Matthew Henry

In my judgment, however, she is happier if she remains as she is. And I think that I too have the Spirit of God.

“At this juncture, at least, if not ordinarily, it will be much more for the peace and quiet of such, and give them less hindrance in the service of God, to continue unmarried. And this, he tells them, was by inspiration of the Spirit.”

So about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world, and that there is no God but one.

“He tells them that upon supposition that it were lawful in itself to eat of things offered to idols (for that they themselves are nothing), yet regard must be had to the weakness of Christian brethren, and nothing done that would lay a stumbling block…”

yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we exist.

“There is to us but one Lord, one Mediator between God and men, even Jesus Christ. Not many mediators, as the heathen imagined, but one only, by whom all things were created and do consist, and to whom all our hope and happiness are owing--the…”

For if someone with a weak conscience sees you who are well informed eating in an idol’s temple, will he not be encouraged to eat food sacrificed to idols?

“Nay, feasts, as Athenæus informs us, were always accounted, among the heathen, sacred and religious things, so that they were wont to sacrifice before all their feasts; and it was accounted a very profane thing among them, athyta esthiein, to eat at their private tables…”

By sinning against your brothers in this way and wounding their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.

“Note, Injuries done to Christians are injuries to Christ, especially to babes in Christ, to weak Christians; and most of all, involving them in guilt: wounding their consciences is wounding him.”

Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to stumble.

“When it is certainly foreseen that my doing what I may forbear will occasion a fellow-christian to do what he ought to forbear, I shall offend, scandalize, or lay a stumbling-block in his way, which to do is a sin, however lawful the thing itself…”

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?

“Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? To be a witness of his resurrection was one great branch of the apostolical charge. "Now," says Paul, "have not I seen the Lord, though not immediately after his resurrection, yet since his ascent?" See ch. iv.”

Have we no right to take along a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas?

“For that a wife is here to be understood by the sister-woman ~ adelphen gynaika, is plain from this, that it would have been utterly unfit for the apostles to have carried about women with them unless they were wives.”

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

“Though he here asserts his right, yet he does not claim his due; but denies himself for their sakes, and the gospel. We have the reason assigned of his exercising this self-denial.”

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…

“Though he looked on the ceremonial law as a yoke taken off by Christ, yet in many instances he submitted to it, that he might work upon the Jews, remove their prejudices, prevail with them to hear the gospel, and win them over to Christ.”

To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.

“He denied himself for their sakes, that he might insinuate into their affections, and gain their souls. In short, he became all things to all men, that he might by all means (all lawful means) gain some.”

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

“There is no room for any such exercise in the Christian warfare. Christians are ever in close combat.”

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

“The manna on which they fed was a type of Christ crucified, the bread which came down from heaven, which whoso eateth shall live forever.”

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.”

“The sin of the golden calf is referred to, Exod. xxxii. They first sacrificed to their idol, then feasted on the sacrifices, and then danced before it. Though only eating and drinking are mentioned here, yet the sacrifice is supposed.”

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.

“Not only the laws and ordinances of the Jews, but the providences of God towards them, were typical. Their sins against God, and backslidings from him, were typical of the infidelity of many under the gospel.”

So the one who thinks he is standing firm should be careful not to fall.

“Distrust of himself, putting him at once upon vigilance and dependence on God, is the Christian's best security against all sin. Note, He who thinks he stands is not likely to keep his footing, if he fears no fall, nor guards against it.”

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

“Is it not a token whereby we professedly hold communion with Christ, whose body was broken, and blood shed, to procure remission of our sins, and the favour of God?”

Consider the people of Israel: Are not those who eat the sacrifices fellow partakers in the altar?

“Those who were admitted to eat of the offerings were reckoned to partake of the sacrifice itself, as made for them, and to be sanctified thereby; and therefore surely to worship God, and be in alliance or covenant with him, even the God of Israel…”

for, “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.”

“Every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer, 1 Tim. iv. To the pure all things are pure, Tit. i.”

If an unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat anything set before you without raising questions of conscience.

“And why then should they scrupulously enquire whether what was set before them had been sacrificed? It is to be understood of civil feasting, not religious; for the latter among the heathens was feasting upon their sacrifices, which he had condemned before as a participation…”

But if someone tells you, “This food was offered to idols,” then do not eat it, for the sake of the one who told you and for the sake of…

“They must not eat it out of religious respect to the idol, nor go into his temple, and hold a feast there, upon what they knew was an idol-sacrifice; nor perhaps out of the temple, if they knew it was a feast held upon a…”

Do not become a stumbling block, whether to Jews or Greeks or the church of God—

“Our own humour and appetite must not determine our practice, but the honour of God and the good and edification of the church. We should not so much consult our own pleasure and interest as the advancement of the kingdom of God among men.”

as I also try to please everyone in all I do. For I am not seeking my own good, but the good of many, that they may be saved.

“And it is highly commendable in a minister to neglect his own advantage that he may promote the salvation of his hearers. This shows that he has a spirit suitable to his function.”

You are to imitate me, just as I imitate Christ.

“He encourages neither implicit faith nor obedience. He would be followed himself no further than he followed Christ. Christ's pattern is a copy without a blot; so is no man's else.”

But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.

“If she was made out of the man, and for the man, and made to be the glory of the man, she should do nothing, especially in public, that looks like a wish of having this order inverted.”