1 Coríntios 15
Matthew Henry · Citado em PreceptAustin
1 Coríntios 15
Henry summarizes 1 Cor 15:20-34 - All that are by faith united to Christ, are by his resurrection assured of their own. As through the sin of the first Adam, all men became mortal, because all had from him the same sinful nature, so, through the resurrection of Christ, shall all who are made to partake of the Spirit, and the spiritual nature, revive, and live for ever. There will be an order in the resurrection. Christ himself has been the first-fruits; at his coming, his redeemed people will be raised before others; at the last the wicked will rise also. Then will be the end of this present state of things. Would we triumph in that solemn and important season, we must now submit to his rule, accept his salvation, and live to his glory. Then shall we rejoice in the completion of his undertaking, that God may receive the whole glory of our salvation, that we may for ever serve him, and enjoy his favour. What shall those do, who are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? Perhaps baptism is used here in a figure, for afflictions, sufferings, and martyrdom, as Matthew 20:22,23. What is, or will become of those who have suffered many and great injuries, and have even lost their lives, for this doctrine of the resurrection, if the dead rise not at all? Whatever the meaning may be, doubtless the apostle's argument was understood by the Corinthians. And it is as plain to us that Christianity would be a foolish profession, if it proposed advantage to themselves by their faithfulness to God; and to have our fruit to holiness, that our end may be everlasting life. But we must not live like beasts, as we do not die like them. It must be ignorance of God that leads any to disbelieve the resurrection and future life. Those who own a God and a providence, and observe how unequal things are in the present life, how frequently the best men fare worst, cannot doubt as to an after-state, where every thing will be set to rights. Let us not be joined with ungodly men; but warn all around us, especially children and young persons, to shun them as a pestilence. Let us awake to righteousness, and not sin.
1 Coríntios 15
Henry writes that "Man in this his degenerate state is of a straying nature, thence compared to a lost sheep; this must be sought and brought back, and guided in the right way, Ps 119:176. (See Spurgeon's Note) He is weak, and ready to be imposed upon by the wiles and subtleties of Satan, and of men lying in wait to seduce and mislead. Bad (kakos) company (homilia) (present tense - continually) corrupts (phtheiro) good (chrestos) morals - "Bad company spoils noble character." He reminded them of what was probably a well-known proverb from the Greek poet Menander: As noted above the passive voice of deceived indicates some of the Corinthians were being led astray from the truth of the resurrection and/or into "bad" behavior. In context the bad company would seem to be teachers or other wicked people who had the belief that there was no resurrection. In Corinth the bad company could have included the pagan philosophers who did not believe in the resurrection. So what is the association with good morals? The answer is simple - what one believes will affect how one behaves. If one does not believe in a resurrection, then one is far more likely to "eat, drink and be merry," which certainly has the tendency to corrupt good morals. Frankly, the morals of many of the Corinthians were already "borderline" (to be euphemistic), so it would not take that much to further corrupt them. THOUGHT - The corollary is beware of bad company because you are not likely to bring them up to your level of more godly morality, but they will almost certainly bring you down to their level! Of course, we should witness to them, but not commune with them. There is a big difference. Friendship evangelism (see caveats) is possible without participating in their evil deeds or evil thinking. (Compare 1 Cor 5:10+)
1 Coríntios 15:10
Henry adds that… Those who have the grace of God bestowed on them should take care that it be not in vain. They should cherish, and exercise, and exert, this heavenly principle. So did Paul, and therefore laboured with so much heart and so much success. And yet the more he laboured, and the more good he did, the more humble he was in his opinion of himself, and the more disposed to own and magnify the favour of God towards him, his free and unmerited favour. Note, A humble spirit will be very apt to own and magnify the grace of God. A humble spirit is commonly a gracious one. Where pride is subdued there it is reasonable to believe grace reigns. PAUL'S UNDERSTANDING OF GRACE Alexander Maclaren is right when he says that… that word ‘grace’ has got to be worn threadbare, and to mean next door to nothing, in the ears and minds of and great many continual hearers of the Gospel. But Paul had a very definite idea of what he meant by it; and what he