Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
The Apostle passes to lawsuits and judgments, and reproves the Corinthians because they bring lawsuits before a heathen judge, and these often iniquitous and unjust ones.
Then secondly, at verse 9, he teaches that the wicked, of whom he enumerates various kinds, will not possess the kingdom of God.
Thirdly, at verse 13, he passes to fornication, which he assails with many arguments. I will gather them at the end of the chapter.
Vulgate Text: 1 Corinthians 6:1-20
1. Does any of you, having a matter against another, dare to be judged before the unjust, and not before the saints? 2. Or do you not know that the saints shall judge this world? And if the world shall be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? 3. Do you not know that we shall judge angels? how much more the things of this life? 4. If therefore you have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set those to judge them who are the most despised in the Church. 5. I speak to your shame. Is there not among you any one wise man, that is able to judge between his brethren? 6. But brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers? 7. Already indeed there is plainly a fault among you, that you have lawsuits one with another. Why do you not rather take wrong? Why do you not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? 8. But you do wrong and defraud: and that to your brethren. 9. Do you not know that the unjust shall not possess the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, 10. nor the effeminate, nor liers with mankind, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor railers, nor extortioners, shall possess the kingdom of God. 11. And such some of you were: but you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God. 12. All things are lawful to me, but all things are not expedient. All things are lawful to me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. 13. Meat for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them: but the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14. Now God has both raised up the Lord, and will raise us up also by His power. 15. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of a harlot? God forbid. 16. Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is made one body with her? For (it is said) the two shall be in one flesh. 17. But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit. 18. Flee fornication. Every sin that a man does is outside the body: but he who commits fornication sins against his own body. 19. Or do you not know that your members are the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20. For you are bought with a great price. Glorify and bear God in your body.
Verse 1: Does Any of You Having a Matter Against Another Dare to Be Judged?
1. "Does any of you having a matter (a lawsuit) against another (namely a brother, or Christian. So the Syriac) dare to be judged?" — The Syriac dan-dun, that is, to undergo judgment, to contend in court: for thus the Hebrews say נשפט nispat, "he was judged," for "he contended in court," as in 1 Samuel 12:7 Samuel says: "Now therefore stand, that I may contend in judgment (in Hebrew אשפטה isscapeta, that is, may be judged) against you before the Lord." And Ezekiel 20:35: "I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and I will be judged (that is, undergo judgment, contend) with you there face to face: as I contended in judgment against your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt." And Jeremiah 2:35: "Behold, I will contend in judgment with you," in Hebrew נשפט אותך nispat otach, that is, I will be judged with you. In the same way the Greek κρίνεσθαι, that is, to be judged, is a middle verb, of both active and passive signification: but here it is active. For the Apostle does not censure those who were dragged to the tribunals of the Heathen, for these could not avoid them; but those who dragged brothers to these tribunals, or by common consent of both litigants resorted to them.
"To be judged before the unjust" (namely before unbelieving Gentiles: for he sets the unjust against the saints, when he says) "and not before the saints." — Now the faithful and Christians were called "saints," as I have already often said. So Chrysostom, Theophylact, Anselm. In Greek it is ἐπὶ τῶν ἀδίκων, that is, before the unjust, because unbelievers lack the faith by which the just man lives, and consequently are unjust, and often properly commit injustice, as if to say: Since these judges are unjust, justice is not to be expected from them, since they often pervert justice as they pervert faith.
Verse 2: If the World Shall Be Judged by You, Are You Unworthy to Judge the Smallest Matters?
2. "If the world shall be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters?" — As if to say: If through you Christians and saints the whole world shall be judged, how much more through you, as arbiters, ought your smallest lawsuits to be settled?
Verse 3: Do You Not Know That We Shall Judge Angels? How Much More Secular Matters?
3. "Do you not know that we shall judge angels?" — Some understand by "angels" the priests: for these are called by Malachi, ch. 2, "angels of the Lord of hosts." But this is foreign to Paul's intention. Hence the Fathers everywhere here take "angels" properly.
Note: it is a question here of the day of general judgment. So Chrysostom, Theodoret, Ambrose, Anselm. Hence it follows first, that on that day not only men are to be judged, but also good and bad angels (Chrysostom, Theodoret, Theophylact, and Anselm take this passage of the bad angels). For there is one Church of men and angels, and one head and judge, Christ. This also pertains to the public glory of divine justice and to the praise of the angels.
