Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
First, he exhorts them not to neglect the grace of reconciliation now offered (which he commended at the end of the preceding chapter).
Second, in verse 4, he teaches what kind of men ministers — especially Apostles and heralds of the Gospel — ought to be.
Third, in verse 11, he opens his own heart, enlarged in charity toward the Corinthians, and provokes them to a like enlargement of charity.
Fourth, in verse 14, by many antitheses he teaches how the faithful must beware of the commerce and marriages of unbelievers.
Vulgate Text: 2 Corinthians 6:1-18
1. And we, helping, do exhort you, that you receive not the grace of God in vain. 2. For He saith: In an accepted time have I heard thee, and in the day of salvation have I helped thee. Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. 3. Giving no offense to any man, that our ministry be not blamed: 4. But in all things let us exhibit ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in tribulation, in necessities, in distresses, 5. In stripes, in prisons, in seditions, in labors, in watchings, in fastings, 6. In chastity, in knowledge, in longsuffering, in sweetness, in the Holy Ghost, in charity unfeigned, 7. In the word of truth, in the power of God; by the armor of justice on the right hand and on the left; 8. By honor and dishonor; by evil report and good report; as deceivers, and yet truthful; as unknown, and yet known; 9. As dying, and behold we live; as chastised, and not killed; 10. As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as needy, yet enriching many; as having nothing, and possessing all things. 11. Our mouth is open to you, O ye Corinthians, our heart is enlarged. 12. You are not straitened in us, but in your own bowels you are straitened. 13. But having the same recompense (I speak as to my children): be you also enlarged. 14. Bear not the yoke with unbelievers. For what participation hath justice with injustice? Or what fellowship hath light with darkness? 15. And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath the faithful with the unbeliever? 16. And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God, as God saith: I will dwell in them, and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 17. Wherefore, go out from among them, and be separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing: 18. And I will receive you; and I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord almighty.
Verse 1: And Helping, We Exhort You That You Receive Not the Grace of God in Vain
1. And helping. — In Greek συνεργοῦντες, that is, cooperating with God, that you may attain the reconciliation set before you, of which I spoke in the preceding chapter, verses 18, 19, and 20, that "God reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation," etc.
We exhort you, that you receive not the grace of God in vain. — He receives grace in vain who does not labor with it, says Anselm, nor join his own zeal to it, and who through sloth makes the grace within him idle, while he does not strive to fulfill it with good works — as if to say: Do not think that faith alone is reconciliation, because for it a good life and works are necessary. So Theophylact, from Chrysostom.
Note: He calls "grace" the general benefit of the reconciliation of the world and the redemption of Christ — for he treated of this at the end of the preceding chapter; under this, however, he understands the particular grace which Christ has merited for each, and which God gives to each, that everyone may be made a partaker of this general redemption of Christ.
Verse 2: For He Saith: In an Accepted Time Have I Heard Thee
2. For He saith (God through Isaiah, ch. XLIX, v. 8): In an accepted time have I heard thee. — The Apostle proves that now is the time of grace and reconciliation, so that we should not receive this grace in vain, from the fact that Isaiah foretold that this would be the time of grace. And there is a tacit anticipation here. For someone could say: It is not in my power to receive God's grace, for to give or not to give grace depends on the free will of God: how then, O Paul, do you exhort me to receive it? Paul replies: Behold for you the acceptable time, behold the time of salvation, behold the time of grace, in which, as Isaiah foretold, God offers His grace to all and hears the prayers and vows of all.
In an accepted time, — that is, pleasing, or appeasable, as Isaiah has it. Note: This time is the time of the law of grace, or the present life of Christians, in which there is time for doing good and meriting; and after that life it is not called "pleasing," because in this present life it pleased God to set forth His grace, His benevolence, reconciliation, and salvation through Christ to all. It is called "accepted" and "acceptable," that is, most accepted, most to be accepted, and worthy that it should be received by all with applause and wondrous exultation, as bringing salvation to the world through Christ.
