Joh 3:17, 8:50, 12:47, 18:31, Act 24:6, 1Cor 5:13 | Barnes | STEP | Verse 17. To condemn the world . Not to judge , or pronounce sentence on mankind. God might justly have sent him for this. Man deserved condemnation, and it would have been right to have pronounced it; but God was willing that there should be an offer of pardon, and the sentence of condemnation was delayed. But, although Jesus did not come then to condemn mankind, yet the time is coming when he will return to judge the living and the dead, . (o) "For God"

John 3:17

Verse 17. To condemn the world. Not to judge, or pronounce sentence on mankind. God might justly have sent him for this. Man deserved condemnation, and it would have been right to have pronounced it; but God was willing that there should be an offer of pardon, and the sentence of condemnation was delayed. But, although Jesus did not come then to condemn mankind, yet the time is coming when he will return to judge the living and the dead, Acts 17:31, 2Cor 5:10, Mt 25:31-46.

(o) "For God" Lk 9:56

John 8:50

Verse 50. Mine own glory. My own praise or honour. In all his teaching this was true. He did not seek to exalt or to vindicate himself. He was willing to lie under reproach and to be despised. He regarded little, therefore, their taunts and accusations; and even now, he says, he would not seek to vindicate himself.

There is one that seeketh and judgeth. God will take care of my reputation. He seeks my welfare and honour, and I may commit my cause into his hands without attempting my own vindication. From these verses (Jn 8:46-50) we may learn--

1st. That where men have no sound arguments, they attempt to overwhelm their adversaries by calling odious and reproachful names. Accusations of heresy and schism, and the use of reproachful terms, are commonly proof that men are not only under the influence of unchristian feeling, but that they have no sound reasons to support their cause.

2nd. It is right to vindicate ourselves from such charges, but it should not be done by rendering railing for railing. "In meekness we should instruct those that oppose

themselves, if God peradventure will give them

repentance to the acknowledging of the truth,"

2Ti 2:25.

3rd. We should not regard it as necessarily dishonourable if we lie under reproach. If we have a good conscience, if we have examined for ourselves, if we are conscious that we are seeking the glory of God, we Should be willing, as Jesus was, to bear reproach, believing that God will in due time avenge us, and bring forth our righteousness as the light, and our judgment as the noon-day, Ps 37:6.

(w) "I seek not" Jn 5:41

John 12:47

Verse 47. I judge him not, &c. Jn 8:15. It was not his present purpose to condemn men. He would come to condemn the guilty at a future time. At present he came to save them. hence he did not now even pronounce decisively on the condition of those who rejected him, but still gave them an opportunity to be saved.

(x) "for I came not to judge the world" Jn 3:17

John 18:31

Verse 31. Judge him, &c. The Jews had not directly informed him that they had judged him and pronounced him worthy of death. Pilate therefore tells them to inquire into the case; to ascertain the proof of his guilt, and to decide on what the law of Moses pronounced. It has been doubted whether this gave them the power of putting him to death, or whether it was not rather a direction to them to inquire into the case, and inflict on him, if they judged him guilty, the mild punishment which they were yet at liberty to inflict on criminals. Probably the former is intended. As they had already determined that in their view this case demanded the punishment of death, so in their answer to Pilate they implied that they had pronounced on it, and that he ought to die. They still, therefore, pressed it on his attention, and refused to obey his injunction to judge him.

It is not lawful, &c. The Jews were accustomed to put persons to death still in a popular tumult (Acts 7:59,60), but they had not the power to do it in any case in a regular way of justice. When they first laid the plan of arresting the Saviour, they did it to kill him (Mt 26:4); but whether they intended to do this secretly, or in a tumult, or by the concurrence of the Roman governor, is uncertain. The Jews themselves say that the power of inflicting capital punishment was taken away about forty years before the destruction of the temple; but still it is probable that in the time of Christ they had the power of determining on capital cases in instances that pertained to religion (Josephus, Antiq., b. xiv. ch. 10, 2; comp. Jewish Wars, b. vt. ch. 2, 4). In this case, however, it is supposed that their sentence was to be confirmed by the Roman governor. But it is admitted on all hands that they had not this power in the case of seditions, tumults, or treason against the Roman government. If they had this power in the case of blasphemy and irreligion, they did not dare to exert it here, because they were afraid of tumult among the people (Mt 26:5); hence they sought to bring in the authority of Pilate. To do this, they endeavoured to make it appear that it was a case of sedition and treason, and one which therefore demanded the interference of the Roman governor. Hence it was on this charge that they arraigned him, Lk 23:2. Thus a tumult might be avoided, and the odium of putting him to death they expected would fall, not on themselves, but on Pilate.