It follows secondly, that Christ and the Saints will judge angels and men by their own power and authority — not improperly, in the way it is said in Matthew 12:41 that the queen of the South and the Ninevites shall rise up in judgment and condemn this generation, namely the nation of the Jews; but by judgment properly so called (for it was by such a judgment that the Corinthians were judging worldly matters): the good indeed by a judgment of approbation, of praise, and of glorification; but the wicked most properly by a judgment of condemnation and reproach: namely, because they themselves, though they were men in a frail body, embraced the worship of God and every purity, while these (the wicked angels), though they were incorporeal and pure spirits, were unwilling to do so — so say Theophylact and Theodoret. Again, because the Saints were victors over the demon in this life, hence as a reward in judgment they will display his malice, pride, and weakness before the whole world, and as it were insult him as conquered, base, contemptible, cast away by God and damned forever; as Christ also does, Colossians 2:15. Which thing will be the greatest and most grievous punishment to the most proud demons, as Francis Suarez beautifully teaches, Part III, Question 59, Disputation 57, Section 8.
Add that the Apostles and Apostolic men, who, leaving all things, followed Christ most nearly, will be nearest to Christ the judge, as it were chiefs and assessors of the kingdom: and so by one and the same sentence with Christ, as Cardinals with the Pope, they will judge all others, Matthew 19:28.
"How much more secular matters?" — namely affairs that pertain to the common use of men (for this is what the Greek βιωτικά means), supply: we are worthy and fit to judge: if indeed this judgment is referred to us by the litigating parties, or if we are set over this judgment by the Church or by the republic: for if we are able to judge angels, why not also worldly things? For angels excel worldly things as much as heaven surpasses earth.
Verse 4: Appoint Those Who Are Despised in the Church to Judge
4. "Appoint those who are despised in the Church" (rather than Gentiles, as judges or arbiters) "to judge." — So Theodoret. Hence he adds:
Verse 5: Is There Not Among You Any Wise Man That Is Able to Judge Between His Brethren?
5. "Is there not thus among you any wise man who could judge between his brother?" — It is a sarcasm, or irony with indignation, and a certain tacit derision and reproach. Sedulius and Gregory take these words a little differently, as if spoken seriously (Moralia, Bk. 19, ch. 21): "Set, they say, those who are despised to judge. As if to say: Let those who are of lesser merit in the Church, and excel in no gifts of great virtues, judge of earthly affairs: so that, through those who cannot do great things, lesser goods may be supplied."
Note: This judgment of secular causes was afterwards committed among Christians to presbyters and Bishops, as is clear from Clement, Book I of the Constitutions, chs. 49, 50, 51, and Epistle 1 to James the brother of the Lord: "If any brothers, he says, have business among themselves, let them not be judged before the magistrates of the world, but let whatever it is be settled before the presbyters of the Church, and let them in every way obey their decrees." And this was afterwards established by Caesarean law, which is found in XI, Question 1, canon Quicumque, and canon Volumus, by the Emperor Theodosius and confirmed by Charlemagne, namely that anyone, whether defendant or plaintiff, might, leaving the secular tribunal, even after the suit had been joined, go to the Ecclesiastical judge. Hence Gregory Thaumaturgus, Bishop of Neocaesarea, performed this office of judge among his faithful, as is clear from Nyssen in his Life; St. Ambrose, as is clear from Bk. ii of the Offices, ch. 29, where he also says that he annulled unjust judgments of the Emperors; St. Augustine, as is clear from On the Work of Monks, ch. 26; Synesius, as is clear from epistles 57 and 58. But as the number of Christians and of lawsuits grew too great, the Bishops referred this judgment to secular judges, but Christian ones; and this from the teaching and institution of St. Peter, who in the first Epistle of Clement just cited speaks thus to Clement, and in him to whatsoever Bishops: "For Christ, he says, does not wish you today to be ordained a judge or examiner of secular affairs, lest, choked by present things, you cannot give yourself to the word of God, and according to the rule of truth distinguish the good from the wicked."
You will say: Why then does the Apostle here not entrust the judgment to a Bishop? Ambrose replies, because there was as yet none at Corinth: "There was not yet, he says, a ruler established in their Church"; for the Corinthians had only recently been converted by Paul, and the faithful were as yet few.
Verse 7: There Is Now Indeed Altogether a Fault in You — Why Do You Not Rather Take Wrong?
7. "There is now indeed altogether a fault in you." — "Fault," in Greek ἥττημα, which Theophylact renders, "condemnation and shame." Secondly, more simply, ἥττημα is lessening, diminution, defect; as when someone is overcome by another, and by this is lessened in strength or spirit. As if to say: There is in you imperfection, dejection, impotence of mind, namely that you are overcome by the affection of anger, gain, and contention, and that you can endure and bear nothing. For it belongs to a small and abject mind to be overcome by anger, by injury, by avarice, by impatience: for the magnanimous man has a spirit lifted above all these and exalted; he despises all things as lesser and unworthy of himself, and therefore does not care for injuries, but despises them: impotence, I say, of mind and the desire of gain are what impel you to litigate at the tribunal of unbelievers, with scandal both of others — both of the faithful and of unbelievers, who thus despise the faith of Christ.
