Christ's name may come to believe.
124. 7.17A believer married to an unbeliever should stay and wait for the spouse's conversion, though one who leaves may be let go.
125. 7.18Converted Jews need not regret circumcision and gentiles need not seek it; Abraham's sons are preferred only if they believe.
126. 7.19Circumcision is indifferent; faith shown in good works pleases God.
127. 7.20A slave called to faith should serve his master well and so become worthy of freedom, if it is offered.
128. 7.22Sin is true slavery; the believing slave is Christ's freedman and the free believer Christ's slave, which removes pride on both sides.
129. 7.23Those redeemed by Christ must not enslave themselves to human teachers, which implies that Christ is God.
130. 7.24Paul repeats that each should remain in his calling.
131. 7.25There is no command about virginity, since God, the author of marriage, would not condemn his own institution; Paul gives counsel only.
132. 7.26Virginity is best both before God and in this life, being free of the troubles of marriage, with only the struggle against desire.
133. 7.27No one should leave his wife except for fornication, not even for continence; a man released from a wife should stay single only if he can avoid unlawful relations.
134. 7.28Marriage is no sin but brings many burdens, from which Paul would spare them.
135. 7.29Paul speaks of the end as near to keep readers watchful; married believers should live as if not married, abstaining even from lawful things to prepare for the final trials.
136. 7.30Because the end is near, weeping, rejoicing and buying must all be held loosely, with care for the eternal soul.
137. 7.31The world's form, not its substance, will pass away, so its goods must be used lightly.
138. 7.32Freedom from marriage, the heaviest worldly care, frees the mind for God.
139. 7.33Marriage divides a man's mind; a virgin, unlike a married woman, is free of a wife's burdens.
140. 7.34The unmarried woman can devote body and mind to the Lord, while the married woman is bound to please her husband.
141. 7.35Virginity is the quicker way to God, but worldly-minded virgins will be punished while devout married people will be rewarded.
142. 7.36A virgin of age who desires marriage does not sin in marrying; better a public marriage than secret shame.
143. 7.37A guardian should not push toward marriage a virgin who does not wish it.
144. 7.38Giving a virgin in marriage is good; keeping her unmarried is better.
145. 7.39A wife is bound while her husband lives, so even one cast out by him may not remarry; a widow may marry whom she wishes, but only a fellow believer.
146. 7.40Second marriage is permitted for widows because of incontinence but lacks the blessing of a first marriage; remaining a widow is better.
147. 8.1Knowledge that idols are nothing puffs up unless tempered by love; eating idol-meat that makes weak brothers stumble shows ignorance of true knowledge.
148. 8.3Loving God means moderating knowledge for the weak brother; Christians know that idols are nothing and God is one.
149. 8.5Against pagan gods, Paul names one God the Father and one Lord Jesus; as God is also Lord, the Lord is also God, in one principle.
150. 8.7Some believers still ate sacrificial meat as if the idol had divine power, defiling their weak conscience.
151. 8.8Eating sacrificial food gains nothing before God and should be refused because it offends the brothers.
152. 8.9Freedom to eat sacrificial meat must not offend those who still think idols are real.
153. 8.10A knowledgeable Christian eating in an idol's temple can lead a weak brother, for whom Christ died, to eat in idolatrous belief and perish.
154. 8.12Wounding a brother's conscience is sinning 'in Christ', within what belongs to him, though not denying him.
155. 8.13Love may require giving up even lawful things; as a lawful wife must be cast off if she commits fornication, lawful meat must be refused if offered to idols.
156. 9.1Paul's apostleship rests on Christ's sending and appearing to him and on the Corinthian church he planted.
157. 9.2Law-keeping Jewish believers denied Paul's apostleship because he taught against circumcision and the sabbath; the Corinthians' conversion is its seal.
158. 9.3Paul begins the defence of his conduct that he announced in 6:12.
159. 9.4Paul had the right to support and to be accompanied by a woman helper, as the other apostles and Peter were, like the women who served Jesus.
160. 9.6Paul and Barnabas had the right to support but chose not to use it.
161. 9.7Soldiers, vine-dressers and shepherds live from their work, as the law also teaches.
162. 9.9God does care for animals, but for the sake of humans, for whom they were made.
163. 9.10The law about the ox was written figuratively for preachers, who should share the fruit of their labour.
164. 9.11Preachers who give spiritual goods may fairly receive material support.
165. 9.12Paul waived his right to support so as to rebuke freely, unlike the false apostles who flattered sinners for gain.
166. 9.13Both pagan and Jewish priests live from their offerings, as Moses decreed.
