Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Corinthians 10:24
Let no man seek his own, but every man another’s [wealth.]
24. Let no man seek his own, but every man another’s wealth ] Rather, the profit of his neighbour. Cf. Rom 15:1-3; Php 2:4. The conclusion is moral, not positive. No rule is laid down about eating or not eating any kind of food as a matter of importance in itself. With such things the Gospel has no concern. What St Paul does prescribe, relates to the effect of our conduct upon others. See Romans 14 throughout It will thus happen in our case, as in that of the Apostle, that what may be quite wrong under one set of circumstances may be quite right in another, as in Gal 2:3 and Act 16:1. See also notes on ch. 8. It may be interesting to remark how these questions were treated by the theologians of later times. Estius gives several examples of the casuistry of the Latin Fathers. St Augustine decides the case of those who, pressed by hunger, might be tempted to eat of food in an idol temple when quite alone, by saying that if they know it to have been offered to idols, they must refuse it. St Jerome decides that the invocation of idols and dmons makes such food unclean. St Gregory commends the virtue of some unlettered Christians who preferred rather to be slain than to eat meats offered to idols which their Lombard captors endeavoured to force upon them. The Greek Father St Chrysostom, however, remarks that St Paul does not suffer the Christian to question what it is he buys, but simply to eat whatever comes from the market
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Let no man seek his own – This should be properly interpreted of the matter under discussion, though the direction assumes the form of a general principle. Originally it meant, Let no man, in regard to the question about partaking of the meat offered in sacrifice to idols, consult his own pleasure, happiness, or convenience; but let him, as the leading rule on the subject, ask what will be for the welfare of others. Let him not gratify his own taste and inclinations, regardless of their feelings, comfort, and salvation; but let him in these things have a primary reference to their welfare. He may dispense with these things without danger or injury; He cannot indulge in them without endangering the happiness or purity of others. His duty therefore requires him to abstain. The injunction, however, has a general form, and is applicable to all Christians, and to all cases of a similar kind. It does not mean that a man is not in any instance to regard his own welfare, happiness, or salvation; it does not mean that a man owes no duty to himself or family; or that he should neglect all these to advance the welfare of others; but the precept means, that in cases like that under consideration, when there is no positive law, and when a mans example would have a great influence, he should be guided in his conduct, not by a reference to his own ease, comfort or gratification, but by a reference to the purity and salvation of others. And the observance of this simple rule would make a prodigious change in the church and the world.
But every man anothers wealth – The word wealth is not in the Greek. Literally, that which is of another; the word to referring to anything and everything that pertains to his comfort, usefulness, happiness, or salvation – The sentiment of the whole is, when a man is bound and directed by no positive law, his grand rule should be the comfort and salvation of others. This is a simple rule; it might be easily applied; and this would be a sort of balance-wheel in the various actions and plans of the world. If every man would adopt this rule, he could not be in much danger of going wrong; he would be certain that he would not live in vain.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 24. Let no man seek his own, &c.] Let none, for his private gratification or emolument, disturb the peace or injure the soul of another. Let every man live, not for himself, but for every part of the great human family with which he is surrounded.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
It is the duty of every one who is a disciple of Christ, not merely to look at his own pleasure or profit, but the profit and advantage of others.
Charity seeketh not her own, ( saith the apostle, 1Co 13:5), that is, it seeketh not its own with the prejudice of another. So as admit that in this practice there were nothing looked like idolatry and impiety towards God, yet charity or love to your brethren ought to deter you.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
24. (1Co 10:33;1Co 13:5; Rom 15:1;Rom 15:2).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Let no man seek his own,…. His carnal pleasure and private advantage in eating things sacrificed to “idols”, to the hurt and disadvantage of his brethren; otherwise it is lawful for a man to seek his own good, temporal, spiritual, and eternal, to seek for the necessaries of life, his spiritual peace and comfort, and his everlasting welfare and happiness; but then he should not only seek his own,
but every man another’s wealth, or “that which is another’s”; for the word “wealth” is not in the original text. The apostle’s meaning is, that a man, in the use of things indifferent, should not seek the gratifying of his sensual appetite or other passions, what may be pleasing or profitable to himself; but should consult the profit and edification of others.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Let no man seek his own ( ). This is Paul’s rule for social relations (1Cor 13:5; Gal 6:2; Rom 14:7; Rom 15:2; Phil 2:1) and is the way to do what is expedient and what builds up.