"Why do you not rather take wrong?" — That is, as the Greek ἀδικεῖσθε, suffer loss, as becomes new Christians in such fewness, in their first fervor, in the profession of peace and perfection.
Hence note: This passage does not favor the Anabaptists, who from it would take away all judicial power from magistrates. For, as Chrysostom says, the Apostle here does not censure judgment, but first, the impatience of the litigants. Secondly, that they wrong brothers, that is, Christians; for this is what he says in v. 8: "But you do wrong and defraud, and that to your brethren." Thirdly, that they entrust the judgment of these to unbelievers and the unjust. Fourthly, that with them they oppress the poor by calumny. Fifthly, that they wound brotherly peace, the bond of charity, and the faith itself by this scandal. Cajetan adds that one or the other of the litigants always is at fault, because one or the other supports an unjust cause, unless he is excused by ignorance. Therefore St. Augustine, Enchiridion ch. 78, says that even just lawsuits can scarcely be undertaken without sin, at least venial; because they generally proceed from too great love of temporal things, and scarcely lack the danger of hatred, malevolence, and calumny. Add the loss of time, of peace, and of inner tranquillity, which, unless compensated by a greater good, even just lawsuits are not undertaken without sin. Hence Christ, Matthew 5:40, decrees thus: "To him who would contend with you at law and take your tunic, give up your cloak also." The greater good is one's own necessity, public necessity, that of the family, piety, the obligation of justice; as when one wishes to defend or recover the goods of a monastery or of the poor by public judgment. Thus Paul appeals to the judgment of Caesar, Acts 25:11. Finally, the Apostle here does not reprehend judgments on the part of the judge, but on the part of the litigants. Therefore even if it were a sin to litigate, yet it would not be a sin to judge; for judgments put an end to lawsuits, which is greatly good.
St. Clement of Rome, his contemporary, indeed disciple, agrees with St. Paul (Apostolic Constitutions, Bk. ii, 45): "It is a beautiful praise of a Christian man, he says, to litigate with no one. But if it should happen by anyone's doing or by some temptation that a lawsuit befall him, let him take pains that it be settled, even though it be necessary to suffer some loss, and let him not go to the judgment of the Gentiles; nay, do not allow secular magistrates to judge your cases: for through them the devil is eager to excite reproach even against the servants of God; as if you had not among yourselves anyone wise, who could pronounce judgment among you, or settle a controversy."
Verses 9 and 10: Neither Fornicators, Nor Adulterers, etc., Shall Possess the Kingdom of God
9 and 10. "Neither fornicators, nor adulterers, etc., shall possess the kingdom of God." — Hence it is clear that not only adultery, but also fornication, by which an unmarried man sins with an unmarried woman, is against the law, both of Christ and of nature. R. Moses the Egyptian erred shamefully in this matter, in Bk. iii of the Guide, ch. 50, where he excuses Judah's intercourse with Tamar (Genesis 38) on the ground that before the law of Moses it was lawful to consort with a harlot. Our politicians err more shamefully, who, although they grant that fornication is forbidden by the law of Christ, nevertheless deny that it was forbidden by the law of Moses. For Moses himself admits, and other Rabbis everywhere teach, that in Exodus 20, in the sixth precept of the Decalogue: "Thou shalt not commit adultery," not only adultery proper, but also incest, sodomy, fornication, and every intercourse and lust which goes beyond the limits of matrimony, is forbidden. Thus Tobit, ch. 4: "Take heed, my son, of all fornication, and besides your wife, never permit a crime to be known." Thus the Apostle here numbers fornication along with adultery, idolatry, and the other sins which are against the law of nature and of the Decalogue, and by their nature exclude men from the kingdom of God: for fornication is repugnant to the first creation of man and to the institution of matrimony, by which God, the Lord of nature and of all things, bound the use of the members serving generation to matrimony, and outside it took away from man the faculty of using them. It is repugnant also to conjugal fidelity and to the good of offspring, which cannot be rightly educated in fornication, but only in matrimony. Hence in Deuteronomy 22:21 the maiden who has fornicated before marriage in her father's house is commanded to be stoned. And the Wise man, Ecclesiasticus 19:3, says: "He who joins himself to fornicators will be wicked: rottenness and worms will inherit him." Finally, to pass over other things, in Numbers 25:9, on account of the fornication of the Hebrews with the daughters of Midian, twenty-four thousand of them died.
"Molles" (the effeminate). — Mollities is self-pollution.
"Avari" (the covetous). — These are those who plunder others' goods through frauds, unjust contracts, and deceitful lawsuits. For here they are distinguished from thieves and from extortioners. See what was said at chapter 5:10.