Note secondly: These are the words of the Father to the Son, as if to say: "I have heard" — that is, I will hear (for prophetically the past is used for the future) — Thee, My Son, pleading for Thy members, and pleading in Thy faithful members, asking help, grace, and salvation; "and in the day of salvation," that is, in that time of grace in which I will call all men through Thee, O Christ, to eternal salvation, "I have helped," that is, I will help Thee, that in Thy members, namely Christians, Thou mayest obtain for them the salvation set before them by Thee. So Ambrose, Chrysostom, Anselm. Hence Christ, in Isaiah LXI, 2, says He is anointed and sent by the Holy Spirit, "that I might preach," He says, "the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God, that I might comfort all that mourn." For "acceptable year" the Hebrew is שנת רצון schenat ratson, which the Septuagint commonly renders εὐδεκτόν, as if to say, the year of divine benevolence and liberality, such as was the Jubilee, to which it alludes; for the Jubilee was a type of this Gospel year. The whole time, then, of Christ's preaching, and thenceforward the whole time of the New Law, was and is for those who obey Christ and accept His liberality a Jubilee year, that is, a year of mercy, peace, remission, salvation, and liberty — in which, after God's long wrath against us, we are restored to His grace, acceptance, benevolence, inheritance, glory, and all the original goods which we had in paradise in the state of innocence. The same time and year was for the enemies a day of vengeance (for "day" is here put synecdochically for "time"), in which God avenged the human race upon His enemies, namely the demons, expelling them from their tyranny.
Verse 3: Giving No Offense to Any Man
3. Giving no one (give to no one, or let us give; for it is a Hebraism: a participle is used for the present subjunctive or imperative) any offense (any scandal, as if to say: Since we are passing through that day in which all are called to salvation by Christ, let us beware lest we give scandal to anyone — lest anyone, offended by the freer life, or by our peevishness or impatience, refuse to take up the way of salvation, namely Christianity, or refuse to advance in it): that our ministry be not blamed, — by which we Apostles strive by preaching, by word, and by life to draw all to this salvation.
Verse 4: Let Us Exhibit Ourselves as the Ministers of God
4. Let us exhibit ourselves. — In Greek συνιστῶντες, which Erasmus renders "commending"; others, "declaring"; best of all the Syriac, "showing forth" or "exhibiting." Again this participle is taken for the verb in indicative mood — praestantes, that is, we show, we exhibit; and, as Ambrose reads, we commend — so that by all these things Paul commends and praises himself against the false apostles; or rather in optative mood — praestantes, that is, let us show; exhibentes, that is, let us exhibit and commend ourselves. For all these things belong to one who exhorts, yet at the same time tacitly praises himself and his apostolate. For Paul here exhorts all Christians, but chiefly the heralds of the Gospel — many of whom were at Corinth — to the Evangelical and Apostolic life; and by this very thing he tacitly describes himself, his life, his sufferings, patience, and virtues here, that they may imitate them and set them against the arrogance, softness, impatience, and vices of the false apostles. For against these his rivals and calumniators he is forced in this epistle to praise himself, as will appear in chapter XI.
He therefore here sets forth a living image of the true and genuine Apostle and Evangelical teacher, which all Doctors and Pastors should imitate, and against which everyone should test those teachers suspected of unsound faith and integrity; that the Corinthians may see how unjustly they preferred their windy false-apostles and braggarts to Paul and his fellow Apostles of God's word — in whom alone all the marks of genuine Apostles which follow most aptly fit.
As the ministers of God in much patience. — For the showing forth and display of patience — not of one trial, but of many — is the demonstration which clearly shows and demonstrates to men that we are God's ministers. Note that the force of "in patience" is to be referred to what follows, as if to say: Let us exhibit ourselves as God's ministers patient in many tribulations, necessities, distresses, stripes, and other things which follow: for men marvel at this patience as a kind of higher philosophy (since in vexations they are wont to grow angry, indignant, and avenge themselves with words and blows), and from it they gather the true doctrine, faith, religion, and Spirit of God. So St. Xavier and his companion John Fernandez in Japan, long preaching, accomplished nothing, until being assailed by a Japanese with spit in the face, having modestly wiped off the spit, they continued in their sermon as if they had suffered nothing, and bore reproaches, mockeries, and many other things most patiently: for the Japanese, of sharp wit, admiring this patience, began to revere them as men dropped from heaven, and to embrace their doctrine and faith eagerly. The pagan Epictetus understood the same and taught his disciples to show forth and teach themselves and their wisdom not so much by words as by works, especially of patience and constancy. For so he prescribes to his disciples in Enchiridion ch. XXIX: "So do not you either readily display words to the unlearned, but works which follow upon the digestion of words. For sheep do not bring hay to the shepherds to show how much they have eaten, but having digested their pasture inwardly, they bear forth wool and milk outside." So Christ, Matthew VII, 16, says of false prophets: "By their fruits you shall know them." And in Luke viii, 15, speaking of the seed of the Gospel which falls upon good soil: "These," he says, "are they who, hearing the word with a good and very good heart, retain it and bear fruit in patience."
