Matthew Henry

hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the Day of the Lord.

“Christ and Satan divide the world: and those that live in sin, when they profess relation to Christ, belong to another master, and by excommunication should be delivered up to him; and this in the name of Christ.”

I wrote you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people.

“Note, Christians are to avoid the familiar conversation of fellow-christians that are notoriously wicked, and under just censure for their flagitious practices. Such disgrace the Christian name. They may call themselves brethren in Christ, but they are not Christian brethren.”

God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked man from among you.”

“But, as to members of the church, they are within, are professedly bound by the laws and rules of Christianity, and not only liable to the judgment of God, but to the censures of those who are set over them, and the fellow-members of the…”

Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life!

“He will come to judgment with all his saints, 1 Thess. iii. They themselves are indeed to be judged (see Matt. xxv.”

I say this to your shame. Is there really no one among you wise enough to arbitrate between his brothers?

“The meanest of your own members are able surely to determine these disputes. Refer the matters in variance to any, rather than go to law about them before heathen judges.”

Instead, one brother goes to law against another, and this in front of unbelievers!

“The bonds of fraternal love were broken through. And a brother offended, as Solomon says, is harder to be won than a strong city; their contentions are like the bars of a castle, Prov. xviii.”

The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means that you are thoroughly defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated?

“In matters of great damage to ourselves or families, we may use lawful means to right ourselves. We are not bound to sit down and suffer the injury tamely, without stirring for our own relief; but, in matters of small consequence, it is better to…”

And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit…

“You are washed, you are sanctified, you are justified in the name of Christ, and by the Spirit of our God. Note, The wickedness of men before conversion is no bar to their regeneration and reconciliation to God.”

“Food for the stomach and the stomach for food,” but God will destroy them both.

“It is to be an instrument of righteousness to holiness ( Rom. vi. 19 ), and therefore is never to be made an instrument of uncleanness. It is to be a member of Christ, and therefore must not be made the member of a harlot,”

By His power God raised the Lord from the dead, and He will raise us also.

“It is an honour done to the body that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead: and it will be an honour to our bodies that they will be raised.”

But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with Him in spirit.

“He is joined to the Lord in union with Christ, and made partaker by faith of his Spirit. One spirit lives and breathes and moves in the head and members. Christ and his faithful disciples are one, John xvii.”

Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a man can commit is outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.

“He casts vile reproach on what he Redeemer has dignifies to the last degree by taking it into union with himself. Note, We should not make our present vile bodies more vile by sinning against them.”

you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body.

“But God is dishonoured when either is defiled by so beastly a sin. Therefore flee fornication, nay, and every sin. Use your bodies for the glory and service of their Lord and Maker.”

Now for the matters you wrote about: It is good to abstain from sexual relations.

“But it is good, that is, either abstracting from circumstances there are many things in which the state of celibacy has the advantage above the marriage state; or else at this juncture, by reason of the distress of the Christian church, it would be a…”

Do not deprive each other, except by mutual consent and for a time, so you may devote yourselves to prayer.

“Note, Persons expose themselves to great danger by attempting to perform what is above their strength, and at the same time not bound upon them by any law of God. If they abstain from lawful enjoyments, they may be ensnared into unlawful ones.”

I wish that all men were as I am. But each man has his own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that.

“Natural constitutions vary; and, where there may not be much difference in the constitution, different degrees of grace are vouchsafed, which may give some a greater victory over natural inclination than others. Note, The gifts of God, both in nature and grace, are variously distributed.”

But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife.

“But his meaning is that the Lord himself, with his own mouth, had forbidden such separations, Matt. v. 32; xix. Note, Man and wife cannot separate at pleasure, nor dissolve, when they will, their matrimonial bonds and relation.”

To the rest I say this (I, not the Lord): If a brother has an unbelieving wife and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her.

“The Christian calling did not dissolve the marriage covenant, but bind it the faster, by bringing it back to the original institution, limiting it to two persons, and binding them together for life.”

For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his believing wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband.

“Thus Christians are called commonly saints; such they are by profession, separated to be a peculiar people of God, and as such distinguished from the world; and therefore the children born to Christians, though married to unbelievers, are not to be reckoned as part of…”

But if the unbeliever leaves, let him go. The believing brother or sister is not bound in such cases. God has called you to live in peace.

“In such a case the deserted person must be free to marry again, and it is granted on all hands. And some think that such a malicious desertion is as much a dissolution of the marriage-covenant as death itself.”

Were you a slave when you were called? Do not let it concern you—but if you can gain your freedom, take the opportunity.

“Note, Our comfort and happiness depend on what we are to Christ, not what we are in the world. The goodness of our outward condition does not discharge us from the duties of Christianity, nor the badness of it debar us from Christian privileges.”

and those who use the things of this world, as if not dependent on them. For this world in its present form is passing away.

“The world may be used, but must not be abused. It is abused when it is not used to those purposes for which it is given, to honour God and do good to men--when, instead of being oil to the wheels of our obedience, it…”

I want you to be free from concern. The unmarried man is concerned about the work of the Lord, how he can please the Lord.

“This is the general rule, which every one's discretion must apply to his own particular case; and by it should he endeavour to determine, whether it be for marriage or against.”

I want you to be free from concern. The unmarried man is concerned about the work of the Lord, how he can please the Lord.

“Indeed to be careless is a fault; a wise concern about worldly interests is a duty; but to be careful, full of care, to have an anxious and perplexing care about them, is a sin.”

I am saying this for your own good, not to restrict you, but in order to promote proper decorum and undivided devotion to the Lord.

“Note, It is the wisdom of a Christian so to order his outward affairs, and choose such a condition in life, as to be without distracting cares, that he may attend upon the Lord with a mind at leisure and disengaged.”