It ought to teach me how I should
treat you. It ought to teach you how you should treat your children. It
ought to teach you how God, your heavenly Father, treats you. You see at
the first glance how cheerful and hopeful St Paul is about these
Corinthians. He is always thanking God, he says, about them, for the
grace of God which was given them by Jesus Christ, that in everything
they were enriched by Him, in all utterance and in all knowledge. And he
has good hope for them. Nay, he seems to be certain about them, that
they will persevere, and conquer, and be saved; for Christ Himself will
confirm them (that is strengthen them) to the end, that they may be
blameless in the way of our Lord Jesus Christ.
If we knew no more of these Corinthians than what these words tell us, we
should suppose that they were very great saints, leading holy and
irreproachable lives before God and man. But we know that it was not so.
That they were going on very ill. That this is the beginning of an
epistle in which St Paul is going to rebuke them very severely; and to
tell them, that unless they mend, they will surely become reprobates, and
be lost after all.
Pages:
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251