Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Corinthians 7:30
And they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not;
30. they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not ] “Look round this beautiful world of God’s: ocean dimpled into myriad smiles; the sky a trembling, quivering mass of blue, thrilling hearts with ecstasy; every tint, every form, replete with beauty. God says, ‘be glad.’ Do not force young, happy hearts to an unnatural solemnity, as if to be happy were a crime. Let us hear their loud, merry, ringing laugh, even if sterner hearts can be glad no longer; to see innocent mirth and joy does the heart good. But now observe, everlasting considerations are to come in, not to sadden joy, but to calm it. We are to be calm. cheerful, self-possessed; to sit loose to all these sources of enjoyment, masters of ourselves.” Robertson.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And they that weep – They who are afflicted.
As though they wept not – Restraining and moderating their grief by the hope of the life to come. The general idea in all these expressions is, that in whatever situation Christians are, they should be dead to the world, and not improperly affected by passing events. It is impossible for human nature not to feel when persecuted, maligned, slandered, or when near earthly friends are taken away. But religion will calm the troubled spirit; pour oil on the agitated waves; light up a smile in the midst of tears; cause the beams of a calm and lovely morning to rise on the anxious heart; silence the commotions of the agitated soul, and produce joy even in the midst of sorrow. Religion will keep us from immoderate grief, and sustain the soul even when in distress nature forces us to shed the tear of mourning. Christ sweat great drops of blood, and Christians often weep; but the heart may be calm, peaceful, elevated, confident in God in the darkest night and the severest tempest of calamity.
And they that rejoice – They that are happy; they that are prospered; that have beloved families around them; that are blessed with success, with honor, with esteem, with health. They that have occasion of rejoicing and gratitude.
As though they rejoiced not – Not rejoicing with excessive or immoderate joy. Not with riot or unholy mirth. Not satisfied with these things; though they may rejoice in them. Not forgetting that they must soon be left; but keeping the mind in a calm, serious, settled, thoughtful state, in view of the fact that all these things must soon come to an end. O how would this thought silence the voice of unseemly mirth; How would it produce calmness, serenity, heavenly joy, where is now often unhallowed riot; and true peace, where now there is only forced and boisterous revelry!
As though they possessed not – It is right to buy and to obtain property. But it should be held with the conviction that it; is by an uncertain tenure, and must soon be left. People may give a deed that shall secure from their fellow man; but no man can give a title that shall not be taken away by death. Our lands and houses, our stocks and bonds and mortgages, our goods and chattels, shall soon pass into other hands. Other people will plow our fields, reap our harvests, work in our shops, stand at our counters, sit down at our firesides, eat on our tables, lie upon our beds. Others will occupy our places in society, have our offices, sit in our seats in the sanctuary. Others will take possession of our gold, and appropriate it to their own use; and we shall have no more interest in it, and no more control over it, than our neighbor has now, and no power to eject the man that has taken possession of our houses and our lands. Secure therefore as our titles are safe as are our investments, yet how soon shall we lose all interest in them by death; and how ought this consideration to induce us to live above the world, and to secure a treasure in that world where no thief approaches, and no moth corrupts.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 30. They that weep, c.] There will shortly be such a complete system of distress and confusion that private sorrows and private joys will be absorbed in the weightier and more oppressive public evils: yet, let every man still continue in his calling, let him buy, and sell, and traffic, as usual though in a short time, either by the coming persecution or the levelling hand of death, he that had earthly property will be brought into the same circumstances with him who had none.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
And they that weep, as though they wept not; this consideration also should weigh with those who have a more afflicted portion in this life, and are mourners for the loss of their near relations; they have but lost what they could not long have kept, and for the time they kept them must have enjoyed them, probably, with a great deal of sorrow and bitterness.
And they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and so for any of those who rejoiced in any worldly enjoyments, the shortness of the time they are like to have them to rejoice in, should admonish them to govern and moderate their joy, for it is like to be but like the crackling of thorns under a pot.
And that they buy as though they possessed not; and those that have liberal possessions of good things in this life, they should look upon them as none of theirs, and use them as not like to be their possessions long.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
30. they that weep . . . weptnot(Compare 2Co 6:10).
they that buy . . . possessednot(Compare Isa 24:1;Isa 24:2). Christ specifies asthe condemning sin of the men of Sodom not merely their openprofligacy, but that “they bought, they sold,” c., as menwhose all was in this world (Lu17:28). “Possessed” in the Greek implies aholding fast of a possession this the Christian will not do,for his “enduring substance” is elsewhere (Heb10:34).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And they that weep, as though they wept not,…. They that weep for troubles and crosses, things adverse and afflicting in a marriage state, for the loss of wives or children, should express their sorrow in such a manner and degree, as if they wept not; not that the apostle here introduces and establishes a stoical apathy, and would have persons show no manner of concern for these things; but he directs to a moderate use of sorrow, to such a degree as not to hinder and divert from the exercises of piety and religion:
and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; such who are blessed with great prosperity, and with whom everything goes well; they have married wives, and have children, and thrive in the world; let them rejoice on the account of these things, in such a still, silent way, as if they rejoiced not, their hearts not being set upon their outward felicity, nor elated with it; but rejoicing rather that their names were written in heaven, that they had an interest in Christ and his grace, and a right and title to the glories of another world, and at the same time be thankful to God for what they enjoy in this:
and they that buy as though they possessed not; meaning, not any sort of buyers, everyone is a buyer in some sense; but such as purchase estates, buy houses and lands, and become proprietors of large tracts. These the apostle would not have hold their substance for themselves, but hold it as if they did not hold it, parting with it for the use of others; and as persons that are only stewards, and not properly owners, and in a little time must quit it all, and be accountable for their use and disposition of it.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
As though they possessed not ( ). See this use of , old verb to hold down (Lu 14:9), to keep fast, to possess, in 2Co 6:10. Paul means that all earthly relations are to hang loosely about us in view of the second coming.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) And they that weep, as though they wept not. (kai hoi kaiontes hos me klaontes) and those weeping as if they wept not. Weeping, moaning, must not deter Gods children from service.