meant by it was a very large thing, which we may well ponder for a moment as being the only thing which will transform and ennoble character and will produce fruit that a man need not be ashamed of. The grace of God, in Paul’s use of the words, which is the scriptural use of them generally, implies these two things which are connected as root and product—the active love of God, in exercise towards us low and sinful creatures, and the gifts with which that love comes full charged to men. These two things, which at bottom are one, love and its gifts, are all, in the Apostle’s judgment, gathered up and stored, as in a great storehouse, in Jesus Christ Himself, and through Him are made accessible to us, and brought to bear upon us for the ennobling of our natures, and the investing of us with graces and beauties of character, all strange to us apart from these. Now it seems to me that these two things, which come from one root, are the precise things which you and I need in order to make us nobler and purer and more Godlike men than otherwise we could ever become. For what is it that men need most for noble and pure living? These two things precisely—motive and power to carry out the dictates of conscience. Every man in the world knows enough of duty and of right to be a far nobler man than any man in the world is. And it is not for want of clear convictions of duty, it is not for want of recognised models and patterns of life, that men go wrong; but it is because there are these two things lacking, motives for nobler service, and power to do and be what they know they ought to be. And precisely here Paul’s gospel comes in, ‘By the grace of God I am what I am.’ That grace, considered in its two sides of love and of giving, supplies all that we want. GRACE BENDS THE WILL It supplies motives. There is nothing that will bend a man’s will like the recognition of divine love which it is blessedness to come in contact with, and to obey. You may try to sway him by motives of advantage and self-interest, and to thunder into his ears the pealing words of duty and right and ‘ought,’ and there is no adequate response. You cannot soften a heart by the hammers of the law. You cannot force a man to do right by brandishing before him the whip that punishes doing wrong. You cannot sway the will by anything but the heart; and when you can touch the deepest spring it moves the whole mass. You have seen some ponderous piece of machinery, which resists all attempts of a puny hand laid upon it to make it revolve. But down in one corner is a little hidden spring. Touch that and with majestic slowness and certainty the mighty mass turns. You know those rocking-stones down in the south of England; tons of weight poised upon a pin point, and so exquisitely balanced that a child’s finger rightly applied may move the mass. So the whole man is made mobile only by the touch of love; and the grace that comes to us, and says, ‘If ye love Me, keep My commandments’—is, as I believe, the sole motive which will continuously and adequately sway the rebellious, self-centered wills of men, to obedience resulting in nobility of life. GRACE EMPOWERS THE WILL The other aspect of this same great word is, in like manner, that which we need. What men want is, first of all, the will to be noble and good; and, second, the power to carry out the will. It is God that worketh in us both the willing and the doing. I venture to affirm that there is no power known, either to thinkers, or philanthropists, or doctrinaires, or strivers after excellence in the world—no power known and available which will lift a life to such heights of beauty and self-sacrificing nobility, as will the power that comes to us by communication of the grace that is in Jesus Christ. I am perpetually trying to insist, dear brethren, upon this one thought, that the communication of actual new life is the central gift of the Gospel; and this new life it is, this nature endowed with new desires, hopes, aims, capacities, which alone will lift the whole man into unwonted heights of beauty and serenity. It is the grace of God, the gift of His Divine Spirit who will dwell with all of us, if we will, which alone can be trusted to make men good. And now, if that be true, what follows? Surely this, that for all you who have, in any measure, caught a glimpse of what you ought to be, and have been more or less vainly trying to realize your ideal, and reach your goal, there is a better way than the way of self-centered and self-derived and self-dependent effort. There is the way of opening your hearts and spirits to the entrance and access of that great power, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, which will do in us and for us all that we know we ought to do, and yet feel hampered and hindered in performing. Oh, dear friends! there are many of you, I believe, who have more or less spasmodically and interruptedly, but with a continual recurrence to the effort, sought to plant your feet firmly