*DO YOU NOT KNOW
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BY WILLIE WONG
1.) Isa 40:28, “Do you not know? Have you not heard?
The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His understanding is unsearchable.”
You may know many little things, but the most important things you do not know. This is the pivotal knowledge, and it carries the sentiment you should have known, but you still do not know.
Hast thou not known? - This is the language of the prophet reproving them for complaining of being forsaken and assuring them that God was faithful to his promises. This argument of the prophet, which continues to the close of the chapter, comprises the main scope of the chapter, which is to induce them to put confidence in God, and to believe that he was able and willing to deliver them. The phrase, 'Hast thou not known? refers to the fact that the Jewish people had had an abundant opportunity of learning, in their history, and from their fathers, the true character of God, and his entire ability to save them. No people had had so much light on this subject, and now that they were in trial, they ought to recall their former knowledge of his character, and remember his dealings of faithfulness with them and their fathers. It is well for the people of God in times of calamity and trial to recall to their recollection his former dealings with his church. That history will furnish abundant sources of consolation, and abundant assurances that their interests are safe in his hands.
Hast thou not heard? - From the traditions of the fathers; the instruction which you have received from ancient times. A large part of the knowledge of the Jews was traditionary; and these attributes of God, as a faithful God, had, no doubt, constituted an important part of the knowledge which had thus been communicated to them.
The everlasting God - The God who has existed from eternity, unlike the idols of the pagan. If he was from eternity, he would be unchangeable, and his purposes could not fail.
The Creator of the ends of the earth - The phrase, 'the ends of the earth,' means the same as the earth itself. The earth is sometimes spoken of as a vast plain having limits or boundaries (see Isaiah 40:22). It is probable that this was the prevailing idea among the ancients (compare Deuteronomy 33:17; 1 Samuel 2:10; Psalm 19:6; Psalm 22:27; Psalm 48:10; Psalm 65:5; Psalm 67:7; Psalm 98:3; Isaiah 43:6; Isaiah 45:22; Isaiah 52:10). The argument here is, that he who has formed the earth could not be exhausted or weary in so small a work as that of protecting his people.
Fainteth not - Is not fatigued or exhausted. That God, who has formed and sustained all things, is not exhausted in his powers, but is able still to defend and guard his people.
There is no searching of his understanding - The God who made all things must be infinitely wise. There is proof of boundless skill in the works of his hands, and it is impossible for finite mind fully and adequately to search out all the proofs of his wisdom and skill. Man can see only a part - a small part, while the vast ocean, the boundless deep of his wisdom, lies still unexplored. This thought is beautifully expressed by Zophar in Job 11:7-9 :
Canst thou by searching find out God?
Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?
It is as high as heaven;
What canst thou do?
Deeper than hell;
What canst thou know:
The measure thereof is longer than the earth,
And broader than the sea.”
2. ) Jdg 15:11, “Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam and said to Samson, “Do you not know that the Philistines are rulers over us? What then is this
that you have done to us?” And he said to them, “Just as they did to me, so I have done to them.”
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
(11) Went to the top of the rock Etam.—Rather, went down to the cave of the rock Etam. They would easily gain information as to Samson’s hiding-place.
What is this that thou hast done unto us?—The abject condition into which the Lion Tribe had sunk can best be estimated by this reproach against the national hero, and still more by their baseness in betraying him. He finds no sympathy. There are no patriots in search of heroes. What might not this 3,000 have achieved if they had been like Gideon’s 300?”
3. ) 2Sa 3:38, “Then the king said to his servants, “Do you not know that a leader and a great man has fallen in Israel this day?”
Most people do not recognize a leader and a great man. There is a world leader who is mad, arrogant, and stupid; he is certainly not a great men.
