Commentary on the Epistles to the Corinthians John Calvin (continued)
Commentary on the Corinthians were, and stupid, and destitute of all spiritual light, previously to God's calling them. Hence it appears, that they had been furnished with them — not by nature, but through God's unmerited benignity.
As to the words; when he says — I would not that ye should be ignorant, we must supply the expression — as to what is right, or as to what is your duty, or some similar expression; and by spiritual things he means spiritual gifts, as to which we shall have occasion to see afterwards. In what follows there is a twofold reading; for some manuscripts have simply {ὅτι} others add {ὅτε}. The former means because — assigning a reason: the latter means when; and this latter reading suits much better. But besides this diversity, the construction is in other respects confused; but still, the meaning is evident. Literally, it is this — Ye know, that when ye were Gentiles, after dumb idols, according as ye were led, following I have, however, faithfully given Paul's meaning. By dumb idols he means — having neither feeling nor motion.
Let us learn from this passage how great is the blindness of the human mind: when it is without the illumination of the Holy Spirit, inasmuch as it stands in amazement at dumb idols, 726 and cannot rise higher in searching after God; nay more, it is led by Satan as if it were a brute. 727 He makes use of the term Gentiles here, in the same sense as in Ephesians 2:12.
Ye were at one time Gentiles, says he, without God, strangers to the hope of salvation, etc.
Perhaps, too, he reasons by way of contrast. What if 728 they should now show themselves to be less submissive to God, after his having taken them under his care, to be governed by his word and Spirit, than they formerly discovered themselves to be forward and compliant, in following the suggestions of Satan!
3. Wherefore I give you to know. Having admonished them from their own experience, he sets before them a general doctrine, which he deduces from it; for what the Corinthians had experienced in themselves is common to all mankind — to wander on in error, 729 previously to their being brought back, through the kindness of God, into the way of truth. Hence it is necessary that we should be directed by the Spirit of God, or we shall wander on for ever. From this, too, it follows, that all things that pertain to the true knowledge of God, are the gifts of the Holy Spirit,. He at the same time derives an argument from opposite causes to opposite effects. No one, speaking by the Spirit of God, can revile Christ; so, on the other hand, no one can speak well
726"I1 demeure la abbruti apres les idoles;" — "It remains there, in a brutish attachment to idols."
727This idea is brought out more fully by Bloomfield, who observes that {ἀπάγεσθαι} (to be carried away) is ''a strong, term, denoting being hurried away by a force which cannot be resisted; and here refers to the blind infatuation by which the heathens were led away into idolatry and vice, like brute beasts that have no understanding. This,'' he adds, ``is especially alluded to in {ὡς} {ἄν} {ἤγεσθε} --- as ye might be led, viz. by custom, example, or inclination, just as it might happen.'' --- Ed
728"Que ce sera une vilenie a eux s'ils," etc.; — "It will be a disgrace to them if they," etc. 729"D'estre errans et abusez en diuerses sortes;" — "To be wandering and deluded in various ways."