"Ebriosi" (drunkards). — The Greek μέθυσοι signifies both "drunk" and "a drunkard": wherefore "drunkards" here does not properly denote the frequency or habit of getting drunk, but the act itself; for thus also the other terms here — thief, railer, adulterer — signify an act; for one of those acts will exclude them from heaven. The same is clear from Galatians 5:21. Therefore one perfect drunkenness is a mortal sin, because it deprives a man of the use of reason, so that he is as it were a beast; and it exposes a man to the danger of brawl, lust, and many sins. St. Thomas takes it differently: Drunkenness, he says, is not a mortal sin on account of ignorance of the strength of the wine, or weakness of one's own head: which excuse however is removed by frequent experience: therefore the Apostle pointedly says "a drunkard," not "drunk." But the earlier explanation is more solid.
Verse 11: But You Are Washed, but You Are Sanctified, but You Are Justified
11. "But you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified" (through baptism), "in the Spirit of our God," — through the Holy Spirit. So Chrysostom, Theophylact, Oecumenius. A beautiful example of this washing and change of morals brought about by baptism and Christianity is told by St. Cyprian about himself, in epistle 2 to Donatus, where he candidly confesses what he was like before baptism, what he suddenly became through the grace of baptism, and what Christianity conferred on him, which, as he himself says, is "the death of crimes and the life of virtues." Nazianzen has similar things, in the funeral oration in praise of Cyprian, where he relates his marvelous conversion, and the change of heart and life that he received in baptism.
Verse 12: All Things Are Lawful to Me, but Not All Things Are Expedient
12. "All things are lawful to me, but not all things are expedient." — "All things are lawful to me," through free will, says Theodoret and Oecumenius, namely it is lawful, and in my power, to fornicate, to plunder, to get drunk, and the other things that the Apostle premised here: but — these are not expedient for the salvation of my soul, because they are sins.
But Ambrose rightly refutes this sense: "How, he says, is that lawful which is forbidden? or certainly if all things are lawful, nothing can be unlawful," as if to say, with Ambrose: That is called lawful which is forbidden by no law; not, however, that which it is of free choice to do or to omit. The sense of this passage therefore is: "All things are lawful to me," namely all things indifferent, and not forbidden by law. So Chrysostom, who with Theophylact refers these words to the following verse.
Verse 13: Meat for the Belly, and the Belly for Meats — the Body Is Not for Fornication, but for the Lord
13. "Meat for the belly, and the belly for meats." — As if to say: It is lawful for me to eat all foods, but I will not allow the appetite for any food to dominate me, so that I become a slave of the belly.
Secondly, Ambrose and St. Thomas refer it to expenses, as if to say: It is lawful for me, as one preaching the Gospel, to receive expenses and sustenance from you; but I will not receive them, lest I become beholden to anyone and lose my liberty; so that, after the manner of letters, the Apostle mingles various things which he knew those to whom he writes would understand from elsewhere.
Thirdly and most fittingly, Anselm and St. Thomas refer this sentence to the foregoing matters about judgments, as if to say: I have said these things against the judgments, not as if it were unlawful in itself to recover one's own things in judgment, but because I am unwilling that you be brought under the power of others, namely judges, advocates, procurators, especially of unbelievers. Hence the Syriac translates: "no one will exercise power over me."
Morally St. Bernard, Bk. iii On Consideration to Eugene: "The spiritual man, he says, will precede every work of his with a threefold consideration: first, whether it is lawful; then, whether it is becoming; lastly, whether it is expedient. For although it is agreed that, in Christian philosophy at least, only what is lawful is becoming, and only what is becoming and lawful is expedient; nevertheless it does not immediately follow that everything which is lawful is becoming or expedient."
"Meat for the belly" (namely is destined, just as) "the belly for meats." — As if to say: Why do you undertake lawsuits for temporal things, which mostly tend toward food and the belly? For food is a fleeting and base thing, made for this, that it be cast into the belly: and the belly is the basest part of man, only for this, that it cook, digest, expel, and corrupt foods, and it is a vessel of filth; and both food and belly will perish, because in death they will become food for worms; and although the belly will rise again, yet it will no longer admit foods. At the same time secondly, the Apostle here passes by design to gluttony, because gluttony is the mother of lust, which he afterwards attacks. So Theophylact. Hence St. Athanasius, or whoever is the author (for that he is not St. Athanasius of Alexandria is clear from the fact that in Question 23 he cites Athanasius himself, and follows a sentence different from his; and from the fact that he cites Epiphanius and Gregory of Nyssa, who were later than St. Athanasius), Athanasius, I say, in his work To Antiochus, Question 133, here understands by "belly" gluttony and intemperance, as if to say: "Meat for the belly and the belly for meats — that is, the belly has a desire for intemperance, and this for it: but he who is given over to intemperance and the belly cannot serve God, but is the slave of his own belly, therefore God will abolish it."