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary
3:22-39 Judgments are prepared for such scorners as Abner; but Joab, in what he did, acted wickedly. David laid Abner's murder deeply to heart, and in many ways expressed his detestation of it. The guilt of blood brings a curse upon families: if men do not avenge it, God will. It is a sad thing to die like a fool, as they do that any way shorten their own days, and those who make no provision for another world. Who would be fond of power, when a man may have the name of it, and must be accountable for it, yet is hampered in the use of it? David ought to have done his duty, and then trusted God with the issue. Carnal policy spared Joab. The Son of David may long delay, but never fails to punish impenitent sinners. He who now reigns upon the throne of David, has a kingdom of a nobler kind. Whatever He doeth, is noticed by all his willing people, and is pleasing to them.”
4. ) 2Ch 13:5, “Do you not know that the LORD God of Israel gave the rule over Israel forever to David and his sons by a covenant of salt?.”
Verses 5-12. - The idea of Abijah in this religious harangue, addressed or supposed to be addressed to the kingdom of the ten tribes, was good, and the execution was spirited. While, however, he preaches well to others, there are not wanting signs that he can blind himself as to some failure of practice on his own part. The points of the argument running through his harangue are correct, skillfully chosen, and well and religiously thrust home on the heart of his supposed audience. The practical trust of himself and his army are testified to in vers. 14, 15, and abundantly rewarded. This sequel-practical trust is the best credential of the sincerity of his foregoing appeal and harangue. Verse 5. - Gave the kingdom... to David for ever. With the thrice-repeated "for ever" of what we call 2 Samuel 7:13-16, and the very emphatic language of the fifteenth verse in that passage, in the memory of Abijah, no one can say he was not justified by the letter and to the letter in what he now says. At the same time, how is it that Abijah does not in all fairness quote the matter of 2 Chronicles 6:16 last clause, and of its parallel, 1 Kings 8:25 last clause, and of Psalm 89:28-37; Psalm 132:12? Covenant of salt (see Leviticus 2:13; Numbers 18:19; Ezekiel 43:24; Mark 9:49). The use of salt was ordered first for the meal offerings, which, consisting mainly of flour, did not need it as an antiseptic; afterwards it was ordered for "all" offerings, including the "burnt offering:" as surely as leaven was proscribed, salt was prescribed (Leviticus 2:11). "The covenant of salt" meant the imperish-ableness and irrevocableness of the engagement made between the two parties to the covenant The widespread and deeply significant use of it among other and heathen nations is remarkable indeed, and is attested by Pliny ('Hist. Natal 31:41) in forcible words: "Nulla (sacra) conficiuntur sine mola salsa" (Her., 2 Sat. 3:200; Virgil, 'AEn.,' 2:133; Hom., ' Iliad,' 1:449). Some think it a sufficient explanation of the text, "covenant of salt," that, especially in the East, solemn engagements and vows were often recognized and strengthened by hospitalities, as shown to guests, and of these salt was an indispensable element. It is true that some of the ancient indications and descriptions of friendship and close friendships turned on phrases (similar ones, indeed, still existing) into which the word "salt" entered, but that these phrases arose from the fact that salt was so general a constituent of human food seems insufficient explanation, where we can find one of a more direct and more directly religious, or, as the case might be (e.g. with heathen sacrifices), superstitious birth. Religion and superstition between them have been the most world-wide, incalculable, and untraceable originators and disseminators of half the possible phrases of human language! 2 Chronicles 13:5.”
5. ) Jhn 19:10, “So Pilate said to Him, “Are you not
speaking to me? Do You not know that I have
authority to release You, and I have authority to crucify You?”
The interesting part is in the answer.
