1 CORINTHIANS THE ARGUMENT Corinth (the inhabitants of which are called Corinthians) was an eminent city of Achaia, (that Achaia which is now called the Morea), and was situated on an isthmus, or neck of land, betwixt the Aegean and Ionian Seas; so was very convenient for merchandise, and by…

Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ: our common custom is to subscribe our name to the bottom of our letters; it seems by the apostolical Epistles, that their fashion was otherwise: he elsewhere telleth us, that it was his token in every epistle, which makes some doubt, whether that to…

Unto the church of God which is at Corinth; unto those in Corinth who having received the doctrine of the gospel, and owned Jesus Christ as their Saviour, were united in one ecclesiastical body for the worship of God, and communion one with another.

This is the common salutation in all Paul’s Epistles, only in one or two mercy is also added. Grace signifies free love. Peace signifies either a reconciliation with God, or brotherly love and unity each with other: See Poole on “Rom. 1:7”.

Lest his former salutation should be misapprehended by them, as signifying that he thought they were without grace, he here cleareth his meaning by blessing God for that grace which they had received: but no man hath so much grace, but he is still capable of more, and stands in need of further…

In every thing; in every grace and in every good gift, (for he is manifestly speaking of spiritual things), so as this general particle must not be extended to the things of this life, but restrained either to spiritual gifts, or spiritual, sanctifying habits.

By which knowledge and utterance the testimony of Christ, that is, the gospel, which containeth both the testimony which Christ had given of himself, and which the apostles had given concerning Christ; (the gospel is called the testimony of God, Rom. 2:1, 2 Tim.

Not that every one of them was filled with all the gifts of the blessed Spirit; but one excelled in one gift, another excelled in another, as the apostle expounds himself, 1 Cor.

Which Lord Jesus Christ, ( mentioned immediately before), or which God who is faithful, ( mentioned immediately after, 1 Cor. 1:9), shall confirm your habits of grace unto the end, approving himself the finisher of your faith, (you being not wanting in your duty and endeavour): so as either you…

God is faithful: faithfulness is the same with veracity or truth to a man’s word, which renders a person fit to be credited. It is a great attribute of God, 1 Cor. 10:13, 1 Thess. 5:24.

By the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, is as much as, by Christ, by the authority of Christ, for this is his will; or, by the love which you bear to the Lord Jesus Christ, who hath so often recommended to you peace with, and brotherly love towards, one another.

The apostle cometh to show one reason, as why he wrote to them, so also why in the preceding verse he so zealously pressed unity upon them, because of an information he had received from some of the family of Chloe; for it is far more probable that Chloe was the name of a person, head of a family…

Every one here signifieth no more than many of you, or several of you; so 1 Cor. 14:26; from whence, those that think they have such a mighty argument from Heb.

How came these parties? There is but one Christ, but one that was crucified for you, but one into whose name, into a faith in whom, and a profession of whom, you were baptized.

Concerning the apostle’s baptizing Crispus we read, Acts 18:8; he was the chief ruler of the synagogue of the Jews: why Paul thanks God that he baptized not many, he tells us, 1 Cor. 1:15.

Because by that providence of God it so fell out, that very few of them could pretend any such thing, as that he had baptized any in his own name.

He correcteth himself, remembering that he also baptized the household of Stephanas, which he calleth the first-fruits of Achaia, a family that had addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints.

For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the Gospel; baptism was not his principal work, not the main business for which Paul was sent; it was his work, otherwise he would not have baptized Crispus, or Gaius, or the household of Stephanas, but preaching was his principal work.

For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness: I know (saith the apostle) that plain discourses about a Christ crucified are to some persons foolish things, and accounted canting; but to whom are they so? To those who, if they be not some that shall perish eternally, yet are…

What Isaiah said of the wise men among the Jews in his time, is applicable to the wise men among the heathen, God will destroy their wisdom, and make their understanding appear to be no better than foolishness.

Where is the wise? where is the scribe? He alludeth again to that, Isa. 33:18; Where is the scribe? where is the receiver? Where are the wise men amongst the heathens? Where are the scribes, the learned men in the law, amongst the Jews? Where is the disputer of this world? Where are those amongst…

For after that in the wisdom of God: some here, by the wisdom of God, understand Jesus Christ, and make the sense thus: When he who is the Wisdom of God came and preached to the world. Others understand the gospel, which is so called, 1 Cor. 1:24, 1 Cor. 2:7.

The Jews were not without some true Divine revelation, and owned the true God, and only desired some miraculous operation from Christ, Matt. 12:38, John 4:48, to confirm them that Christ was sent from God: without signs and wonders they would not believe; giving no credit at all to the words of…

But we preach Christ crucified; we that are the ministers of Christ, come and preach to them, that there was one hanged upon a cross at Jerusalem, who is the Saviour of the world, and was not cut off for his own sins, but for the sins of his people.

Blessed be God, Christ is not to all the Jews a stmnblingblock, nor to all the Greeks is he foolishness; for to so many of them as are called, ( not by the external call of the gospel, but only by the internal call and effectual operation of the Spirit), let them be of one nation or another, by…

The foolishness of God is wiser than men; the least things that are the products of the wisdom of God, or the contrivance of God for man’s salvation, which the sinful and silly world calls foolishness, are infinitely more wise, and have more wisdom in them, than the wisest imaginations, counsels,…

To prove that this is the method of Divine Providence, to make use of seemingly infirm and weak means to produce his great effects, you need not look further than yourselves; look upon the whole body of your church at Corinth, it is not made up of many that have a reputation for the wise men or the…

God hath even amongst you chosen persons that are in the account of the world as foolish things, to put the wise to shame; and persons of weak esteem, to confound those that are mighty in the repute of the world.

Things which are not in the world’s account, to bring to nought things which are in high esteem.

And God doth this in infinite wisdom, consulting his own honour and glory, that none might say, that God hath chosen them because they were nobler born, or in higher repute and esteem in the world, than others, but that the freeness of Divine grace might be seen in all God’s acts of grace.

But of him are ye in Christ Jesus; of his grace ye are implanted into Christ, and believe in him. You are of him, not by creation only, as all creatures are, but by redemption and regeneration, which is in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom; the principal means by which we come to the…

God doth this, or hath done this, for this end, that man should have nothing to glory in, neither wisdom, nor righteousness, nor sanctification, nor redemption, but should glory in the Lord; acknowledging that whatsoever wisdom, righteousness, or holiness he hath, it is all from God, in and through…