Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He continues in uprooting the schism, pride, and boasting of the Corinthians, and especially of certain arrogant teachers who despised Paul. And this firstly, by showing that he does not care about, nor should one care about, the judgments of men, but of God alone. Secondly, in verse 7, he refutes their inflation, saying: "What hast thou that thou hast not received?" Thirdly and chiefly, he urges them, in verse 9, by his own example and that of the other Apostles, who in all humility, affliction, and contempt, as the offscouring and refuse of the world, were everywhere evangelizing. Fourthly, in verse 15, he presses upon them as upon his own sons, that he as a Father has begotten them in Christ, and threatens that he will shortly come to Corinth, that he may rebuke and punish these glorious and inflated false teachers.
Vulgate Text: 1 Corinthians 4:1-21
1. Let a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ, and the dispensers of the mysteries of God. 2. Here now it is required among the dispensers, that a man be found faithful. 3. But to me it is a very small thing to be judged by you, or by man's day: but neither do I judge my own self. 4. For I am not conscious to myself of any thing; yet am I not hereby justified: but He that judgeth me is the Lord. 5. Therefore judge not before the time, until the Lord come: who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts; and then shall every man have praise from God. 6. But these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos, for your sakes: that in us you may learn that one be not puffed up against the other for another, above that which is written. 7. For who distinguisheth thee? Or what hast thou that thou hast not received? And if thou hast received, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it? 8. You are now full; you are now become rich: you reign without us; and I would to God you did reign, that we also might reign with you! 9. For I think that God hath set forth us Apostles, the last, as it were men appointed to death: we are made a spectacle to the world, and to angels, and to men. 10. We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ: we are weak, but you are strong: you are honourable, but we without honour. 11. Even unto this hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no fixed abode, 12. and we labour, working with our own hands: we are reviled, and we bless: we are persecuted, and we suffer: 13. we are blasphemed, and we entreat: we are made as the refuse of this world, the offscouring of all even until now. 14. I write not these things to confound you; but I admonish you as my dearest children. 15. For if you have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet not many fathers. For in Christ Jesus, by the Gospel, I have begotten you. 16. Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me, as I also am of Christ. 17. For this cause have I sent to you Timothy, who is my dearest son and faithful in the Lord: who will put you in mind of my ways, which are in Christ Jesus; as I teach everywhere in every church. 18. As if I would not come to you, so some are puffed up. 19. But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord will: and will know, not the speech of them that are puffed up, but the power. 20. For the kingdom of God is not in speech, but in power. 21. What will you? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in charity, and in the spirit of meekness?
Verse 1: Let a Man So Account of Us as of the Ministers of Christ
"A man," that is, each individual. For this is the Hebrew איש ish, as if to say: I have forbidden you to glory in men, Paul and Apollos; lest from this anyone should despise us, I say: Let everyone so account of us Apostles, that is, esteem us, as ministers of Christ and dispensers of the mysteries of Christ.
Dispensers. — Chemnitz cavils, [saying] that from this the Council of Trent proves that the Pontiff can dispense in vows and laws; but wrongly, he says, because here "to dispense" does not signify "to relax," as the Council wishes, but "to distribute." I reply, the Council understood this very well, but only argues thus: If the dispensation of the things of the Church has been entrusted to the Pontiff, therefore he can in certain cases, where the matter requires, dispense — that is, loose vows, oaths, penances, and remit the debt of temporal punishment: just as a steward in a household can do many things, where the honor or utility of his master requires it — dispense, give, or relax; for this pertains to the governance of the household committed to him, provided he dispense well and not rashly squander, as St. Bernard teaches in his book On Precept and Dispensation, and book III On Consideration to Eugenius: "It is required," he says, "among the dispensers, that a man be found faithful. Where necessity urges, the dispensation is excusable. Where utility prompts, the dispensation is praiseworthy. I say utility that is common, not private: for when none of these things is present, it is not properly faithful dispensation, but cruel squandering."
Note here: For "dispenser," the Greek is oeconomus (steward), who has the care of the household, governs all things in it, distributes, orders; nay even gives and remits debts, where he sincerely believes this to please his master, or to be useful for his master's honor. For his chief virtue is fidelity and prudence. Thus the Pontiff in the Church, as in God's household, orders all things, gives indulgences, releases vows, as the steward and vicar of Christ.
Of the mysteries of God — of the mystical, hidden, and divine doctrine, and the Sacraments of Christ. For both of these are the mysteries of Christ, and Christ entrusted them to Paul and the Apostles, as His stewards. Hence the contention and schism of the Corinthians arose chiefly from the sacrament of Baptism, in that one boasted he had been baptized by Paul, another by Apollos, as is clear from chapter 1:13.
Verse 2: Here Now It Is Required Among the Dispensers, That a Man Be Found Faithful
As if to say: I have called you away, O Corinthians, from the examination of human wisdom and eloquence to the simple and humble doctrine of Christ, that you may not dispute whether Paul or Apollos is wiser or more eloquent; and I have said that each of us is only a dispenser of this doctrine. Perhaps you, inclined to compare us, will now begin to dispute about our faithful dispensation, and to ask what men are wont to ask about a steward — whether we are faithful, and whether Paul is more faithful than Apollos, or rather Apollos more faithful than Paul in his preaching office. Many of you say: Paul is more faithful and more effective, but Apollos is more eloquent. Others, displaying other catechists and teachers of theirs, vaunt their wisdom, as though [they were] better and more faithful than us. Wherefore, that I may cut off all this comparison and your judgments, I say I do not care for your or anyone's judgments, but only God's. Thus Theophylact, drawing from Chrysostom.