His neighbour’s good ( ). Literally, “the affair of the other man.” Cf. in Ro 13:8 for this idea of like (the nigh man, the neighbour) in Ro 15:2. This is loving your neighbour as yourself by preferring your neighbour’s welfare to your own (Php 2:4).
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Another’s wealth [ ] . Lit., that which is the other’s. Wealth, inserted by A. V. is used in the older English sense of well – being. See on Act 19:25. The A. V. also ignores the force of the article, the other. Rev., much better, his neighbor ‘s good.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) Let no man seek his own.” (medeis to heautou zeteito) “Let no one seek or pursue the things of his selfish interest.” This was love’s driving faith of Paul’s life Rom 1:14-15; Rom 9:1-3.
2) But every man anothers wealth. (alla to tou heterou) “But let each one seek or pursue the other, the interest or welfare of the person of different attitudes or dispositions, the interest of the immature Christian, the interest of the heathen or the unbeliever.” Our Lord sought our wealth, not His own, in life and in death, 2Co 8:9; 2Co 9:15.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
24. Let no one seek his own. He handles the same subject in the 14 Chapter of the Romans. Let no one please himself, but endeavor to please his brethren for their edification This is a precept that is very necessary, for we are so corrupted by nature, that every one consults his own interests, regardless of those of his brethren. Now, as the law of love calls upon us to love our neighbors as ourselves, (Mat 22:39,) so it requires us to consult their welfare. The Apostle, however, does not expressly forbid individuals to consult their own advantage, but he requires that they should not be so devoted to their own interests, as not to be prepared to forego part of their right, as often as the welfare of their brethren requires this.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
SELF-OFFERING VS. SELF-SEEKING
1Co 10:24
ONE of the important features in Christs teaching is its positiveness along original lines. We are told that one day Jesus went into Capernaum; and straightway on the Sabbath Day He entered into the synagogue, and taught. And they were astonished at His doctrine: for He taught them as one that had authority. Not by referring to what the fathers and former rabbis had said; not with the timidity suggesting fear of mistake, either in the manner of declaring the truth or uncertainty of the truth itself, but with positive speech, and original thought He spoke. He dared even to set up His opinions in matters of morals and religion and life, as of sufficient weight to overthrow the old fossilated formulas of tradition. I say unto you, was the sentence with which He introduced many a declaration meant to shatter and destroy the commonest proverbs of the people, and make manifest the mistakes into which religious teachers had fallen. Good things are claimed for the sacred writers of false religions, and we are constantly being told that even the golden rule is negatively stated in them, but it is the sufficiently distinguishing peculiarity of Christs utterances that they express the loftiest good, and put that expression into most affirmative, positive words.
Our text did not escape the Masters lips, but dripped rather from the point of the Apostles pen, as Paul wrote to the Corinthians. It is a text, however, clearly born of the Christ-spirit and based absolutely upon His teaching; a text, which, as I have thought upon its essential point, seems to be as directly in conflict with some of the proverbs of the present time, and as antagonistic to the spirit of our age, as were the most radical of Christs reformatory utterances to the notions of His nation, and the character of His earth-life times.
Who is there among us today, both practicing and teaching this text, Let no man seek his own, but every man anothers wealth? We are not without our good Samaritans, who when they find a man beaten and robbed, are ready to carry him to an inn, have his wounds dressed, and even pay the bill. But this text goes farther, and reaches deeper into lifes motives. It demands that we seek our most healthy and prosperous neighbors good, even before our own advantage. That is out of keeping with our most cherished proverbs. The world says, Look out for number one, first of all! Philosophy argues that God cares for him who takes care of himself; and even our modern science is based largely upon the notion that self-preservation is the first law of nature. But if this text is right, then our social proverb, our much-cherished philosophy, and our boasted science is wrong, and I believe the text is right, is the truth of reason and observation, as well as the revelation of God.
But you may not be prepared to accept my opinion, and so I must back it up with some arguments drawn from observation and the revealed.
SELF-SEEKING SETS ASIDE THE ETHICAL IN LIFE
By the ethical, I mean those fundamentals of morality which are written indelibly into the human heart and conscience, and which lift man into an infinitely higher realm than that through which moves the beast.