"God will destroy both this (the belly) and these (foods)" — καταργήσει, He will abolish, in death and resurrection, namely so that there will no longer be a belly of foods, which is fed by foods; nor foods of the belly, which entice and fill the belly.
"The body is not for fornication" (destined and given that we should fornicate), "but" (that we should serve) "the Lord" (with a chaste body, and follow Christ as our head with chaste and holy morals. So Anselm and Chrysostom. Whence follows), "and the Lord for the body." — That is, Christ has been given as head to our body, that He may as it were preside over it, as if to say: Therefore our bodies ought not to serve fornication, but to serve Christ the head purely as members, and always to imitate their head Christ and Christ's purity. Secondly, "the Lord for the body," that is, Christ will be the reward of the chaste and pure body, and will give it incorruption and immortality. So Ambrose and Anselm. The earlier sense is simpler, for what follows is about the resurrection, when he adds:
Verse 14: God Has Raised Up the Lord, and Will Raise Us Up Also by His Power
14. "And God has raised up both the Lord" (Christ, both crucified and dead): "and us" (if we die with Christ to gluttony and lust, and crucify them) "He will raise up."
Verse 15: Do You Not Know That Your Bodies Are Members of Christ?
15. "Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?" — For you yourselves, and consequently your body and soul, are members of the Church and of Christ. Beautifully St. Augustine, Sermon 18 on these words of the Apostle: "The life of the body, he says, is the soul, the life of the soul is God. The Spirit of God dwells in the soul, and through the soul in the body, so that our bodies also are the temple of the Holy Spirit, whom we have from God."
"Taking then the members of Christ, shall I make them the members of a harlot? God forbid." — "Taking," not as if tearing away and separating from Christ; for the fornicator remains a member of Christ and of the Church, as long as he retains the true faith. But "taking" means receiving, and, as St. Thomas says, unjustly withdrawing his members destined for generation from the obedience and service of Christ, whose they are. For the faithful fornicator steals these members of generation, and his body, as a member, from Christ, whose it is, and gives it to a harlot. He therefore takes from Christ the use of his body, not the dominion.
Verse 16: He Who Is Joined to a Harlot Is Made One Body — the Two Shall Be in One Flesh
16. "He who is joined to a harlot is made one body. For the two, it is said, shall be in one flesh." — "One body," through the union and commingling of bodies, so that, as merchants in partnership have one wealth, because it is common, so fornicators have one body, because the body of each is common to each, says Cajetan. And so they are "two in one flesh," that is, two are one flesh, as if to say: From two will be made one man, not spiritual, but carnal, and as it were wholly flesh.
"For, it is said (sacred Scripture), the two shall be in one flesh." — Paul cites these words from Genesis ch. 2, v. 24, where they are said of spouses: yet the Apostle rightly refers them to fornicators, because the external acts whether of spouses or of fornicators do not differ according to the species of nature, although in the genus of morals they differ in species, indeed in genus: for the acts of the latter are of lust and vice, but the acts of the former are of temperance, justice, and virtue. So St. Thomas.
Note: It is said of spouses that "the two shall be in one flesh," that is, the two shall be one flesh: first, by the carnal union, as the Apostle explains here. Secondly, "they shall be one flesh," by synecdoche, that is, one man, one person: for husband and wife are civilly one, and are reckoned as one civil person. Thirdly, because each spouse is master of the body of the other, and thus the flesh of one is the flesh of the other. This is clear from the next chapter, v. 3. Fourthly, effectively, because they generate one flesh, namely offspring.
Note secondly: Scripture uses this phrase to this end, to show that among human relationships the bond of matrimony is the strictest and inviolable. Hence God made Eve from Adam's rib, as if man and woman were not so much two as one, and ought to be one in love and will, so much so that if necessary, the spouse for the spouse's sake ought to leave father and mother, as it is said in Genesis 2:24. The Apostle therefore cites this passage, in order to show how greatly the fornicator debases and disgraces himself, inasmuch as he is so closely joined with a most base little harlot, that he becomes one with her, and as it were transforms himself into her, namely into a strumpet and harlot.
Verse 17: But He Who Is Joined to the Lord Is One Spirit
17. "But he who is joined to the Lord" (becomes with Him and) "is one spirit." — "One," not essentially, as Amalric and certain illumined fanatics wished, on the testimony of Ruysbroeck in his book On High Contemplation, but accidentally: one, I say, in charity, in consent of will, in grace and glory, which make a man as it were divine and a god, so that he is as it were one and the same spirit with God. So Ambrose, Anselm, Oecumenius. Hence from this passage St. Basil, in his book On True Virginity, shows that the chaste and holy soul is the spouse of God, and is transferred into the excellence of the divine image, so that she becomes one spirit with God; and from this conjunction with God draws all purity, virtue, incorruption, peace, and tranquillity: "Wherefore, he says, the soul which has been united to Christ as the spouse of the Wisdom which is the Word of God must necessarily be wise and prudent, so that, every mark of folly and unwisdom being driven out by the constant meditation of divine things, she may be adorned with the beauty of the wisdom to which she is joined: until she joins eternal Wisdom completely to herself, and being made one with Him to whom she clings, from corruptible she becomes incorruptible, from unlearned prudent and most wise, as the rib of the Word to whom she has clung, and (to speak briefly) from a mortal human being an immortal God; so that He to whom she is joined may be manifested in all things."