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
11. Thou couldest] Or, wouldest. This is Christ’s last word to Pilate; a defence of the supremacy of God, and a protest against the claim of any human potentate to be irresponsible.
from above] i.e. from God. This even Pilate could understand: had Jesus said ‘from My Father’ he would have remained uninstructed. The point is not, that Pilate is an instrument ordained for the carrying out of God’s purposes (Acts 2:23); he was such, but that is not the meaning here. Rather, that the possession and exercise of all authority is the gift of God; John 3:27; Romans 13:1-7 (see notes there). To interpret ‘from above’ of the higher tribunal of the Sanhedrin is quite inadequate. Comp. John 3:3; John 3:7; John 3:31; James 1:17; James 3:15; James 3:17, where the same adverb, anôthen, is used: see notes in each place.
therefore] Better, for this cause (John 12:18; John 12:27); comp. John 1:31, John 5:16; John 5:18, John 7:22, John 8:47.
he that delivered me unto thee] Caiaphas, the representative of the Sanhedrin and of the nation. The expression rendered ‘he that delivered’ is used in John 13:11, John 18:2; John 18:5 of Judas. But the addition ‘to thee’ shews that Judas is not meant; Judas had not betrayed Jesus to Pilate but to the Sanhedrin. The same verb is used of the Sanhedrin delivering Him to Pilate, John 18:35.
hath the greater sin] Because he had the opportunity of knowing Who Jesus was. Once more we have the expression, peculiar to S. John, ‘to have sin’ (John 9:41, John 15:22; John 15:24; 1 John 1:8).”
6. ) Rom 6:3, “Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?”
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
- (3) Know ye not.—It should be as in the Greek, Or know ye not. Do you not admit this principle; or am I to suppose that you are ignorant? &c.
Were baptized into Jesus Christ—i.e., “into communion with Him and incorporation in His mystical body” (Ellicott on Galatians 3:27). “As many of you as have been baptized in Christ have put on Christ.” Your baptism signified an intimately close and indissoluble attachment to Christ.
Were baptized into his death.—And this attachment had a special relation to His death. It involved a communion or fellowship with His death. This fellowship is ethical, i.e., it implies a moral conduct corresponding to that relation to Christ which it assumes.
Why has baptism this special connection with the death of Christ? In the first place, the death of Christ is the central and cardinal fact of the Christian scheme. It is specially related to justification, and justification proceeds from faith, which is ratified in baptism. In the second place, the symbolism of baptism was such as naturally to harmonize with the symbolism of death. It was the final close of one period, and the beginning of another—the complete stripping off of the past and putting on of the “new man.”
7.) Rom 6:16, “Do you not know that the one to whom you present yourselves as slaves for
obedience, you are slaves of that same one whom
you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?”
Know ye not ... - The objection noticed in Romans 6:15, the apostle answers by a reference to the known laws of servitude or slavery, Romans 6:16-20, and by showing that Christians, who had been the slaves of sin, have now become the servants of righteousness, and were therefore bound by the proper laws of servitude to obey their new master: as if he had said, "I assume that you know: you are acquainted with the laws of servitude; you know what is required in such cases." This would be known to all who had been either masters or slaves, or who had observed the usual laws and obligations of servitude.
To whom ye yield yourselves - To whom ye give up yourselves for servitude or obedience. The apostle here refers to voluntary servitude; but where this existed, the power of the master over the time and services of the servant was absolute. The argument of the apostle is, that Christians had become the voluntary servants of God, and were therefore bound to obey him entirely. Servitude among the ancients, whether voluntary or involuntary, was rigid, and gave the master an absolute right over his slave, Luke 17:9; John 8:34; John 15:15. To obey. To be obedient; or for the purpose of obeying his commands.
To whom ye obey - To whom ye come under subjection. That is, you are bound to obey his requirements.
Whether of sin - The general law of servitude the apostle now applies to the case before him. If people became the servants of sin, if they gave themselves to its indulgence, they would obey it, let the consequences be what they might. Even with death, and ruin, and condemnation before them; they would obey sin. They give indulgence to their evil passions and desires, and follow them as obedient servants even if they lead them down to hell. Whatever be the consequences of sin. yet he who yields to it must abide by them, even if it leads him down to death and eternal woe.
Or of obedience ... - The same law exists in regard to holiness or obedience. The man who becomes the servant of holiness will feel himself bound by the law of servitude to obey, and to pursue it to its regular consequences.