Self-seeking discovers only the lower animal nature. What pig cares whether his fellow-swine gets a single grain of food so long as he can capture the whole feed? What cur is disturbed if his best friend among all the canines of the neighborhood is starving for a morsel of meat, so long as he is filled with the crumbs from his masters table? Darwins survival of the fittest may apply in plant life and lowest animal life, and even find many illustrations in the life of human-heathenism; but civilization seeks to set that law aside, social ethics opposes the notion, and the religion of Jesus Christ is constantly trampling such barbarism beneath its feet, saying, Ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good. Honor the aged, carry food and drink to the sick and imprisoned, and offer your own life, even, to save the life of the helpless and the weak. Adam Smith in his Wealth of Nations, argues that competition is the life of trade, and that the best commercial regulations are those resulting from the effort of every man to do his best and get the most out of his effort. I accept both his premises and conclusion; but I do so, only because he concludes by showing such a system to be one of service, of mutual good, as between man and man, of blessing to ones neighbor as certainly as profit to ones self.
I believe that in this very law of commerce we find both illustrations of the law of self-seeking and self-offering. The clerk, who has no interest in the firm by which he is employed, save that of retaining his position and drawing his salary, is self-seeking. That other man, however, who forgets constantly what his wages are and when they will come to his pocket, in the more engrossing thought of serving faithfully the business firm, illustrates self-offering, and proves that he doesnt live to eat and wear, but eats and wears to serve to serve his employer, to serve his wife and children and friends, and furnishes an illustration of the morality and reasonableness of our text, Let no man seek his own, but every man anothers wealth.
Self-seeking also destroys faith as between man and man. Who can trust another, if we are to follow the common proverb, Look out for number onea proverb which seems fair enough on its face, and yet hides away the hideous features of knavery, cheat, deception and fraud, if only by so doing it can gain an advantage? What business relations are possible without fidelity of man to man? In the south the tillers of the soil are constantly annoyed by the self-seeking of the colored employees. Only turn your back and many of the colored hands will drop the hoe, or lay aside the ax, or sit down upon the beam of the plow, and do nothing until you have turned eyes on them again. The result is a depreciation of the nominal value of their service, and a constant apprehension to the served, lest their duties go at loose ends and heavy losses result. Every large merchandise involves many trusts. Men are left alone at work, because the owners of establishments believe their men to be in sufficient good faith not to seek self-interest solely, but the interests of others as well. Destroy fidelity as it exists between pupil and teacher, and bring the one to believe that the only interest the other has, is that of self-ease, or personal profit, and immediately the possibilities of education are mightily circumscribed. What interest would you attach to this sermon, what faith would you put in my words as being true, if a one of you believed that my only concern in this matter was that of gaining a reputation as an orator, or that of performing a certain service for a stipulated price? Dont you see that self-seeking whenever it is clearly evident destroys faith as between man and man, and at once falls under the ban of criticism? That is the principal trouble today between capital and labor. Faith is gone! The one believes that the other is organized for getting the largest profit off its labor without interest in, or sympathy for the laborer himself. The other sees before him a great American institution, growing daily in numbers and power, the very motto of which is, The largest money for the shortest hours. Self-seeking seems to be the esprit-de-corps of these two great armies of laborers and capitalists. When the day comes that, under the gracious advances of loftier thought and purpose, the two can, in some measure at least, subscribe to the text of this morning, then capitalists will be better served and laborers better paid. Let no man seek his own, but every man anothers wealth, and a fortnight will revive that mutual faith so necessary to the good of all men.
The spirit of self-seeking fosters a continuous destruction of wealth and life. Every man who has seen far into business, has witnessed many illustrations of wealths destruction through the infamy of self-seeking. Every rich miser stands as the living monument to a vast deal of dead wealth. His selfishness has laid many a living dollar low, and placed it in the tombs, from which it will never come forth, till after the tolling of the bell, telling of the cringing mans death at last. Then again, wealth is destroyed, when as Dr. Talmage in a sermon once said, a young merchant is caught in some unexpected ruin, and stronger ones instead of helping him over some adverse tide, are self-seeking enough to shove him into deeper water and force upon him bankruptcy, that they may make gain of his spoils and laugh at his wreck, Sheriffs sale, a red flag in the window. Goods have changed hands. The young merchant goes home that night and says to his wife, Well Mary, well have to move out of this house, and sell our piano, and for the gain of that grasping soul, we may end in the poorhouse. Do you know, my friends, that every failure in business clogs the commercial wheels and destroys, rather than adds to, the countrys wealth?