In necessities, — that is, in want of food, drink, and clothing, says Anselm. Secondly, more generally, Theophylact says: He calls "necessity" the intensification and exaggeration of tribulation; when it grows so strong that it seems inextricable, and reduces a man to extreme necessity and as it were suffocates him.
Verse 5: In Seditions, in Labors, in Watchings, in Fastings
5. In seditions. — ἐν ἀκαταστασίαις, in frequent agitations and expulsions, such that I have no place where I may set my foot, but am compelled to run hither and thither. Thus Theophylact. Secondly however it can be translated, in tumults, confusions, seditions: for so ἀκαταστασία is taken in Luke xxi, 9.
Verse 6: In Chastity, in Knowledge, in Longsuffering, in Sweetness
6. In chastity, — ἐν ἁγνότητι, in purity, namely in all things, both because Paul did not admit corruption of gifts, and forbade his own to admit it, and because he preached without expense to others, says Theophylact. Our translator more concisely renders it, "in chastity": for pure and full chastity, namely that you abstain from all use of lust, and cultivate angelic chastity, as Paul and the Apostles did, is a sign that a man is divine and a minister of God: for every heresy and infidelity thinks, and truly thinks, that chastity is impossible for it: for it is possible only to Catholics, endowed with true faith and the grace of God. Hence among heretics one does not find virgins, and communities of virgins, nor monks and monasteries, indeed not even priests or celibate ministers, as the Catholic and Roman Church has learned and held in every age from Paul and the Apostles as her leaders and teachers.
In knowledge, — as if to say: Let us take care that we may not seem to some to be rude and unlearned in the matters of Christian things to be done and avoided: but rather let us show that we know these things by teaching others what good things they ought to do, what evils they ought to avoid, so that they may attain salvation: from which all may recognize that we are ministers of God, heralds, and Apostles. Thus Ambrose. Not poorly does Anselm also understand by "knowledge" the knowledge of Sacred Scripture.
In sweetness, — that we may not, through rancor, be harsh to those who vex us, but through sweetness of mind, of words, and of works, may be sweet, kind, beneficent to them: thus all will say that we are ministers of God. For it is the mark of an utterly adamantine soul, says Theophylact, if anyone, when he is exacerbated and pricked on every side, is not only long-suffering but also meek and kindly; this is above man, this is Christian, this is divine.
Such was St. Athanasius, of whom Gregory Nazianzen, in his oration in praise of him: "Athanasius," he says, "was sublime in life, yet humble in mind: such was his courtesy that access to him lay open to all, being clement, foreign to anger, endowed with mercy, pleasant in speech, more pleasant in manners, angelic in form, still more angelic in mind, calm in rebuking, having the power of instructing in praising, that he might be neither dissolute in softness nor disagreeable and importunate in severity: he was, in short, an adamant to those who struck him, a magnet to those who dissented."
In the Holy Spirit, — in gifts and works done by the operation and instinct of the Holy Spirit, as if to say: Let us do all things with so pious, kind, sincere, and inflamed a spirit, that it may be evident we are not driven by vanity or pride, but by the Holy Spirit. Thus Anselm, Theophylact, Chrysostom.
Verse 7: In the Word of Truth, in the Power of God, by the Arms of Justice
7. In the word of truth, — that we may preach evangelical truth truly and sincerely.
In the power of God, — ἐν δυνάμει, in might, namely by working miracles; or rather, as Chrysostom says, in Christian constancy and fortitude in so many adversities and labors, and in the vehemence of speech and the efficacy of preaching: for these things, breathed into us by the power of God, prove us to be true and powerful and admirable ministers of God.
By the arms of justice on the right and on the left. — Refer back to verse 4: "Let us show ourselves as ministers of God"; for from there hang all the following down to verse 11, as if to say: "On the right and on the left," that is, both in prosperity and in adversity, let us everywhere use the actions of justice, that is, of a just and holy life, and of the virtues as arms, so that we are neither elevated by prosperity nor disturbed by adversity, nor despair. Thus Anselm. Otherwise Chrysostom and Theophylact: The arms, they say, on the left are adversities, on the right are prosperities, which by alternating fortify God's servants as it were like arms, so that they are neither raised up into pride nor cast down into faintheartedness.