Unto righteousness - Unto justification; that is, unto eternal life. The expression stands contrasted with "death," and doubtless means that he who thus becomes the voluntary servant of holiness, will feel himself bound to obey it, unto complete and eternal justification and life; compare Romans 6:21-22. The argument is drawn from what the Christian would feel of the nature of obligation. He would obey him to Whom he had devoted himself.
(This would seem to imply that justification is the effect of obedience. Δικαιοσυνη Dikaiosunē, however, does not signify justification, but righteousness, that is, in this case, personal holiness. The sense is, that while the service of sin leads to death, that of obedience issues in holiness or righteousness. It is no objection to this view that it does not preserve the antithesis, since "justification" is not the opposite of "death," any more than holiness. "There is no need," says Mr. Haldane, "that there should be such an exact correspondence in the parts of the antithesis, as is supposed. And there is a most obvious reason why it could not be so. Death is the wages of sin, but life is not the wages of obedience.").
8.) Rom 7:1, “Or do you not know, brothers and sisters (for I am speaking to those who know the Law), that the Law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives?.”
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Ch. Romans 7:1-6. The same subject. Illustration from matrimony
1. Know ye not, &c.] The passage from hence to end of Romans 7:7 is closely connected with the last chapter. By a perfectly new simile (marriage), it illustrates further what has been just illustrated by the metaphor of slavery, and (in the first part of ch. 6) by the union of the justified with Christ;—namely the Christian’s entire disconnection from the claims, and so from the ruling influence, of sin, in virtue of the new and sacred union.
to them that know the law] Lit. law; without article. But the immediate context shews that the Mosaic Law, (and probably especially its sanctions regarding marriage), is meant. The whole Roman Church, whether Jewish or Gentile, would be familiar with it; many of them having been disciples of the synagogue, and all being directed constantly to the use of the Old Testament by apostolic precept and example. See on Romans 4:18.—This brief parenthesis is quite in keeping with the courtesy of St Paul’s writings.
hath dominion] i.e. has a claim on him; same word as Romans 6:9, where see note.
a man] Lit. the man; the individual, as the second party in any given case—the Law being the first party.
as long as he liveth] Not “only as long as he liveth,” as this is sometimes explained. The emphasis is on the abiding claim of the Law up to death, which alone can cancel it. This general and certain principle is now at once applied to the special case at which St Paul aims in illustration—the case of marriage.”
9.) Rom 11:2, “God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel?”
Most people err because they do not know what the Scripture says.
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
2. God hath not cast away his people] Lit. did not cast, &c. These words are verbatim (save only the change of tense) with LXX. of Psalms 93 (Heb., 94.):14.
which he foreknew] See on Romans 8:29.—Two interpretations are possible here. The “foreknowledge,” or sovereign antecedent decision of the Eternal Mind, may be (a) that which designated the nation for privilege, or (b) that which designated individuals of it for final glory. The words of Romans 11:3-5 favour the latter view; and thus St Paul would say “God never thrust Israel out of the covenant; for He always had among them a foreknown ‘Israel of God’.”—The former sense (national designation) would be perfectly legitimate in itself; but it is less in accord with the immediate context, and with the closely kindred reasonings of ch. 9. The question in view here is “Was the nation ever so rejected as that members of it, as such, were rejected?” This St Paul negatives by pointing to the “nation within the nation;” the elect faithful.
of Elias] Lit. in Elias; i.e. in the narrative of Elijah’s life.
intercession] On behalf of the Divine Truth and Worship.
2. The whole Olive Tree—its root, branches, and all—is the Church Universal, in which there is “neither Greek nor Jew;” i.e. in which every real part of the organism, every true believer, shares the sap and life of grace in equal reality. But the special imagery is framed to emphasize not this truth, but another truth in harmony with it; viz. that “salvation is of the Jews;”—that with the Hebrew Patriarch began—after a distinct break of continuity—the more definite life and history of the Church; that for ages the saints were all (practically) found among his sons; and that the universal Saviour was of the seed of David.”
10.) 1Co 3:16, “Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you.”
