In the Gospel the possibility of a miracle is often connected with the faith of the person or people who await or ask for that miracle. It was the same in pre-Christian times: God revealed them according to the faith of those awaiting, or not awaiting, a miracle. If God’s action was too obvious...
In the Gospel the possibility of a miracle is often connected with the faith of the person or people who await or ask for that miracle. It was the same in pre-Christian times: God revealed them according to the faith of those awaiting, or not awaiting, a miracle. If God’s action was too obvious, outwardly it always looked in such a way that, if one wished, everything could be explained by natural causes.
Christ’s miracles were at times more visible and obvious, but He always performed them for specific people who trusted Him and expected help from Him. For the rest, who became involuntary witnesses of what was happening, there remained only to accept the situation as it was. Of course, much in this case is explained by the fact that God is unobtrusive. He will not drag a person to Himself by force, striking his imagination with supernatural phenomena. For God wants a person to commune with Him out of love, not out of fear or self-interest. Therefore the Savior does not drag anyone into the Kingdom by miracles.
But when the matter concerns the Kingdom, it is important to take something else into account. The Kingdom is entirely permeated with God’s light and God’s breath; they are its nature, or more precisely, what in the Kingdom takes the place of the nature of our world. But the Kingdom also has its own structure. A structure formed by the relationships of its inhabitants: their relationships with God, with Christ, and with one another. And the relationship of the Savior Himself with His heavenly Father is the foundation of the Kingdom, its chief spiritual support.
And all relationships in the Kingdom can be only and exclusively voluntary. Here no deceit, no ambiguity, no half-said things are possible. Any unwillingness to see Jesus, any unwillingness to commune with Him, places a person outside the Kingdom. For all the Savior’s miracles are nothing other than the manifestation of the Kingdom, its power, its breath.
It is no surprise that where there is no trust in Jesus, there is neither the Kingdom nor miracles. It is not that they are impossible there; they are simply meaningless. One cannot be made loving by force, and to demonstrate the power of the Kingdom to someone who does not want it means in effect to compel a person toward something to which compulsion is completely impossible. Jesus can only leave, giving those who refuse to trust Him over to their own fate. In the end, it is their choice, to which they have every right.
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5:9 I wrote to you in a former epistle - And, doubtless, both St. Paul and the other apostles wrote many things which are not extant now. Not to converse - Familiarly; not to contract any intimacy or acquaintance with them, more than is absolutely necessary.
5:10 But I did not mean that you should altogether refrain from conversing with heathens, though they are guilty in some of these respects. Covetous, rapacious, idolaters - Sinners against themselves, their neighbour, God. For thenye must go out of the world - Then all civil commerce must cease.So that going out of the world, which some account a perfection, St. Paul accounts an utter absurdity.
5:11 Who is named a brother - That is, a Christian; especially if a member of the same congregation. Rapacious - Guilty of oppression, extortion, or any open injustice. No,not to eat with him - Which is the lowest degree of familiarity.
5:12 I speak of Christians only. For what have I to do to judge heathens? But ye, as well as I, judge those of your own community.
5:13 Them that are without God will judge - The passing sentence on these he hath reserved to himself. And ye will take away that wicked person - This properly belongs to you.
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6:1 The unjust - The heathens. A Christian could expect no justice from these. The saints - Who might easily decide these smaller differences in a private and friendly manner.
6:2 Know ye not - This expression occurs six times in this single chapter, and that with a peculiar force; for the Corinthians knew and gloried in it, but they did not practise.That the saints - After having been judged themselves. Shall judge the world - Shall be assessors with Christ in the judgment wherein he shall condemn all the wicked, as well angels as men, Mat 19:28 Rev 20:4.
6:4 Them who are of no esteem in the church - That is, heathens, who, as such, could be in no esteem with the Christians.
6:5 Is there not one among you, who are such admirers of wisdom, that is wise enough to decide such causes?
6:7 Indeed there is a fault, that ye quarrel with each other at all, whether ye go to law or no. Why do ye not rather suffer wrong - All men cannot or will not receive this saying.Many aim only at this, "I will neither do wrong, nor suffer it." These are honest heathens, but no Christians.
6:8 Nay, ye do wrong - Openly. And defraud - Privately.O how powerfully did the mystery of iniquity already work!
6:9 Idolatry is here placed between fornication and adultery, because they generally accompanied it. Nor the effeminate - Who live in an easy, indolent way; taking up no cross, enduring no hardship. But how is this? These good - natured, harmless people areranked with idolaters and sodomites! We may learn hence, that we are never secure from the greatest sins, till we guard against those which are thought the least; nor, indeed, till we think no sin is little, since every one is a step toward hell.
6:11 And such were some of you: but ye are washed - From those gross abominations; nay, and ye are inwardly sanctified; not before, but in consequence of, your being justified in the name - That is, by the merits, of the Lord Jesus, through which your sins are forgiven. And by the Spirit of our God - By whom ye are thus washed and sanctified.