The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: the First Epistle to the Corinthians
Is the Lord’s freedman. Has been set free by Christ, and called to Christian liberty. Slaves, if they become Christians, are not to seek to be set free from their master’s service, but are to rejoice that they have been called from the service of sin into the freedom of grace and adoption of the sons of God. Cf. Chrysostom here, and Hom. xix. (in Morali.), where he shows that there is no antagonism between slavery and Christianity.
Ver. 23. — Ye are bought with a price . By the blood of Christ, which is called the price of our redemption. So Ambrose. Christ bought and redeemed you with a heavy price from the slavery of sin, and has made you children, and, therefore, be not ye the servants of men : do not sell yourselves into slavery if you can enjoy freedom. This civil freedom befits the freedman of Christ, and in it he can more completely serve Christ, more so than he does any owner, especially one that is a heathen.
Constantine the Great, about the year 330, in honour of Christ, and as an indulgence to His religion, decreed that no Jew should have a Christian slave. Any Jew who should disobey was to be beheaded, and his slave set at liberty. He thought it impious that Christians, who had been redeemed by the death of Christ, should be subjected to the yoke of slavery by those who had slain the Redeemer. This law was confirmed by the three sons of Constantine (Sozomen, lib. iii. c. 17). S. Gregory too ordered that the slave of a Jew who wished to be converted to Christianity should at his admission become free (lib. iii. Ep . 9). The Fourth Council of Toledo (cap. 64) has a similar enactment.
This is to be understood of Jews and pagans who are subject to the jurisdiction of some Christian prince. The Christian slaves of such become by that very fact free, and may therefore leave their master ; nay, if they are unbelievers, they may fly to the Church to become Christians and therefore free. For of these the laws say : In the case of those unbelievers who are not temporally subject to the Church or her members, the Church has not laid down the above-named right, although she might rightly do so. For she has the authority of God ; and unbelievers, by reason of their unbelief, deserve to lose their power over believers, who are transferred into children of God. But this the Church does not do, in order to avoid scandal, as S. Thomas says (pt ii. qu. x. art. 10).
Others not amiss explain this passage thus: Do not be the servants of men in such a way as to neglect the obedience owing to God. For they become servants of men who regard the opinion of men above all things, and flatter them even when they do wrong, and obey and serve them in all things, even when they order them to sin. So S. Chrysostom and Jerome (in Ep . ad Eph. vi.). For in Eph. vi. the Apostle bids servants serve their masters, not as men-pleasers , but as serving the Lord, and for the Lord’s sake.
Ver. 24. — Brethren , let every man wherein he is called therein abide with God. Whatever a man’s state when he comes to Christianity, whether bond or free, in that let him stay. With God implies that by so doing he will serve God, for if otherwise the Gentiles would complain that Christianity made their slaves restless and ambitious of liberty.
Ver. 25. — Now concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord: yet I give my judgment. I have no command that they are to remain virgins and serve God in that state, but I advise them to do so. This is the fifth question of the Corinthians, and the answer is that the law of Christ has no precept bidding them remain virgins, but that it is better for all to do so.
From this passage is proved the common opinion of the Fathers, that the single life is in our power if we seek it from God, and strive after it with undaunted fortitude, and co-operate with God’s grace through the appointed means. In this way every one can, if he likes, live unmarried, however much he may be by nature or habit inclined to impurity. Tertullian teaches this (de Monogam .), Chrysostom , Origen, Jerome (in S. Matt. c. xix.), Ambrose (de Viduis), Augustine (Enarr. in Ps. cxxxviii.), who says, “He who bids you take the vow, Himself helps you keep it.” And again (Conf. lib. vi. c. 11): “I know that Thou wouldst give me continence if I were but to deafen Thy ears with my inward groaning.” S. Paul too plainly implies the same thing in this verse and in ver. 7, where he recommends virginity to all. He would not counsel us nor order us to do anything but what lay in our own power, i.e., save what we can do with the grace of God which God has prepared for us, and which He offers to us, only waiting for us to ask for it, and to be willing to co-operate with it.