Verse 8: By Honor and Dishonor, by Evil Report and Good Report
8. Through glory and ignominy, — as if to say: whether we are honored and praised, or dishonored and reviled: as when the Lycaonians wished to adore Paul as a god and then soon to stone him as an impostor, Acts xiv; for τὸ "through" is taken for "in": concerning which see more in I Timothy ii, 15.
By ill report and good report, — whether we are defamed, or are renowned by reputation.
As seducers, — esteemed as if seducers, when we are truthful. Thus Ambrose.
As unknown, and yet known, — as we who are held among unbelievers and the wicked as unknown and obscure, while we are known to God and to your consciences. Thus Ambrose.
Verse 9: As Dying, and Behold We Live
9. As dying, — as we who seem, on account of daily dangers, scourgings, and afflictions, to be always dying; when behold, God preserves us alive, unharmed, and vigorous.
As chastised, and not killed — ὡς παιδευόμενοι, καὶ μὴ θανατούμενοι, as reproved, or chastised, and not killed; or, as those who are reproved and chastised, but let us not be killed; for all things hang upon verse 4: "Let us show ourselves as ministers of God," as I said.
Verse 10: As Poor, Yet Enriching Many; as Having Nothing, and Possessing All Things
10. As poor, yet enriching many, — both with divine and heavenly goods, and with earthly goods: for Paul collected alms for the poor, especially for the Jerusalemites.
As having nothing, and possessing all things. — For I have what is necessary, nor do I desire more, indeed I despise things as low and beneath me: whence I have it as if I possessed all things. Secondly, because although we Apostles are poor, yet we are princes of the faithful, who being most rich lay all things at our feet. Thus Ambrose and Anselm. See Chrysostom here, and in his moral. It could thirdly be taken thus: "possessing all things," namely books, clothes, and all things necessary, so that there is a distribution by classes of individuals, not by individuals of classes; "all things," that is, some of all things, e.g. of food, of shoes, of clothes, and of all others, as much as suffices. Others: possessing God, who is all things, and in God all things. But this is mystical and symbolic.
Anselm notes that "as if" is here added in the sad things, not in the prosperous, because all the sadness of the Saints here has the "as if"; for it passes briefly and as in sleep, and seems to be as a shadow and a dream, and is not sadness but as it were sadness: but the joy of the Saints does not have "as if," because it is solid by reason of the certain hope of eternal blessedness. On the contrary, the joy of the wicked here has "as if," because it seems to be a brief and shadowy dream; but their sadness will not have "as if," because it will be solid and eternal.
Note secondly here what the life of Paul and the Apostles was, namely such as Nazianzen, in oration 1 On Peace, writes that the life of Cenobites and Religious (whose parents the Apostles were) is, when he says: "Their life is wealth in poverty, possession in pilgrimage, glory in contempt, patience in infirmity, distinguished offspring in celibacy: who hold the spurning of delights for delights; who for the cause of the heavenly kingdom embrace humility; who have nothing in the world, and are superior to the world; who, though they are in the flesh, yet live outside the flesh; who have God for their portion; who for the hope of the kingdom labor in want, and on account of want, reign." Such was the life of the Bishops and Apostolic men.
Sulpicius praises St. Martin, that he so fulfilled the dignity of Bishop that he did not desert the purpose, the poverty, and the office of a monk. Of St. Augustine, Possidius records that he was so frugal at table that he always had vegetables with bread, but flesh only rarely and only on account of guests: and when he was near to death, he made no testament: "Because," he said, "the poor man of Christ had nothing from which to make one." Yet this man defeated the Arians, Manichaeans, Donatists, and Pelagians, and was one of the first columns and Doctors of the Church. Of Exuperius, Bishop of Toulouse, St. Jerome writes thus: "Hungry," he says, "he feeds others, and with face pale from fasting, is tormented by another's hunger."
This therefore is the rule and form of Apostolic life prescribed by St. Paul, which all who are zealous for perfection and the salvation of souls follow: from which is drawn the abridgment of the Institute of our Society, which printed each of us is wont to carry about, and constantly to set before our eyes and mind, as a domestic monitor, and as a sharp goad of virtue and zeal, indeed as a living mirror of one's vocation and profession. And it is thus: "The plan of our life requires us to be men crucified to the world, and to whom the world itself is crucified: men, I say, new men, who have stripped themselves of their own affections, that they might put on Christ; dead to themselves, that they might live to justice. Who, as the Lord Paul says, in labors, in watchings, in fastings, in chastity, in knowledge, in long-suffering, in sweetness, in the Holy Spirit, in love unfeigned, in the word of truth, may show themselves as ministers of God: and through the arms of justice on the right hand and on the left; through glory and ignobility; through evil report and good report; through prosperity and adversity, may with great strides press on themselves to the heavenly fatherland, and may by whatever help and zeal they can compel others also, ever beholding the greatest glory of God. This is the sum, this is the aim of our Constitutions," Jesus.
Verse 11: Our Mouth Is Open to You, O Corinthians; Our Heart Is Enlarged
11. Our mouth is open to you, O Corinthians, — as if to say: My mouth is open, gapes, wishes to say more, and to express all my affection toward you, but is unable; for whatever and however much I say, it is less than my affection, nor can I by speaking equal and express it, or satisfy it.
The Apostle says this, to show that what he has already said about his patience, tribulations, and virtues, he has said not out of self-love, but out of friendship, confidence, and the inmost joy and love of the Corinthians. For friends are wont mutually to communicate their secret joys and all their inmost things both good and bad, and confidently to pour them out into the bosom of a friend, and so to attest and reveal the inward affection of benevolence: which, when it is great, they strive more and more to express, and yet cannot equal it by speaking. Thus Paul does here.
Our heart is enlarged, — with love toward you, as if to say: I love you most vehemently.
Note: The Hebrews everywhere oppose these two: צרה tsara, and רחב rochab, that is, στενοχωρία καὶ εὐρύτης, narrowness and breadth, or enlargement. By "breadth" they understand a heart that is glad, friendly, liberal, munificent; by "narrowness," a heart that is sad, fainthearted, suspicious, avaricious. For just as sadness and avarice constrict and contract the heart, brow, and hands; so gladness, alacrity, and charity expand and diffuse them. Thus in Psalm cxviii it is said: "I ran the way of thy commandments, when thou didst enlarge my heart." Thus, in III Kings iv, 29, God is said to have given to Solomon largeness of heart, that is, a heart broad, liberal, royal, magnificent and magnanimous, "as the sand which is on the seashore," namely that, like sand, it might be in the greatest quantity, abundance, and plenty.
Verse 12: You Are Not Straitened in Us
12. You are not straitened in us, — but you dwell fully and spaciously in my heart; I embrace you with the broadest charity of heart. He speaks of the heart and mind as of a dwelling.
But you are straitened in your own bowels, — you have narrow and meager charity in your heart and bowels; your inward parts are narrow, so that I have little place in them, as if to say: You do not respond to me in love and benevolence.
It seems the Corinthians had been somewhat turned away from St. Paul by the slander of the false apostles; whence he shows so great a charity toward them, that he may in turn provoke and kindle their love toward him.
Again, Paul had seemed to constrain the Corinthians in his earlier epistle by forbidding them food offered to idols, lawsuits before an unbelieving judge, and more opulent agape feasts and banquets; and in verse 14, he was about to constrain them to enter marriage with a believer (even though unequal): therefore he prepares and rouses them that with the broad bowels of the charity of Christ they may receive these things, narrow in appearance, as not so much his precepts as Christ's.
Verse 13: Having the Same Recompense, Be You Also Enlarged
13. Having the same recompense (repaying me equal love) be you also enlarged, — Greek, τὴν αὐτὴν ἀντιμισθίαν, the same recompense, namely of love; Theophylact supplies εἰσενέγκατε, bring forth; or, as our translator, having. Secondly, Chrysostom refers it to what follows, ὡς τέκνοις λέγω, I speak as to children, I declare, I command and exact from you this recompense of charity. Thirdly, and most plainly, that κατὰ be understood, that is, according to the same recompense of charity, πλατύνθητε καὶ ὑμεῖς, be you also enlarged, as if to say: Render and pay back to me the same measure and breadth of charity; with equal measure extend and enlarge your heart and charity toward me. Otherwise also Vatablus, for he understands "on account of," and so translates: "on account of the same recompense be you also enlarged," that is, on account of the repayment of our benevolence enlarge your heart, that it may take and love us with equal breadth.
Note: He is speaking of the recompense and rendering of love, not of heavenly reward, as some wish, who give this sense, as if to say: Since you are about to have the same reward and wage with me in heaven, you also enlarge your charity toward me. But that the genuine sense is otherwise is plain from what has been said.
