The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: the First Epistle to the Corinthians
S. Eurosia too, daughter of the King of Bohemia, having been taken prisoner by the King of the Moors, chose death rather than marriage with him ; and while she was patiently awaiting the sword of the executioner, she heard an angel saying, “ Come, my elect, the spouse of Christ, receive the crown which the Lord hath prepared for you, and the gift that your prayers shall be heard as often as the faithful call upon you for help against rain or any storm whatsoever.” Having heard these words, her arms and legs having been lopped off, she gave up the ghost, being renowned for her miracles, as Lucius Marinaeus Siculus relates (de Rebus Hispan. lib. v.).
But God hath called us unto peace. Peace of conscience with God, and of agreement with men. Therefore, on our part, let us not depart from unbelieving husbands, but live with them as peacefully as we can. Secondly , and more fitly, peace here stands for that rest and tranquil life to which the Apostle is urging the married believer. Such a life in separation and solitude is to be preferred to marriage with an unbeliever who wishes to depart, and who is perpetually provoking the believer to quarrel, and disturbing his peace. This better agrees with the mention of departure which has gone just before these words, and of which I shall have more to say.
Ver. 16. — For what knowest thou , O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband ? If we take the first meaning of “ peace” given above, the sense will be : Live in peace as far as you can, O believer, with your unbelieving partner, for you know not the good that he may derive thence : perhaps by living with him you will convert him and save him. So Chrysostom, Ambrose, Anselm, Theophylact, and others. If we take the second meaning of peace, the sense will be still better. Peace is the gift of Christ ; to this have we been called , not to unhappy and quarrelsome slavery. If, therefore, the unbeliever seeks by quarrels, abuse, by threats against the faith and against his faithful partner, to drive her away, let her depart and live peacefully, and give up all hope of his conversion. For what ground of hope is there of one that is a heathen, blasphemous, and quarrelsome ? Therefore, what do you know, or whence do you hope to save him ?
Ver. 17. — But as God hath distributed to every man , as the Lord hath called every one , so let him walk . I have said thus much about the marriage of an unbeliever with a believer, and about separation and divorce, if the unbeliever seek for it, and about living together in peace ; but I do not wish to be understood to mean that a divorce is to be sought for, or that peace is to be broken, merely through lust and a desire to change one’s state, as, e.g., that a believer, because he is a believer and called to Christian liberty, may desire and find an excuse for changing his servile condition into one of freedom, his position as a Gentile into that of a Jew. I ordain, therefore, that each one of the faithful, whether he be a Jew or a Gentile, bond or free, maintain the state and condition which the Lord has given him, and which he had before he became a believer. Let each one walk in his own line ; let him be content with that, and live as becometh a Christian; let him not grow restless to change his state because of his Christianity, and so cause the Gentiles to stumble.
This seems to be the answer to a fourth question put to Paul by the Corinthians, viz., whether Christians who had been slaves before conversion became free when they were made Christians— Christian liberty, it might seem, calls for this; and, again, whether Gentiles who had been made, or were about to be made Christians, ought to be circumcised as the Jews. For the Apostles and the first Christians were Jews, and were made into Christians out of Judaism, and hence some thought that Judaism was a necessary medium between heathenism and Christianity. To both questions Paul gives an answer in the negative.
Ver. 18. — Let him not become uncircumcised. For the possibility of the actual restoration of the forsaken, see Celsus (lib. vii. c. 25). For its actual use by apostate Jews, see 1 Macc. i. 18, and
Josephus (Antiq. lib. xii. c. 6) and Epiphanius (de Ponder. et Mensur.). The latter says that Esau was the author of this practice, and that therefore it was said of him : “ Esau have I hated.” He also tells us that Jews, when they passed over to the Samaritans, were commonly circumcised a second time, and that Symmachus, who was as famous as Aquila and Theodotion as an interpreter of Holy Scripture, was so treated. Similarly, the Anabaptists baptize again those who have left their ranks and then returned. There is a reference to this perhaps in Martial’s Epigram, where he speaks of not flying from the circumcised Jew, and in Juvenal’s [Hor. i. Sat. v. 100], saying, “Let the uncircumcised Jew believe it ; I will not.”
S. Jerome, in commenting on Isa. liii., gives these words a mystical and symbolical meaning : “ Art thou called being unmarried, then do not marry.” But this is outside the literal meaning.
Ver. 19. — Circumcision is nothing. It neither profits nor prevents the salvation of a Christian. He is treating of converted Jews, as appears from what has gone before. So Cajetan, Ambrose, Anselm.
Ver. 20. — Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called. If one that is circumcised, or that is a slave, or married, come to Christianity, let him not on that account change his state, but remain circumcised, a slave, or married. The state was to be retained, provided it were one that was lawful and honest. S. Cyprian refused to admit actors to the sacraments of the Church.
S. Ephrem ( Adhortat. 4, vol. ii.) says well: “In whatever work you have been called, strengthen your anchors and ropes , that you may be safe , as if in port, from all storms , and that your ship may not be driven out into the ocean .”
Ver. 21. — Art thou called being a servant? Care not for it. Be not anxious about your state, as though slavery were inconsistent with your Christian profession ; be rather glad that you have been set free by Christ from the slavery of sin and death, and made the servant of God, even though in this life you are the servant of man, so long as it shall seem good to God. Cf. the apophthegms quoted in the notes to Exod. i. 12.
There is a golden saying of S. Augustine ( Sentent. num . 53) ; He says : " Whatever evil a master does to the righteous is not punishment for misdoing but a trial of their virtue . For a good man , even though he be a slave , is free ; but a bad man , though he be a king , is a slave; nor does he serve one person only , but , what is far worse , he has as many masters as vices.” Again (num. 24), he says : “ God's service is always freedom, for He is served, not of necessity but from love."
But if thou mayest be made free , use it rather. 1. Use that slavery as a cause of humility to the glory of God. Hence Theodoret explains it thus: Grace knows no difference between slavery and freedom. Do not, therefore, flee from slavery as though it were inconsistent with the faith ; but, if it is possible for you to obtain your freedom, yet go on as a slave and await your reward. So too it is explained by S. Chrysostom, Theophylact, and S. Thomas. What follows is in perfect harmony with this exposition.
2. It is better, however, to explain it thus: If you gain your freedom, embrace it and enjoy it. The word rather points clearly to this meaning, for who is there that would not prefer freedom to slavery, especially if he is a slave of an unbeliever, so that he cannot serve Christ freely? S. Paul clearly advises this afterwards when he says, “Ye are bought with a price : be not ye the servants of men.”
We should notice that the Apostle is here speaking not of hired servants, such as are found among Christians now-a-days, but such as were the absolute property of their master, such as the Gentiles had, even when converted to Christianity, such as even now Christians have from the Turks and Moors. The opposition is between slaves and free men.
S. Jerome (in Apolog. pro lib . ad Jovin.), following Origen (in Epis . ad. Rom. lib. i.), explains this passage of the service of matrimony. “ If, like a slave, you have been bound to matrimony, care not for it ; do not torture yourself as though it were impossible to live a godly life when married and attain salvation. Still, if you can persuade your wife to set you free and let you live separately as a single man, rather choose this.” But the former sense is the simpler and more relevant.
Ver. 22. — For he that is called in the Lord being a servant. These words, by a common Hebrew mode of speech, refer to the first clause of the preceding verse, and not to the words immediately preceding. The Apostle’s chief aim here is to teach slaves to be content with their servile condition, and to bear it patiently, until God in His providence should appoint them another by giving them their freedom. They have been already called in the Lord, i.e., by the Lord, to the faith and grace of Jesus Christ.