Note: The chief endowment of a dispenser is fidelity, as Christ notes in Luke 12:42: "Who, thinkest thou, is the faithful and wise steward?" To which sentence of Christ Paul here alludes. "He is faithful," says Theophylact, "if he does not claim and appropriate his master's goods to himself, so that he treats things not as a master but dispenses them as belonging to another and to his master; not saying that things which are his master's are his own, but on the contrary that what is his is his master's." Such is the teacher and preacher who seeks and looks not to his own glory, but only to God's glory and the conversion and salvation of souls, and labors with all diligence to procure it, not only by his preaching, but also by holiness and by the example of a perfect life.
Verse 3: To Me It Is a Very Small Thing That I Should Be Judged by You, or by Man's Day
(I would esteem it of little account.) — That is, by human judgment. For thus the day of the Lord is called and is the judgment of the Lord: thus a day is spoken of for the accused, when they are summoned to present themselves at judgment, by metonymy. So Jerome to Algasia, Question X. Where he adds that Paul, being a native of Tarsus in Cilicia, in keeping with the Greek phrase, called "man's day" human judgment.
But rather Paul, being a Hebrew, seems to have borrowed this phrase from a Hebrew idiom; for he alludes to Jeremiah 17:16, where Jeremiah, mocked by his own people and afflicted on account of his prophecies, says thus: "I have not desired the day of man, Lord, Thou knowest." Note here: The day of man is that in which a man prospers and, as one powerful, happy, and glorious, is honored and praised by all, as if Jeremiah were saying: I have not desired a longer life, prosperity, riches, honors, delights, the applause of men: for if I had looked to these, I would not have prophesied sad and dreadful things to them, but would have applauded their glory and lusts; but now I have done none of this, nor have I desired the day and applause of man. For I know that man is אנוש enosh, that is, wretched, frail, and one who shall soon perish and die with all his applause and goods: knowing and considering this, I have desired to serve, please, obey, and be commended not by man, but by Thee alone, O Lord God, in my prophecies and sermons; and therefore I invoke Thee as the judge and sole witness of this my desire, saying: "Thou knowest," just as Job invokes saying, in chapter 16, verse 20: "For behold, my witness is in heaven, and He that knoweth my conscience is on high." Thus St. Jerome, Rabanus, Hugo, St. Thomas, Lyra on Jeremiah 17. Imitating Jeremiah, then, the Apostle says: "To me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you, or by man's day," that is, by the power and wisdom of this world, by the favor and commendation of men, by human judgment. I fear nothing as to what you may judge of me, or the most powerful and famous of this world. Happy is he who could say: "I have not desired the day of man," so that he has God as witness of this. This is the highest perfection, by which we count all things as dung, that we may gain Christ. Moses, when already grown, accomplished this (for it is a thing for the great), denying that he was the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be afflicted with the people of God than to have the pleasure of temporal sin, Hebrews 11.
Excellently St. Chrysostom, in his moral homily here: "Let us not, then," he says, "seek the praises of others. For this is an injury to Him (the Lord God), if, as though He did not suffice to praise us, omitting Him, we hasten to our fellow servants. For just as those who contend in a small theater seek a greater one for themselves, as if it were not enough to display themselves: so those who, contending in God's sight, from there seek for themselves the fame of men — abandoning the greater theater for desire of the lesser — bring upon themselves great punishment. This therefore perverts all things, this has disturbed the whole world: that we do everything in regard to men, and in good works we have no care to have God as our praiser, but seek praise for ourselves from our fellow servants. In crimes again, despising God, we fear men, and no one would fornicate with a man present; but although he might burn with the greatest lust, he would yet, by the violence of his affection, be conquered by shame of men. But when God sees, men not only commit adultery, not only fornicate, but they have dared and dare far graver things. Would not this alone be enough that we should be struck with countless thunderbolts from heaven? Hence all evils have arisen, namely that in shameful matters we fear not God but men."
The same Chrysostom, homily 17 on the Epistle to the Romans: "Just as," he says, "children at play place crowns of hay on each other, and often mock the crowned one behind his back, ignorant of the matter; so indeed even now, those who praise you to your face, secretly mock you among themselves, and so what else happens than that we too place hay-crowns on one another? And would that it were nothing but hay! But now this our crown is full of much instruction: for it destroys all our good deeds. Therefore, considering its own worthlessness, flee that loss. For if a hundred, or a thousand, or countless praisers stand by applauding, yet all of them would differ in no way from the jackdaws chattering above. Indeed, if you weigh the theater of angels, they will appear viler even than worms, and their proclamation weaker than a spider's web, smoke, or dreams. Say to your soul as Paul said: Knowest thou not that we shall judge angels? and rouse it from this filth, and rebuke it, saying: Wilt thou judge angels, and dost thou wish to be judged by the unclean?"
Prudently too St. Jerome to Pammachius, on the death of Paulina: "The first virtue of a monk," he says, "is to despise the judgments of men, and ever to remember the Apostle saying: If I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. Something similar the Lord speaks to the Prophets: that He has set their face as a brazen city and an adamant stone and an iron pillar, that they might not be afraid at the injuries of the people, but might wear down the impudence of the mockers by the firmness of their forehead."