Verse 14: Bear Not the Yoke With Unbelievers
14. Do not bear the yoke (have participation and intercourse) with unbelievers, — in those things which pertain to religion, or so closely and familiarly that you may gradually be inclined to their infidelity and vices, such as is being joined in matrimony, as if to say: Separate yourselves from the assemblies, temples, sacrifices, banquets, marriages of unbelievers, and from all their intercourse, whether in itself impious or unjust, or dangerous or scandalous. Not to be silent about others, of whom it is said in Psalm cv, verse 35: "They were mingled among the Gentiles, and learned their works, and served their graven things." Thus Chrysostom, Ambrose, Theophylact. But St. Jerome, in book I Against Jovinian, takes it as warning against marriage with unbelievers. The Apostle seems to allude to Psalm cv, 28: "They were initiated into Beelphegor"; for there in Hebrew it is יצמדו iitsamedu, that is, they were yoked to Beelphegor; for צמד tsemed is the same as a pair or yoking of two oxen, e.g., or of men. For just as the Hebrews in Numbers xxv, by fornicating with the Madianites in honor of Beelphegor, were as it were yoked to him and joined by the yoke of religion; so also he who by close intercourse, e.g. by marriage, is joined with an unbeliever, seems as it were to be joined to Beelphegor, that is, to the demon, who is the prince of the unbelievers. Otherwise Anselm; for he understands by "unbelievers" (in Greek ἀπίστους, that is, as the Syrian translates, the incredulous) the judaizing pseudo-apostles, who tried to evacuate the faith of Christ and establish the ceremonies of the law of Moses; so that the Apostle wishes the society of these to be avoided: for these are more pernicious to Christians and more to be avoided than the Gentiles themselves and unbelievers. This sense is good, but partial; for the Apostle wishes the intercourses of any unbelievers and incredulous to be avoided.
Here the Apostle, with the manner and license of letter-writing, passes to another point necessary then to the Corinthians, namely, that they avoid close familiarities with unbelievers. In vain therefore does anyone ask how these things are connected with the preceding.
Note: In Greek it is μὴ γίνεσθε ἑτεροζυγοῦντες, which, says Erasmus, our translator rightly renders: be not joined to the same yoke with unbelievers. For if a Christian marries a Gentile woman, or a Christian in administering a magistracy is colleague to a Gentile, he will be said ἑτεροζυγεῖν. St. Jerome calls such marriages "unequal."
Here observe, ἕτερον among the Greeks sometimes signifies one of two, sometimes a different thing, whether of two or of more. So one is called ἑτερόφθαλμος who lacks one of the eyes; ἑτερόδοξος, in turn, one who is of different opinion. Whence it is uncertain whether Paul calls ἑτεροζυγοῦντας those who bear one side of the yoke, or those who bear the yoke with a man of different condition.
The former sense of ἕτερον, namely the common one, Budaeus follows, who interprets ἑτεροζυγοῦντες by διαζυγοῦντες, those who together with a partner draw one side of the yoke, as if to say: Do not draw the other side of the yoke with unbelievers, as in Campania two oxen draw the same wagon, putting their heads into the same yoke, one on the right, the other on the left side.
Secondly, the latter sense of ἕτερος others follow, and properly translate: Do not draw another, different, or unequal yoke, which happens when men of different condition are yoked together as well as beasts of burden, as a horse and an ass in the same chariot, which of old under the ancient law, Deuteronomy xxii, 10, was forbidden: to which perhaps the Apostle alludes. And this second sense is more probable from what follows: "For what participation has justice with iniquity?"
Thirdly, Theophylact translates, do not incline yourselves to the other side of the yoke, or of the balance (for he takes it of a scale), to your spouse, namely unbelieving, impious, and unjust, by inclining and accommodating yourselves: for ἑτεροζυγεῖν, he says, is to lean on one pan of the scale, and is said of an unjust balance, when namely one pan is heavier, so that the balance hangs more toward one side, as if to say: So likewise do not incline yourselves to an unjust spouse and unbelieving consort.
For what participation has justice with iniquity? — that is, the just with the unjust, namely the faithful with unbelievers.
Note: It was hard for the Corinthians, in so small a number of Christians, to be constrained to enter into intercourses and marriages only with the faithful. For many among them found for themselves no equals in family, wealth, status, or other endowments: and so either they had to abstain from marriage, or take a wife unequal and inferior in nobility, rank, and riches. Again by the law of nature and divine law, marrying an unbelieving spouse was not simply and absolutely forbidden to them or to the other faithful: yet it was indecent and dangerous, and therefore is here forbidden by the Apostle. The Apostle, therefore, to soften this hardship, and to persuade them of this law of his, uses five reasons or antitheses drawn from the very repugnance of the thing.
