Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge.

“Scripture is our rule, not our suppositions as to consequences. More is involved in redemption than the salvation of man: the character of God as at once just and loving is vindicated even in the case of the lost for they might have been saved…”

Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you yourselves not my workmanship in the Lord?

“His vision of Christ in the temple (Ac 22:17) was "in a trance." To be a witness of Christ's resurrection was a leading function of an apostle (Ac 1:22). The best manuscripts omit "Christ."”

Have we no right to food and to drink?

“The Greek interrogative expresses, "You surely won't say (will you?) that we have not the power or right," &c. eat and drink--without laboring with our hands (1Co 9:11, 13, 14).”

If others have this right to your support, shouldn’t we have it all the more? But we did not exercise this right.

“The same Greek is in 1Co 13:7. lest we . . . hinder . . . gospel--not to cause a hindrance to its progress by giving a handle for the imputation of self-seeking, if we received support from our flock.”

But I have not used any of these rights. And I am not writing this to suggest that something be done for me.

“Paul's special gift of continency, which enabled him to abstain from marriage, and his ability to maintain himself without interrupting seriously his ministry, made that expedient to him which is ordinarily inexpedient; namely, that the ministry should not be supported by the people.”

What then is my reward? That in preaching the gospel I may offer it free of charge, and so not use up my rights in preaching it.

“The former, as involving the latter, is verbally made the answer to the question, "What is my reward?"”

To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under…

“Not Judaizing in essentials, but in matters where there was no compromise of principle (compare Ac 16:3; 21:20-26); an undesigned coincidence between the history and the Epistle, and so a sure proof of genuineness.”

To those without the law I became like one without the law (though I am not outside the law of God but am under the law of Christ), to win…

“So the Christian, though no longer subject to the literal law as constraining him from without, is subject to an inward principle or law, the spirit of faith in Christ acting from within as the germ of a new life.”

Everyone who competes in the games trains with strict discipline. They do it for a crown that is perishable, but we do it for a crown that is imperishable.

“"Crown" here is not that of a king (which is expressed by a different Greek word, namely, "diadem"), but a wreath or garland.”

Therefore I do not run aimlessly; I do not fight like I am beating the air.

“Ye Corinthians gain no end in your entering idol temples or eating idol meats. But I, for my part, in all my acts, whether in my becoming "all things to all men," or in receiving no sustenance from my converts, have a definite end in…”

No, I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.

“The The Christian herald is also a combatant, in which respect he is distinguished from the herald at the games. a castaway--failing shamefully of the prize myself, after I have called others to the contest.”

I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud, and that they all passed through the sea.

“For the Israelites with all their privileges were most of them castaways through want of it. ignorant--with all your boasted "knowledge." our fathers--The Jewish Church stands in the relation of parent to the Christian Church.”

They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.

“Christ is the pillar cloud that screens us from the heat of God's wrath. Christ as "the light of the world" is our "pillar of fire" to guide us in the darkness of the world.”

They all ate the same spiritual food

“Not that the Israelites clearly understood the signification; but believers among them would feel that in the type something more was meant; and their implicit and reverent, though indistinct, faith was counted to them for justification, of which the manna was a kind of sacramental…”

and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.

“1Pe 2:6), accompanied them (Ex 33:15). "Followed" implies His attending on them to minister to them; thus, though mostly going before them, He, when occasion required it, followed "behind" (Ex 14:19).”

Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, for they were struck down in the wilderness.

“God--whose judgment alone is valid. for--the event showed, they had not pleased God. overthrown--literally, "strewn in heaps." in the wilderness--far from the land of promise.”

These things took place as examples to keep us from craving evil things as they did.

“A particular case of lust was that after flesh, when they pined for the fish, leeks, &c., of Egypt, which they had left (Nu 11:4, 33, 34).”

Do not be idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written: “The people sat down to eat and to drink, and got up to indulge in revelry.”

“He passes here from the first to the second person, as they alone (not he also) were in danger of idolatry, &c. He resumes the first person appropriately at 1Co 10:16. some--The multitude follow the lead of some bad men.”

And do not complain, as some of them did, and were killed by the destroying angel.

“Their murmurs against Moses and Aaron were virtually murmurs against God (compare Ex 16:8, 10). Paul herein glances at the Corinthian murmurs against himself, the apostle of Christ. destroyed--fourteen thousand seven hundred perished.”

Now these things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.

“The oldest manuscripts read, "by way of example." the ends of the world--literally, "of the ages"; the New Testament dispensation in its successive phases (plural, "ends") being the winding up of all former "ages."”

Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.

“Resuming the argument, 1Co 10:7; 1Co 8:9, 10. flee--Do not tamper with it by doubtful acts, such as eating idol meats on the plea of Christian liberty. The only safety is in wholly shunning whatever borders on idolatry (2Co 6:16, 17).”

I speak to reasonable people; judge for yourselves what I say.

“Appeal to their own powers of judgment to weigh the force of the argument that follows: namely, that as the partaking of the Lord's Supper involves a partaking of the Lord Himself, and the partaking of the Jewish sacrificial meats involved a partaking of the…”

Is not the cup of blessing that we bless a participation in the blood of Christ?

“"Is" in both cases in this verse is literal, not represents. He who with faith partakes of the cup and the bread, partakes really but spiritually of the blood and body of Christ (Eph 5:30, 32), and of the benefits of His sacrifice on the…”

Am I suggesting, then, that food sacrificed to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything?

“This verse guards against such an inference: "What would I say then? that a thing sacrificed to an idol is any real thing (in the sense that the heathen regard it), or that an idol is any real thing?"”

You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot partake in the table of the Lord and the table of demons too.

“Our only altar is the cross, our only sacrifice that of Christ once for all. The Lord's Supper stands, however, in the same relation, analogically, to Christ's sacrifice, as the Jews' sacrificial feasts did to their sacrifices (compare Mal 1:7, "altar . . .”