Finally Anselm here: "The just," he says, "do not look to human judgments but to the examination of the eternal Judge, and therefore with Paul they despise the words of detractors." This is therefore what one of the Saints said: "If you wish to be blessed, learn to despise and to be despised."
But Neither Do I Judge My Own Self.
In Greek anakrino, that is, I judge or examine, as if to say: I cannot judge myself, my works, intention, conscience with certainty.
Verse 4: I Am Not Conscious to Myself of Any Thing; Yet Am I Not Hereby Justified
As if to say: I do not judge myself, for although I am not conscious to myself of any infidelity in the Apostolic office, yet I am not therefore truly just; not before men: for I do not care about their judgment, as I have said; but before God: for He perhaps sees sins in me which I do not see. Hence St. Basil, in the Monastic Constitutions, ch. 1: "Although we all offend in many things," he says, "yet we do not even understand the greater part of our offenses. Therefore the Apostle said: I am not conscious to myself of any thing, but I am not justified in this — which is the same as if he were saying: I commit many faults which I do not know that I commit. For this cause also the Prophet says: Who can understand his sins? Therefore you will not be lying if you call yourself a sinner."
Hence it is clear against the Novatians [innovators] that the just do not know with certainty, much less believe, that they are just. They themselves reply that the Apostle did not know that he was just by considering only his own works, but yet knew it from faith and Sacred Scripture, which promises righteousness to everyone who believes in Christ, as if to say: I know that I am just, not because I avoid sin and live holy, but through the mercy of God, because I believe that Christ justifies me freely. But this answer is frivolous and made up; for the Apostle adds:
Verse 5: Until the Lord Come, Who Both Will Bring to Light the Hidden Things of Darkness
That is, the dark, obscure, hidden thoughts and actions of men. Therefore he wishes that to God alone the secrets of man — especially intentions, secret inclinations, and the depths of the heart, which to man is a deep abyss — and consequently righteousness, are certainly open; so that no one ought to judge another, nor indeed himself, whether from faith, or works, or the grace of Christ, but God alone. For we often think we are doing well when we are doing badly; we think we are acting from grace and the love of God, what we are doing from love of our own glory or lust. Thus Chrysostom, Ambrose here, and Jerome, in dialogue 2 Against the Pelagians, at the beginning; and Basil, Monastic Constitutions, ch. 11, where he speaks thus: "Although we offend God in many things, yet we do not even understand the greater part of our offenses; therefore the Apostle said: I am not conscious to myself of any thing, yet I am not hereby justified; which is the same as if he were saying: I commit many faults which I do not know that I commit. For this cause the Prophet says: Who can understand his sins?" Beautifully too St. Augustine discusses this in Psalm 41, on the passage: Abyss — namely of human misery and blindness — calls upon the abyss of divine light and mercy.
It is confirmed firstly, because even God does not know that we are just from our works, but from faith; and this we know as much as God does, because we believe by faith according to the Novatians; therefore according to them what the Apostle says is false, namely that we do not know this, but only God.
Secondly, because for God to illuminate the hidden things of darkness and to manifest the counsels of hearts is not for God to look through and manifest faith, but the machinations, intentions, and works of each.
Thirdly, because just as our works are uncertain to us, so also is faith, which alone justifies according to the Novatians; because man does not know with certainty whether he believes in Christ with firm and divine faith; therefore much less does he know that he is just by it. The same the Holy Spirit teaches often elsewhere, as in Ecclesiastes 9:1: "Man knoweth not whether he be worthy of love, or hatred." Proverbs 20:9: "Who can say: My heart is clean?" Job 9:21: "If I shall be simple, even this shall my soul be ignorant of." Jeremiah 17:9: "The heart is perverse above all things, and unsearchable."
Verse 6: But These Things I Have in a Figure Transferred to Myself and to Apollos, for Your Sakes, That in Us You May Learn, That [One Be Not Puffed Up] Above That Which Is Written
(Which I wrote in chapter II, verses 2, 3. Secondly, St. Chrysostom: "not above," that is, contrary to Sacred Scripture, which teaches that one is not to be proud. Foolishly therefore in this passage the Novatians abuse [Scripture] against traditions), that one be not puffed up against another for another. — "But these things," namely what I said against the empty discrimination and boasting of teachers, and about not caring for the praise and judgment of men but only of God; "I have transferred in figure," Greek metaschematisa, I transferred into a figure, established as a type and example of them in me and Apollos, as if to say: I have transposed the persona of others into us two, and have spoken of them under our names, lest by naming, or by generally censuring, those teachers who are unfaithful dispensers and vain teachers (against whom I am chiefly arguing in this chapter), or their disciples among you, I might offend. "That in us," that is, under our person and name, who are your first fathers, you may understand much more other teachers (who are the occasion of this schism of yours, since I and Apollos are free and innocent of it); and that by our example, modesty, and concord, you, O Corinthians, may not be inflated nor glory "for another," namely a catechist or instructor, by saying: I was baptized by Apollos; I was converted by Paul. Or rather you, O teachers, do not be proud, and as though wiser and more eloquent than other teachers, "for another," that is, for your disciples as though wiser than the disciples of other teachers, do not be inflated above what has been written by me; do not boast of your school and discipline, nor give your disciples occasion for boasting.
