Bible Commentaries

1 Corinthians 8:1

This was a favourite text of Bacon's. Thus, in Valerius Terminus he observes: "Evermore it must be remembered that the least part of knowledge passed to man by this so large charter from God must be subject to that use for which God hath granted it; which is the benefit and relief of the state and society of man; for otherwise all manner of knowledge becometh malign and serpentine, and therefore as carrying the quality of the serpent's sting and malice it maketh the mind of man to swell; as the Scripture saith excellently, knowledge floweth up, but charity buildeth up." A similar application occurs in The Advancement of Learning (I:3). Curiously enough, F. W. Robertson, in one of his letters, connects this very text with Bacon himself. After quoting it, he remarks: "Cultivated understanding has no necessary connection with strengthened, much less purified, will, in which moral excellence lies, and in which alone Bacon was—

The wisest, greatest, meanest of mankind."

Compare Froude's remarks (Short Studies, IV. pp268-269) upon Keble. If he "had remained a quiet country clergyman, unconscious that he was a groat 1 Corinthians 8:1-3

Knowledge puffeth up, charity edifieth. Knowledge passeth away, charity abides for ever. Knowledge sees through coloured glass darkly, love sees face to face. Knowledge may be greatest in devils, love makes angels and saints. Knowledge is temporal and earthly, ever changing with the fashions of earth; love is Godlike, heavenly, immortal, enduring like the mercy of the Lord for ever. Thus Paul sings in diverse tones to one clear harp.

I. Now, if any other of the Apostles had written in this way about knowledge, men would have been found ready to quote against him the old fable of sop about the grapes. Untutored peasants and fishermen lifting up their voices in disparagement of knowledge would have furnished the intellectual scorner with a convenient sarcasm. Ah, yes, these men were ignorant. Singularly enough, however, it is St. Paul, the one learned man in the apostolic band, who talks in this way.

II. Knowledge puffeth up. Yes, from the raw schoolgirl to the man of greatest literary attainments, this is the effect of knowledge when it is found without the warm and generous and tender emotions of the heart Oh, how well did Paul express the jaunty airs and supercilious pride of loveless and unsanctified knowledge when he wrote these words, "Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth".

III. We are always boasting that knowledge is power, that knowledge has enriched the world, that knowledge has done wonderful things for humanity. It is the idlest of delusions. Knowledge by itself has done very little. Heart rather than head has given to humanity its noble inheritance; love rather than knowledge.

IV. And who are doing the best work in the world now—its purifying, saving, uplifting work? Not the men who call themselves the cultured class. It is love, not knowledge, that generates all the power of sweet activities. It is to the pure, gentle, tender heart that God tells His secrets. And the loving heart, too, understands the mystery of sorrow and pain as the head does not and never can. The loving heart always knows what knowledge cannot tell it, that though the winter be here and the chill frosts of sorrow, yet behind the hills not far off are the flowers and fruits of an everlasting summer, and the sunny atmosphere of a love that can never die.

—J. G. Greenhough, The Cross in Modern Life, p31.

References.—VIII:1-9.—Expositor (5th Series), vol. vi. p65. VIII:1-13.—Ibid. (6th Series), vol. ii. p374. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture—Corinthians, p125. VIII:2.—W. M. Sinclair, Christ and our Times, p63. T. Arnold, The Interpretation of Scripture, p204. VIII:2 , 3.—Expositor (7th Series), vol. vi. p157. VIII:4-6.—Ibid. (5th Series), vol. vii. p39. VIII:5.—J. B. Lightfoot, Cambridge Sermons, p80. Expositor (5th Series), vol. vi. p227. VIII:6.—Expositor (4th Series), vol. ii. p65; ibid. vol. x. p40; ibid. (5th Series), vol. x. p425; ibid. (6th Series), p368. VIII:9-13.—W. H. Parr, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xliv. p344. VIII:10.—Expositor (6th Series), vol. ii. p431; ibid. vol. iii. p99. VIII:11.—W. C. E. Newbolt, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlvi. p13.

1 Corinthians 8:13

All other requisites are unimportant compared with this primary requisite, that each shall so live as neither to burden his fellows nor injure his fellows.

—Spencer, Sociology (ch. xiv.).

References.—VIII:13.—Asa Mahan, Penny Pulpit, No1487 , p33. VIII:29.—J. Keble, Sermons for Easter to Ascension Day, p251. IX:1.—Expositor (6th Series), vol. iii. p345; ibid. (7th Series), vol. v. p146. IX:1-6.—Ibid. (4th Series), vol. vii. p269. IX:5.—Ibid. (6th Series), vol. v. p413; ibid. vol. vi. p223; ibid. vol. viii. p74; ibid. (7th Series), vol. vi. pp20 , 40 , 181. IX:7 , 11 , 13 , 14.—W. M. Sinclair, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlvii. p172. IX:9.—Expositor (5th Series), vol. vi. p213. IX:10.—G. L. Richardson, Sermons for Harvest, p40. IX:11.—Expositor (5th Series), vol. x. p196. IX:14.—F. W. Farrar, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lii. p356. Expositor (6th Series), vol. vii. p389; ibid. vol. xi. p45.