Strangely, most people pay more attention to the physical temple of God, and not much attention to believers as a temple of God.
Verses 16-23. - The peril and folly of glorying in men. Verse 16. - Know ye not. The phrase is used by St. Paul in this Epistle to emphasize important truths, as in 1 Corinthians 5:6; 1 Corinthians 6:2,.9, 15; 9:13, 24. Out of this Epistle it only occurs in Romans 6:16; Romans 11:2. That ye are the temple of God. "Ye," both collectively (Ephesians 2:21) and individually; "God's shrine;" not built for men's glory. The word "temple" in the Old Testament always means the material temple; in the Gospels our Lord "spake of the temple of his body;" in the rest of the New Testament the body of every baptized Christian is the temple of God (1 Corinthians 6:16), because "God dwelleth in him" (1 John 4:16; comp. John 14:23). In another aspect Christians can be regarded as "living stones in one spiritual house" (1 Peter 2:5). The temple; rather, the shrine (uses) wherein God dwells (naiei), and which is the holiest part of the temple (hieron). 1 Corinthians 3:16.”
11.) 1Co 5:6, “Your boasting is not good. Do you
not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough?”
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
6. Your glorying is not good] Rather, that state of things of which you glory is not good. The word here translated glorying signifies that whereof a man glories, and is so translated in Romans 4:2. Cf. ch. 1 Corinthians 9:15-16; 2 Corinthians 1:14; 2 Corinthians 5:12; 2 Corinthians 9:3, &c., where the same word is used, but is variously translated in our version. The Corinthians are once more reminded how little cause they had for self-glorification. As long as they permitted such an offender to defile their society they were in a measure partakers of his sin.
a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump] The presence of a very small amount of evil in the Christian society imparts a character to the whole—a truth only too folly exemplified in the after-history of the Christian Church. From the evil that has crept into the Christian society men have taken occasion to deny its divine origin. The student of history will remember how dexterously Gibbon contrives to throw discredit upon Christianity by enlarging upon the shortcomings of the early Church, and by evading the comparison between its moral elevation and the shocking demoralization of heathen society. The same words are to be found in Galatians 5:9.”
12.) 1Co 6:2, “Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? If the world is judged by you, are you
not competent to form the smallest law courts?”
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
(2) Do ye not know . . . ?—The knowledge which they possessed of the great future which was in store for the Church of Christ was the strongest argument against the humiliating degradation to which their conduct was subjecting it.
The saints shall judge the world.—The Apostle here claims for all Christians the glorious prerogative which Christ had Himself promised to His immediate personal followers (Matthew 19:28; Luke 22:30). Bearing in mind the deep conviction of the early Church that the second personal advent of Christ was near at hand, we may take these words as referring primarily to the conquest of the world by Christianity, which has since been accomplished, though by slower and more spiritual processes than were then anticipated, and indirectly to that final triumph of Christ and His body, the Church, of which every success here on earth is at once the type and the pledge.
To judge the smallest matters.—Better, to pronounce the most trivial judgments, as compared with the great judgments which you shall pronounce hereafter. The nature of the things which form the subject of those judgments is explained in the following verse.”
13.) 1Co 6:3, “Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more matters of this life?”
Shall judge angels - All the angels that shall be judged, good or bad. Probably the reference is to fallen angels, as there is no account that holy angels will then undergo a trial. The sense is, "Christians will be qualified to see the justice of even the sentence which is pronounced on fallen angels. They will be able so to embrace and comprehend the nature of law, and the interests of justice, as to see the propriety of their condemnation. And if they can so far enter into these important and eternal relations, assuredly they ought to be regarded as qualified to discern the nature of justice 'among men,' and to settle the unimportant differences which may arise in the church." Or, perhaps, this may mean that the saints shall in the future world be raised to a rank in some respects more elevated than even the angels in heaven. (Prof. Stuart.) In what respects they will be thus elevated, if this is the true interpretation, can be only a matter of conjecture. It may be supposed that it will be because they have been favored by being interested in the plan of salvation - a plan that has done so much to honor God; and that "to have been" thus saved by the "immediate and painful" intervention of the Son of God, will be a higher honor than all the privileges which beings can enjoy who are innocent themselves.”
