Глава 6

About litigation between Christians (1–11). On intemperance (12–20) 1 Corinthians 6:1–11. Continuing the conversation about undesirable phenomena in the moral life of the Corinthian Church, Apostle. denounces the Corinthians for seeking control in their affairs from pagan judges (1–6), and then puts forward the position that in general, disputes over property matters are unacceptable between Christians, because they indicate a weakening of brotherly love in them (7–11). 1 Corinthians 6:1. How dare anyone among you, when dealing with another, sue the wicked and not the saints? "How dare". In the Roman Empire, people who professed the state religion, that is, pagans, were appointed judges. Although these judges judged according to all the customs of Roman law, nevertheless, Ap. calls them “ungodly” - more correctly: “unrighteous” (άδικα), because they actually did not know the highest, Christ’s, truth. He considers the only appropriate court for a Christian to be a court consisting of Christians, which is not an official court, but simply a mediation one, when people turn to some respected person from among themselves to resolve a dispute. Christians are called “saints,” not as individuals, but as members of the holy Church of Christ: such people have an understanding of the highest tasks of life and correct human relationships. – The Corinthians turned to pagan judges, probably out of old habit and because they were confident that a Roman judge would better understand their case. The Apostle does not want principles alien to Christianity to be introduced into Christian life through judicial sentences (for example, in cases between masters and slaves). This, however, did not prevent the Apostle from demanding that Christians submit to pagan authorities and, consequently, also to judges when they, for their part, presented certain demands to Christians as members of the state (Rom. 13:1-3). 1 Corinthians 6:2. Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? If the world is to be judged by you, are you really unworthy to judge unimportant matters? 1 Corinthians 6:3. Do you not know that we will judge angels, much less the deeds of this life? "Don't you know"? Ap. here he recalls to the Corinthians what he told them during his stay in Corinth. - “The saints will judge the world.” Eastern church interpreters said that here we mean a court in the figurative sense of the word. At the Last Judgment of Christ, Christians, with their spotless behavior, will serve as a living and visual exposure of pagan depravity (Matthew 25:40). But the connection of speech makes us see here an indication of an actual trial, in which Christians will be participants. And the Lord Jesus Christ Himself told the Apostles that, at His second coming, they would sit on twelve thrones and judge the twelve tribes of Israel (Matthew 19:28). St. John the Theologian extends this right to all believers (Rev 2:26, ​​27, 20:4). - “We will judge the angels.” The Holy Scriptures nowhere say that men will judge good angels. But Ap. Paul in our letter says that at the second coming of Christ to earth the angelic powers will be “abolished” (1 Cor. 15:24). Of course, here we mean the evil angels, “the rulers of the darkness of this world” (Eph. 6:12), and these same angels Ap. means, of course, in the chapter under consideration. From the book of Enoch (Apocrypha) it is clear that the Jews also had the belief that God would judge the angels - of course the evil ones (Ph. Bachmann, however, sees here a reference to “angels in general”, as in 1 Cor. 3:9, and assumes that the Ap. means the responsibility of the good angels, since they are the guardians of kingdoms and nations. Dan. 10). 1 Corinthians 6:4. And you, when you have everyday disputes, appoint as your judges those who mean nothing in the church. “And you... deliver.” - More correctly: put, choose (καθίξετε - according to the meaning of speech, it should be recognized as a behavioral mood). - “By your judges.” We are not talking about pagan judge-officials, because Ap. himself. taught to respect them (Rom. 13:4) and because it was not Christians who installed them! The entire speech of the Apostle here is obviously ironic: “in such insignificant matters, over which you are arguing among yourself, do not look for important people as mediators - these matters can be resolved even by the most insignificant, from your point of view, persons in the Church!” – “Everyday litigation” (βιωτικά) – more correctly: disputes over material wealth. 1 Corinthians 6:5. To your shame I say: is there really not a single reasonable person among you who could judge between his brothers? 