Commentary on the Epistles to the Corinthians John Calvin
Commentary on the Corinthians
drink of that cup.
28. Probet autem homo se ipsum, et sic de pane illo edat, et de calice bibat.
29. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.
29. Qui enim ederit aut biberit indigne, iudicium sibi edit ac bibit, non discernens corpus Domini.
Hitherto he has been exposing the abuse; 667 now he proceeds to show what is the proper method of rectifying it. For the institution of Christ is a sure rule, so that if you turn aside from it but a very little, you are out of the right course. Hence, as the Corinthians had deviated from this rule, he calls them back to it. It is a passage that ought to be carefully observed, as showing that there is no remedy for correcting and purging out abuses, short of a return to God's pure institution. Thus the Lord himself — when he was discoursing respecting marriage, (Matthew 19:3,) and the Scribes brought forward custom, and also the permission given by Moses — simply brings forward his Father's institution, as being an inviolable law.
When we do this at the present day, the Papists cry out, that we are leaving nothing untouched. 668 We openly demonstrate, that it is not in one point merely that they have degenerated from our Lord's first institution, but that they have corrupted it in a thousand ways. Nothing is more manifest than that their Mass is diametrically opposed to the sacred Supper of our Lord. I go farther — we show in the plainest manner, that it is full of wicked abominations: hence there is need of reformation. We demand — what it appears Paul had recourse to — that our Lord's institution be the common rule, to which we agree on both sides to make our appeal. This they oppose with all their might. Mark then the nature of the controversy at this day in reference to the Lord's Supper.
23 I received from the Lord. In these words he intimates, that there is no authority that is of any avail in the Church, but that of the Lord alone. "I have not delivered to you an invention of my own: I had not, when I came to you, contrived a new kind of Supper, according to my own humor, but have Christ as my authority, from whom I received what I have delivered unto you, in the way of handing it over." 669 Return, then, to the original source. Thus, bidding adieu to human laws, the authority of Christ will be maintained in its stability.
That night in which he was betrayed. This circumstance as to time instructs us as to the design of the sacrament — that the benefit of Christ's death may be ratified in us. For the Lord might have some time previously
667"Qu'ils commettoyent en la Cene;" — "Which they had fallen into as to the Supper." 668"Que nous gastons tout, et ne laissons rien en son entier;" — "That we are destroying everything, and are leaving nothing entire."
669Our Author seems to allude here to what he had said previously, when commenting on 1 Corinthians 4:1, as to the duty devolving on stewards of the mysteries of God. — Ed.