The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: the First Epistle to the Corinthians
Ye are God's husbandry. Not Paul’s or Apollos’ : so you cannot boast yourselves in them. S. Paul continues the illustration drawn from agriculture. The chief tiller is God; Paul and Apollos are his servants; the Corinthians are the field; the seed is grace, the fruits good works. God by His Spirit cultivates within: Paul assists Him by his preaching from without. So Anselm.
Ye are God's building . He inculcates the same truth by another illustration from building and architecture. The first architect is God ; the secondary minister is Paul ; the building is the Church and every Christian soul. So Anselm.
We should observe that the Hebrews and Syrians rejoice in metaphors and parables, and run them together, easily passing from one to another.
Ver. 10. — According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise master-builder I have laid the foundation. Not mine is this building, not mine the work ; for although I, as the first architect, laid the foundations, by my preaching, of the Church at Corinth, yet whatever I did, and brought to perfection there, was done, not by my strength, but by the grace of God. Let, then, this building of God's Church be attributed to His grace, not to my efforts.
Ver. 11. — For other foundation can no man lay . I have laid the foundation of your Church : let Apollos and others see what superstructure they raise upon, but not endeavour to lay a new foundation. For no other foundation can be laid, for it is Jesus Christ Himself. The foundation, then, of the Church, and of each individual soul in it, is Jesus Christ, i.e., faith in Him as our Saviour, and especially that faith which is quickened by charity, on which I have built you. So Anselm, and S. Gregory (lib. vii. epist. 47).
In this sense Christ alone is the foundation of the Church, and the foundation of the foundations, as S. Augustine says (Ps. lxxxvii. 1), because He rests on Himself alone, and bears up all others, even Peter. In another sense Peter is the foundation of the Church, viz., a secondary one, because from his firmness in the faith he cannot publicly teach error, but always confirms others in it, and gives them light. This is laid down by S. Thomas and all Catholic theologians. In a similar sense, not only Peter, but all the Apostles, are called the foundations of the Church (Ps. lxxxvii. 1 ;
Vers. 12 and 13. — Now if any man build . . . the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. This is a metaphor drawn from a house on fire, which if constructed of gold or precious stones receives no damage, but if of wood or stubble is consumed.
Notice in passing that by “ precious stones ” we must here understand marble, porphyry, and the like, not diamonds or other gems ; for the houses of wealthy men are built of the former, not of the latter. Such was the boast of Augustus : “I received the city built of brick, I leave it built of marble.” The Apostle’s meaning, then, is that, if a fire occur, a house built of marble and gold is not injured by it, but rather shines the more brightly. But the next house, being built of wood and stubble, will burn, and its tenant will escape indeed, but he will be scorched. So if any Christian, and especially any teacher or preacher of the Gospel (for such are primarily referred to here, as appears from vers. 4, 6, and 10), build upon the faith of Christ gold and silver, that is, according to Theodore and Theophylact, holy works, and especially sound, edifying, and holy doctrine, he shall receive his reward. So Ambrose and S. Anselm.
S. Thomas says : “ Gold is charity ; silver , contemplative wisdom ; precious stones are the other virtues .” On the other hand, wood, hay, stubble are sins, not deadly sins, as Chrysostom, Theophylact, and Gregory ( contra . Magd. lib. iv. c. 13) think (for these are lead and brass, as is pointed out by Anselm and S. Thomas and S. Augustine (Enchirid. c. 68), nor are they built upon, but they overturn and destroy the building, viz., that living faith which alone wins a reward from Christ) ; but they represent venial sins, which make the mind cling to vanities, to worldly advantages, to vain-glory. But strictly speaking the Apostle is referring, when he speaks of wood, hay, stubble, to doctrine that is fluid, frivolous, showy, ornamental, wire-drawn , and useless. So say Ambrose, S. Thomas, Theodoret, Anselm. For he that builds these things on the foundation of faith in Christ shall be saved, yet so as by fire.
The Apostle in these verses leaves the Corinthians to give a warning to Apollos and their other teachers and preachers, especially those gifted with eloquence, to beware of their great danger, vainglory , and to be teachers of the truth in its purity, lest if they do otherwise they have to expiate their sin by fire. That there were some such at Corinth who had been the cause or the occasion of strife and division is pretty plainly hinted here and in the next verse.