1 Cor.6:6. But brother and brother are suing, and, moreover, before the infidels. Ap. wants to say: “I have nothing against you choosing the right people to solve your litigation. If I said that your affairs can be decided by the most insignificant persons, I said this only to shame you: after all, I showed you how little importance in my eyes those interests for which you sacrifice the honor of the Church have.” 1 Cor.6:7. And it is already very humiliating for you that you have litigation among yourself. Why would you rather not remain offended? Why would you rather not endure hardship? 1 Corinthians 6:8. But you yourself offend and take away, and from your brothers. Already in the 6th Art. The apostle made it clear that Christians are doing wrong by suing each other - after all, they are brothers (“brother sue brother”). Now he reveals this idea about the inappropriateness of litigation among Christians in more detail, pointing out that it is appropriate for a Christian to endure insult and hardship rather than take anything away from his brothers, even through court. - Ap. does not mean by this that a Christian should not at all defend himself against the injustice caused to him, but still advises not to bring the matter to trial. A Christian is prompted to do this by his love for his brothers, which makes all sorts of concessions (cf. Matt. 5:39–42). 1 Corinthians 6:9. Or don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor wicked people, nor homosexuals, 1 Corinthians 6:10. neither thieves, nor covetous people, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor extortioners will inherit the Kingdom of God. Regarding the Corinthians’ forgetting of their sacred duty - to love their brothers in faith, Ap. notes that in general among the Corinthians a frivolous attitude towards the obligations they had assumed to lead a pure and righteous life began to take hold. They began to imagine that their religious, spiritual gifts in themselves could open the doors of the Kingdom of Heaven for them, no matter what their behavior was. No, says Ap., this cannot be! At the same time, he first lists five types of intemperance, and then five types of violation of other people’s rights, both the right to property and the right to public respect (“those who speak evil” specifically harm the honor of others, their good name). 1 Corinthians 6:11. And such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. The apostle had just tried to influence the Corinthians by threatening them with the possibility of losing their right to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Now he is trying to revive in them the consciousness of their Christian dignity, which obliges them to be pure and righteous. The Corinthians must remember that they had already entered into a new life through baptism. - "Some" . This Ap. wants to say that not all Corinthians led an ungodly lifestyle before converting to Christianity. - “But they washed themselves.” This undoubtedly signifies the sacrament of baptism (the middle voice here placed in the Greek text indicates that baptism was an act of personal, conscious decision of each believer). - “But they were sanctified, but they were justified.” These two expressions explain what a person receives in the sacrament of baptism. Baptism, - Ap wants to say. – was not a simple symbol. No, it was accompanied by sanctification, i.e., at baptism the Holy Spirit was sent down to believers, with the receipt of which believers began a new, grace-filled life (cf. Acts 2:38; 2 Cor. 1:21, 22; Eph. 1:13), and then in baptism “justification” was given to believers, i.e. they became righteous by appropriating the righteousness of Christ. Ap. here he puts first “sanctification” and then “justification” because he needed to contrast the present state of believers with their previous state. In another case, he does the opposite (cf. 1 Cor. 1:30). "In the name of the Lord". The act of baptism receives such power from the fact that it is performed in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that is, with the invocation of His name, at His command, by His power and on the basis that His atoning sacrifice for all humanity was accepted by God, and by the “Spirit of our God,” i.e. in baptism the Spirit of God is brought down on the baptized person - the beginning of a new life (the sacrament of confirmation combined with baptism). – Here one can see a departure from the formula of baptism known from the Gospel: “in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). But, first of all, Ap. here, obviously, he does not give and did not want to give the formula for baptism, and secondly, here there is an indication of the three persons of the Divine - this is precisely: 1) the Lord Jesus Christ, 2) the Spirit and 3) our God, i.e. God the Father. Ap. already in the 9th century. pointed out that in Corinth there were people who believed that they could enter the Kingdom of Heaven without giving up on the sins in which they had previously lived. Now Ap. speaks in more detail about this error, having, however, mainly in mind one sin - intemperance or unchastity. This sin was excused by many Corinthians due to the principle of Christian freedom and Ap. refutes this view, pointing out the great harm for a person who is in this sin and the great responsibility of such a person before God. 1 Corinthians 6:12. Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial; everything is permissible to me, but nothing should possess me. The Apostle, without a doubt, in Corinth, as in other places, taught about the freedom of a Christian in things that are indifferent in moral terms, which were previously, in pedagogical forms, prohibited in the Law of Moses. This expression “everything is permissible for me!” probably represents the motto with which the apostle spoke, and therefore it was imprinted in the minds of the Corinthians. But, unfortunately, they began to expand the application of this principle to such phenomena that were not at all indifferent from the point of view of Christian morality. Therefore, the Apostle considers it necessary to limit the application of the said principle. It can only take place where it does not cause harm to a person guided by this principle. This is the first thing. Secondly, it is necessary to abandon the application of this principle where there is a danger of losing one’s freedom and finding oneself enslaved to some habit. 1 Corinthians 6:13. Food is for the belly, and the belly is for food; but God will destroy both. The body is not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 1 Corinthians 6:14. God raised the Lord, and He will also resurrect us by His power. Particular care must be taken where cleanliness of the body or chastity is concerned. Bearing in mind the words of Christ that “whatever enters into the mouth does not defile a person” (Matthew 15:11), Ap. says that in relation to food the principle “everything is permissible for me” can be applied, especially since those functions of our body that are connected with food will cease on the day of the resurrection and glorification of human bodies: God will destroy and make unnecessary both these functions and the food itself! This is not the case with the entire human body. This body cannot be desecrated by fornication at all, because it is appointed for the Lord Jesus Christ to belong to Him and serve as His instrument (cf. Rom. 6:13, 12:1), just as Christ Himself stands in relation to the body, because He abides in it and will glorify it over time. Due to this attitude towards Christ, the body will not perish. Just as God raised Christ, so He will resurrect this human body, which during earthly life was the property and consecrated instrument of Christ the Lord. - “He will resurrect us.” Next, with this body Ap. identifies the entire human personality, for which the body itself is only an organ of action. – Of course, bearing in mind such an enduring significance of the body, we must treat it with respect and not humiliate it in any way. - Here is Ap. counts himself among those who will die and be resurrected, while in other cases (eg 1 Cor. 15:52) he imagines himself as having lived until the second coming. This serves as evidence that the day of the second coming was unknown to him too. 1 Corinthians 6:15. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I, then, take away the members of Christ to make them members of a harlot? It won't happen! Fornication contains two crimes. Firstly, this is a daring theft (“Shall I take it away?”) of property belonging to Christ, and secondly, it is the use of the stolen for an unworthy purpose (“to make members of a harlot”). 1 Corinthians 6:16. Or don’t you know that he who has sex with a harlot becomes one body with her? for it is said: the two will become one flesh. 1 Corinthians 6:17. And he who is united with the Lord is one spirit with the Lord. 1 Corinthians 6:18. Flee fornication; Every sin that a person commits is outside the body, but the fornicator sins against his own body. The apostle could have objected to the thought he expressed in the 2nd half of verse 15: “the use of the body by a Christian for the sin of fornication does not yet mean taking it away from Christ. Isn’t this only temporary and external abuse of the body?” To this objection Ap. answers first of all with a reference to Holy Scripture, namely to the book. Life 2:24. From this place it is clear that copulation with a harlot or the sin of fornication is not something temporary and external, but represents a real union of two persons into one body. True, in the book. Genesis is about the marital sexual union of a man and a woman, who in marriage become “one flesh,” according to the Divine definition. But, nevertheless, this characteristic feature of a marital union, on its natural