The Expositor's Bible: The First Epistle to the CorinthiansDods, Marcus
Religion
The Expositor's Bible: The First Epistle to the Corinthians
Dods, Marcus
Bible. Corinthians, 1st -- Commentaries
Our conduct must be limited and to a certain extent regulated by the
narrow-mindedness, the scruples, the prejudices, the weakness in
short, of others. We cannot say, I see my way to do so-and-so, let my
friend think what he pleases; I am not to be trammelled by his
superstition or ignorance; let my conduct have what effect it will on
him; I am not responsible for that; if he does not see it to be right,
I do, and I will act accordingly. We cannot speak thus if the matter
be indifferent; if it be a matter we can lawfully abstain from, then
abstain we must if we would follow the Apostle who followed Christ.
This is the practical law which stands in the forefront of Christ's
teaching and was sealed by every day of His life. It is enounced not
only by St. Paul: "Destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ
died;" "Through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom
Christ died," but also in our Lord's still more emphatic words, "Whoso
shall offend one of these little ones which believe in Me, it were
better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that
he were drowned in the depth of the sea." Paul could not look on his
weak brethren as narrow-minded bigots, could not call them hard names
and ride rough-shod over their scruples; and to this delicate
consideration he was aided by the remembrance that these were the
persons for whom Christ died. For them Christ sacrificed, not merely a
little feeling or a little of His own way, but His own will and self
entirely. And the spirit of Christ is still manifested in all in whom
He dwells, specially in a humility and yieldingness of disposition
which is not led by self-interest or self-complacency, but seeks the
weal of other men. Nothing shows us more distinctly the thorough
manner in which St. Paul partook of the spirit of Christ than his
ability to say, "I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own
profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved. Be ye
followers of me, even as I also am of Christ."
_MAINTENANCE OF THE MINISTRY._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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