2) And they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not. (kai hoi chairontes hos me chairontes) and the ones rejoicing as if they rejoiced not. And rejoicing must not obstruct or delay obedient service of one to follow the Lord.
3) And they that buy, as though they possessed not. (kai hoi agorazontes hos me katechontes) “and the ones buying in the market place as though they were holding not, The idea is that true saints of God, believing in the shortening of the Gentile age, the brevity of life, and the coming of their Lord for an accounting, should not buy or horde to themselves. 2Pe 3:8.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
30. Weep Weeping must be done. The sorrow has its actual existence; and, when looked at by itself, has its reality. But when surveyed in comparison with the eternity within a step’s distance, it becomes nothing. Weep, then, as weep you may; but weep as realizing that your weeping has its nothingness.
Rejoice For joy is becoming in our finite sphere. Even on these low grounds of earthly existence there is a round of pleasantnesses that may prompt the smile and the gratitude. But forget not that there is a higher, an eternal joy, that dwarfs this earthly rejoicing to nothing.
Buy Trade, labour, literature, politics, all have their place as duties and engagements of an earthly life; but there is a life whose interests are so stupendous as to shrivel them all to insignificance.
Men boast of worldly greatness. Statesmen, warriors, and princes, figure proudly in human history. And these will and must exist accomplish their programme and amaze and fill the minds of men. But it is only by forgetfulness of eternity that they are great. One thought of the infinite truth empties them, like a pricked balloon, of all their swell.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
30 And they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not;
Ver. 30. And they that weep ] viz. In the loss of wife or children: let them moderate their grief, as Abraham did in the loss of Sarah, Gen 23:2 ; “He came to weep for her;” where the Hebrew hath one little letter extraordinary, Hebrew Text Note to note, that Abraham wept but a little for her; and this, not because she was old and overly worn (as the Rabbins give the reason), but because he had hope of a happy resurrection, 1Th 4:14 , and because she was his still, though dead; therefore he so often in that chapter calleth her “my dead,” 1Co 7:4 ; 1Co 7:11 ; 1Co 7:13 ; 1Co 7:15 .
And they that rejoice ] In the marrying of wives, or birth of children. The marriage day is called the day of “the rejoicing of a man’s heart,” Son 3:11 : and when should men be merry rather than at the recovering of the lost rib? But he was to blame that said, he had married a wife, and therefore he could not come. And he was a wiser man that said, Uxori nubere nolo meae, ( Martial.)
As if they possessed not ] Mind earthly things we must, as if we minded them not: as a man may hear a tale, and have his mind elsewhere; or as a man that baits at an inn, his mind is somewhere else. A right believer (saith Mr Ward) goes through the world as a man whose mind is in a deep study; or as one that hath special haste of some weighty business. Rebus non me trado, sed commodo, saith Seneca. Be not wholly dulled or drowned in the world; look at it out of the eyes’ end only, lest, as the serpent Scytale, it bewitch us with its beautiful colours, and sting us to death.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
30. ] as not POSSESSING (their gains). So in the line of Lucretius (iii. 984), “Vitaque mancupio nulli datur, omnibus usu.”
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
possessed. Greek. katecho, to hold fast. Compare 1Co 15:2.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
30. ] as not POSSESSING (their gains). So in the line of Lucretius (iii. 984), Vitaque mancupio nulli datur, omnibus usu.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
1Co 7:30. , they who rejoice) he does not say, they who laugh. [Rom 12:15. The train of thought is here (in the words, they that rejoice) of nuptial feasts; as in the preceding words (they that weep) of the death of a wife, etc.-V. g.] He speaks soberly as is suitable in the vale of tears.- , as though they possessed not) To possess, after, to buy, makes an epitasis [an emphatic addition to the previous words. Append.]: as after use, abuse comes, in the next verse, from which it is evident, that the figure Ploce [the same word twice, once simply, next expressing an attribute. Append.] occurs in the three preceding clauses; for as the Apostle Paul exhorts the teacher to teach, and every one employed in doing good to be active in doing it, Rom 12:7; so they, that rejoice, rejoice in the world, which same is the very thing that he forbids.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
that weep: Psa 30:5, Psa 126:5, Psa 126:6, Ecc 3:4, Isa 25:8, Isa 30:19, Luk 6:21, Luk 6:25, Luk 16:25, Joh 16:22, Rev 7:17, Rev 18:7
Reciprocal: Eze 24:18 – and at Jon 4:6 – So Luk 7:13 – Weep not Jam 4:13 – and buy
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
and those that weep, as though they wept not; and those that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and those that buy, as though they possessed not;
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
7:30 And they that {b} weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not;
(b) By “weeping” the Hebrews understand all adversity, and by “joy”, all prosperity.