from immoral professors. Not to be mixed up etc.: repeated from v. 9, reminds us that the principle involved in v. 2 is but a repetition of the earlier injunction. The word idolaters betrays, as do vi. 9, x. 7, 14, 1 Jno. v. 21, a proneness in some early Christians to take part, publicly or privately, through fear or through an inadequate sense of the evil of all idolatry, in the rites of heathenism. A railer: using violent language against others. With such a one etc. teaches plainly that they were to treat a wicked churchmember quite differently from a heathen guilty of the same sins. For the church-member was sailing under false colours. Any intercourse with him would be a practical acknowledgment that he was what he professed to be, which it was most important to disown. 12, 13a. Reason for this different treatment of equally immoral church-members and heathens, viz. that Paul has no business to pronounce sentence on those outside (Col. iv. 5, 1 Th. iv. 12, 1 Tim. iii. 7) the church. Whom you judge: an appeal, in support of this reason, to their own church-discipline. It is your business to see, not whether heathens, but whether church-members, are guilty of sin.' God judges: both now, and finally at the great day. The punishments which in this world follow sin, prove that sinners are already condemned.

136. After enforcing and guarding the express injunction of a former letter, and a principle involved in § 7 of this letter, Paul concludes § 8 by urging his readers to carry out this principle with the notorious offender of v. 1. Take away etc.; almost word for word from Dt. xvii. 7, xxi. 21, which refer to the punishment of death for idolatry and for disobedience to parents. Thus the wicked Israelite was removed from the people. The terrible meaning of these words in the Old Testament gives great weight to them when used for the lighter sentence here enjoined; and clothes this sentence with Old Testament authority. From among yourselves: emphatic contrast to 'those outside,' reminding the readers that the evil to be removed was in their own midst.

The great precept of § 8, viz. that we must have nothing to do with those who profess to serve Christ and yet live in sin, was probably more easy to obey in Paul's day than in ours. For the veneer of a higher general social morality covers up, now more than then, very much actual sin, and makes it often impossible to determine the guilt or innocence of suspected persons. In nothing is Christian wisdom more needed than in our treatment of such. But, wherever it can be applied with certainty, the general principle is valid and important.

SECTION IX.

SOME OF THEM GO TO LAW, AND THAT BEFORE UNBELIEVERS.

CH. VI. I-II.

2

Or,

Dares any of you, having a matter with another, go to law before the unrighteous ones, and not before the saints? do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if before you the world is judged, are you unworthy of smallest judgments? Do you not know that angels we shall judge? To say nothing of matters of this life. If then touching matters of this life you have judgments, is it those who are despised in the church, is it these whom you appoint? To put you to shame I say it. To this degree is there among you no wise man who will be able to judge between his brother? "But brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers.

5

To go no further indeed, speaking generally, it is a damage to you that you have judgments among yourselves. Why do you not rather suffer injustice? why do you not suffer fraud? But it is you that practise injustice and practise fraud, and that to brothers. Or, do you not know that unrighteous* men will not inherit God's kingdom? Be not deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor luxurious men, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous men, no drunken men, no railers, no grasping men, will inherit the kingdom of God. And these things some of you were. But you washed yourselves, but you were sanctified, but you were justified, in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the spirit of our God.

1. A new subject, viz. another disorder among church-members which Paul must deal with before he comes to the matters mentioned in the letter from Corinth. The suddenness and surprise of the question, Dares any one of you etc., suggests the peril of thus insulting the majesty of the Church of Christ. That no one person is mentioned as in v. 1-5, the earnest appeal to the whole church, the words of v. 4, 'you appoint,' and perhaps the present tense in 2. 6 noting a general practice 'goes to law,' suggest that there were more cases than one. Any of you] Even one case

*Or, unjust.

would be outrageous. Go-to-law: same word in Rom. iii. 4. Unrighteous: same word as unjust, used often both in this narrower sense, and in the wider sense of 'not as it ought to be.' See note, Rom. i. 17. The unrighteous ones: heathen judges, who doubtless in many cases well merited this description. Cp. Gal. ii. 15. The saints: the church-members, whom God had claimed to be His own, and who professed to live for Him. In this contrast an argument lies. 'Do you seek a settlement of your disputes from those whom you look upon as sinners under the anger of God rather than from those whom God has made specially His Own?'

2. Or, do you not know: common phrase of Paul, Rom. vi. 3, vii. 1, xi. 2: see 1 Cor. iii. 16. By a second question he supports the argument implied in the first. The saints will judge the world: a truth which the readers ought to know, but which their preference for heathen judges proves that they had strangely forgotten. Same teaching in Dan. vii. 22, 27, 'judgment (the right to pronounce sentence) was given to the saints of the Most High.' Cp. Wisdom iii. 8. Christ's people will share His royalty, Rom. viii. 17, 2 Tim. ii. 12; and therefore they will share the government which (Jno. v. 22) the Father has committed to the Son. Cp. Mt. xix. 28, Lk. xxii. 30. In the great Day the saints will intelligently and cordially approve and endorse the sentence pronounced by Christ on the millions of earth. Possibly, this approval may be a divinely appointed and essential condition, without which sentence would not be pronounced. For, it may enter into God's plan that sentence be pronounced, not only by Man upon men, but by men, themselves redeemed from their own sins, upon those who have chosen death rather than life. (In Mt. xii. 41, Rom. ii. 27, the words 'condemn' and 'judge' are differently used.) It may be that final sentence cannot, according to the principles of the Divine Government of the Universe, be pronounced upon the lost without the concurrence of the saved, i.e. without a revelation of the justice of the sentence so clear as to secure the full approbation of the saved. If so, the concurrence of the saved is an essential element in the final judgment; and they may truly be said to judge both men and angels. That the sentence which the saints will pronounce is put into their lips by Christ, does not make their part in the judgment less real: for even the Son says (Jno. v. 30) 'I cannot of myself do anything; as I hear, I judge.'