For henceforth he rather chides the teachers themselves than the Corinthians, but modestly and without naming; teachers, I say, who were the cause and fuel of this vanity, contention, and schism among their Corinthian disciples. This is clear from verses 15, 18, 19, and the preceding chapter, verses 10 and 12, and from the whole chapter 11 of the Second Epistle. For these seem to be the same false teachers whom here he more modestly censures and rebukes (as being still hidden and not yet sufficiently exposing themselves), and whom in 2 Corinthians, chapter 11, he more sharply reproves (as already convicted of imposture, Judaism, and false teaching). Hence in the Greek, as Theophylact and Oecumenius note from Chrysostom, Paul first chides the teachers. For it has, hina en hēmin mathēte to mē hyper ho gegraptai phronein, that is, that you may learn (you, O teachers) in us, Paul and Apollos as your teachers, not to think above what is written — namely by me — namely that we (and much more you) are only dispensers of God. Then consequently he curbs the disciples saying: hina mē heis hyper tou henos physiousthe kata tou heterou, that is, that one be not puffed up for the one against the other, for another — namely his instructor — as though wiser or more eloquent. Paul therefore here seems to continue his discourse to the Corinthians; but in them, and through them, he rebukes here their teachers and, as he says in verse 15, their pedagogues: just as a clever and discreet pedagogue, wishing to rebuke the sons of a prince, for the sake of honor and reverence rebukes their servants as the authors of the deed, that the prince's sons may apply the same to themselves.
Be Puffed Up
That is, let him be proud and swell with the haughtiness of elation and arrogance. Note: A proud man is fittingly called inflated, and to be inflated means to be proud, the metaphor taken from wineskins. For wineskins are said to be inflated when, although empty and vain inside, they are nevertheless so distended and swollen by breath and wind that they bear the bulk and appearance of a thick body. In like manner the proud man, who swells and is exalted on account of knowledge, eloquence, or some similar gift — empty within of true knowledge, wisdom, and virtue — is so inflated and swollen outwardly with the wind of vain presumption and arrogance that he is most like an inflated, windy wineskin.
Verse 7: For Who Distinguisheth Thee?
The Greek diakrinei signifies to set before and prefer, as well as to distinguish, separate, adjudge. Theophylact translates psephizei, as if to say: By whose vote is this distinction and preeminence given to you? Now Chrysostom and Theophylact thus explain this saying: "Who," namely not man but God, "distinguishes you?" so that Paul returns to verses 3 and 4. For here the Greek verb diakrinō is the same as there, as if to say: It belongs to God to distinguish you, that is, to judge; you should not care for the judgments of men.
Secondly and better, as if to say: Who distinguishes you — that is, separates or removes you from the flock of the rest, as one more excellent than they, O Corinthian catechumen? as if to say: No one, except you who are inflated: for although you may have been baptized or instructed by one holier, more eloquent, more learned, you are not on that account holier or more learned. For that the Apostle properly looks to this distinction of disciples is clear from all that precedes, and Ambrose, Anselm, and Theodoret teach.
Thirdly, and especially to the Apostle's mind — who, as I have said, seems rather to address the teachers than the disciples — this seems to be the genuine sense of the passage: Who distinguishes you, O teacher, as though in Christianity or in evangelizing greater and better than others, except you yourself who, on account of wisdom and eloquence, vainly exalt yourself above others, and have taught your followers — like Psaphon's birds — to exalt and praise you as their teacher? If you say: My labor, study, and industry distinguish me from others over whom I excel — I answer: "What hast thou that thou hast not received?" as if to say: Your labor, talent, and other gifts of nature, in which you glory, you have received from God; much more have you received supernatural gifts from God; therefore you must give God all the glory. Wisely St. Ephrem, tract On Penance: "Offer to God," he says, "not your own things, that He may give you what are His." Hence the Council of Orange, canon 22, defines that we have nothing of ourselves, except lying and sin. This is the literal sense and the mind of the Apostle.
Note however here that St. Augustine often, Prosper, Fulgentius, and the Second Council of Orange, canon 6, transfer this general saying of the Apostle: "Who distinguisheth thee?" — from the distinction of natural gifts (such as wisdom and eloquence, of which the Apostle properly speaks here) — by parity of reasoning to the distinction of supernatural gifts of grace and divine predestination: for both other gifts of nature, and good works done by the powers of nature alone, as well as the labor, study, and wisdom of teachers, are irrelevant to grace and holiness; and if those gifts do not distinguish a man, so that he can glory in natural things as wiser, more eloquent, more excellent, much less will the same distinguish a man in supernatural things, so that he should glory that he has been made holy or holier from them. For this cause, then, St. Augustine with his followers refers "who distinguisheth thee?" to grace and predestination, in this sense, that no one can separate himself from the mass of perdition and sinners, and begin the beginning of his salvation by himself and by the powers of his own nature, as the Pelagians and Semi-Pelagians wished.
Thus then God distinguishes the just from the not-just, not the powers of nature, because God is the first and chief cause of the gifts that are in the justified: so that the justified has nothing by which he is distinguished from the not-justified that he has not received from God, and so nothing in which he can glory as though he had not received it: yet this does not remove the fact that the very same thing depends also on the free cooperation of our will, without which it would not exist. For St. Augustine, De Spiritu et Littera, chapter 34, teaches that by free will helped by grace he who is converted distinguishes himself from him who is not converted, where he says thus: "To consent to the divine call, or to dissent from it, belongs to one's own will; which thing not only does not weaken what was said: 'What hast thou that thou hast not received?' but even confirms it. For the soul cannot receive and have the gifts of which it hears this, except by consenting; and through this, what it has and what it receives is God's: but to receive and to have certainly belongs to the receiver and the haver," namely to him who freely consents to God's call and grace, as St. Augustine said before.