St. Bernard, Sermon 7 on the Canticle, brilliantly describes this marriage of God with the soul (which clings to God by pure and chaste love), and the communication of goods flowing from it: "The soul, he says, that loves God is called a spouse: for these two names, spouse and bridegroom, especially indicate inner affections; for in these all things are common, one inheritance, one house, one table, one bed, one flesh. For this reason a man shall leave father and mother, etc., and the two shall be in one flesh." Then he continues with their love and kiss, saying: "Therefore she is called the spouse who loves; and she loves who asks for a kiss; she does not seek liberty, nor reward, nor inheritance, but a kiss in the manner of a most chaste spouse, breathing a sacred love, wholly unable to disguise the flame she suffers. Let Him kiss me, she says, with the kiss of His mouth. As if to say: What have I in heaven, and what have I desired upon earth besides Thee?" Finally he explains the purity and vehemence of this love thus: "She truly loves chastely who seeks Him whom she loves, not anything else besides Him. She loves holily, because not in the concupiscence of the flesh, but in purity of spirit. She loves ardently, who is so inebriated with her own love that she does not think of His majesty. For what? He looks upon the earth, and makes it tremble; He touches the mountains, and they smoke; and does she ask to be kissed by Him? Is she drunk? Certainly drunk, because perhaps she had come out of the wine cellar. O how great is the force of love! how great the confidence of liberty in the spirit! Perfect charity casts out fear. Nor does she say: Let this or that bridegroom kiss me, or friend, or king; but speaks indefinitely: Let Him kiss me, just as Mary Magdalene also said, speaking of Christ the Lord, whom not finding in the tomb, she believed had been taken away: If you have taken Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away. Which Him? she does not specify; because she believes it is plain to all that He cannot recede from her heart even for an instant. So the spouse: Let Him kiss me, she says, He who is never absent from my heart: because, kindled with love, she believes the name of the bridegroom is conspicuous to all." I will say more about this espousal and union of the soul cleaving to God with God in 2 Corinthians 11:2.
Again the same Bernard, or the author of the tract On the Solitary Life, near the end: "Unity, he says, of spirit with God in the man who has his heart on high, profiting in God, is the perfection of the will. When he no longer only wills what God wills, but is such not only in affection, but in progress in affection, that he cannot will except what God wills: for to will what God wills is now to be like God: not to be able to will except what God wills, this is now to be what God is, for whom now to will and to be are the same. Whence it is well said that then we shall see Him as He is; when we shall be so like Him —"
Then Bernard goes on to set forth a threefold likeness of men to God, and then subjoins: "This likeness of God is called unity of spirit, not only because the Holy Spirit produces it, or affects the spirit of man with it, but because it is the Holy Spirit Himself, God who is charity: who, since He is the love of the Father and the Son, and unity, and sweetness, and goodness, and kiss, and embrace, and whatever can be common to both in that supreme unity of truth and truth of unity — this same thing happens to man in his own way toward God which by substantial unity belongs to the Son toward the Father, and to the Father toward the Son; when the blessed conscience of man finds itself, as it were, midway in the embrace of the Father and the Son: when in an ineffable and unthinkable manner man is found worthy to become of God — not God indeed, but yet what God is by nature, man becomes by grace."
Verse 18: Flee Fornication — He Who Commits Fornication Sins Against His Own Body
18. "Flee fornication." — Because, as Anselm, Cassian, and the Fathers commonly teach, other vices are conquered by fighting, lust alone by fleeing — namely, by fleeing women, objects, and occasions of lust, by turning eyes and mind aside, so that one may see and think of other things. For if you set yourself against a base temptation and resist the thought, by thinking you stir up the imagination of those things even more, and thence enkindle the flesh and innate concupiscence, abundantly poured out into lust, all the more.
Second, it fixes venereal stings in the body, which even after the sin, when one wishes to repent, titillate him back toward his former ways. "Other sins, says St. Jerome, are external, which after they are committed bring repentance; and although gain may invite, conscience bites. Lust alone, even at the very time of repenting, suffers its former stings, and the titillation of the flesh and incentives to sin, so that while we are thinking of those very things we wish to correct, it again becomes matter for sinning." St. Jerome confesses he experienced this himself, epist. 22 to Eustochium. The same was experienced by St. Mary of Egypt, who as many years as she had served Venus, namely 17, suffered these stings as a penitent, as Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, narrates in her Life.