167. 9.14Christ ordained that preachers live from the gospel, in line with natural reason, though Paul declines it.
168. 9.15Paul would rather die than accept support that would weaken the gospel's severity against sin.
169. 9.16Preaching is a duty laid on Paul; only what is done willingly earns a reward.
170. 9.18Paul's reward is to preach without charge, a pattern of forgoing lawful rights when they would harm others.
171. 9.19Free of obligation to anyone, Paul humbled himself to the weak to win them patiently.
172. 9.20Paul became like a Jew, circumcising Timothy and purifying himself in the temple, not as a flatterer but as a physician, to show from the law that Jesus is the Christ.
173. 9.21Paul met the Samaritans, who keep only the Pentateuch, on the ground of the law, and the gentiles on the ground of natural reason and their own poets, to lead both to Christ.
174. 9.22Paul adapted himself to all without abandoning the purpose of religion.
175. 9.23Paul does everything to share the gospel's purpose of saving people.
176. 9.24Unlike a race with one winner, the Christian prize is promised to all who run.
177. 9.25If athletes discipline themselves for a fading wreath, Christians should do more for an eternal crown.
178. 9.26Paul disciplines his body by fasting so that his life matches his preaching and he is not disqualified.
179. 10.1Israel's passage through the sea under the cloud prefigured baptism, which rescues from death and purifies.
180. 10.3The manna and water from the rock were miraculous figures of the Eucharist, and Christ was the one who supplied them.
181. 10.5Israel, though richly blessed, perished in the desert through doubt, a warning to the Corinthians.
182. 10.6Israel's feast before the golden calf warns those who dine in idol temples.
183. 10.8Israel's fornication at Baal Peor and its testing of Christ in the desert warn against the same sins.
184. 10.10Grumbling against leaders brought destruction; those warned by these examples will be punished more if they sin.
185. 10.11Israel's history was recorded to warn Christians of the last age, whose greater knowledge brings greater accountability.
186. 10.12The proud who relied on their knowledge are warned that they may fall like Israel.
187. 10.13A 'human temptation' is suffering for Christ while trusting God rather than men; the faithful God never lets it exceed what believers can bear.
188. 10.14Frequenting idol temples implies hope in them and doubt of God, as with Saul and the medium.
189. 10.15Paul adds examples to persuade those whom words do not.
190. 10.16Sharing one bread and one cup in the Lord's body and blood makes believers one body who must think alike.
191. 10.18As the Eucharist unites believers to Christ's body, eating sacrifices unites people to the altar of error.
192. 10.19Idols are nothing, but the devil is worshipped through them, so eating their sacrifices makes one a partner with demons.
193. 10.21One cannot share both the Lord's table and the demons' table; to do so insults the altar and opposes Christ.
194. 10.22No one can rival the Lord, though Satan out of jealousy invented idolatry; all foods are lawful by nature, yet not always expedient.
195. 10.23Lawful things that do not build up others should be given up, as Paul gave up support.
196. 10.24Each should seek the neighbour's salvation rather than his own pleasure.
197. 10.25Meat bought in the market may be eaten without inquiry, since all is the Lord's and ignorance leaves the conscience clean.
198. 10.27At an unbeliever's table, eat without asking where the food came from.
199. 10.28If told food is sacrificial, the believer should refuse it so that the pagan host does not think he honours idols.
200. 10.30Eating sacrificial food lets pagans think the Christian honours their idol, confirming them in error; the law commanded idols be destroyed, not shared.
201. 10.31Everything, including meals and even procreation, should be done with thanks to the Creator; eating in idol temples cannot be.
202. 10.32Taking part in idol feasts offends Jews, confirms pagans, and scandalizes the church.
203. 10.33Pleasing all means acting without offence for others' good.
204. 11.1As Christ was sent by the Father, the apostles were sent by Christ as teachers for believers to imitate.
205. 11.2Ambrosiaster reads Paul's praise as ironic, since the Corinthians had forgotten his traditions.
206. 11.3'Head' means different things: God is Christ's head as begetter, Christ man's head as creator, man woman's head as her source.
207. 11.4Ambrosiaster explains 'prophesying' as declaring Christ's coming in the creed after prayer.
208. 11.5Man and woman share one substance, but man, as woman's source and the image of the one God, should be unveiled, and woman, as man's glory, veiled.
209. 11.8The 'power' on a woman's head is the veil, and the 'angels' are bishops; the woman is to be veiled and silent before the bishop as Christ's vicar because transgression began through her.
210. 11.11In the Lord, man and woman are one flesh, as the creation of woman from man shows.