For the day shall declare it This day is the day of the Lord, to be marked with a white or black stone, the day of judgment, especially of the universal judgment, which shall be revealed in fire. For that day of the Lord is now our day, as Anselm, Theodoret, Ambrose, and S. Thomas say. Cf. also 2 Tim. iv. 8; i. 12 ; and v. 15. In these and other places we are evidently to understand “that day” to be as it were a technical name for the famous day of universal judgment.
But notice that the day of particular judgment is also to be included under this day of universal judgment. For the judgment of both is one and the same, as is also their sentence.
It shall be revealed by fire. What is this fire? To answer this we must notice that the Apostle speaks of three things: (i.) that the day of the Lord shall be revealed in fire ; (2.) that it shall try each man’s work ; (3.) that those who build wood, hay, stubble shall pass through it, and shall be saved, yet so as by fire.
1. Many of the ancients, as Origen (in Lucam , hom. 14), Ambrose (in Ps. xxxvii.), Lactantius (lib. vii. c. 21), Basil (in Isa. iv.), Rupert (in Gen. lib . ii. c. 32), take the fire to be literal fire, which they think all souls, even those of Peter and Paul, must pass through on their way to heaven, to have their impurities purged away, whether it be the general conflagration at the end of the world, or the purgatorial fire beneath the earth, or some other fire in the upper aether. For Bede says (Hist. lib. iii. xix.) that S. Fursey saw huge fires on the road which led to heaven, through which the traveller must pass. But this opinion, though it has not been condemned, and though Bellarmine (de Purg. lib. ii. 1) has not ventured to condemn it, yet lacks foundation. For this passage of the Apostle’s, on which alone those who uphold this view rely, has a different meaning. That vision of Fursey’s, too, was merely a representation, under the image of literal fire, of God’s spiritual judgment and the punishments awaiting carnal men, as I will show presently.
2. S. Chrysostom and Theophylact, who were followed by the Greek Fathers at the Council of Florence, reply that it is hell-fire, in which the sinner will remain safely, undestroyed and undying, so as to undergo punishment everlastingly. But this is a perversion of the meaning: for salvation everywhere stands in Scripture for a state of freedom from pain and sorrow, never for an eternal existence in torments. And so all other interpreters understand it, as well as the Latin Fathers at that same Council.
But we should notice that though S. Chrysostom understands this verse of hell, yet he does not deny that it may refer to purgatory, as was falsely asserted by Mark, Archbishop of Ephesus, at the Council. He even expressly admits it (in Matt. Hom. 32, in Philipp. Hom. 3, Heb. Hom. 4, and elsewhere). In these places he exhorts the faithful to pray for the faithful departed in purgatory ; for we may not pray for those in hell, since there there is no redemption.
3. Heretics reply that this fire is the fire of the tribulation of this life ; and this is even implied by Anselm and Gregory (Dial. iv. 39) and Augustine (in Ps. xxxviii), all of whom, however, understand it of purgatory, or that it is the fire of confusion, which they feign that the Holy Spirit sends upon the Saints in life, or else at their death, as, e.g ., they say He did in the case of SS. Bernard, Francis, and Dominic, to show them their errors about the monastic life, the Mass, and Confession, that so they might have their eyes opened and be led to retract. But all this is a gratuitous invention, nor does there exist any such retractation made by these Saints or by others on their death-beds : they rather gave with constancy an exhortation to their followers to persist and go forward in the monastic life.
Add to this that many have died suddenly, and still die suddenly, or die in their sleep, and that they depart with the stain of venial sins. Where are they purged? Not in heaven, for there nothing that defiles shall enter (Rev. xxi. 27); not in hell, for that is the place of the lost ; therefore, it must be in purgatory. For after this life there is no place for the wonted mercy and pardon of God, but only for justice and for just making amends, or rather suffering amends, so that no one may say that God freely forgives all sin to the dead, i.e., all pain and guilt. Lastly, the day of death is not called the day of the Lord, but the day of judgment; nor does fire denote the confusion that happens then, but literal fire.
Calvin objects that wood, hay, stubble are used figuratively, so therefore is fire. I reply by denying that it follows ; for it appears that the day of the Lord is to be revealed by fire properly so called, and I shall show this directly.