(u) "It is not lawful" Gen 49:10, Eze 21:27

Acts 24:6

Verse 6. Who also hath gone about. Who has endeavoured.

To profane the temple. This was a serious, but unfounded charge. It arose from the gross calumny of the apostle, when they pretended that he had introduced Greeks into that sacred place, Acts 21:28. To this charge the apostle replies in Acts 24:18.

And would have judged. That is, would have condemned and punished.

According to our law. Their law, which forbade the introduction of strangers into the temple.

(+) "about" "attempted" (b) "profane" Acts 19:37, 21:28 (++) "took" "seized" (c) "according" Jn 18:31

1 Corinthians 5:13

Verse 13. But them, etc. They who are unconnected with the church are under the direct and peculiar government of God. They are, indeed sinners, and they deserve punishment for their crimes. But it is not ours to pronounce sentence upon them, or to inflict punishment. God will do that. Our province is in regard to the church. We are to judge these; and these alone. All others we are to leave entirely in the hands of God.

Therefore. Greek, And--και. "Since it is yours to judge the members of your own society, do you exercise discipline on the offender, and put him away."

Put away from among yourselves. Excommunicate him; expel him from your society. This is the utmost power which the church has; and this the church is bound to exercise on all those who have openly offended against the laws of Jesus Christ.

(1.) A public rumour with regard to the existence of an offence in the church should lead to discipline. This is due to the church itself, that it may be pure and uninjured; to the cause, that religion may not suffer by the offence; and to the individual, that he may have justice done him, and his character vindicated if he is unjustly accused; or that if guilty he may be reclaimed and reformed. Offences should not be allowed to grow until they become scandalous; but when they do, every consideration demands that the matter should be investigated, 1Cor 5:1.

(2.) Men are often filled with pride when they have least occasion for it, 1Cor 5:2. This is the case with individuals--who are often elated when their hearts are full of sin--when they are indulging in iniquity; and it is true of churches also, that they are most proud when the reins of discipline are relaxed, and their members are cold in the service of God, or when they are even living so as to bring scandal and disgrace on the gospel.

(3.) We see in what way the Christian church should proceed in administering discipline, 1Cor 5:2. It should not be with harshness, bitterness, revenge, or persecution. It should be with mourning that there is necessity for it; with tenderness toward the offender; with deep grief that the cause of religion has been injured; and with such grief at the existence of the offence as to lead them to prompt and decided measures to remove it.

(4.) The exercise of discipline belongs to the church itself, 1Cor 5:4. The church at Corinth was to be assembled with reference to this offence, and was to remove the offender. Even Paul, an apostle, and the spiritual father of the church, did not claim the authority to remove an offender except through the church. The church was to take up the case; to act on it; to pass the sentence; to excommunicate the man. There could scarcely be a stronger proof that the power of discipline is in the church, and is not to be exercised by any independent individual, or body of men, foreign to the church, or claiming an: independent right of discipline. If Paul would not presume to exercise such discipline independently of the church, assuredly no. minister, and no body of ministers, have any such right now. Either by themselves in a collective congregational capacity, or through their representatives in a body of elders, or in a committee appointed by them; every church is itself to originate and execute all the acts of Christian discipline over its members.

(5.) We see the object of Christian discipline, 1Cor 5:5. It is not revenge, hatred, malice, or the mere exercise of power that is to lead to it; it is the good of the individual that is to be pursued and sought. While the church endeavours to remain pure, its aim and object should be mainly to correct and reform the offender, that his spirit may be saved. When discipline is undertaken from any other motive than this; when it is pursued from private pique, or rivalship, or ambition, or the love of power; when it seeks to overthrow the influence or standing of another, it is wrong. The salvation of the offender and the glory of God should prompt to all the measures which should be taken in the case.

(6.) We see the danger of indulging in any sin--both in reference to ourselves as individuals, or to the church, 1Cor 5:6. The smallest sin indulged in will spread pollution through the whole body, as a little leaven will affect the largest mass.