14.) 1Co 6:9, “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals.”
Those who will not inherit the Kingdom of God will certainly not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven.
Verse 9. - Know ye not; rather, Or know ye not, as before. Are you defying God, or does your sin arise from mere ignorance? The unrighteous; better, that wrong doers, the verb being the same as "ye do wrong" in ver. 8. Perhaps the Corinthians thought that they would be saved by the mere fact of having been admitted into God's kingdom (the Christian Church in all its highest privileges) by baptism. St. Paul here lays down, as distinctly as St. James does, that faith without works is dead, and privileges without holiness are abrogated. The spirit of his warning is the same as that of Jeremiah 7:4, "Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord... are these;" or that of St. John the Baptist, "Say not unto yourselves, We be Abraham's sons." Christians have often been liable to the temptation of underrating the peril which results from the falling asunder of action from knowledge. There can be no greater danger than that of talking slightingly of "mere morality." Religion is not an outward service, but a spiritual life manifested by a holy living. Be not deceived. So our Lord says," Let no man deceive you" (Mark 13:5; comp. 1 John 3:7). St. Paul uses the warning very solemnly again in 1 Corinthians 15:33 and Galatians 6:7, and St. James in James 1:16. The self deception of merely verbal orthodoxy is the most dangerous of all. Neither fornicators. The first four classes of sinners were specially prevalent at Corinth, where, indeed, impurity formed part of the recognized cult of the local Aphrodite (comp. 2 Corinthians 12:21). Lists of these "works of the flesh," which were the all but universal curse and stain of heathendom, occur also in Galatians 5:19-21; 1 Timothy 1:10, etc.; Colossians 3:5-7. 1 Corinthians 6:9.”
15.) 1Co 6:15, “Do you not know that your bodies are parts of Christ? Shall I then take away the parts of Christ and make them parts of a prostitute?
Far from it.”
1 Corinthians 6:15-18. Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ — Mystically united to him, as well as your souls, if you are his true disciples, as you profess to be. Shall I then take the members of Christ — My body, which is united to him, with its members; and make them the members of a harlot — United to her, and used to gratify her sinful inclinations? Know ye not — Need I inform you; that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? But he that is joined unto the Lord — By faith and love; is one spirit with him. And shall he make himself one flesh with a harlot? Flee fornication — All unlawful commerce with women, with speed, with abhorrence, with all your might. Every sin that a man doeth — Every other sin, except gluttony and drunkenness, or every other sin that a man commits against his neighbour; is without the body — Terminates in an object out of himself, and does not so immediately pollute his body, though it does his soul. But he that committeth fornication — Or any kind of lewdness; sinneth against his own body — Pollutes, dishonours, and degrades it to a level with brute beasts; and perhaps infects and enfeebles, wastes and consumes it, which these vices have a manifest tendency to do. Inasmuch as the person who is addicted to gluttony and drunkenness sins against his own body, as well as a fornicator, and debilitates it by introducing into it many painful and deadly diseases: in this prohibition of fornication, those vices likewise are comprehended, being indeed the ordinary concomitants of it. And the way to flee whoredom, is to banish out of the mind all lascivious imaginations, and to avoid carefully the objects and occasions of committing that vice, and to maintain habitual temperance in the use of meat and drink.”
16.) 1Co 6:16, “Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, “THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH.”
Verse 16. - What, know ye not, etc.? The clause is used to explain and justify the strong expression which he had used in the previous verse. It involves an argument against the sin which is the most original and impressive which could have been used. To this passage especially is due the tone taken by Christians as to these sins, which differed so totally from that taken by heathen. They two. The words do not occur in Genesis 2:24, but are always so quoted in the New Testament (Matthew 19:5; Mark 10:8; Ephesians 5:31). Saith he. This is a vague Jewish formula of quotation, adopted to avoid the needless introduction of the sacred Name. "He" is "God" in Scripture. Shall be one flesh; rather, shall become. This appeal to Genesis 2:24 (Matthew 19:5) is equivalent to the rule that no intercourse between the sexes is free from sin except under the sanction of marriage. 1 Corinthians 6:16.”