He brings the first when he says: "Do not bear the yoke," namely unequal and different (for this is the Greek ἑτεροζυγεῖν, as I said), "with unbelievers," as if to say: An unequal marriage is a great burden and yoke, just as if an ox and a horse should submit to the yoke of the same chariot, each undergoes a great burden and labor because of the unequal and incongruous companion. Therefore do not impose that yoke on yourselves. The second he brings when he says: "What fellowship has light with darkness?" as if to say: Light and darkness cannot come together at the same time into the same place or subject: therefore it cannot fittingly come to pass that a believer having the light of faith should come together into the same yoke with an unbeliever, who is full of the darkness of infidelity. The third is: "There is," he says, "no agreement between Christ and Belial"; but the faithful belong to Christ, the unbelievers to Belial: therefore these cannot agree. The fourth, a believer with an unbeliever has no part or communion, but differs from him in his whole kind, and differs as much as faith differs from infidelity, heaven from hell. Therefore these cannot be joined. The fifth, the temple of God cannot be associated with idols and temples of demons: therefore neither the believer with the unbeliever. For the believer is the temple of God, but the unbeliever is the temple and idol of the devil.
Verse 15: What Agreement Hath Christ With Belial?
15. What agreement has Christ with Belial? — Greek τίς συμφώνησις, that is, what consonance, what concord, what concordance, what conjunction has Christ, who is the Father of all discipline, obedience, and justice, with Belial, that is, the devil and his unbelieving followers?
Note: It is not Beliar, as the Greeks read corruptly, but Belial in Hebrew, as R. Kimchi holds, as if בלי יעל beli iaal, that is, without utility, he who profits not, who is useless: to which our Translator alludes, Proverbs vi, 12: "An apostate man, Belial (for so it is in Hebrew, that is) a useless man." Or rather from בלי על beli ol, that is, without yoke: for so St. Jerome and Aquila translate. Hence Belial signifies first, disobedience, rebellion, impiety; secondly, the disobedient, rebels, the impious; thirdly, it signifies the devil, who was the prince of all apostasy and disobedience, and who was the first apostate, who shook off the yoke of the law, of the faith, and of the obedience of God. Hence apostates are called men or sons of Belial, as if to say: Sons of the devil, or sons of disobedience, of rebellion, of impiety, that is, most wicked and most impious.
What part has a believer with an unbeliever? — What has the believer in common, which he may share with the unbeliever? Thus in III Kings xii, 16, it is said: "What part have we in David? or what inheritance in the son of Jesse?" as if to say: We have no fellowship, no participation with David, no common thing, no part or inheritance in common with him do we wish to have. This antithesis explains the three preceding; for he means to say, it is not fitting that a believer should be joined with an unbeliever, just as it is not fitting that justice be joined and allied with iniquity, light with darkness, Christ with Belial, the temple of God with idols.
Verse 16: You Are the Temple of the Living God
16. For you are the temple of the living God, — through faith, grace, holiness. Splendidly St. Cyprian, in the treatise On the Lord's Prayer: "Let us live," he says, "as temples of God, that it may be established that God dwells in us, so that we, who have begun to be heavenly and spiritual, may think and do nothing but things spiritual and heavenly."
Note: "Temple" in Hebrew is called היכל hechal, from the root יכל iachol, that is, he could, he prevailed, as if to say: Hechal, that is, basilica, dominion, royal palace, in which the Lord or king shows Himself most mighty, and which displays His majesty and power, both by the pomp of the building, by the abundance of gold, by the furniture and number of instruments, and by the dignity and holiness of ministers. Hence Chrysostom, homily 17 on the epistle to the Hebrews: God, he says, commanded the temple of Solomon to be made with great magnificence, so that the Hebrews, who were more attracted and allured by corporeal things, might through it conceive and recognize the majesty of God. Why then should not Christians adorn churches, to honor God's house, and God, and especially Christ's present body; and rouse others to the reverence and devotion of God? Such a temple, such a royal, indeed divine, basilica, is allegorically the Church, tropologically every holy soul, as the Apostle here teaches, in which God by magnificent grace, by magnificent and honorable works of the virtues, by the magnificent Sacraments, by magnificent glory, shows His magnificence.
