《Nisbet’s Church Pulpit Commentary – 1 Corinthians》(James Nisbet)
Commentator
With nearly 5,000 pages and 20 megabytes of text, this 12 volume set contains concise comments and sermon outlines, perfect for preaching, teaching, or just another perspective on a passage for any lay person.
James Nisbet compiled and edited the Church Pulpit Commentary. Over 100 authors wrote short essays, sermon outlines, and sermon illustrations for selected verses of the Bible. The authors include Handley Carr Glyn (H.C.G) Moule, F.D. Maurice, and many other bishops and pastors.
As with many commentaries of this nature, the New Testament contains substantially more comments than the Old Testament. This is not the famouse Pulpit Commentary. This is a different commentary. Not every verse includes a comment.
00 Introduction
1 Corinthians 1:4-8 The Testimony of Christ Confirmed
1 Corinthians 1:6 The Witness Concerning Christ
1 Corinthians 1:8 Unto the End
1 Corinthians 1:11-13 The Universal Christ
1 Corinthians 1:18 (r.v.) The Word of the Cross
1 Corinthians 1:18 The Religion of Redemption
1 Corinthians 1:22-23 A Message for Jew and Greek
1 Corinthians 1:23 The Mission and Message of the Church
1 Corinthians 1:23 The Power of the Cross
1 Corinthians 1:23 The ‘Foolishness’ of Preaching
1 Corinthians 1:24 The Wisdom of the Cross
1 Corinthians 1:24 Power and Wisdom
1 Corinthians 1:30 Christian Sanctity
1 Corinthians 2:2 St. Paul’s Resolution
1 Corinthians 2:9-10 The Relation of the Seen to the Unseen
1 Corinthians 2:9-10 The Future Life
1 Corinthians 2:12 The Spirit of Promise
1 Corinthians 2:15 Spiritual Judgment
1 Corinthians 3:6 Christian Unity
1 Corinthians 3:9 Sanctified for Service
1 Corinthians 3:9 God and the Soul
1 Corinthians 3:11 The Church’s One Foundation
1 Corinthians 3:11 A Sure Foundation
1 Corinthians 3:13 Tested by Fire
1 Corinthians 3:16 The Temple of God
1 Corinthians 3:16 The Power of the Indwelling Spirit
1 Corinthians 3:16 The Subjection of the Body
1 Corinthians 3:17 ‘Which Temple Ye Are’
1 Corinthians 3:17 The Call to Separation
1 Corinthians 4:1 The Christian Ministry
1 Corinthians 4:1 Clergy and People
1 Corinthians 4:2 The Whole Duty of a Steward
1 Corinthians 4:5 ‘Judgment is Mine’
1 Corinthians 4:5 The Lord’s Coming
1 Corinthians 4:7 Equality and Inequality
1 Corinthians 5:6 The Effect of a Little Leaven
1 Corinthians 5:7 Christ and the Passover
1 Corinthians 5:8 The Feast of Joy
1 Corinthians 6:11 Living Miracles
1 Corinthians 6:11 Three Steps to Heaven
1 Corinthians 6:19 The Sacredness of the Body
1 Corinthians 6:19 Divine Ownership
1 Corinthians 6:20 On Glorifying God
1 Corinthians 6:20 Religious Use of the Body
1 Corinthians 7:20 Our Calling
1 Corinthians 7:29 ‘Brief Life is Here our Portion’
1 Corinthians 7:29 Time and Eternity
1 Corinthians 7:31 The Passing World
1 Corinthians 8:1 The More Excellent Gift
1 Corinthians 8:1 Love Buildeth Up
1 Corinthians 9:14 The Support of the Ministry
1 Corinthians 9:20-23 Comprehensive Christianity
1 Corinthians 9:24 The Heavenly Race
1 Corinthians 9:24 The Race of Life
1 Corinthians 9:24 Rules of the Race
1 Corinthians 9:24 ‘So Run’
1 Corinthians 9:25 Self-Restraint
1 Corinthians 9:25 The Incorruptible Crown
1 Corinthians 9:25 Character and Service
1 Corinthians 9:25 ‘The Christian’s Reward’
1 Corinthians 9:25 The Crown
1 Corinthians 9:26 Vague Running: Ineffective Fighting
1 Corinthians 9:26 The Race and the Battle
1 Corinthians 9:26 A Plea for Definiteness
1 Corinthians 10:1-5 Privilege and Responsibility
1 Corinthians 10:4 The Spiritual Rock
1 Corinthians 10:4 The Rock of Ages
1 Corinthians 10:10 Against Murmuring
1 Corinthians 10:12 The Christian’s Warning
1 Corinthians 10:13 Temptation
1 Corinthians 10:13 A Way to Escape
1 Corinthians 10:15 Words to the Wise
1 Corinthians 10:16 Communion with Christ
1 Corinthians 10:31 Christian Life
1 Corinthians 10:31 The Paramount Claim of Religion
1 Corinthians 10:31 Religion and Recreation
1 Corinthians 11:10 The Female Head-dress
1 Corinthians 11:11 The Dignity of Womanhood
1 Corinthians 11:26 ‘Till He Come’
1 Corinthians 11:26 The Holy Eucharist
1 Corinthians 11:26 The Lord’s Death
1 Corinthians 11:28 Self-Examination
1 Corinthians 11:31 Self-Judgment
1 Corinthians 12:1 Spiritual Gifts
1 Corinthians 12:2 A Retrospect
1 Corinthians 12:3 The Unfolding of the Divine Revelation
1 Corinthians 12:3 The Holy Ghost the Inspirer of Faith
1 Corinthians 12:4 New Needs—New Methods
1 Corinthians 12:4-6 Three and One
1 Corinthians 12:7 The Right Use of God’s Gifts