17.) 1Co 6:19, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?”
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
(19, 20) What? know ye not . . .?—These verses read better rendered thus: Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you? Which you have from God, and you are not your own. For you were bought with a price. Glorify God then in your body.
There are two reasons why we are not our own. (1) The Spirit which has possession of our bodies is not our own, but given us “of God.” (2) We have been bought with a price, even the blood of Christ; it is a completed purchase (1Peter 1:18-19). Our bodies not being our own to do as we like with, we have no right to give them over unto sin. The last words of the verse are not a cold logical deduction from the previous argument, but rather an earnest exhortation suggested by the solemn thought of our oneness with Christ, and the price paid by Him to make us His.
The words “and in your spirits,” which are in the Authorized version, are not in the older Greek MSS. They were probably added to give a kind of verbal completeness to the exhortation. They only tend, however, to weaken the force of the passage as St. Paul wrote it. The dignity of the body is the subject of the previous passage, and the necessity for its purity the sole theme of the entire argument.”
18.) 1Co 9:13, “Do you not know that those who perform sacred services eat the food of the temple, and those who attend regularly to the altar have their share from the altar?”
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
(12) Do ye not know.—The Apostle now turns to appeal to an argument which would have weight with them as Christians. The rights of the ministry to be supported by the Church have already been established by an appeal to ordinary life and to the Jewish law; and the statement has been made that the Apostle having that right, did not, for wise reasons, use it. There is one higher step in the argument. It was not only a principle of Jewish law which Christ might have abrogated, but it was a provision of the Jewish economy which Christ Himself formally perpetuated.
They which minister. . . .—Better, They which minister about the holy things eat from the temple, and they which serve at the altar have their share with the altar. The first part of this passage refers to the general principle that the priests who were engaged in the Temple services were supported from the various offerings which were brought there, and the second clause more definitely alludes to the particular fact that when a sacrifice was offered on the altar, the sacrificing priests, as well as the altar, had a share of the animal. (See Leviticus 6:16; Leviticus 6:26; Leviticus 7:6; Numbers 5; Numbers 18; Deuteronomy 10, 18) A suggestion that the allusion might be to the custom of the heathen priests is wholly inadmissible, for such would have no force for Christians, and would entirely destroy the sequence of the next verse.”
19.) 1Co 9:24, “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win.”
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
24–27. Exhortation to Self-restraint
24. Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize?] Not that this is the case in the Christian course, but that each should manifest the same eagerness and sustained effort as if the prize could be given to one only. The Corinthians are now exhorted to follow the example of their teacher in all self-mistrust and self-restraint. There can be little doubt that there is an allusion here to the Isthmian games, which took place every three years at a spot on the seacoast about nine miles from Corinth. This was one of those festivals “which exercised so great an influence over the Grecian mind, which were, in fact, to their imaginations what the temple was to the Jews and the triumph to the Romans.” Stanley. At this period, he remarks, the Olympic games, the chief national institution of the Greeks (see Art. “Olympia” in Smith’s Dictionary of Antiquities), had possibly lost some of their interest, while the Isthmus had been the center of the last expiring struggle of Greek independence, and was destined to be the place where, a few years after the date of this Epistle, Nero stood to announce that the province of Achaia had received the honor of Roman citizenship.
in a race] Literally, in the stadium, or race-course. See Art. “Stadium” in Smith’s Dictionary of Antiquities. This was a fixed course, oblong in shape, with one end semicircular, fitted round with seats, that the spectators might see all that went on. It was “not a mere resort for public amusement, but an almost sacred edifice, under the tutelage of the patron deity of the Ionian tribes, and surrounded by the most solemn recollections of Greece; its white marble seats rising like a temple in the grassy slope, where its outlines may still be traced, under the shadow of the huge Corinthian citadel, which guards the entrance to the Peloponnesus, and overlooking the blue waters of the Saronic Gulf with Athens glittering in the distance.” Stanley.
prize] Greek, βραβεῖον, from whence, through the late Latin word bravium, comes our English brave. See note on next verse.”
