1 Corinthians — Chapter 15

Ye know that ye were Gentiles , &c. You were led like slaves, by custom, by the institutions of your ancestors, by religious tradition, and by diabolic agency to these dumb idols. For the Hebraism in the employment of the participle instead of the finite verb, c£ Rom. xil n. Remember, he says, O Corinthians, that when you were Gentiles you used to worship idols, as stocks and stones which have neither breath, feeling, power of speech, nor strength of any kind, and much less can give such things to their worshippers. But now that you have become Christians you can worship God, who is pure spirit, full of all grace and wisdom, and sheds these same spiritual gifts abundantly upon you, as you daily experience. Recognise, therefore, the grace bestowed upon you by Christ, the change wrought in you, and worship Christ, the author of all this, together with the Holy Spirit.

Wherefore . . . no man . . . calleth Jesus accursed. The “ wherefore ” shows this verse to be a conclusion from the preceding, and explains it I have reminded you, he says, of your previous con- dition as Gentiles, and of your dumb idols, in order that you may appreciate duly the greatness of your calling, and the grace of the Holy Spirit given you in your baptism, by which you no longer call on dumb idols but on Christ and the Holy Spirit, and receive from them gifts of tongues, &c., that you may know how full of eloquence and energy compared with your dumb idols is the Holy Spirit who makes you eloquent in divine wisdom. Acknowledge, then, the Holy Spirit’s power, and contend no more about His gifts, since you have them from the Holy Spirit, who distributes His gifts as He wills. Let not him who has received less grieve thereat, nor him who has received more be high-minded. So Chrysostom. CURSING CHRIST 303 No man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed. No one execrates or blasphemes Jesus if he has the Spirit of God. He rather acknowledges Him and calls upon Him, as the author of the grace he has received, of his salvation, and of all spiritual gifts. S. Paul uses the figure meiosis, and leaves the rest to be understood. Observe that S. Paul says this to the Corinthians, partly because of the Jews, who to this day are declared to say in their synagogues, Cajetan says, “May Jesus and the Christians be accursed;” partly, also, and even more, because of the Gentiles, among whom the Corinthians were living. They and their poets, and their priests especially, were in the habit of execrating Jesus. Moreover, by this Gentile rulers tested whether any one were a Christian or not. They would order them to curse Christ, as Pliny says, that he had ordered (Ep. ad Traj .) : “ There was brought before me a schedule containing the names of many who were accused of being Christians. They deny that they are or ever were Christians. In my presence they called upon the gods, and burnt incense , and poured a libation of wine to your image, which I had ordered to be brought in amongst the statues of the gods. Moreover , they cursed Christ ; and it is said that those who are true Christians cannot be in any way forced to do any of these things. I thought , therefore, that they ought to be dismissed. Others said that they had been Christians, but had now ceased to be; they all paid honour to your image and the images of the gods, and cursed Christ . ” No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost. The Apostle draws a contrast between calling Jesus accursed and calling Him Lord. No one can recognise, believe, invoke, and preach Jesus as Lord, and profess faith in Him as he ought, and as is necessary to salvation, except in the Holy Spirit, i.e., through the Holy Spirit. For faith, hope, and prayer are His gifts. S. Paul does not by this deny that unbelievers, under the ordinary influence only of God, can profess the name of Jesus, or have good thoughts about Him, but only that no one without the grace of Christ and the Holy Spirit can with true faith and pious affection invoke Jesus as Lord earnestly and heartily, and confess Him to be 304 FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS, C. XII. our Redeemer ; or even say in his heart, or think of Him anything which in its rank and order confers and disposes to forgiveness of sins, grace, and eternal bliss. So say Ambrose and Anselm. This appears from the fact that he is addressing the Corinthian faithful, and re- buking the pride which they took in their gifts and graces, on the ground that they have their faith and all their gifts, not from them- selves but from the Holy Spirit. These gifts, then, he means to say, are not your own, nor can you even call upon Jesus of yourselves ; but to know Him and call upon Him are the gift of the Holy Spirit

Now there are diversities of gifts. One grace is given to one, another to another, but they all proceed from the same Spirit

And there are differences of administrations.. There are different kinds of sacred ministries distributed by the same Lord, from whom as God and through whom as man we receive them, so that He is ministered to in different ways by different people. So Anselm.

And there are diversities of operations , &c. Observe 1. that the Apostle assigns gifts to the Holy Spirit, the fount of goodness; ministries to the Son, as Lord ; operations to the Father, as the first beginning of all things. So Theophylact and Anselm. 2. The gifts here spoken of are what are sometimes called “ graces gratuitously given the ministries are the various offices in the Church, such as the diaconate, the Episcopate, and the care of the poor ; the operations are miraculous powers, such as the exorcism of demons, the healing the sick, the raising the dead. The word operations is explained in ver. 10 by being expanded into “working of miracles,” which is translated by Erasmus the “ working of powers.” The Greek Svvafus is strictly power, might, ability, and cvcpyeia, working, Ivep- yrjua, work. But it will be more satisfactory to say that the Apostle calls all graces gratuitously given (1.) graces, because they are given gratui- tously ; (2.) ministries, because by them each one ministered to the Church ; (3.) workings, because by them the faithful received from the Holy Spirit a marvellous power to say and do things surpass- ing the power of nature. These graces are the work of the Holy Spirit equally with the Father and the Son ; for all external works, as GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT 305 theologians say, viz., all that go forth to created things, are common to the Three Persons ; yet, as they are workings they are fitly assigned to the Father, as ministries to the Son, as graces to the Holy Spirit Which worketh all in all 1. God works everything in nature by working effectively with second causes, as theologians teach in opposition to Gabriel Biel Thus God brings about all the blessings of nature and of good-fortune. That one is poor, another rich is to be attributed to the counsel and will of God. Cf. S. Chrysostom ( Horn . 29 Moral), 2. God works all supernatural things, both the graces that make a man pleasing to God and the graces that the Apostle means here, viz., those gratuitously given, such as the working of miracles* What- ever the saints ask of God in prayer, or order to be done in His name, is done by God’s direct action, even in the realm of nature. It does not follow from this that the co-operation of God goes before and determines beforehand the working of secondary causes, and of free-will in good works, and of grace that makes a man pleasing; for in all these God works all things through His pre- venient grace, by which He stirs up the will, and through grace co-operating, which, together with free-will freely working, works simultaneously everything that is good. But the Apostle is not dealing primarily with the works of grace that make a man pleasing to God, but with the workings of graces gratuitously given, as will appear from what follows. S. Hilarius (do Trin, lib. viii.) renders “ works ” “ inworks, ” and so follows the Greek more closely, which signifies the inward presence and effectual power with which God works all things inwardly, especially miracles and all the other gifts. The whole