Christ teaches the same in S. Matt. xix., where, on the Apostles’ saying that, because of the burden and difficulties of matrimony, it was not expedient to marry, He gave His approbation to what they said, adding : (1.) “All men cannot receive this saying.” Origen and Nazianzen (Orat. de tribus Eunuch, Gener.) take this, “all are not capable of this saying,” understanding by capacity the natural leaning towards chastity, which all have not. But others take it better as meaning that all men do not receive this saying as vessels receive liquids : they do not approve of it, do not understand it, do not embrace chastity because of its difficulty. Hence Christ adds : (2.) “There be eunuchs which have made themselves eunuchs,” viz., of their own free will they have made themselves chaste, and have strengthened their purpose by a life-long vow. For this is the signification of the word eunuch — moral impotence. If the meaning is otherwise, it would have been better for Christ to say, “ There be some who are making themselves eunuchs, or endeavouring to make themselves eunuchs.” So S. Jerome, Epiphanius (Haeres. 58), Fulgentius (de Fide ad Petrum , c. iii.), Augustine (de Sancta
Christ adds (3.) that these eunuchs have made themselves such, not because of the inconveniences of marriage, nor even because of the Gospel, that they may preach it better, as heretics wrest these words of Christ, but “ for the kingdom of heaven’s sake,” i.e., that they may merit to obtain it. So Origen, Hilary, Chrysostom, Euthymius, and S. Augustine (de Sancta Virgin, c. 23).
Lastly, Christ ends by saying : “ He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.” These are the words of one who is exhorting and urging others to heroic virtue as well as to an illustrious reward. By these words, therefore, Christ puts before all a counsel of chastity as a thing that is most heroic and excellent. Christ does not say, says Chrysostom, all cannot, but all do not receive it, i.e., all indeed can receive it, but all do not wish to. He says : “ The power of making themselves eunuchs has been given by God to those that have sought for it, have wished for it, and have laboured to obtain it.”
It may be objected, Why, then, does Christ say, “He that is able to receive it, let him receive it?” For by these words He implies that all cannot receive it. I reply that by the words he that is able, He merely means that it is a hard and difficult matter. In other words, he who is willing to force himself, who is willing to strive with all his might to accomplish so arduous a task, let him receive it and obtain it. So in the comic writer it is said, “I cannot, mother, take this woman as my wife,” i.e., I am unwilling, because it is difficult for me to do so, because this wife does not please me. Frequently also in Scripture the difficult is spoken of as impossible. Again, all cannot contain by their own power, but by received power they can. They can pray, and prayers and co-operation obtain for themselves an immediate power of continence.
Although, therefore, all have not the gift of continency enabling them actually to contain, as all the righteous have not the gift of perseverance to enable them actually to persevere in grace; yet, just as all the righteous have the gift of perseverance by which they can, if they like, persevere, so can all have the gift of continency if only they seek for strength from God for it, and co-operate with God’s grace coming through the appointed means. It is different with the gift of prophecy, and other gifts that are given gratuitously, which frequently we can obtain neither by prayer nor by co-operation. Nevertheless, since there are some who are prone to lust, and have not the spirit to labour earnestly after that heroic virtue which by the grace of God they might have, but easily allow themselves to be led astray by nature and habit, so as to yield to the temptations of lust, hence it is better for them and others equally weak to enter into matrimony, “for it is better to marry than to burn.”
As one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful. I counsel virginity, as being he who has been mercifully called to the grace of Apostleship among the Gentiles, in order to counsel them faithfully. So Ambrose, Anselm, Theodoret. In other words, the more unworthy I am when compared with the other Apostles, the greater is the mercy and grace with which I have been called to the apostolate, and the more incumbent is it upon me to be faithful, and to give faithful counsel to those to whom I have been sent by Christ.
Ver. 26 . — I suppose , therefore , that this is good. Either virginity, with Ambrose and others, or else that they remain virgins, as was said in the note to ver. 25.