The world: either all men, or (cp. v. 10) all unsaved men.

But this latter limitation is not absolutely needful here. For, as summoned by Christ to sit with Him, the saints will approve and endorse the measure of reward to be given to themselves. To appeal to human courts of law, was to appeal to men upon whom, as upon all men, they themselves, amid the splendour of the great assize, will pronounce an eternal sentence. Smallest judgments: about earthly matters, and therefore, as compared with the awards of that Day, utterly insignificant. That they will judge, implies that already they are not unworthy etc. For, not only does designation to honour confer present dignity, but whatever we shall be in full degree and outward actuality we are already in some degree inwardly and spiritually. The light of eternity, which will enable us to estimate with infallible justice all actions done on earth and to approve and endorse the sentence of Christ, already shines in the hearts of those in whom the Spirit dwells. For His presence imparts (ii. 15f) the wisdom of Christ. Therefore, in proportion as we are influenced by the Spirit, we are able to estimate conduct so far as the facts are known to us: i.e. spiritual men are, other things being equal, most fit to decide the differences of their brethren.

3. Another known truth, forming with v. 2 a climax. Angel, when not otherwise defined, denotes in the New Testament always a good angel. But here the word judge recalls at once the angels who sinned. This verse implies, as 2 Pet. ii. 4, Jude 6 plainly assert, that the sentence of the great Day will include at least the fallen angels. We cannot doubt that it will be pronounced by Christ. If so, v. 2 suggests that in this sentence His people will join. Thus Man and men will pronounce sentence on those mighty powers which have seduced men, but from whose grasp the saints have been saved. The condemnation of wicked angels suggests that in the great Day the faithful angels will receive reward. If so, they may be included here; as, in v. 2, 'the world' may include 'the saints.' All this reveals a mysterious and wonderful connexion (cp. Col. i. 20) between the moral destiny of our race and that of other races.

The teaching of vv. 2, 3 is implied in the great truth that whatever Christ is and does He calls His people to share; and therefore helps us to realise the infinite grandeur of our position. We cannot (iv. 5) pronounce judgment now: for the facts are not yet fully before us. But in view of the majesty of that great assize, before which even angels will tremble, matters of this life only are unworthy of mention.

4-6. Those who are despised: heathen judges, who, as ignorant of the wisdom which the Corinthian Christians conceived that they had obtained through the Gospel, were, in the church, looked down upon with contempt. By taking their disputes into courts of law Christians practically appoint heathens to be their judges. Paul asks with bitter irony, 'Is it because your matters of dispute are so small, as belonging merely to the present passing life, compared with the tremendous sentence yourselves will share in pronouncing is it for this reason that you submit them to men on whom you look down with contempt as aliens from the kingdom of God and exposed to the condemnation of the great Day, to men worthy to decide only these trifling temporal matters?' To put you to shame: xv. 34. It states Paul's immediate aim; iv. 14, his ultimate aim. I say it: I ask the foregoing bitter question. Your conduct implies that to this degree your large church is destitute of wisdom, that there is not among you even one wise man who will be able as cases arise to judge etc. Between his brother: viz. the one man who brings the complaint. This question was most humiliating. Just as in iii. 1ff Paul proves from the existence of the church-parties that they were incapable of the higher Christian teaching, so now from their lawsuits he infers that the whole church does not contain one wise man. Verse 6 asserts as fact, in reply to Paul's own question, the matter which gave rise to the question of v. 1. Unbelievers; explains

'the unrighteous' in v. I.

7,8. To go no further, than the fact that brother goes to law with brother,' that you have judgments with yourselves. As in v. I Paul descends from fornication 'generally' to a specially aggravated 'kind of fornication,' so now he rises from lawsuits before unbelievers to all lawsuits between Christians. Judgment: sentence pronounced by a judge, which, as being the culminating point, implies the whole process of the suit. Apart from the heathen judges, the lawsuits were themselves a spiritual injury ; they tended to lessen and destroy the spiritual life of those concerned and of the church generally. Damage: same word in Rom. xi. 12. Why...? why . . . ? solemn repetition and climax. It is better to suffer-injustice and fraud than spiritual damage. But their conduct was the precise opposite of this. Injustice: that which is not right, v. 1. Fraud: taking, generally by guile, the known property of others. Of this, Paul must have known that some of them were guilty.