211. 11.12Man and woman come from each other, but all from God, so neither should be grieved or proud.
212. 11.13The Corinthians had let women go unveiled against Paul's tradition, so he now argues from nature.
213. 11.14Nature gives women long hair as a sign that they should be veiled.
214. 11.16Paul appeals to the custom of Jews and churches against women unveiled, then turns to blame their assemblies.
215. 11.18'There must be heresies' foretells, not wishes, division, which reveals those faithful to the received tradition.
216. 11.20Factions claimed their own offerings at the Eucharist, shaming the poor; the offering belongs to the whole people as one bread.
217. 11.23Paul recalls Christ's institution of the Eucharist, which is not an ordinary meal but a spiritual medicine and memorial of redemption.
218. 11.26Eating and drinking Christ's flesh and blood proclaims his redeeming death and the new covenant foreshadowed by Moses, against heretics who set the testaments against each other.
219. 11.27Receiving the Eucharist without the received order and without devout self-examination makes one guilty of the Lord's body and blood.
220. 11.30Sickness and death among careless communicants foreshadow the judgment on unworthy reception.
221. 11.31Self-correction averts the Lord's judgment, whose present chastening saves from condemnation with unbelievers.
222. 11.33The church should wait so that all share one offering; other matters Paul will settle in person.
223. 12.1As pagans were shaped by the idols they followed, Christians must embody the Lord's law in their conduct.
224. 12.3Confessing Jesus as Lord is the Spirit's gift, not a human favour; charisms belong to church offices by God's grace, not human merit.
225. 12.4The grace of a church office belongs to the order through the Spirit, not to the officeholder's merit.
226. 12.5The same Spirit, Lord and God give the varied gifts, showing the one undivided work and nature of the Trinity.
227. 12.7Each gift is for one's own and others' good, through example.
228. 12.8Wisdom, knowledge and healing are gifts of the one Spirit.
229. 12.9Faith, miracles, prophecy, discernment, tongues and interpretation all come from one Spirit, whose work is the work of the one triune God.
230. 12.10One baptism and one Spirit make all believers one body, so none is to be exalted or despised.
231. 12.14The body's unity includes many different members.
232. 12.15The weak are still members of the body.
233. 12.16Lesser members are still necessary.
234. 12.17The body needs many different functions.
235. 12.18God arranged the members wisely so the body lacks nothing.
236. 12.19Differences of rank make a body of many members possible.
237. 12.20Diverse members, like the diverse elements of the world, work together for one whole.
238. 12.21The higher cannot do without the lowly, as gold cannot do iron's work.
239. 12.22As an emperor needs common soldiers more than officers, the lowlier members are the more necessary.
240. 12.23Humble members, and poor ascetic brothers who seem contemptible, deserve greater honour and are often purer in life.
241. 12.24Honoured brothers need nothing added; the lowly need encouragement.
242. 12.25God so arranged the body that all members need and care for one another.
243. 12.26Believers should share each other's sufferings and joys like members of a body.
244. 12.27The church is Christ's body, each member gifted according to faith.
245. 12.28Apostles, who are the bishops, head the church; prophets interpret Scripture or foretell; teachers instruct as in the synagogue; other gifts are distributed so that none has all.
246. 12.29There is one bishop per church, and not all prophesy or teach.
247. 12.30No one has every gift; God, the giver, is to be praised, just as baser metals are more useful than precious ones.
248. 12.31Spiritual gifts serve God's honour, not personal merit, as Christ's warning to wonder-workers shows; love is the better way, and miracles have ceased because good works now draw people to faith.
249. 13.1Speaking in tongues, even angelic ones, is God's work through a person, like a sounding instrument, and gives no merit without love.
250. 13.2Prophecy, knowledge and miracle-working faith profit nothing without love, as Balaam, Caiaphas, Saul, Judas, the devil, the Pharisees, Tertullian and Novatian show.
251. 13.3Even giving all and martyrdom profit nothing without love, the head and foundation of religion.
252. 13.4Love, which is God, surpasses every gift and lasts forever; partial gifts will end when perfection fills up what is lacking.
253. 13.7Present knowledge is childlike and partial; in the life to come believers will see the realities face to face.
254. 13.13Love is greatest because it produced faith and hope and renewed humanity through Christ's self-giving.
255. 14.1After love, prophecy, which builds up the church, is preferred to tongues, which no one understands.
256. 14.3Prophecy builds up, exhorts and consoles by explaining the law.
257. 14.4Prophesying, which means interpreting Scripture, builds up the church; tongues help others only when interpreted.
258. 14.6Only intelligible speech can teach and benefit others.