Oecumenius has ten other expositions of this passage. Isidore of Pelusium presents the same number in book IV, epist. 129. But the proper and genuine sense of this passage is: "He who fornicates sins against his own body," that is, he who fornicates is injurious to his own body and inflicts grave injury on his own body: first, because he pollutes, defiles, and stains his own body. So Gregory of Nyssa, in his oration on this saying of the Apostle.
Second, because by fornicating he weakens his own body, exhausts it, and often infects and consumes it with venereal disease and other illnesses. So St. Athanasius according to Oecumenius. In both ways the glutton and drunkard also sin against their own body: because they often defile it with phlegm, vomit, and other filth, and weaken, injure, and overwhelm its strength and natural heat. Hence under fornication here gluttony and drunkenness, as kindred to it, indeed as its mother, may be understood: for which reason the Apostle seems to have treated of gluttony a little earlier, in v. 13: for these two, namely gluttony and lust, are the proper vices of the body, whence they are also called carnal sins; the remaining vices are of the spirit and mind, as I said a little before.
"Every sin is outside the body," — does not stain or pollute his own body. You will say: If one kills, mutilates, or castrates himself, this man will sin against his own body: therefore not every sin distinct from fornication is outside the body. I answer: Every sin, that is, every kind of sin which men commonly and ordinarily commit, is outside the body. For there are seven capital vices, which the Theologians, following St. Paul, divide into spiritual and corporeal or carnal; the carnal are two, gluttony and lust; the spiritual are five, namely pride, avarice, anger, envy, sloth, of which anger and envy sometimes of themselves break out into the killing of one's neighbor, but not into one's own death except accidentally, rarely, and extraordinarily; and consequently the angry man of himself and ordinarily does not sin against his own body, but against another's, which he injures or kills. As if the Apostle said: Every sin, that is, very nearly all sins which men ordinarily and commonly commit, are outside the body. Therefore under the phrase "every sin" he does not include self-mutilation or suicide, which happen accidentally, rarely, and extraordinarily; nor does he include gluttony, as I shall say presently.
"He who fornicates sins against his own body." — St. Jerome, epist. to Amandus, tom. III, brings forward two expositions of this passage, of which the first is: the fornicator sins against the body, that is, against the wife his own. Second, in the body it fixes venereal stings, so that lust so enslaves the body to itself. Lust alone, therefore, dominates the body, and infects, subjugates, and corrupts it with its own concupiscence and sin.
Third, the fornicator is injurious to his own body, because he alone subjects his free, pure, and noble body to the right, servitude, and power of a most vile harlot, so that with her he becomes as it were one thing. For just as if someone were to bind a noble, healthy, and beautiful body to the body of some foul leper — how grave an injury he would be said to do to so noble and beautiful a body — so he who mingles his free, pure, and noble body, created by God and redeemed and washed by the blood of Christ, with a sordid, abject, and infamous harlot, inflicts a grave injury upon his own body; for it is this injury which the Apostle exaggerates in all these verses.
Fourth, the fornicator sins against his own body and is injurious to it, because in the body he stirs up a foul and shameful lust which so absorbs the mind that during its act man can think of nothing else. Therefore the fornicator makes his own body a slave of lust and concupiscence, so that foul lust may dominate in it and claim the whole of it for itself: neither gluttony nor any other vice stirs up in the body a concupiscence so shameful and so vehement, by which lust so enslaves the body to itself. Lust alone, therefore, dominates the body, and infects, subjugates, and corrupts it with its own concupiscence and sin.
Verse 19: Know You Not That Your Members Are the Temple of the Holy Spirit?
19. "Know you not that your members are the temple of the Holy Spirit?" etc. — Therefore they are as it were sacrilegious, who by lust pollute their bodies, which are temples of the Holy Spirit. For they inflict injury upon Him, when they take away the body dedicated to Him and transfer it to the demon of Venus. Furthermore, the bodies of the faithful are the temple of the Spirit of Christ, because they themselves are members of Christ, and because the faithful are one Spirit with God. See what was said on vv. 16 and 17, and what I shall say on Epist. II, ch. 6, v. 16. Acutely and elegantly Tertullian, De Cultu feminarum, ch. 1, makes chastity the keeper and high priestess of this temple: "For since we are all, he says, a temple of God when the Holy Spirit has been brought into us and consecrated, the keeper and high priestess of His temple is chastity, which allows nothing unclean or profane to be brought in, lest that God who dwells there, offended, should abandon the defiled seat." The faithful and just man therefore is the temple in which the Holy Spirit dwells and is worshipped through grace, whom God has given to them, that in them He may work holy thoughts, affections, words, acts. Wherefore it is unworthy that his body and soul should through fornication become a shrine of impure Venus and Priapus: for this is a grave injury against God and the Holy Spirit. Hence St. Seraphia, virgin and martyr, when the Governor said to her: "Where is the temple of the Christ whom you adore, and with what sacrifice?" answered: "I, by cultivating chastity, am the temple of Christ, to whom I offer myself in sacrifice." The Governor said: "If chastity be taken from you, will you cease to be the temple of Christ?" To whom the virgin: "If anyone shall violate the temple of God, God shall destroy him." The Governor therefore sent in two young men to violate her: but as she prayed, an earthquake arose, and the young men fell down lifeless; yet by her prayers they were restored to life. So has her Life in Surius, 3 September.
