Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

“Dare--This word implies treason against Christian brotherhood [BENGEL]. before the unjust--The Gentile judges are here so termed by an epithet appropriate to the subject in question, namely, one concerning justice.”

“To shame you out of your present unworthy course of litigation before the heathen, I have said (1Co 6:4), "Set the least esteemed in the Church to judge." Better even this, than your present course. Is it so?--Are you in such a helpless state that, &c.? not…”

“Ye, whom your Lord commanded to return good for evil, on the contrary, "do wrong (by taking away) and defraud" (by retaining what is entrusted to you; or "defraud" marks the effect of the "wrong" done, namely, the loss inflicted).”

“All things are lawful unto me--These, which were Paul's own words on a former occasion (to the Corinthians, compare 1Co 10:23, and Ga 5:23), were made a pretext for excusing the eating of meats offered to idols, and so of what was generally connected with id…”

“Therefore fornication is not indifferent, since it is a sin against one's own body, which, like the Lord for whom it is created, is not to be destroyed, but to be raised to eternal existence.”

“Believers shall be raised up out of the rest of the dead (see on Php 3:11); the first resurrection (Re 20:5). us--Here he speaks of the possibility of his being found in the grave when Christ comes; elsewhere, of his being possibly found alive (1Th 4:17).…”

“For they cannot be at the same time "the members of an harlot," and "of Christ" [BENGEL]. It is a fact no less certain than mysterious, that moral and spiritual ruin is caused by such sins; which human wisdom (when untaught by revelation) held to be actions as…”

“Thus "YOUR [plural] body" is distinguished here from "HIS OWN [particular or individual] body" (1Co 6:18). In sinning against the latter, the fornicator sins against "your (ideal) body," that of "Christ," whose "members your bodies" are (1Co 6:15). In this c…”

“Heb 13:4, in opposition to ascetic and Romish notions of superior sanctity in celibacy, declares, "Marriage is HONORABLE IN ALL." Another reason why in some cases celibacy may be a matter of Christian expediency is stated in 1Co 7:34, 35, "that ye may atten…”

“The dignity of marriage is set forth by Paul (Eph 5:25-32), in the fact that it signifies the mystical union between Christ and the Church. The duty of cohabitation on the part of the married. due benevolence--The oldest manuscripts read simply, "her due"; …”

“She hath not power over her body, and yet it is her own. The oneness of body in which marriage places husband and wife explains this. The one complements the other.”

“In both cases alike the things written are inspired by the Spirit of God "but not all for all time, nor all on the primary truths of the faith" [ALFORD]. Let not the wife depart--literally, "be separated from." Probably the separation on either side, whether o…”

“But and if she depart--or "be separated." If the sin of separation has been committed, that of a new marriage is not to be added (Mt 5:32). be reconciled--by appeasing her husband's displeasure, and recovering his good will. let not . . . husband put away .…”

“Children were included in the covenant, as God made it not only with Abraham, but with his "seed after" him (Ge 17:7). So the faith of one Christian parent gives to the children a near relationship to the Church, just as if both parents were Christians (compa…”

“Or else (1Co 7:15), if thy unbelieving consort wishes to depart, let him go, so that thou mayest live "in peace": for thou canst not be sure of converting him, so as to make it obligatory on thee at all costs to stay with him against his will [MENOCHIUS and …”

“Or, But if there be no hope of gaining over the unbeliever, still let the general principle be maintained, "As the Lord hath allotted to each, as God hath called each, so let him walk" (so the Greek in the oldest reading); let him walk in the path allotted to …”

“Circumcision . . . nothing, but . . . keeping of . . . commandments of God--namely, is all in all. In Ga 5:6 this "keeping of the commandments of God" is defined to be "faith which worketh by love"; and in Ga 6:15, "a new creature." Circumcision was a comm…”

“This advice (if this translation be right) is not absolute, as the spirit of the Gospel is against slavery. What is advised here is, contentment under one's existing condition (1Co 7:24), though an undesirable one, since in our union with Christ all outward …”

“This clause, "with God," limits the similar precept in 1Co 7:20. A man may cease to "abide in the calling wherein he was called," and yet not violate the precept here. If a man's calling be not favorable to his "abiding with God" (retaining holy fellowship wi…”

“In the third case (1Co 7:12), the Old Testament commandment of God to put away strange wives (Ezr 10:3), Paul by the Spirit revokes. mercy of the Lord-- (1Ti 1:13). He attributes his apostleship and the gifts accompanying it (including inspiration) to Go…”

“Illustrating the meaning of "so to be," 1Co 7:26. Neither the married (those "bound to a wife") nor the unmarried (those "loosed from a wife") are to "seek" a change of state (compare 1Co 7:20, 24).”

“He uses the Greek expression which the Lord used in Lu 21:8; Mr 13:33. short--literally, "contracted." it remaineth--The oldest manuscripts read, "The time (season) is shortened as to what remains, in order that both they," &c.; that is, the effect which th…”

“Christ specifies as the condemning sin of the men of Sodom not merely their open profligacy, but that "they bought, they sold," &c., as men whose all was in this world (Lu 17:28). "Possessed" in the Greek implies a holding fast of a possession; this the Chris…”

“The image is drawn from a shifting scene in a play represented on the stage (1Jo 2:17). Paul inculcates not so much the outward denial of earthly things, as the inward spirit whereby the married and the rich, as well as the unmarried and the poor, would be re…”

“Paul replies, "We are aware that we all have [speaking generally, and so far as Christian theory goes; for in 1Co 8:7 he speaks of some who practically have not] this knowledge." Knowledge puffeth up--when without "love." Here a parenthesis begins; and the …”