1 Corinthians 8

I have said you are gods, (namely) set in God's place to do justice; but dying gods (verse 7). You shall die like men (1 Corinthians 8:5-6). There be that are called gods, but to us there is but One God.

Branch 3. See the misery of men in the state of nature, before Christ came to be their Prophet, they are enveloped with ignorance and [reconstructed: darkness]. Men know nothing in a salvifical, sanctified manner; they know nothing as they ought to know (1 Corinthians 8:2). This…

Quest. 1. What is it to make God to be a God to us? Resp. 1. To make God to be a God to us, is to acknowledge him for a God: The gods of the heathen are idols (Psalm 96:5), and we know that an idol is nothing (1 Corinthians 8:4), that is, it has nothing of deity in it: If we cry…

Nahash the Ammonite would make a covenant with Israel to thrust out their right eyes (1 Samuel 11:2). Since the fall our left eye remains a deep insight into worldly matters, but our right eye is thrust out, we have no saving knowledge of God: Something we know by nature, but no…

The priests going wrong caused others to stumble. 2. He does hurt to the converted; by an open scandalous sin he offends weak believers, and so sins against Christ (1 Corinthians 8:12). Thus sin is worse than affliction, because it does hurt to others.

God's unchangeableness is the foundation of our comfort. Saint Paul says, If we love God; we are known of him (1 Corinthians 8:3). Now the first we may certainly find in ourselves, namely, the love of God, and Christ: and for the second, God is unchangeable.

But if man be considered in respect of his spiritual estate, as he is a member of the invisible, or catholic church, under spiritual government, consisting in righteousness, peace of conscience and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17), there is no distinction of calling, condit…

For the superstitious do not simply worship the wood, brass, or metal, but the majesty of God, which they fondly and blasphemously tie to the corruptible idol: so as in effect here is nothing but a vain imagination. To which purpose Paul says, that an idol is nothing (1 Corinthi…

Still, he is in a peculiar manner the Lord of believers, who yield willingly and cheerfully to his authority; for it is only of "his body" that he is "the head," (Ephesians 1:22, 23.) And so Paul says, "though there be lords many, yet to us," that is, to the servants of faith, "…

But righteousness and peace. He has by the way, opposed these, against meat and drink, not as though he reckoned all those things, whereon the kingdom of Christ consists: but that he might declare how it stands upon spiritual things (1 Corinthians 8:[illegible]). Although to say…

Those supposed Discoveries that naturally blow up the Person with an Admiration of the Eminency of his Discoveries, and fill him with Conceit, that now he has seen, and knows more than most other Christians, have nothing of the Nature of true spiritual Light in them. All true sp…

It's a relative, where no antecedent goes before, yet certainly it looks to Christ alone, as the reasons show; Here no rules of art are kept, for love stands not on these: This manner of speaking is to be found also in moral authors, when one eminent is set forth, who is singula…

Again, as if that did not fully set out his amiableness, she adds, He is the chiefest among ten thousand. This is a definite great number for an indefinite; in sum it is this, there are many beloveds indeed in the world, but compare them all with Christ, they are nothing to him,…

Thus in redemption, we have not only all things of God, but by and through him. 1 Corinthians 8:6. But to us there is but one God the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him. Thirdly, the redeemed have all t…

Gifts may damage the person that possesses them; and it may be better in respect of a man's own condition he had never had them. Knowledge (says the Apostle) puffs up (1 Corinthians 8:1), makes the soul proud and flatulent. It is a hard thing to know much, and not to know it too…

This union is more fully expressed afterwards, verse 30. The dignity of Christ is here principally intended: so as Christ is the highest in authority over the Church: the titles Lord, Father, Master, Doctor, Prophet, First-born, with the like, being by a kind of excellency and p…

Ioseph fled from his Mistresses temptation, he would not be seen in her company. The appearance of evil though it defile not ones own Conscience, it may offend anothers Conscience: and hear what the Apostle says, 1 Corinthians 8:12. When ye wound the weak Conscience, ye sin agai…

