1 Corinthians 16

1 Corinthians 16:1

This is my body, which is broken for you - That is, this broken bread is the sign of my body, which is even now to be pierced and wounded for your iniquities. Take then, and eat of, this bread, in an humble, thankful, obediential remembrance of my dying love; of the extremity of my sufferings on your behalf, of the blessings I have thereby procured for you, and of the obligations to love and duty which I have by all this laid upon you.

1 Corinthians 16:2

After supper - Therefore ye ought not to confound this with a common meal. Do this in remembrance of me - The ancient sacrifices were in remembrance of sin: this sacrifice, once offered, is still represented in remembrance of the remission of sins.

1 Corinthians 16:3

Ye show forth the Lord’s death - Ye proclaim, as it were, and openly avow it to God, and to all the world. Till he come - In glory.

1 Corinthians 16:4

Whosoever shall eat this bread unworthily - That is, in an unworthy, irreverent manner; without regarding either Him that appointed it, or the design of its appointment. Shall be guilty of profaning that which represents the body and blood of the Lord.

1 Corinthians 16:5

But let a man examine himself - Whether he know the nature and the design of the institution, and whether it be his own desire and purpose throughly to comply therewith.

1 Corinthians 16:6

For he that eateth and drinketh so unworthily as those Corinthians did, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself - Temporal judgments of various kinds, 1 Corinthians 11:30. Not distinguishing the sacred tokens of the Lord’s body - From his common food.

1 Corinthians 16:7

For this cause - Which they had not observed. Many sleep - In death.

1 Corinthians 16:8

If we would judge ourselves - As to our knowledge, and the design with which we approach the Lord’s table. We should not be thus judged - That is, punished by God.

1 Corinthians 16:9

When we are thus judged, it is with this merciful design, that we may not be finally condemned with the world.

1 Corinthians 16:10

The rest - The other circumstances relating to the Lord’s supper.

1 Corinthians 16:13

Now concerning spiritual gifts - The abundance of these in the churches of Greece strongly refuted the idle learning of the Greek philosophers. But the Corinthians did not use them wisely, which occasioned St. Paul’s writing concerning them. He describes, The unity of the body, 1 Corinthians 12:1 - 27: The variety of members and offices, 1 Corinthians 12:27 - 30: The way of exercising gifts rightly, namely, by love, 1 Corinthians 12:31, 1 Corinthians 13:1. throughout: and adds, A comparison of several gifts with each other, in the 1 Corinthians 14:1. fourteenth chapter.

1 Corinthians 16:14

Ye were heathens - Therefore, whatever gifts ye have received, it is from the free grace of God. Carried away - By a blind credulity. After dumb idols - The blind to the dumb; idols of wood and stone, unable to speak themselves, and much more to open your mouths, as God has done. As ye were led - By the subtlety of your priests.

1 Corinthians 16:15

Therefore - Since the heathen idols cannot speak themselves, much less give spiritual gifts to others, these must necessarily be among Christians only. As no one speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed - That is, as none who does this, (which all the Jews and heathens did,) speaketh by the Spirit of God - Is actuated by that Spirit, so as to speak with tongues, heal diseases, or cast out devils. So no one can say, Jesus is the Lord - None can receive him as such; for, in the scripture language, to say, or to believe, implies an experimental assurance. But by the Holy Ghost - The sum is, None have the Holy Spirit but Christians: all Christians have this Spirit.

1 Corinthians 16:16

There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit - Divers streams, but all from one fountain. This verse speaks of the Holy Ghost, the next of Christ, the sixth of God the Father. The apostle treats of the Spirit, 1 Corinthians 12:7, &c.; of Christ, 1 Corinthians 12:12, &c.; of God, 1 Corinthians 12:28, &c.

1 Corinthians 16:17

Administrations - Offices. But the same Lord appoints them all.

1 Corinthians 16:18

Operations - Effects produced. This word is of a larger extent than either of the former. But it is the same God who worketh all these effects in all the persons concerned.

1 Corinthians 16:19

The manifestation - The gift whereby the Spirit manifests itself. Is given to each - For the profit of the whole body.

1 Corinthians 16:20

The word of wisdom - A power of understanding and explaining the manifold wisdom of God in the grand scheme of gospel salvation. The word of knowledge - Perhaps an extraordinary ability to understand and explain the Old Testament types and prophecies.

1 Corinthians 16:21

Faith may here mean an extraordinary trust in God under the most difficult or dangerous circumstances. The gift of healing need not be wholly confined to the healing diseases with a word or a touch. It may exert itself also, though in a lower degree, where natural remedies are applied; and it may often be this, not superior skill, which makes some physicians more successful than others. And thus it may be with regard to other gifts likewise. As, after the golden shields were lost, the king of Judah put brazen in their place, so, after the pure gifts were lost, the power of God exerts itself in a more covert manner, under human studies and helps; and that the more plentifully, according as there is the more room given for it.

1 Corinthians 16:22

The working of other miracles. Prophecy - Foretelling things to come. The discerning - Whether men be of an upright spirit or no; whether they have natural or supernatural gifts for offices in the church; and whether they who profess to speak by inspiration speak from a divine, a natural, or a diabolical spirit.

1 Corinthians 16:23

As he willeth - The Greek word does not so much imply arbitrary pleasure, as a determination founded on wise counsel.

1 Corinthians 16:24

So is Christ - That is, the body of Christ, the church.