20.) Jas 4:4, “You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
(3) Ye adulterers and adulteresses.—The phrase may seem to flow naturally after the former ones, but the Received text, from which our version was made, is wrong. It should be, ye adulteresses! as accusing those who have broken their marriage vow to God. The sense is familiar to us from many passages in the Old Testament, in which God speaks of Israel in a similar manner, e.g., Psalm 73:27; Isaiah 54:5; Jeremiah 2:2; Ezekiel 16 passim; Ezekiel 23:37-43; Hosea 2:2. Again in the New Testament: Matthew 12:39; Matthew 16:4; Mark 8:38; Revelation 2:20-22; Revelation 17:1; Revelation 17:5; Revelation 17:15, &c.; St. Paul’s description of the church (2Corinthians 11:2), espoused “as a chaste virgin to Christ;” and comp. 2Peter 2:14, specially the margin. “God is the Lord and husband of every soul that is His;” and in her revolt from Him, and love for sin, her acts are those of an adulterous woman.
Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?—i.e., the state of being an enemy to God, not one of simpler enmity with Him. There cannot be a passive condition to the faith of Christ: “he that is not with Me is against Me” (Matthew 12:30). Renunciation of the world, in the Christian promise, is not forsaking it when tired and clogged with its delights, but the earliest severance from it; to break this vow, or not to have made it, is to belong to the foes of God, and not merely to be out of covenant with Him. The forces of good and evil divide the land so sharply that there is no debatable ground, nor even halting-place between. And if God be just, so also is He jealous (Exodus 20:5).
“Let us not weakly slide into the treason:
Yielding another what we owe to Him.”
Whosoever therefore will be (or, wills to be) a friend of the world is the enemy of God.—The choice is open; here is no iron fate, no dread necessity: but the wrong determination of the soul constitutes it henceforth as an ally of Satan. “Woe unto you, when all men speak well of you” (Luke 6:26), for the world, as our Lord has taught us, must “love its own” (John 15:19). And the sooner the soldier of Christ learns to expect its animosity, the better will he give himself up to the battle. (Comp. Matthew 6:24; Luke 16:13.)”
China has an option:
1. Do you not know if China uses all its resources to focus on Modernization, China can and will succeed? The success of Modernization will benefit China and its peoples immensely and tremendously.
2. Do you not know if China uses its meager resources to aid undeveloped, unmotivated, and unworthy nations and peoples, the Modernization of China will fail. The failure of China’s Modernization will harm China and its peoples without measure.
Someone has well said, “A good person is as important as a sportsman.” South China Sea belongs to China, it has its sovereignty in all its surrounding islands including Huangyuan Dao, Diaoyu Dao. A country gangs up with Superpower to make false claims of the South China Sea cannot be good. Palestinians do not have sovereignty over Gaza, to use refugee camps to claim territory so that they can receive free humanitarian aid is not good. They do not want to go to Arab lands to build their own Palestinian State. A country who is insufficient and shortages of basic necessities, breakouts, conflict, violence, terrorism, civil war is not good. A country that depends on financial support of other countries to engage in unjust war is not good. A superpower that smears a good country and suppresses a small country is no good. A country that denies its historical crimes to revive its militarism and seeks nuclear capability is bad and dangerous. A hegemonic nation who seeks nuclear power is very bad. All useless and worthless countries seem to be big talkers, no-good doers; bankrupt and corrupt, they are beggars for loans they can never repay. All unlawful migrants can only be stopped by military action. Do you notice there are so many bad countries in the world?