As touching the essence or being, we have but only one God: and yet in Jesus Christ we have the lively and express image of the Father, so as there we find whatever is expedient and requisite for our salvation (Colossians 1:15, etc.). It is said that we ought to glory in our kno…

Most will declaim against the vanity of the creature, evil of sin; but they do not see with an affective heart-piercing light; they have on them the veil of spiritual ignorance. (2.) The veil of carnal knowledge and wisdom, that puffs up (1 Corinthians 8:1-2), by which seeing no…

Directive, affective, operative knowledge is never at a stand, but increases daily. And therefore the Apostle says (1 Corinthians 8:2): He that thinks he knows any thing, knows nothing as he ought to know. Many think they know as much as can be taught them; surely they have no e…

A natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. There is a knowing things at random, and by a general knowledge, and a knowing things as we ought to know (1 Corinthians…

1. Because of our want, we never know so much, but we may know more of God's mind, and know it better, and to better purpose. To know things as we ought to know them is the great gift (1 Corinthians 8:2). If any man thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought…

And when we know generals, yet we are so apt to err in particular cases, and since the commandment of God is [reconstructed: so] exceeding broad (Psalm 119:96), every day we may see more into it, and may be more fully informed of the mind of God. We every day see more in a promi…

Though all sins come from the heart (and may there be acted when men are alone) yet as to matter of fact, some sins cannot be committed by persons alone, but every such sin has a double sinner, if not a greater number. Besides, this way men are confirmed and hardened in their wi…

It is an ordinary thing for the Scripture to speak of such a thing, as if it were, and to say it is, which is but supposed to be by others. As for instance (1 Corinthians 8:4-6): there are gods many, and lords many, not that really there was any such, but by others they were rec…

Even in a thing indifferent, if it is an appearance of evil and may grieve another, we are to forbear. For when we sin against the brethren and wound their weak conscience, we sin against Christ (1 Corinthians 8:12). The weak Christian is a member of Christ; therefore sinning ag…

Hypocrites grow in knowledge; but not in humility. Knowledge puffs up (1 Corinthians 8:1). It is a metaphor taken from a pair of bellows, that are blown up and filled with wind.

The blessed man Christ confesses that he knows neither the day nor the hour of the Son of Man's coming; yet there are those who dare define the time of his coming, and the day. The mind is a proud and haughty thing, and we are not dead to it; the mind is not mortified to the min…

May not a man be exhorted from attempting that which yet, if he should attempt, he could not effect? A second place is 1 Corinthians 8:10-11: 'And through your knowledge shall your weak brother perish for whom Christ died.' A brother is said to perish for whom Christ died: that…

Proof 16. The sixteenth proof urges the Scripture's manner of describing the sin of those who despise and refuse grace — that they turn the grace of God into wantonness (Jude 4), trample underfoot the Son of God, profane the blood of the covenant by which they were sanctified, a…

Christ denied his name and reputation; Hebrews 12:2, He endured the shame. He denied worldly grandeur and riches; 1 Corinthians 8:9. For our sakes he became poor.

The Saints are called wise Virgins, Matthew 25. 4. A natural man may have some discursive knowledge of God, but he knoweth nothing as he ought to know, 1 Corinthians 8. 2. He knows not God savingly: he may have the eye of Reason open, but he discerns not the things of God after…

2nd Commandment: You shall make to yourself no graven image, etc. He breaks this commandment: who represents God in an image (Exodus 32:6-8); who worships God in or at images, as crucifixes and such like (2 Kings 18:4); who kneels down before an image; who is bodily present at M…

He was a man of a choice spirit, only he was always kept very low, and that made his life so burdensome to himself, and so troublesome to others (Psalm 88). He was, above many, tender of sin: he was so afraid of doing injuries to others, that he often would deny himself of that…

The places are: Mark 10:30; Luke 18:30; John 9:32; Ephesians 2:7; 3:9; Colossians 1:26; Hebrews 6:5. The places are as follows: Matthew 6:13; 21:19; Mark 11:14; Luke 1:33, 55; John 4:14; 6:51, 58; 8:35, twice, 51, 52; 10:28; 11:26; 12:34; 13:8; 14:16; Acts 15:18; Romans 1:25; 9:…