(7.) Christians should be pure, 1Cor 5:7,8. Their Saviour, their paschal lamb, was pure; and he died that they might be pure. He gave himself that his people might be holy; and by all the purity of his character--by all the labours and self-denials of his life--by all his sufferings and groans in our behalf, are we called on to be holy.

(8.) We are here presented with directions in regard to our intercourse with those who are not members of the church, 1Cor 5:10. There is nothing that is more difficult to be understood than the duty of Christians respecting such intercourse. Christians often feel that they are in danger from it, and are disposed to withdraw almost entirely from the world. And they ask with deep solicitude often, what course they are to pursue? Where shall the line be drawn? How far shall they go? And where shall they deem the intercourse with the world unlawful or dangerous? A few remarks here as rules may aid us in answering these questions: 1st. Christians are not wholly to withdraw from intercourse with the people of this world. This was the error of the monastic system, and this error has been the occasion of innumerable corruptions and abominations in the papal church. They are not to do this, because

(a.) it is impossible. They must needs then, says Paul, go out of the world.

(b.) Because religion is not to be regarded as dissocial, and gloomy, and unkind.

(c.) Because they have many interests in common with those who are unconnected with the church, and they are not to abandon them. The interests of justice, and liberty, and science, and morals, and public improvements, and education, are all interests in which they share in common with others.

(d) Many of their best friends--a father, a mother, a son, a daughter--may be out of the church, and religion does not sever those ties, but binds them more tenderly and closely.

(e) Christians are inevitably connected in commercial dealings with those who are not members of the church; and to cease to have any connexion with them would be to destroy their own business, and to throw themselves out of employment, and to break up society.

(f) It would prevent the possibility of doing much good either to the bodies or the souls of men. The poor, the needy, and the afflicted, are, many of them, out of the church; and they have a claim on the friends of Christ, and on their active beneficence.

(g) It would break up and destroy the church altogether. Its numbers are to be increased and replenished from age to age by the efforts of Christians; and this demands that Christians should have some intercourse with the men of the world, whom they hope to benefit.

(h) An effort to withdraw wholly from the world injures religion. It conveys the impression that religion is morose, severe, misanthropic; and all such impressions do immense injury to the cause of God and truth.

2nd. The principles on which Christians should regulate their intercourse with the world, are these:

(a) They are not to be conformed to the world; they are not to do anything that shall countenance the views, feelings, principles of the world as such, or as distinguished from religion. They are not to do anything that would show that they approve of the peculiar fashions, amusements, opinions of the people of the world; or to leave the impression that they belong to the world.

(b) They are to do justice and righteousness to every man, whatever may be his rank, character, or views. They are not to do anything that will be calculated to give an unfavourable view of the religion which they profess to the men of the world.

(c) They are to discharge with fidelity all the duties of a father, husband, son, brother, friend, benefactor, or recipient of favours, towards those who are out of the church, or with whom they may be connected.

(d) They are to do good to all men--to the poor, the afflicted, the needy, the widow, the fatherless.

(e) They are to endeavour so to live and act, so to converse, and so to form their plans, as to promote the salvation of all others. They are to seek their spiritual welfare; and to endeavour by example and by conversation, by exhortation and by all the means in their power, to bring them to the knowledge of Christ. For this purpose they are kept on the earth instead of being removed to heaven; and to this object they should devote their lives.

(9.) We see from this chapter who are not to be regarded as Christians, whatever may be their professions, 1Cor 5:11. A man who is

(1) a fornicator, or

(2) COVETOUS, or

(3) an idolater, or

(4) a railer, or

(5) a drunkard, or

(6) an extortioner, is not to be owned as a Christian brother.

Paul has placed the covetous man, and the railer, and extortioners, in most undesirable company. They are ranked with fornicators and drunkards. And yet how many such persons there are in the Christian church--and many, too, who would regard it as a special insult to be ranked with a drunkard or an adulterer. But in the eye of God both are alike unfit for his kingdom, and are to be regarded as having no claims to the character of Christians.

(10.) God will judge the world, 1Cor 5:12,13. The world that is without the church--the mass of men that make no profession of piety--must give an account to God. They are travelling to his bar; and judgment in regard to them is taken into God's own hands, and he will pronounce their doom. It is a solemn thing to be judged by a holy God; and they who have no evidence that they are Christians should tremble at the prospect of being soon arraigned at his bar.