side, as a union into one flesh, could be transferred to the illegal, adulterous union of a man with a harlot, since the latter is also based on the sexual instinct implanted by God in man. “Perhaps - as the Apostle says - fornicators do not want to enter into such a close union with a harlot, but nevertheless they enter into one, because the power of Divine determination acts even where they do not want to use it: sexual intercourse leads people to the closest communion of nature and makes one out of two bodies.” – And why such communication is morally impossible for a Christian, according to the Apostle, this should be answered this way: a Christian at the same time enters an area that, according to 1 Cor. 4:9, 5:11, is outside the area of ​​the kingdom of God. Whoever unites with a harlot alienates his body from subordination to Christ and makes it dependent on anti-Christian power. Ap., however, does not make such a conclusion himself, because the matter was already clear. Instead, he says that “he who is united with the Lord is one spirit” (the word: “with the Lord” is not read in the best editions). “Union with” the Lord, that is, with Christ Ap. denotes by the same term (κολλᾶσθαι) as “coitus” with a harlot (v. 16): this is nothing more than a close, soul- and body-embracing communion between the believer and Christ. This union, then, is essentially spiritual in nature, since the power that appropriates the body and soul of a Christian to Christ is the “Spirit” (1 Cor. 6:19), which is in Christ the source of a new glorified life in a glorified body (cf. 2 Cor. 3:18, 4:14). Ap. deliberately, obviously, does not limit itself in this case (v. 17) to indicating that a Christian enters into close unity with Christ, but adds: “there is one spirit.” He wants to say by this that a Christian must avoid fornication because it is only a grossly sensuous, bodily connection and does not achieve the moral character that marital sexual intercourse achieves, which gradually becomes spiritual communication. A believer in Christ is a church of the Spirit and therefore cannot be, so to speak, a church of the flesh. So, concludes Ap., “flee fornication”! To further inspire disgust for the sin of fornication, Apostle. says that every other sin is “outside the body,” and the fornicator sins precisely against his own body (18). He thus attaches special importance to the sin of fornication. But in what sense should we understand his words about the relationship of sins to the body? Some interpreters say that Ap. This hints that the sin of fornication is not like other sins, but extremely depletes the human body. But we cannot agree with such an understanding, because drunkenness has the same effect on the human body. Others (Gode) distinguish two bodies in man: the external, constantly changing in its composition, and the internal, eternal, which in fact must be resurrected for the future life: the latter is what the Apostle means here... However, nowhere is there a basis for such a distinction. And why can’t drunkenness, for example, have such a harmful effect on this inner body as fornication? It will be easier to convey the apostle’s thought this way. Fornication is such a terrible sin that, unlike other sins, it harms the human body in that it puts it under the power of sinful power, acting in sensual passion devoid of any restraint - it puts it precisely through an organic connection with the representative of this sinful power - the harlot. We can, perhaps, add to this that no other sin, with the exception of fornication, is directly caused by the need of the body: the body, for example, does not necessarily require wine to satisfy its thirst - it can be perfectly supported by water; traces drunkenness is not at all the result of a bodily need. Meanwhile, prodigal sexual intercourse is rooted in a natural need that lies in the human body. 1 Corinthians 6:19. Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who lives in you, which you have from God, and you are not your own? 1 Corinthians 6:20. For you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God both in your bodies and in your souls, which are God's. Ap. wonders if the Corinthians have forgotten about the high purpose that their body has? In fact, a fornicator robs his body of the honor of being the temple of the Holy Spirit! this sin is all the more unforgivable because the body no longer belongs to man in itself: it was bought for a certain (expensive) price (the sacrifice of the Son of God). Therefore, in our body we must give glory to its owner - God - the glory that consists in the worthy and holy use of this gift of God given to us for use. “You do not have power over the flesh to satisfy evil desires, but you have this power only to fulfill the commandments of God” (John Chrysostom). You might be interested in: