AWAKE TO RIGHTEOUSNESS] Ekneepsate, dikaiōs, 'be sober again, righteously.' The present imperative is employed to mark that the change should be immediate. Ek, prefixed to neepsate, indicates a return to sobriety, neepsis, from an opposite condition. In the LXX. the phrase is used in the sense of awakening out of a drunken sleep,-in reference to Noah, Nabal, and the drunkards of Israel. [See Notes on Gen. ix. 24; 1 Sam. xxv. 37; Joel 1. 5.] Commentators differ on the question whether the word here has a literal or figurative application,-whether the apostle calls upon the Corinthians to become literally 'sober,' or whether he compares their spiritual state to one of intoxicating stupor, and invokes them to shake themselves free of it. [As to neepho, see Note on 1 Thess. v. 7.] The exact force of the adverb dikaiōs is also disputed. Some take it in the modal sense of 'fully,' 'perfectly,' 'effectually': ='become sober again, thoroughly.' Others prefer the moral sense of 'justly' or 'righteously'='become sober again, as it is right. Others agree with the A. V., in giving to ekneepsate dikaiōs a causal connection and righteous result='become sober again, and so enter on a righteous career.' Conybeare and Howson, in their 'Life and Letters of St Paul,' paraphrase the verse thus :-"Change your drunken revellings into the sobriety of righteousness, and live no more in sin." However it may be read, it must be understood as antagonistic to every degree of sensualizing influence. THE SECOND EPISTLE OF ST PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS. CHAPTER V. Verse 16. Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. By knowing Christ after the flesh' (kata sarkos) the apostle alludes to the external events of the Saviour's life separated from their spiritual significance. With such a knowledge of Christ he declares he would not be satisfied, since it was wholly devoid of that transforming and assimilating power which belongs to a spiritual discernment of Christ, and that alone. May not this passage be justly applied to those who think they find a sanction to their use of intoxicating drinks in the example of the Redeemer? If, as they suppose-and suppose without any warrant from the Gospel history,—the Lord made and used inebriating wine, their plea is at best grounded in a knowledge of Him after the flesh,—such a knowledge, in fact, as they would never dream of putting to a similar use by conforming to His style of dress, manner of travelling, and outward life in general. On the contrary, to know Him' after the spirit' is to understand, appreciate, and imitate Him in the spiritual principles by which He was actuated. If we have not His spirit, 'we are none of His,' and the paramount question for every Christian to consider and answer for himself is, whether a resemblance to that spirit, so loving and selfdenying, is not exhibited in abstinence from alcoholic beverages, rather than in their most limited but self-indulgent use? Beyond all dispute, if abstinence is vastly more conducive to the good of society than drinking, a perception of this truth will lead those who know 'Christ after the spirit' to abstain with all readiness and cheerfulness. If any man say that he honestly believes drinking to be, on the whole, more useful to society and to the cause of religion than abstinence would be, it is not for us to judge our brother, but we may affectionately urge him not to rest in such a condition without a full, careful, and unbiassed examination of all the evidence within his reach. CHAPTER VII. VERSE I. Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Great was the anxiety of the apostle that his children in Christ should keep themselves unspotted from the world, and that they and he should purify themselves from "every defilement (pantos molusmou-in 1 Cor. viii. 7 the verb is rendered in A. V. 'defiled') of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness (epitelountes agiōsuneen -completing the work of holiness in all its parts) in the fear of God.” Such a desire after exemption from all stain of sin would, if universal and deep-seated, go far to secure its own realization, for it would instinctively lead to the avoidance of all things that expose the Christian to the dreaded contamination. It is remarkable that the defilement is spoken of as pertaining to 'flesh and spirit'; and whether the allusion is to the flesh and spirit as the sources of the defilement, or as the recipients of it, the caution conveyed ought to make believers shun intoxicating liquor, because that is adapted, more than any other external agency, to stimulate those lusts of the flesh and impurities of the spirit that bring the soul into deadly peril. Most true it is, that so long as the Christian is in the world, he will be exposed, more or less, to its evil; but this consideration, instead of diminishing, ought to increase his aversion to alcoholic beverages, as a wholly superfluous and artificially superinduced element of danger, and (as experience proves) of destruction, to innumerable souls. THE EPISTLE OF ST PAUL TO CHAPTER V. VERSES 13, 14. 13 For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. 