1 Corinthians 12:18 (r.v.) Church Reform
1 Corinthians 13:2 The More Excellent Way
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 Christian Love
1 Corinthians 13:5 Good Manners
1 Corinthians 13:12 Present and Future Vision
1 Corinthians 13:13 The Supremacy of Love
1 Corinthians 13:13 Spiritual Assets
1 Corinthians 14:15 Faith and Science
1 Corinthians 14:20 Babes, Yet Men
1 Corinthians 14:20 Childlike Qualities
1 Corinthians 14:26 Words to the Laity
1 Corinthians 15:1 The Gospel
1 Corinthians 15:10 A Fact and a Warning
1 Corinthians 15:10; 1 Corinthians 15:58 ‘Not In Vain’
1 Corinthians 15:10 The Call for Service
1 Corinthians 15:11 The Heart of the Gospel
1 Corinthians 15:14 The Dilemma
1 Corinthians 15:14 The Certainty of the Resurrection
1 Corinthians 15:14 The Need of an Objective Propitiation
1 Corinthians 15:19 The Argument of Common Sense
1 Corinthians 15:19 The Destruction of Hope
1 Corinthians 15:20 He is Risen
1 Corinthians 15:24 The End
1 Corinthians 15:35 The Resurrection Body
1 Corinthians 15:41-42 Degrees of Condition
1 Corinthians 15:44 The Future Life
1 Corinthians 15:52 The Change
1 Corinthians 15:54 Victory!
1 Corinthians 15:57 A Song of Triumph
1 Corinthians 16:9 Open Doors and Adversaries
1 Corinthians 16:13 Watching for Duties
1 Corinthians 16:13 Sources of Spiritual Strength
1 Corinthians 16:13 Manliness and Strength
1 Corinthians 16:13 Strength of Spirit
1 Corinthians 16:13-14 The Church’s Position
1 Corinthians 16:13-14 Strength and Tenderness
1 Corinthians 16:22 Christian Unity
01 Chapter 1
Verses 4-8
THE TESTIMONY OF CHRIST CONFIRMED
‘I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ; that in every thing ye are enriched by Him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge; even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you: so that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall also confirm you unto the end.’
1 Corinthians 1:4-8
The testimony of Christ, the evidence, that is, that the Corinthian Christians were in deed and in truth disciples of Christ, is confirmed by the proof given in their lives and conversation, that they had received the gifts of grace, were enriched in all utterance and in all knowledge, and in everything else in which the working of grace is to be traced.
The Apostle is able to thank God on account of them, and to argue to the certainty of their greater advance in grace until the coming of the Lord Jesus, Who shall also confirm them unto the end. They come behind in no gifts; whatever signs there are of the living action of Christ in His people, are to be found among them. They have the grace that is promised to them that believe; they have the power to declare the goodness of God towards them; they have knowledge of the work and experience of the reality of the redeeming, life-giving love, and the Apostle doubts not that He Who has so far blessed them will confirm them unto the end.
Yet these words are the preface to an Epistle which, however full of instruction and sympathy, is by no means without rebukes, and those very severe ones. The very next verses show that, notwithstanding the confirmation of the testimony of Christ, there were grievous faults among them. A spirit of division had come in. There were lessons of purity of life and of peacefulness amongst themselves, and of charity also, which needed to be impressed. It does not follow from this that we are to undervalue the importance of the gifts or graces that are the matter of the Apostle’s thankfulness. We are allowed, perhaps, to infer, from the enrichment in utterance and knowledge which he especially mentions, the prominence of those gifts which are the subject of the twelfth chapter of the Epistle, and which in the closing verse of that chapter he distinctly sets below the most excellent gift of charity, so that whilst he regards them as evidence of their true relation to Jesus, he yet has it in his mind to acquaint them that they are not all the evidence required. But the language, further, is far too extensive to apply to these gifts only. ‘In everything ye are enriched by Him.’ The testimony of Christ is not merely suggested, but affirmed: ‘Ye shall come behind in no gifts’; no, not in that most excellent gift in comparison of which the others are small, and without which they are but vanity. And it is as ‘blameless,’—not merely enlightened or eloquent or full of knowledge, or having the tongue of men and angels, but as blameless that they are to be confirmed unto the end, even in the day of Christ.