259. 14.7Like instruments with indistinct notes, uninterpreted tongues are useless in church.
260. 14.9Speech that conveys no meaning is speaking into the air; every language has its own meaning.
261. 14.10Unintelligible speech makes people foreigners to one another; the church should seek mutual understanding.
262. 14.12Zeal should go to explaining Scripture, which builds up the church and draws minds from vice.
263. 14.13One who speaks in tongues should pray for the gift of interpretation.
264. 14.14Praying in an unknown tongue, like Latins singing Greek, leaves the mind without fruit, though the Spirit given in baptism knows the prayer.
265. 14.15Prayer and psalm-singing should engage both the Spirit and the understanding.
266. 14.16The congregation cannot answer 'Amen', confirming the prayer, if it does not understand it.
267. 14.17In church only what builds up the hearers should be spoken.
268. 14.18Paul thanks God that he speaks their tongues, yet shows it is of little use.
269. 14.19Five intelligible words are better than many in a tongue; some Corinthians imitated Hebrews who used Hebrew or Syriac in worship to seem distinguished.
270. 14.20Mature understanding seeks what benefits the brothers.
271. 14.21Isaiah's 'other tongues' refers to the new covenant's teaching, or to Christ's parables, which unbelieving Jews still refused.
272. 14.22Tongues veil God's word from unbelievers, while prophecy serves believers.
273. 14.23Everyone speaking in tongues at once looks like madness to outsiders.
274. 14.24Intelligible prophecy convicts outsiders and shows that Christian worship, unlike pagan mysteries, hides nothing.
275. 14.26Each contributes songs, teaching, revelation, or interpreted tongues, all for building up the church.
276. 14.27Two or three at most may speak in tongues, one at a time with interpretation, leaving time for exposition of Scripture.
277. 14.28Without an interpreter, tongues should be used only in silent prayer.
278. 14.29Two or three prophets should speak in turn, and others may question to clarify.
279. 14.30A superior should yield to an inferior who receives a revelation, since none is empty of grace.
280. 14.31The church follows the synagogue's custom of seated discussion by rank, but even the lowest may speak if given a revelation.
281. 14.32The Spirit is 'subject' to prophets in the sense that he aids and completes their good efforts, as Christ 'followed' Israel.
282. 14.33God is the author of peace, so no one should silence or contradict another out of rivalry.
283. 14.34Women are to be silent in church, subject by Gen 3:16 because woman came from man and sin entered through her.
284. 14.35Women should ask their husbands at home rather than speak about the law in church, which would shame them and their husbands.
285. 14.36The Corinthians acted as if the gospel depended on them; Paul reminds them it came to them as a gift.
286. 14.37Paul's instructions are the Lord's commands, unlike the false apostles' man-pleasing teaching.
287. 14.38Whoever ignores the Lord's commands through Paul will be unknown by the Lord at the judgment.
288. 14.39Paul still calls them brothers and urges zeal for prophecy, without forbidding interpreted tongues.
289. 14.40Worship should be orderly and peaceful.
290. 15.1All Christian hope rests on the resurrection; abandoning Paul's teaching on it would make faith vain.
291. 15.3Christ's death fulfilled prophecies such as Isa 53, spoken in the past tense because the future is present to God.
292. 15.4Christ's burial and third-day resurrection fulfil Isa 53 and Hos 6, the latter spoken in the people's name because all rise in him.
293. 15.5The appearance to Peter is attested in Luke's Gospel.
294. 15.6Many of the five hundred witnesses were still alive when Paul wrote.
295. 15.7Christ's separate appearances to James and to all the apostles confirmed the resurrection.
296. 15.8Paul, called after the ascension, was an apostle 'born out of season'.
297. 15.9Paul, least by time and a former persecutor, owes everything to God's grace, which made him labour more than all.
298. 15.11All the apostles preach the same gospel, from which the Corinthians had fallen away.
299. 15.12Denying the resurrection, as the false apostles did, would make Christ unrisen and the Corinthians' faith empty and shameful.
300. 15.15If there is no resurrection, the apostles are false witnesses and believers remain in their sins.
301. 15.18Denying the resurrection would mean that departed loved ones and martyrs have perished.
302. 15.19Without the future life, Christian fasting, purity and martyrdom would be pitiable.
303. 15.20Christ, a true man, rose as the firstfruits; as death came by Adam's sin, resurrection came by Christ's righteousness.
304. 15.22As all die through Adam, all will rise through Christ, believers to life and unbelievers to endless punishment in their bodies.
305. 15.23Christ rose first; those who are his rise at his coming, which includes both the saints raised at his resurrection and those raised at his return.