Briefly and forcefully too St. Bernard, tract On Grace and Free Will: "What," he says, "is given by God alone to free will, can no more belong to the recipient without consent, than without the grace of the giver."
If therefore you ask: Who distinguishes the one believing from the one not willing to believe, granting that he has received from God a grace exciting to believe equal to him? I reply: The one believing, by his own free will — not by the powers of nature, as Pelagius wished, but by the powers of grace — distinguishes himself from the unbeliever: for it was in his free judgment to consent to grace, or not to consent, and consequently to believe, or not to believe; therefore when he believes, he believes freely, freely consents to the grace of God, freely distinguishes himself from the unbeliever.
You will say: Therefore in that he distinguishes himself, he can glory. I reply, he cannot so glory, but that he must attribute the chief part — nay, the whole — to God, and glory in Him by whose grace he distinguishes himself. The reason is that neither the act by which he distinguishes himself, nor the embrace of grace (which is not distinguished from consent), nor any effort, motion, or assent into that act did he make, or could he make, or did he wish to make by natural strength, but only by the strength of grace. For in that act there is not even the smallest formal ground that is effected by the powers of free will alone. For that whole work, according to its substance and all its real modes, is from grace, and the whole is from free will; just as every work is wholly from God as the first cause, and wholly from the second cause; but it has from grace that it is supernatural, meritorious, and its whole dignity; from free will it has only that it is a free work. Thus therefore, because the very act and cooperation of free will is from exciting and cooperating grace, hence a man can no more glory in his cooperation and election than a poor man to whom a hundred gold pieces are offered can glory that he accepted them. And this only is what the Apostle wishes, namely that no one can so glory in anything as if it were his own, and as if he had not received it from God. Otherwise, every virtue and virtuous man would be of himself worthy of praise and glory; but this praise ultimately, as also virtue, is to be given to God: for not by the powers of nature, not by his own, but by those of grace — that is, by the powers of God — does whoever distinguishes himself and converts himself, distinguish and convert himself.
Nor is it clear that the Apostle wishes anything else, because, as I said, he is speaking literally of distinction in wisdom, eloquence, and other natural gifts — which it is clear a man can acquire by his own labor, industry, and study, so as to excel in them and separate himself from others less learned, and consequently to attribute these to his own labor and study, and to glory in this, but modestly. The Apostle therefore excludes only that boasting which arises from pride and contempt of others; namely if you so proudly glory as if you possessed of yourself these gifts in which you glory, and had not received them from God, so that you do not refer them back to God as the first author: for this is what the Apostle, explaining himself, expressly subjoins, when he says here: "What hast thou that thou hast not received? And if thou hast received, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?" Therefore if you accommodate this same saying of the Apostle: "Who distinguisheth thee?" to grace and supernatural things, it will only exclude — according to Paul's usage and mind — that separation and boasting of a similar kind, namely arising from pride, by which you despise others, attribute all to yourself, and do not ultimately refer them to the first fount, God, and to God's grace: but you do not do this if you say that by the powers and strength of grace you freely distinguish and separate yourself from sinners willing to remain in sin: for then you give the first and last praise and glory to God and to God's grace; although free will has its praise and glory too, but received from grace and from God.
From what has been said it follows that the one who is converted is distinguished from the one who is not converted, and is converted, both through grace and through free will: for although he often has prevenient grace physically equal to that of another, yet besides he has cooperating grace, which the one who does not wish to be converted does not have: for with that grace he freely distinguishes himself and is converted. Again, his prevenient grace was foreseen as efficacious in him here and now; and since God foresaw this, He destined that grace for him, with which He most certainly knew that he would cooperate and be converted: but God did not give such [grace] to the other, who is not converted; this however must be judged in the moral order, as that by which we are in fact converted and saved. For this efficacious grace is proper to the predestined and elect, namely if it perseveres efficaciously even to the end of life. Thus St. Augustine. Hence it is clear that not so much free will as grace distinguishes the just from the not-just; because grace works conversion and justification in the just man, who does not impede the efficacy and operation of grace but consents and cooperates with it. But grace does not work this in the unjust, because he places an obstacle and impediment to grace in that he refuses to consent and cooperate with it; thus it happens that grace in him is ineffective and void. Wherefore wisely St. Ephrem warns, in the tract on the passage Attend to thyself, chapter 10: "Have charity," he says, "with all, and abstain from all. For these two — beneficence and continence — are signs of the highest holiness, which soften and bind men, however barbarous, to oneself. And accordingly these two are signal gifts of God, and two illustrious graces of God, which above others separate and set apart the holy man from the not-holy."
Verse 8: You Are Now Full
Filled, namely, with wisdom, grace, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, of which you boast — not so much the Corinthians as their teachers — as though nothing remained for you to learn in Christianity, but as though you were perfect doctors, when you are scarcely disciples of true and perfect wisdom. It is irony. Thus Chrysostom, Theophylact, Anselm. "To be sated with little," says St. Chrysostom, "is the mark of a feeble soul; and to think oneself enriched by a small addition is the mark of a nauseated and wretched [soul]: for true piety is insatiable."