in the paths of righteousness, and have more or less failed. Listen to this Gospel, and accept it, and put it to the proof. The love of God which is in Christ Jesus, and the life which that love brings in its hands, for all of us who will trust it, will dwell in you if you will, and mould you into His own likeness, and the law of the spirit of life which was in Christ Jesus will make us free from the law of sin and death. THE NOBLE LIFE All noble living is a battle. Can you and I, with our ten thousand, meet him that cometh against us with his twenty, the temptations of the world and of its Prince? Send for the reinforcements, and Jesus Christ will come and train your hands for war and your fingers for the fight. All noble life is self-denial, coercion, restraint; and can my poor, feeble hands apply muscular force enough to the brake to keep the wheels clogged, and prevent them from whirling me downhill into ruin? Let Him come and put His great gentle hand on the top of yours, and that will enable you to scotch the wheels, and make self-denial possible. All noble life is a building up by slow degrees from the foundation. And can you and I complete the task with our own limited resources, and our own feeble strengths? Will not ‘all that pass by begin to mock’ us and say, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’? That is the epitaph written over all moralities and over all lives which, catching some glimpse of the good and the true and the noble, have tried, apart from Christ, to reproduce them in themselves. Frightful gaps, and an unfinished, however fair structure end them all. Go to Him. ‘His hand hath laid the foundation of the house, His hand shall also finish it.’ He who is Himself the Foundation-stone is also the Headstone of the corner, which is brought forth with shouting of ‘Grace! Grace unto it!’ (Read Maclaren's entire message - 1 Corinthians 15:10 Paul's Estimate of Himself) FREE GRACE Self-righteous souls on works rely, And boast their moral dignity; But if I lisp a song of praise, Each note shall echo, Grace, free grace! ’Twas grace that quickened me when dead; ’Twas grace my soul to Jesus led; Grace brings a sense of pardoned sin, And grace subdues my lusts within. Grace reconciles to every loss, And sweetens every painful cross; Defends my soul when danger’s near; By grace alone I persevere. When from this world my soul removes To mansions of delight and love, I’ll cast my crown before his throne, And shout, Free grace, free grace alone! --L. M. (1790) Vain (2756)(kenos [word study]) means literally to be without something material and thus means empty or without content. Kenos also can mean without result, without effect, to no purpose. In the present context then Kenos describes an endeavor or labor which results in nothing of eternal value, no spiritual fruit, no evidence of "success" (from a heavenly perspective), destitute of spiritual wealth, devoid of truth.
1 Coríntios 15:58
Henry comments that steadfast in this passage means "firm, fixed in the faith of the gospel, that gospel which he had preached and they had received, namely, That Christ died for our sins, and arose again the third day, according to the scriptures (1Co 15:3, 4), and fixed in the faith of the glorious resurrection of the dead, which, as he had shown, had so near and necessary a connection with the former. "Do not let your belief of these truths be shaken or staggered. They are most certain, and of the last importance.'' Note, Christians should be steadfast believers of this great article of the resurrection of the dead. It is evidently founded on the death of Christ. Because he lives, his servants shall live also, Jn. 14:19. And it is of the last importance; a disbelief of a future life will open a way to all manner of licentiousness, and corrupt men's morals to the last degree. It will be easy and natural to infer hence that we may live like beasts, and eat and drink, for to-morrow we die… Note, Christians should live in the most firm expectation of a blessed resurrection. This hope should be an anchor to their souls, firm and sure, Heb 6:19. Immovable (277) (ametakinetos from a = conveys negation + metakineo = move away, from kineo - to move - root of our English word kinetic as in kinetic energy) means literally not moved away from one place to another, and in the present passage expresses Paul's desire that they prove themselves to be saints who could not be moved away from the truth concerning the resurrection. In other words, the Corinthian saints were not to be moved from their spiritual "moorings" (Webster's 1828 dictionary says "moorings" are "the anchors, chains and bridles laid athwart the bottom of a river or harbor to confine a ship." Interesting picture!) John Butler associates immovable with faithfulness in times of troubles noting that "Troubles, persecution, difficulties, etc. often cause one to compromise and move away from the right position. (Analytical Bible Expositor: I & II Corinthians)