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
The Church of Corinth was in some danger of forgetting this. One of
its members in particular had been guilty of a scandalous breach even
of the heathen code of morals; and of him Paul uncompromisingly says,
"Put away from among yourselves that wicked person." Even with sinners
of a less flagrant sort, no communion was to be held. "If any man that
is called a brother"--that is, claiming to be a Christian--"be a
fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard,
or an extortioner, with such a one you must not even eat." No doubt
there is risk and difficulty in administering this law. The graver
hidden sin may be overlooked, the more obvious and venial
transgression be punished. But the duty of the Church to maintain its
sanctity is undeniable, and those who act for the Church must do their
best in spite of all difficulty and risk.
The prime duty, however, lies with the members, not with the rulers,
in the Church. Those whose function it is to watch over the purity of
the Church would be saved from all doubtful action were the
individual members alive to the necessity of holy living. This, they
should bear in mind, is the very object of the Church's existence and
of their being in it.
3. Thirdly, it is ever to be borne in mind that the true Church of
Christ is to be found, not in one country nor in one age, not in this
or that Church, whether it assume the title of "Catholic" or pride
itself on being national, but is composed of "all that in every place
call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." Happily the time is gone
by when with any show of reason any one Church can claim to be
catholic on the ground of its being coextensive with Christendom. It
is true that Cardinal Newman, one of the most striking figures and
probably the greatest Churchman of our own generation, attached
himself to the Church of Rome on this very ground: that it possessed
this note of catholicity. To his eye, accustomed to survey the
fortunes and growth of Christ's Church during the early and mediæval
centuries, it seemed that the Church of Rome alone had any reasonable
claim to be considered the Church catholic. But he was betrayed, as
others have been, by confounding the Church visible with the Church
invisible. No one visible Church can claim to be the Church catholic.
Catholicity is not a matter of more or less; it cannot be determined
by a majority. No Church which does not claim to contain the whole of
Christ's people without exception can claim to be catholic. Probably
there are some who accept this alternative, and do not see it to be
absurd to claim for any one existing Church that it is coextensive
with the Church of Christ.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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