St. Thomas notes that Paul here, in the Corinthians — or rather in their teachers — touches on four species of pride: The first is when he who has a good thinks that he has it not from God but from himself;
Without Us You Reign (without our aid you suppose, O Corinthians, that you excel in all the goods of God and triumph; and even more do you, O teachers, claim for yourselves the highest dignity among your disciples, as though a kingdom had been gained, with us excluded); and would that you did reign, that we too might reign with you, — as your followers and rivals, or rather as your fathers; for this indeed we truly are. Thus Theophylact, Anselm and Chrysostom, as if to say: I do not refuse partners in the kingdom of Christ — that is, in governing the Church — provided they govern as they ought, namely by attending to the salvation of the faithful.
Verse 9: For I Think That God Hath Set Forth Us Apostles, the Last, as It Were Men Appointed to Death
He sets himself and the sincere Apostles in opposition to the vain teachers who seek their own glory and advantage, as if to say: I have said, Would that we Apostles might reign with you: for so far are we from reigning and triumphing, that I think God has "set forth" us — that is, exhibited us — as "the last," that is, the lowliest and most abject, as guilty men appointed to death.
Secondly, and more simply: "God us Apostles the last," that is, we who are the last, whom He has sent into the world in these latter times; "hath set forth," Greek apedeixen, that is, designated, hōs epithanatious, as men appointed and consigned to death — for example, condemned to the beasts. Whence Tertullian reads, "as beast-fighters," as if to say: God has designated us not for kingship and triumphs, but for death, persecution, and martyrdom.
Note: He calls the Apostles "the last," in respect of those who came before — namely Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the other prophets, whom God sent as it were as apostles to the Jews (Isaiah 6:9 and elsewhere); and he calls himself most especially the last, because, after the other Apostles had been called and sent by Christ while living on earth, he himself was called to the apostolate by Christ already reigning in the heavens.
Again, "hath set forth": first, designated; secondly, effected, exhibited, and, as the Syriac has it, constituted. For ostendere in Scripture often signifies to exhibit and to do, as in Psalm 59:5: "Thou hast shown Thy people hard things;" Psalm 70:20: "How great tribulations hast Thou shown me?" — that is, sent upon me, brought upon me. Thirdly, "hath set forth," that is, has placed us as a sign and example to others. Whence follows:
We Are Made a Spectacle to the World, and to Angels, and to Men. — "Spectacle," in Greek theatron. Whence St. Jerome in the Epitaph of Paula reads: "We are made a theatre."
"Theatrum facti sumus," as if he said: We have been made such that, like condemned men who are about to die in the theatre or to fight with beasts, we are watched by all. He seems to allude to the beast-fighters, who at Rome and elsewhere, shut up in cages, were thrown to the beasts while the people watched — as if to say: The world delights to gaze upon us as though we were fools, magicians or wandering quacks, or rather men condemned to the beasts.
Note: "To the world," that is, to angels and to men: for these alone in the world look upon us. Hence "angels" and "men" lack the Greek article, which "world" has: τῷ κόσμῳ, καὶ ἀγγέλοις, καὶ ἀνθρώποις. To the good angels we have been made a spectacle of compassion, and equally one worthy of admiration and veneration; to the evil ones, of hatred and gladness (for evil angels and men rejoice over our reproach, affliction, and death), but likewise of confusion and terror; to good men we are a spectacle and example of fortitude, faith, innocence, patience, meekness, constancy, and holy conversation, says Titelmann.
Morally, see concerning the theatre of this life, in which we do all things in the sight of God, Chrysostom in the moral tractate, hom. 12. Thus Augustus, when about to die, says Suetonius, addressed his friends standing by: Have we, said he, played our part well enough on this stage, in this theatre? Well, replied the friends; then he said: Farewell and applaud; and with the curtains drawn, he breathed out his soul. Better and more fittingly Edmund Campion, noble martyr of England — truly Campion, truly a champion and athlete of Christ — when about to suffer martyrdom, proclaimed in this theatre as the last theme of his sermon: "We are made a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men." For such a theatre and spectacle does the Apostle here understand literally. "No theatre is greater than virtue and conscience (and especially, among Christians, than martyrdom)," says Cicero, Tusculan Disputations II.
Aptly and piously too that great Paula — as Jerome relates in her Epitaph — when someone whispering insinuated that, on account of her excessive fervour in virtues, she seemed to some to be insane, and they said her brain ought to be coddled, replied: "We have been made a theatre, or a spectacle, to God, to angels, and to men. And: We are fools for Christ's sake, but the foolish thing of God is wiser than men. Whence the Saviour also says to the Father: Thou knowest my foolishness. And again: I am become as a prodigy unto many, and Thou art my strong helper. I am made as a beast of burden before Thee, and I am always with Thee."
Finally, St. Chrysostom, in homily 17 on the Epistle to the Romans, thence teaches us that we ought to flee from ophthalmodoulia — that is, the servitude of human eyes — so that we may fix our eyes upon the eyes of God, and dwell continually in His sight and theatre. There are, says he, two theatres: one most ample, where the King of kings, that is God, attended by the noblest angels, sits to behold; the other most narrow, where a few Ethiopians, ignorant of the matter, stand — that is, men. Great madness then it is to reject the most ample theatre of God and the angels, and to dwell in the theatre of a few Ethiopians, and with great toil to serve their eyes: when you have a theatre established in the heavens, why do you gather spectators for yourself on earth?