Note, the Corinthians were inclined to lust, and consequently to gluttony. This is clear from Suidas under the word Cothys, who says: "Cothys, a demon worshipped among the Corinthians, presides over effeminates and the unchaste." Herodotus teaches the same in his Clio, and Strabo, book VIII: "The shrine of Venus, says Strabo, at Corinth was so wealthy that it had more than a thousand sacred handmaid courtesans, whom both men and women dedicated to the goddess." Hence the proverb arose κορινθιάζειν, that is, to be wanton, to give oneself over to lust and pleasure. Hence the Apostle earnestly dissuades the Corinthians from their accustomed fornication, and this with various arguments drawn from diverse sources: first, from creation; second, from the resurrection of the body; third, from the foulness of lust and the injury done to the body; fourth, from the dignity of the body.
From these you may gather six arguments by which he deters them from harlotry. The first is, because the body is not ours, but the Lord's, v. 13. The second, because, if it be chaste, it shall rise in glory, v. 14. The third, because our body is a member of Christ, v. 15. The fourth, because a chaste body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, so that through chastity, cleaving to God, it becomes one spirit with God, v. 17. The fifth, because lust dishonors and contaminates the body, v. 18. The sixth, because our body is bought with the blood of Christ; therefore it is unworthy, and an injury to God, to Christ, and to the Holy Spirit, if anyone gives it to a harlot, v. 20. See Chrysostom in his Morality.
Morally also St. Bernard on the psalm Qui habitat, serm. 7: "Glorify, beloved, and meanwhile bear Christ in your body, a delightful burden, a sweet weight, a saving load, even if it sometimes seems perchance to press, even if at times it pounds and scourges the sides of the recalcitrant, even if sometimes with bit and bridle it constrains the jaws, and altogether happily restrains. Be as a beast of burden, yet by no means a mere beast of burden — patiently bearing the burden indeed, but understanding the honor: wisely and delightfully reflecting both upon the quality of the burden itself and upon your own profit." Thus St. Ignatius the Martyr was called Bearer of God and Bearer of Christ, and the same in his letters to the Blessed Virgin salutes her as Bearer of Christ, says St. Bernard.
"Glorify God in your body," — by keeping it chaste in obedience to the spirit and to God. Note: "to portate" (and bear) is not in the Greek. As a horse, says St. Thomas, bears its lord and rider, and is moved according to his will, so let the body be enslaved to the will and obedience of God. The Greek adds: καὶ ἐν τῷ πνεύματι ὑμῶν, ἄτινά ἐστι τοῦ Θεοῦ, "and in your spirit, which are God's," as if to say: Glorify and bear God both in body and in mind, because both are God's.
Verse 20: You Are Bought with a Great Price — Glorify and Bear God in Your Body
20. "You are bought with a great price. Glorify and bear God in your body," — as if to say: Esteem highly, make much of your bodies, since the demon bids for them with the base and brief pleasure of the body. Do not despise your body, do not sell it cheaply, but rather hold it of greatest worth: for this is the glory of God, if those bodies be highly esteemed which God has acquired for Himself at so great a price, namely with His own blood. Hence the glorious name of the Christian is Bought and Redeemed, namely from sin and paganism, and that at the price of Christ's blood. Thus formerly the sons of Christians, bought by the Turks and led over from Christianity to Turkism, were called Mamlukes, that is, the bought. For when the Tartars had subdued Armenia, they sold the children of Christians: these Melech-Sala, Sultan of Egypt, bought in great number, and had them trained in warfare, and called them Mamluks, that is, the bought. For מלך malac in Arabic means to buy and to acquire. After the death of Sultan Melech-Sala, the Mamluks began, from their own college, which consisted only of apostate Christians, to set up a king in the year of Christ 1252. But just as the Mamluks began under the Emperor Frederick II, so they were extirpated by Selim when he occupied Egypt, in the year of Christ 1516. For then the Mamluks ceased to reign and to exist.