306. 15.24The Son's handing over the kingdom does not end his reign; it means showing, once all worship him, that the Father is the source from whom all things are.
307. 15.27The Son's final subjection means showing himself God from God, so that the Father remains the one principle and all creation confesses one God; it is not a creature's subjection.
308. 15.29Paul cites those who were baptized on behalf of the unbaptized dead, not approving the practice but showing their firm belief in the resurrection.
309. 15.30Those baptized for the dead were not catholics, and their act, like Jephthah's vow, is cited only for its faith; the apostles face daily danger in hope of the resurrection.
310. 15.32Paul faced the beasts at Ephesus only because of hope in the resurrection; without it, the gluttons' motto in Isaiah would be right.
311. 15.33Bad company corrupts faith, especially in beginners.
312. 15.34True righteousness is not merely refraining from theft but giving generously; the Corinthians were shamefully misled by teachers ignorant of God.
313. 15.35Paul quotes the doubters' question about the resurrection body.
314. 15.36Paul answers sceptics from nature: seed dies and comes to life multiplied.
315. 15.37As a bare seed rises clothed and multiplied, the dead will rise in their own body, improved but not replaced.
316. 15.39As one matter yields different kinds of flesh, people of one flesh will differ in glory at the resurrection according to merit.
317. 15.40Risen bodies are heavenly like Christ's; present bodies are earthly like Adam's.
318. 15.41Like sun, moon and stars, the risen will differ in glory: the hundredfold, sixtyfold and thirtyfold, then sinners, and the faithless in darkness.
319. 15.42The body buried in decay will rise incorruptible.
320. 15.43The decaying, helpless corpse will rise glorious and strong.
321. 15.44The present body lives by food; the risen spiritual body will need nothing and suffer no weakness or decay.
322. 15.45Adam became a living soul needing food; through resurrection humanity becomes life-giving spirit that cannot die.
323. 15.46The natural comes from Adam first, the spiritual through Christ.
324. 15.47Adam's earthly descendants are mortal; believers in the sinless, heavenly Christ will share his deathless life, while unbelievers rise dark.
325. 15.49Having borne Adam's mortal image through sin, believers must bear Christ's image by righteous living.
326. 15.50'Flesh and blood' means unbelief and sensual living, which exclude from the kingdom; all rise immortal, but the corrupt to punishment.
327. 15.51All will rise, but not all will be transformed into glory.
328. 15.52The last trumpet sounds for the final battle against Satan after Christ's thousand-year reign on earth; then the dead rise and the saints are transformed into glory.
329. 15.53The ungodly rise only to perish, while sinners are judged and do not rise with the saints.
330. 15.55All rise immortal; sinning believers suffer punishment until their debt is paid, the impious eternally; at Christ's coming the living are caught up, and death, the devil, is mocked as defeated.
331. 15.56Death's authority comes from sin, and sin's power from the law that imputes it.
332. 15.57Christ, sinless God made man, defeated the devil by being unjustly killed, so the devil justly lost those he held through sin.
333. 15.58Paul closes his teaching by urging steadfast good works, which the Lord will reward.
334. 16.1A weekly Lord's day collection for the persecuted saints in Jerusalem was to be laid aside little by little.
335. 16.3The collection, carried by approved delegates with letters, served both the Jerusalem saints and the poor.
336. 16.4If the gift is large, Paul will go himself, since gentiles owe material help to the Jewish believers.
337. 16.5Paul promises to come and stay, which reinforces his admonitions.
338. 16.7Paul hopes to stay longer, if the Lord permits, which depends on their amendment.
339. 16.8Paul stays in Ephesus for the fruitful work and the opposition it provokes.
340. 16.10Timothy, a bishop, is to be received with Paul's own authority; Apollos delayed coming, perhaps because of their quarrels.
341. 16.13Paul's closing exhortations to watchfulness and firmness must all be carried out in love, which avoids offending brothers.
342. 16.15Stephanas's household, the first converts of Achaia, model generous service, which Ambrosiaster urges the Corinthians to emulate.
343. 16.17Stephanas and his companions supported the gospel's workers, which refreshed Paul even though he took nothing from Achaia.
344. 16.19Ambrosiaster distinguishes the public church from house churches; wherever presbyters celebrate the rites is a church.
345. 16.20The holy kiss signifies peace and the end of discord.
346. 16.21Paul signs the letter himself.
347. 16.22Ambrosiaster takes 'maranatha' as 'the Lord has come', cursing Jews who denied it.
348. 16.23Paul's closing grace and love answer the factions and teach mutual love in Christ.