Verse 10: We Are Fools for Christ's Sake, but You Are Wise in Christ
He continues the irony of verse 8, as if to say: We are reputed fools on account of Christ crucified whom we preach, and for whose sake we seem rashly to expose ourselves to so many dangers — for this seems folly to the Gentiles. But you seem to yourselves to be prudent in the Gospel of Christ, on account of the eloquence and philosophy which you mix into it, and because you so preach Christ that you cautiously take care not to incur any danger for His sake: hence
We are weak, — because we endure many grievous and adverse things, namely hunger, thirst, nakedness, labours, slanders, curses, persecutions, as follows in verse 11, and do not resist, which seems a mark of weakness.
You are strong (and powerful, because by your worldly eloquence, wisdom, and friendship you easily turn aside the evils and adversities that occur: hence) you are noble (that is, glorious), we are ignoble — inglorious, unhonoured, ignominious. Modestly, yet sharply, by his own example as their teacher, he teaches that the Christian — and especially the doctor and preacher — must glory not in glory, riches, wisdom, eloquence, or men's favour, but in reproach, contempt of glory, and the cross of Christ: so Chrysostom. And so he casts a blush upon those delicate, vain and soft teachers themselves, and upon the Corinthians, who would rather follow such men than the Apostles of Christ, who poured out their labours, wealth, fame, and life for them. So Isaiah, in the person both of himself and of the prophets, and also of Paul and the Apostles, says in 8:18: "Behold, I and my children whom the Lord hath given me for a sign in Israel." And, as the Annals of the Friars Minor have it, St. Francis used to say that he was the little fool of Christ in the world, chosen for this very purpose by Christ Himself.
Verse 11: Even Unto This Hour We Both Hunger and Thirst, and Are Naked, and Are Buffeted, and Have No Fixed Abode
For "have no fixed abode," the Greek is astatoumen, we have no settled seat, we wander and roam in uncertain dwellings. So the Syriac, Chrysostom, and others. Note here a notable description of the apostolic life: it is similar to 2 Corinthians 11:23, which those who are called to the same life ought to set before themselves and emulate; as the apostolic men in England, Holland, the Indies, and Japan do with great zeal.
Excellently does St. Chrysostom, in homily 52 on the Acts of the Apostles, expounding those words of St. Paul (Acts 26), "I would to God that all that hear, were made such as I am, except these bonds": "Such," he says, "is the soul lifted on high by heavenly love, that it counts it the greatest glory to be bound for Christ's sake. For just as a suitor looks upon nothing but his beloved, and his beloved becomes all things to him: so he who is taken by the fire of Christ becomes such as a man dwelling alone upon the earth, who cares for neither glory nor shame. For he so despises temptations, scourgings, and prisons as though he were suffering them in another's body — as if he possessed an adamantine body. And the sweet things of this life he so laughs at and does not feel, as we, or as the dead themselves, do not feel dead bodies: he is so far from being captured by any affection of them, as gold worthily proved is far from a stain. All these things the love of man for God works, if it be great." But we do not grasp these things, because we are cold, and unskilled in this heavenly philosophy.
Diogenes the philosopher saw this — but only at a distance and through a shadow — who, when asked who were the noblest of men, replied: "Those who despise wealth, glory, pleasure, and life; and who are superior to their opposites, namely poverty, obscurity, hunger, toil, and death." Laertius and others in his Life are witnesses. Diogenes saw this, but could not perform it; for he himself was a slave of vanity and glory.
Verse 12: We Are Reviled, and We Bless
As if to say: Unbelievers and Jews mock us and pray evil upon us, saying: Let them be slain, let them perish, let them go to the bad cross — these new heralds of a crucified God; but we pray well for them, that God may impart to them His light, grace, and salvation. St. Basil, in the Shorter Rules, rule 226, notes here that by "to curse and to bless" is signified "to do evil and to do good": "Truly," says he, "we are admonished to use patience against all, and to recompense with kindly deeds those who unjustly persecute us: namely that we keep this not only against revilers, but against whoever exercises his ill-will toward us, and that we obey that saying: Be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."
Verse 13: We Are Blasphemed, and We Entreat
We are loaded with insults, we are called magicians and evildoers. To "blaspheme" therefore is to curse, to revile. So in Titus 3:2: "To speak evil of no man," that is, to revile.
And we entreat, — we address them gently in the manner of suppliants: so the Greeks; or, we entreat God on their behalf: so Cajetan; but the former better corresponds to the Greek parakaloumen. Otherwise St. Basil, in rule 226 cited a little before, where he renders parakaloumen according to the common usage as "we console," that is, says he, we fill up their souls in the perception of the truth. So "to console" is taken in Romans 1: "That I may impart unto you some spiritual grace to confirm you, that is, that I may be comforted together in you, by that which is mutual — your faith and mine."
We are made as the filth of this world. — "Filth" he calls dregs, excrements, refuse, says Theophylact and Theodoret. Whence the Syriac translates nephatha, that is, we are made as the dung of the world, and that not once but always, even unto this hour. So Theophylact. The Greek is hōs perikatharmata, as if to say: We are made as filth swept up from every side; for this is what peri notes — as if to say: We are held most despised, most abject, unworthy of the fellowship of men, fit to be cast out from the world, to be exterminated.