It can secondly, as Villalpando teaches in Ezekiel, vol. II, p. 256, by metathesis היכל hechal, be said as if חליך halich, from the root חלך halach, that is, walked, entered; because the tabernacle was as it were a movable temple, in which God dwelling walked with the Hebrews through the desert into the promised land; and Villalpando adds, hechal is properly called holy, because through it one entered into the Holy of Holies, so that the Psalmist alludes here, Psalm lxvii, 25: "They saw thy goings, O God, the goings of my God, of my king, who is in the holy place." And Paul here, when he adds: "For I will dwell in them, and walk among them." So in Latin, "templum," firstly, as Isidore wishes, book XV, ch. IV, is said as if "tectum amplum" (broad roof), as if to say: Basilica. Secondly, as Varro, "templum" is said from "tueri" (to behold/protect), because God beholds, protects, and cares for the temple as His house; and in the temple, by God's protection we are protected from all injuries; men also there as it were behold God, and protect that as God's house from injury. So heaven, says Varro, which we behold, that is gaze upon, is called templum. To this Paul alludes, when having said: "You are the temple of God," assigning the cause he adds: "As God says: For I will dwell in them, and walk among them, and will be their God, and they shall be my people," Whom namely among them, as dwelling in My temple, I shall behold, protect, and shield.
I will walk among them. — Anthropopathos, that is, I will protect you on every side, as if a guardian walking on every side, and spiritually I will walk through the powers and virtues of the soul.
Note with Anselm: The Apostle cites literally Ezekiel xxxvii, 27; tropologically, Leviticus xxvi, 12, where it is said thus: "I will set my tabernacle in the midst of you, and my soul shall not cast you off. I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be my people." Where literally he speaks of the tabernacle of the covenant, which was as it were a movable temple and house of God walking with the Hebrews through the desert, as if to say: In this tabernacle I will be present with you, and as it walks through the desert, I will also walk with you, and I shall take such care of you as if I walked among you bodily on every side, so that no place may be given to enemies to attack you, since I walk around protecting you on every side.
Allegorically, this tabernacle signified the Church of Christ, as Ezekiel xxxvii, 27 explains, which St. Paul here cites and follows: "And my tabernacle (in the days of the Messiah) shall be," that is, my Church, "in them," says Ezekiel, "and I will be their God, and they shall be my people." Consequently tropologically this tabernacle is the holy soul, which is the temple of God, and from this exile walks through into heaven.
Here note: God walks in the soul as in His tabernacle, when He passes from memory into intellect, thence into will, by acts of faith, hope, and charity: for the holy soul is as it were a temple, indeed a heaven, in which the sun is the intellect, or the zeal of justice; the moon, faith and continence; the stars, the remaining virtues, says Bernard, sermon 27 on the Canticle. Secondly, God walks in the soul, that is, makes it walk through the virtues, when namely by His grace He brings it about that we go from virtue to virtue, says Anselm and Theophylact; and as in the tabernacle one passed into the Holy of Holies through the Holy place, namely through the altar of incense, the table, and the candlestick; so He brings it about that we may go into heaven through holiness of life, namely through prayer, almsgiving, chastity, and purity of life: for the altar of incense was a symbol of prayer, the table of almsgiving, the candlestick of the purity and splendor of life. Thirdly, God walks in the soul by contemplation, because He brings it about that we follow with mind His temples, namely Christ leaping from the temple of heaven into the temple and womb of the Virgin; thence into the temple and Mount of Calvary, thence into hell, thence into heaven. Fourthly, corporeally, says St. Ambrose, "The Word made flesh dwelt" and walked "in us," and daily by holy communion dwells, and through our members and every place walks with us.
Verse 17: Go Out From Among Them, and Be Separate
17. Wherefore He says: Go out from the midst of them, — Note, Isaiah chapter lii, verse 11, commands literally that the Apostles and the faithful go out from the unbelieving and unclean — not Babylon, as some say, but Jerusalem to be devastated by Titus. But the Apostle here tropologically, or by parity, commands the faithful to avoid excessive intercourses with unbelievers, and not to touch the "unclean thing," that is, unclean unbelievers, that is, not to converse with them, lest their unclean vices, namely drunkenness, luxury, pride, impiety, and depravity, rub off on them, and they contract them by very touch and conversation. Thus Jerome with Cyril on Isaiah lii, and Chrysostom, Ambrose, Anselm here.