The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: the First Epistle to the Corinthians
Cajetan’s interpretation of “ ours” that it means, “ Our jurisdiction extends itself to Corinth and to the Corinthians, so that the city and district of Corinth is both theirs and ours,” is forced. Lastly, why that is called the Church, or the summoning, or the assembly of those called to the faith, which formerly was called the synagogue, that is, the congregation ; and what it is, its nature and its marks, see in Bellarmine in his sound and learned dissertation on the Church.
Ver. 4. — I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ. “For the grace,” in Greek, ἐπὶ τῇ χάριτι, that is, on account of the grace of God, which is given you in Christy i.e., through Christ See Can. 25. “The source,” says S. Bernard (Serm. 13 in Cant.), “of all the springs and rivers is the sea : but the source of all virtue and knowledge is the Lord
Jesus Christ : the continence of the flesh, the energy of the heart, the rectitude of the will, all flow from that spring : let the heavenly stream be given back to its source ” (by thanksgiving), “ so that the farthest parts of the earth may be replenished ; ‘I will not give my glory to another,’ saith God ” (Isa. xlviii. 11).
Ver. 5. — That in everything ye are enriched by Him (by Christ), in all utterance (of the preaching of the Gospel), and in all knowledge , that is, in spiritual understanding of Him. In other words, I give thanks to God, because by me and Apollos He put before you, richly, the preaching and doctrine of the Gospel and a perception and understanding of it.
Ver. 6 . — Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you —i.e., by which, as by two testimonies, the Christian faith was founded and established in you. For the Greeks interpret the Greek καθώς, i.e., even as, by enallage, &*>’ through which, that is, the word and knowledge. Others interpret, Even as the testimony , thus : by which things, viz., by the preaching of the Gospel, and by the knowledge of it, as by a sure testimony, it is known that you are faithful and disciples of Christ.
Ver. 7. — Waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, in His second Advent, when you will receive from Christ an abundant supply of all graces, and your consummation in heavenly glory.
Ver. 8. — Who shall also confirm you, so far as His part is ; i.e., shall give grace which can confirm you, and shall confirm you indeed , if you are willing to receive it, to use it, and to confirm yourselves in the faith and love of Christ : shall confirm you, I say, for this, that ye may be, and may persevere unto the end (of life) blameless ; that is, unaccused, whom no one can charge with having committed anything against the faith and love of Christ. The Apostle speaks to the whole Church, in which the greater number were holy and blameless, although some few were sowing schisms, and these in the following verse he reproves and condemns.
In the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is an ellipse common with the Apostle : for we must supply, that ye may be and may appear , blameless in that day of the advent and judgment of Christ.
Ver. 9 . — God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Note, faithful with S. Paul is the same as constant, truthful, as I shall show on 1 Tim. i. 15 ; not, according to Calvin, as though God saves those only who have been effectually called by Him, and all of them ; and as though He bids and makes each one of them believe with a firm faith that he will be saved. For if so, why, in the next verse, anxious about the salvation of the Corinthians, does he condemn their divisions ? Had not the Corinthians believed ? — and yet, having lapsed into schisms, they had incurred the danger of damnation, and, therefore, Paul endeavours to avert it from them. The faithful, therefore, can lapse into sin and be damned. God, then, is said to be faithful, because, not without cause, will He, O Corinthians, withdraw His help from you which He began to give, and afterwards promised that He would give, in order that you might persevere and be confirmed in the faith and fellowship of Jesus ; nor will He desert you unless He be first deserted by you ; as the Council of Trent teaches (following S. Augustine), Sess. vi. c. 11 and 13, where it lays down the same three things which the Apostle does here : (1.) That God gives the grace of Christ to all the justified : because, if they are willing, they are able to persevere in righteousness. (2.) That they by their own will can fall from it. (3.) That no one knows whether he will persevere, and whether he is of the number of the elect, unless he has a special revelation of it from God.
Note secondly. Paul here calls the communion of the faith, grace and glory of Christ which is enjoyed in the Church of Christ, the fellowship of His Son ; or that partaking of Christ in which we have a fellowship of sonship, inheritance, the Sacraments, and all the benefits of Christ. In other words: Ye are called to be sons of God, fellows, members, brothers, and co-heirs of Christ : so Anselm, Ambrose, Theophylact and Chrysostom (whom see), and 1 S. John i. 3. And here notice : although, as the Apostle says, all faithful Christians are of the fellowship of Christ, yet some are more so than others : that is to say, those who share more largely of the life and grace of Christ : as those who follow, not only the precepts, but also the counsels of Christ; even as the Apostles were more of the fellowship of Christ than other Christians.
Ver. 10. — I beseech you , brethren , by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ , into whose one and the same fellowship, family, house, and Church we are all called, as many as are faithful and Christians, that ye all speak the same thing — that is to say, that, like brothers, ye agree in words and in speech, and that ye all say at the same time “ I am of Christ ; ” but let not one say, “ I am of Paul,” another, “ I of Apollos.” And, again, that ye agree not only in speech, but also in mind: otherwise your verbal confession would be feigned and false. Whence he adds as the root of concord : —
That ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment , that ye think the same thing and agree among yourselves in Christ, that ye be fitly united to each other in one mind and spirit in Christ For the Greek signifies, aptly and harmoniously to join and cement anything, so that the parts agree with each other and with the whole. And because a thing is then perfect and complete when it has in this way been neatly and harmoniously united, hence the word signifies also to perfect, as Ps. viii. 2 ; 2 Cor. xiii. 11. Be perfect , i.e., mutually agree amongst yourselves and with your Head ; and Ps. xl. 6 (Sept.).
Ver. 11. — For it hath been declared unto me by them of Chloe. Some think that Chloe is the name of a place, but this place is nowhere else mentioned ; nor does the Greek well allow Chloe to be a place. Whence more truly Chrysostom and the Syriac suppose it to be the name of a family or of a woman, and then the meaning is, I have heard from the family of Chloe. By a similar Greek idiom it is said, Rom. xvi. 10, 11 : “Salute them which are of Aristobulus, of Narcissus,” viz., of the house and family.
Ver. 12. — That every one of you; i.e., Whoever of you contend with one another, and foment any part of schism. (For there were among the Corinthians many others well-disposed and peaceful,