Matthew Henry

but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and…

“Christ crucified is a stumbling-block to the Jews. They could not get over it. They had a conceit that their expected Messiah was to be a great temporal prince, and therefore would never own one who made so mean an appearance in life, and died…”

It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God: our righteousness, holiness, and redemption.

“We are guilty, obnoxious to justice; and he is made righteousness, our great atonement and sacrifice. We are depraved and corrupt; and he is made sanctification, the spring of our spiritual life; from him, the head, it is communicated to all the members of his…”

But God has revealed it to us by the Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.

“Here is a proof of the divine authority of the holy scriptures. Paul wrote what he taught: and what he taught was revealed of God by his Spirit, that Spirit that searches all things, yea, the deep things of God, and knows the things of…”

For who among men knows the thoughts of man except his own spirit within him? So too, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

“We cannot know them at all till he had proposed them objectively (as it is called) in the external revelation; we cannot know or believe them to salvation till he enlightens the faculty, opens the eye of the mind, and gives us such a knowledge…”

And this is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.

“Comparing spiritual things with spiritual --one part of revelation with another, the revelation of the gospel with that of the Jews, the discoveries of the New Testament with the types and prophecies of the Old.”

The natural man does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God.

“Men unsanctified receive not the things of God. The understanding, through the corruption of nature by the fall, and through the confirmation of this disorder by customary sin, is utterly unapt to receive the rays of divine light; it is prejudiced against them.”

The spiritual man judges all things, but he himself is not subject to anyone’s judgment.

“Or, (2.) He that is spiritual (who has had divine revelations made to him, receives them as such, and founds his faith and religion upon them) can judge both of common things and things divine; he can discern what is, and what is not, the…”

Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual, but as worldly—as infants in Christ.

“They were still mere babes in Christ. They had received some of the first principles of Christianity, but had not grown up to maturity of understanding in them, or of faith and holiness; and yet it is plain, from several passages in this epistle, that…”

For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.

“Every Christian is a living temple of the living God. God dwelt in the Jewish temple, took possession of it, and resided in it, by that glorious cloud that was the token of his presence with that people.”

By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it.

“But, though he gives himself such a character, it is not to gratify his own pride, but to magnify divine grace. He was a wise master-builder, but the grace of God made him such.”

his workmanship will be evident, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will prove the quality of each man’s work.

“Though some understand it of the time when the Jewish nation was destroyed and their constitution thereby abolished, when the superstructure which judaizing teachers would have raised on the Christian foundation was manifested to be no better than hay and stubble, that would not bear…”

If it is burned up, he will suffer loss. He himself will be saved, but only as if through the flames.

“His weakness and corruption will be the lessening of his glory, though he may in the general have been an honest and an upright Christian. This part of his work will be lost, turning no way to his advantage, though he himself may be saved.”

Let no one deceive himself. If any of you thinks he is wise in this age, he should become a fool, so that he may become wise.

“He must be sensible of his own ignorance, and lament it; he must distrust his own understanding, and not lean on it. To have a high opinion of our wisdom is but to flatter ourselves, and self-flattery is the very next step to self-deceit.”

Now it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.

“Note, The ministers of Christ should make it their hearty and continual endeavour to approve themselves trustworthy; and when they have the testimony of a good conscience, and the approbation of their Master, they must slight the opinions and censures of their fellow-servants: But with…”

I care very little, however, if I am judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself.

“He that would be faithful to Christ must despise the censures of men for his sake. He must look upon it as a very little thing (if his Lord approves him) what judgment men form of him.”

For who makes you so superior? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?

“It is foolish in us therefore, and injurious to him, to boast of it; those who receive all should be proud of nothing, Ps. cxv.”

We are fools for Christ, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are honored, but we are dishonored.

“We can pass for fools in the world, and be despised as such, so that the wisdom of God and the honour of the gospel may by this means be secured and displayed."”

when we are slandered, we answer gently. Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world.

“But O glorious charity and devotion, that would carry them through all these hardships! How ardently did they love God, how vehemently did they thirst for the salvation of souls! Theirs was voluntary, it was pleasing poverty.”

I am not writing this to shame you, but to warn you as my beloved children.

“To expose to open shame is but the way to render shameless. He shows them upon what foundation he claimed paternal relation to them, and called them his sons.”

Even if you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.

“Whatever other teachers they had, he was their spiritual father. He first brought them off from pagan idolatry to the faith of the gospel and the worship of the true and living God.”

But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord is willing, and then I will find out not only what these arrogant people are saying, but what power they…

“For, adds he, the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. It is not set up, nor propagated, nor established, in the hearts of men, by plausible reasonings nor florid discourses, but by the external power of the Holy Spirit in miraculous…”

Which do you prefer? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in love and with a gentle spirit?

“Note, Stubborn offenders must be used with severity. In families, in Christian communities, paternal pity and tenderness, Christian love and compassion, will sometimes force the use of the rod. But this is far from being desirable, if it may be prevented.”

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is intolerable even among pagans: A man has his father’s wife.

“It was told in all places, to their dishonour, and the reproach of Christians. And it was the more reproachful because it could not be denied. Note, The heinous sins of professed Christians are quickly noted and noised abroad.”

And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have been stricken with grief and have removed from your fellowship the man who did this?

“Note, It is a very wicked thing to glory over the miscarriages and sins of others. We should lay them to heart, and mourn for them, not be puffed up with them. Probably this was one effect of the divisions among them.”

Although I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit, and I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did this, just as if…

“Perhaps he was a minister, a teacher, or a principal man among them. By this means the church and their profession were more reproached.”