Paul alludes to Jeremiah, who in Lamentations 3:45 says: "Thou hast made me an outcast and offscouring in the midst of the peoples," where the Hebrew is סחי ומאוס sechi umaos, that is: Thou hast made me a scraping or shaving, and a reprobation, or refuse that is rejected and cast away — which Paul has clearly expressed, when he rendered sechi or scraping by "filth" ("purgamenta"), and maos or rejected sweepings and refuse he calls "peripsema." For Jeremiah, imprisoned by the Jews, scraped off and rejected, and so condemned to death, was a type of Paul and the Apostles, who were imprisoned, scraped off, rejected, and at last slain by the Jews and Gentiles.
Secondly, Gagneius and others read with a diastole, hōsper katharmata, as expiations or expiatory victims: whence Ambrose on Psalm 118, sermon 8, reads: "We have been made the lustrations of the world."
Note here: katharmata, or anathema, were among the Gentiles wicked and pestilent men who were sacrificed to allay famine, plague, or some other public calamity. Such men the Decii made themselves, devoting themselves for their country; and Curtius, who, to allay the common pestilence and appease the deity, devoted himself as a victim for his country's safety, and armed leaped into the chasm of the earth at Rome. So Servius on that line of Aeneid III, "To what dost thou not drive mortal hearts, O accursed hunger of gold!" notes that hunger is called "sacred" from the custom of the Gauls. For when the Massilienses were once afflicted with plague, one of the poor would offer himself to be fed for a whole year on public and choicer foods; afterwards, adorned with verbenas and all sacred garments, he was led around the city with curses, that all the city's evils might fall upon him; and thus he was slain or thrown into the waters. Whence Budaeus, from Suidas and others, says: perikatharmata were sacred men whom, as it were laden with the crimes of the whole city, they cast into the sea, and they sacrificed them to Neptune, adding these words: Περίψημα ἡμῶν γενοῦ: "Be thou our peripsema," that is, our expiatory victim. Such an expiation among the Hebrews was the scapegoat, Leviticus 16:21. But, as I said, our text and the Greek generally read perikatharmata, that is, purgings; whence the former sense is truer and simpler, for Paul is treating of contempt for himself and his own — that they were trodden upon by all tongues and feet as filth and the vilest things. Whence follows:
The offscouring of all things, even until now. — "Peripsema" is despised filings, a scraping, and the vilest of things, which is cast away and trodden upon by all. So pseudo-Chrysostom, Theophylact, Anselm. For psēsai signifies to wipe away, to file, to scrape. Oecumenius understands by "peripsema" a worthless cloth or napkin with which sweat is wiped off. Secondly, others, following Budaeus, as I said, render "peripsema" as "expiatory victim." Whence the Syriac too has translated כופרא דכלנש cuphara decullenas, that is, the expiation of all.
Verses 14 and 15: I Write Not These Things to Confound You; For in Christ Jesus, by the Gospel, I Have Begotten You
14 and 15. I write not these things to confound you (that is, to reproach you with them). For in Christ Jesus, by the Gospel, I have begotten you, — and consequently I alone am to you a spiritual father; while the other teachers are to you only as a pedagogue, who shapes and instructs the boy begotten by his father. Paul indirectly indicates that the Corinthians ought truly to have been ashamed, because, setting aside the Apostles who had converted them to Christ, and who suffered so much on their account, they ran after certain little glory-seeking teachers, and wished to be called their disciples.
Verse 17: Who Will Put You in Mind of My Ways
That is, of my doctrine and of the Christian life, says St. Thomas and Anselm. In Christ, — in the religion of Christ, in Christianity; see Cap. 37.
Verse 19: I Will Know, Not the Speech of Them That Are Puffed Up, but the Power
I will know, not the speech (eloquence) of them, but the power. — In Greek dynamin, that is, energy.
Verse 20: For the Kingdom of God Is Not in Speech, but in Power
That is, the power, the energy of the spirit, and the Christian and especially apostolic perfection by which God reigns, and shows the efficacy of His Gospel, of His grace, and of the Spirit in us and in the Church, is not placed in eloquence but in the powerful working of the Holy Spirit — namely in the efficacy of speech, the power of miracles, the casting out of demons; and rather, as Theophylact and Cajetan say, in the endurance and apostolic life which he described in verses 9, 10, 11, in the conversion of morals and in holiness. So too Chrysostom and Anselm; for St. John the Baptist worked no miracle, and yet began to preach the kingdom of God in the power of a holy life, in the Spirit, and in the efficacy of speech and preaching. The like is in Romans 14:17: "The kingdom of God is not meat and drink."
Verse 21: What Will You? Shall I Come to You with a Rod?
What will you? Shall I come to you with a rod? — which becomes me as your father, as I said in verse 13. "With a rod," I say, that is, with severity of rebuke and the power of punishing. So Chrysostom, Theophylact, and Anselm.
Note here the power of punishing in the Church, and in the Prelates of the Church, which Paul exercises in the following chapter. Oecumenius and Cajetan refer these words of the Apostle to the next chapter, in which he sharply rebukes the Corinthians for the incest of the fornicator. Yet these words can rightly be applied to what precedes, in which he had reproached the Corinthians' puffed-up state.