14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Instead of alla dia tees agapees, but by love,' Codex D has alla tee agapeetou Pneumatos, but in (or by) the beloved Spirit.' And after the words ho gar pas nomos, 'for the whole law,' the same Codex reads in humōn, 'in you.' Christians are called 'unto liberty' (ep' eleutheria),—liberty from the condemnation and power of sin, and liberty from the yoke of ceremonial observances; but this liberty is conditioned by the proviso that it is not to be used for an occasion to the flesh' (eis aphormeen tee sarki). It is a liberty that is to be made no excuse for indulging and pampering fleshly appetites; but using love as its instrumental and efficient power, it is to be exercised and manifested in acts of service by Christians to one another. For the whole moral law, as it relates to our human duties, s summed up in the precept to love our neighbour as ourself. To what extent, even among professing Christians, the use of alcoholic liquors is made an occasion of the flesh,' we need not conjecture; but it may be affirmed with confidence, that a general resolution by Christians to prefer the good of others to the gratification of a merely sensuous taste, would result in an avoidance of strong drink more extended, and a discouragement of drinking customs more effectual, than Christendom has ever yet beheld. Those who plead that they 'are at liberty to drink,' cannot vindicate such a liberty on any Christian principle till they have shown that it is not claimed for mere self-indulgence, and is consistent with the utmost usefulness in the sphere assigned them by a gracious Providence. CHAPTER V. VERSES 19-21. 19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the 21 which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. V. 21. DRUNKENNESS] Methai, 'intemperances '-copious indulgences in drinks, some of which would have the power of inebriating, though intoxication is not the essence, but only the extreme of the vice condemned by the apostle. The essential of the vice is, that men drink for pleasure, regardless of the law of God or the claims of man. REVELLINGS] Kōmoi, 'revelries'—the acts of disorder and profligacy attendant on the methai previously named. Concerning the corruption of morals engendered by this conduct, and the degree in which it abounded, both Pliny and Philo, contemporaries of St Paul, have left pictures of the gross sensuality of that age. Pliny writes (book xiv. c. 28), “If any one will take the trouble duly to consider the matter, he will find that upon no one operation is the industry of man kept more constantly on the alert than upon the making of wine, as if nature had not given us water as a beverage, -the one, in fact, of which all other animals make use. We, on the other hand, even go so far as to make our very beasts of burden drink wine !—so vast are our efforts, so vast our labours, and so boundless the cost which we thus lavish upon a liquid which deprives man of his reason, and drives him to frenzy and to the commission of a thousand crimes. So great, however, are its attractions, that a great part of mankind are of opinion that there is nothing else in life worth living for. Nay, what is even more than this, that we may be enabled to swallow all the more, we have adopted the plan of diminishing its strength by pressing it through filters of cloth, and have devised numerous inventions whereby to create an artificial thirst. To promote drinking we find that even poisonous mixtures have been invented, and some even are known to take a dose of hemlock before they begin to drink, that they may have the fear of death before them to make them take their wine. * Others, again, take powdered pumice for the same purpose; and various other mixtures, which I should feel quite ashamed any further to enlarge upon. We see the more prudent among those who are given to this habit, have themselves parboiled in hot baths, from whence they are carried away half dead. Others, again, cannot wait till they have got to the banqueting couch-no, not so much as till they have got their shirt on, -but, all naked and panting as they are, the instant they leave the bath they seize hold of large vessels filled with wine, to show off, as it were, their mighty powers, and so gulp down the whole of the contents, only to vomit them up again the very next moment. This they will repeat, too, a second, and even a third time. And then, too, what vessels are employed for holding wine !-carved all over with the representations of adulterous intrigues, as if, in fact, drunkenness itself was not sufficiently capable of teaching us lessons of lustfulness." Philo, in his treatise on 'Drunkenness,' refers to "the contrivances displayed in the examination of different kinds of wine to produce some, the effects of which shall speedily go off, and which shall not produce headache; but, on the contrary, shall be devoid of any tendency to heat the blood, and shall be very fragrant, admitting either a copious or a scanty admixture with water, according as the object is to have a strong and powerful draught or a gentle and imperceptible one." And describing those who are 'insatiably fond of wine,' he states, After * Wine was believed to be the only antidote to the poison of hemlock. 66 |