I. Is the testimony of Christ confirmed in you?—What does it need to come up to the ideal the Apostle draws for you, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ? Suppose him to rise up in the midst of us to-day and look around him for a testimony in our lives and conversation that we were the sort of Christians that he wrote to. What think you would he see and say? He would see much, very much, in which he would never think of asking for the testimony of Christ. But he would see many, very many, calling on the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. He would see a great many Christian churches, and schools, and hospitals, and a vast number of organisations set at work to do good in ways in which, until he, after Christ, had taught the lesson of charity, it never entered into the heart of man to seek the good of his neighbour. He would say, ‘The testimony of Christ has been here,’ for these things tell of the working of His Spirit as certainly as any gifts of utterance or of knowledge that were given to saints and churches in the first century. He would see the faults also, the divisions, and the contentiousness, and the unsatisfactory morality which he saw among the Corinthian converts, to whom, in spite of all, he could write thus hopefully. Yet we ourselves should look deeper, should try to see what the testimony of Christ should be in us. He might come into churches and see and join in our service, hear us read out his own words, and try to explain them as it seems to us that they were written for our learning. He would recognise in all the changes of garb and attitude and language, such of the testimony of Christ as is to be found amongst those who still believe in the one body and one spirit, one hope and calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all. ‘Christ is here,’ he would say; ‘Christ has been here long; Christ will perfect the work that He has begun until the day of the manifestation of the blameless.’ God forbid that we should doubt it for a moment! but we want a deeper search. What shall I do to be saved? Where, what is my testimony? Where, what is my hope? It matters but little what evidence of Christ can be seen around me. Until I know what there is in me, all that is around me but increases my responsibility, my mistrust, my dread and shame. What I want is not what St. Paul would see, but what my God, looking in my heart, ought to see—true testimony that I am Christ’s and He is mine.
II. How is it confirmed in you?—If we are justified in arguing from the analogy of St. Paul’s words, the test of the true evidence that should be sought for is this: it is growth, development, strengthening, confirmation, progress. ‘Covet earnestly the best gifts; cultivate most earnestly the more excellent way.’ ‘Ye are enriched in all knowledge and utterance, ye come behind in no gift.’ The key-note of the strain is the idea of growth from the simpler to the greater gifts, from the elementary knowledge to astonishing and exhaustive knowledge, from the utterance of stammering lips and a lisping tongue, to being able to set forth Him Who is the source of power to men and angels, and from the best growths, from the most precious experiences, to the more excellent way of love; that is to be the sign of confirmation unto the end, and of being found blameless; progress from knowledge to knowledge, from love to love, from glory to glory. Growth is the sign of life; growth in grace is the testimony of Jesus Christ.
III. How can we put the test to ourselves?—Let us take two or three points and put them to our conscience.
(a) Do I take more pleasure in increasing my knowledge of God? It is a hard question, perhaps, because unfortunately it is not easy to answer it in a way that will leave the conscience tolerably content. We are very prone to rest content with a very slight knowledge of Him. The little that we have learned in childhood or at school is all that we keep up, with occasionally reading the Bible and listening to sermons once a week. I do not suppose that there is one person among us who can look comfortably at that question so put to him; a very sure sign, that, of the way in which we begin to excuse ourselves. It is true that the learning of which I speak is not confined to books, not confined even to the Book of books. It is not confined to experience, or learned merely by sorrow or thankfulness, by temptation or victory. Those of whom we first read of it were probably men who probably had no books, and were little accustomed to dogmatic teaching, and perhaps had little self-knowledge or little self-introspection to begin their investigation; but if it were so it does not account for our careless attitude of mind or heart. We cannot say that the knowledge of God is so spread around us as the waters cover the sea, that we live in such an atmosphere of it that we are all like to have enough of it. Even if it were so, and you know it is not, darkness in the midst of our minds while light is all around us, still it is not the true account. Do we care to know more about God, to study the mind of Christ, to dwell in thought upon the story of His life and the infinite effects of His death, to work out the manifold manifestation of His works, to see Him everywhere? Do we care for it, or do we put it from us? I will not supply an answer. If your heart condemn you, go to Him Who is greater than your heart, and knoweth all things.