1 Corinthians 12

1 Corinthians 12:1

Glorify God with your body, and your spirit - Yield your bodies and all their members, as well as your souls and all their faculties, as instruments of righteousness to God. Devote and employ all ye have, and all ye are, entirely, unreservedly, and for ever, to his glory.

1 Corinthians 12:3

It is good for a man - Who is master of himself. Not to touch a women - That is, not to marry. So great and many are the advantages of a single life.

1 Corinthians 12:4

Yet, when it is needful, in order to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife. His own - For Christianity allows no polygamy.

1 Corinthians 12:5

Let not married persons fancy that there is any perfection in living with each other, as if they were unmarried. The debt - This ancient reading seems far more natural than the common one.

1 Corinthians 12:6

The wife - the husband - Let no one forget this, on pretence of greater purity.

1 Corinthians 12:7

Unless it be by consent for a time - That on those special and solemn occasions ye may entirely give yourselves up to the exercises of devotion. Lest - If ye should long remain separate. Satan tempt you - To unclean thoughts, if not actions too.

1 Corinthians 12:8

But I say this - Concerning your separating for a time and coming together again. Perhaps he refers also to 1 Corinthians 7:2.

1 Corinthians 12:9

For I would that all men were herein even as I - I would that all believers who are now unmarried would remain “eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake” St. Paul, having tasted the sweetness of this liberty, wished others to enjoy it, as well as himself. But every one hath his proper gift from God - According to our Lord’s declaration, “All men cannot receive this saying, save they,” the happy few, to whom it is given," Matthew 19:11.

1 Corinthians 12:10

It is good for them if they remain even as I - That St. Paul was then single is certain and from Acts 7:58, compared with the following parts of the history, it seems probable that he always was so. It does not appear that this declaration, any more than 1 Corinthians 7:1, hath any reference at all to a state of persecution.

1 Corinthians 12:12

Not I - Only. But the Lord - Christ; by his express command, Matthew 5:32.

1 Corinthians 12:13

But if she depart - Contrary to this express prohibition. And let not the husband put away his wife - Except for the cause of adultery.

1 Corinthians 12:14

To the rest - Who are married to unbelievers. Speak I - By revelation from God, though our Lord hath not left any commandment concerning it. Let him not put her away - The Jews, indeed, were obliged of old to put away their idolatrous wives, Ezra 10:3; but their case was quite different. They were absolutely forbid to marry idolatrous women; but the persons here spoken of were married while they were both in a state of heathenism.

1 Corinthians 12:16

For the unbelieving husband hath, in many instances, been sanctified by the wife - Else your children would have been brought up heathens; whereas now they are Christians. As if he had said, Ye see the proof of it before your eyes.

1 Corinthians 12:17

A brother or a sister - A Christian man or woman. Is not enslaved - is at full liberty. In such cases: but God hath called us to peace - To live peaceably with them, if it be possible.

1 Corinthians 12:19

But as God hath distributed - The various stations of life, and various relations, to every one, let him take care to discharge his duty therein. The gospel disannuls none of these. And thus I ordain in all the churches - As a point of the highest concern.

1 Corinthians 12:21

Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing - Will neither promote nor obstruct our salvation. The one point is, keeping the commandments of God; “faith working by love.”

1 Corinthians 12:22

In the calling - The outward state. Wherein he is - When God calls him. Let him not seek to change this, without a clear direction from Providence.

1 Corinthians 12:23

Care not for it - Do not anxiously seek liberty. But if thou canst be free, use it rather - Embrace the opportunity.

1 Corinthians 12:24

Is the Lord’s freeman - Is free in this respect. The Greek word implies one that was a slave, but now is free. Is the bondman of Christ - Not free in this respect; not at liberty to do his own will.

1 Corinthians 12:25

Ye are bought with a price - Ye belong to God; therefore, where it can be avoided, do not become the bondslaves of men - Which may expose you to many temptations.

1 Corinthians 12:26

Therein abide with God - Doing all things as unto God, and as in his immediate presence. They who thus abide with God preserve an holy indifference with regard to outward things.

1 Corinthians 12:27

Now concerning virgins - Of either sex. I have no commandment from the Lord - By a particular revelation. Nor was it necessary he should; for the apostles wrote nothing which was not divinely inspired: but with this difference, - sometimes they had a particular revelation, and a special commandment; at other times they wrote from the divine light which abode with them, the standing treasure of the Spirit of God. And this, also, was not their private opinion, but a divine rule of faith and practice. As one whom God hath made faithful in my apostolic office; who therefore faithfully deliver what I receive from him.

1 Corinthians 12:28

This is good for the present distress - While any church is under persecution. For a man to continue as he is - Whether married or unmarried. St. Paul does not here urge the present distress as a reason for celibacy, any more than for marriage; but for a man’s not seeking to alter his state, whatever it be, but making the best of it.

1 Corinthians 12:29

This is good for the present distress - While any church is under persecution. For a man to continue as he is - Whether married or unmarried. St. Paul does not here urge the present distress as a reason for celibacy, any more than for marriage; but for a man’s not seeking to alter his state, whatever it be, but making the best of it.

1 Corinthians 12:30

Such will have trouble in the flesh - Many outward troubles. But I spare you - I speak as little and as tenderly as possible.

1 Corinthians 12:31

But this I say, brethren - With great confidence. The time of our abode here is short. It plainly follows, that even they who have wives be as serious, zealous, active, dead to the world, as devoted to God, as holy in all manner of conversation, as if they had none - By so easy a transition does the apostle slide from every thing else to the one thing needful; and, forgetting whatever is temporal, is swallowed up in eternity.