But if loss of wealth were all, we might easily withhold our tears! But how often it means loss of life. As was said of that case of bankruptcy on the part of a young merchantman, the chances are, that broken-spirited, he will go to drink. The young wife and child go to her fathers house, and not only a store is wiped out and a market disturbed, but his home is wiped out, his morals are unbalanced, and his prospects for two worlds, this and the next, are blighted forever. Truly will the devils make a banquet of fire, and fill their cups of gall and drink deep to the health of the man who seeks only his own gain, and tramples beneath his iron heel his neighbors good. Edward Bellamys book, Looking Backward, is thought of by many to be a mere vagary, a wild phantasmagoria. But I read it twice through, and although finding many weaknesses, I am sure I discovered many excellencies as well. So well has he shown the degrading and hurtful consequences of that commercial spirit, which seeks to build up self by tearing down others, of enriching ones own life off the spoils of neighbors, that I can but believe the book is already a factor in that reformation of commerce which is sure to come. The sermon which the racy author put into the Rev. Mr. Bartons mouth, as a sermon of the twentieth century, I object to, because it is too little tinctured, if touched at all, with the Gospel of Christ. But sure it is, he knew how to use an illustration, and right vividly did he employ one to portray the desperation with which men and women of the nineteenth century fought and tore each other in the scramble for golf. You may recall that illustration. It was painted in these words: Some two or three centuries ago, an act of barbarity was committed in India, which, though the lives destroyed were but a few score, was attended by such peculiar horrors that its memory is likely to be perpetual. A number of English prisoners were shut up in a room containing not enough air to supply one-tenth their number. The unfortunates were gallant men, devoted comrades in service, but as the agonies of suffocation began to take hold of them, they forgot all else, and became involved in a hideous struggle, each one for himself, and against all others, to force a way to one of the small aperatures of the prison at which alone it was possible to get a breath of air. It was a struggle in which men became beasts. Then he applies that horrible struggle, by analogy to the ways of trade, in which so many men seem to have turned beastly, and forgetting all else save the good of a dollar and selfish gain, trample their fellows beneath their maddened feet. There, analogy is better grounded than we sometimes think! The half of this city today would not be wrestling with the hardships which have beset their lives, if the other half should overthrow their proverb and philosophy and science (falsely so called) of selfishness, and bring into trade and benevolence the teaching of this text. Davids life was examplary in many respects, but so long as the Bible is read, there will stand against it the indictment of Nathan, the Prophet, Thou art the man, who to satisfy a selfish greed sacrificed a life and enriched your own house with his spoils only to see the curse of God upon the act. So long as the Pentateuch lives the blood of righteous Abel will cry in judgment against self-seeking and brother murder. Let us live for others, my friends, if we intend to live for the right and God.
Again I argue that
SELF-SEEKING IS DESTRUCTIVE TO UTILITARIANISM
I confess to a great dislike of the employment of technical terms, but I could get no other words to express the same thoughts at all concisely. By utilitarianism I intend the greatest good of the greatest number. Self-seeking is so far removed from that result that it is not difficult to see that it accomplishes exactly the opposite end.
For even the individual who employs it, it has in store only bloat and blight. Every drunkard lives a life running purely counter to the principles of this text. He despises not only the good of his neighbor, but treats with contempt the good of those in his own bosom. Father and mother, brother and sister, wife and child, are all forgotten in the selfishness of drink. He is warmed by it at first and thinks himself profited. He is stimulated by a second draught and imagines himself profited. He is stimulated by a third draught and imagines his gain increased. He is intoxicated by a fourth and in his delight forgets all others. He is bloated with a fifth and vainly imagines an increase in health. He is blighted at last and imbruted into utter indifference to all else save a futile effort to slake his own distempered and hellish thirst. The gambler and the man of unclean heart and life are in the same row, and must accomplish a like end. That is also the process by which misers are made. Their cringing is only legitimate economy at the start. With an accumulation of dollars the money greed grows and larger profits are on. Excited still more, penuriousness breaks into a passion, and the wealthy man of today will be starving tomorrow in the midst of plenty, because he is now blighted in the bloat of his former greed. A student may possibly make the same mistake. He who acquires a love of study which more and more consumes him, until at last he prefers to shut the door of his cloister, as the ancient monks used to do, and take in from all literature and thought, giving nothing out, has made just such a mistake. His own mind will stagnate under it and his accumulated wisdom become a muddy worthless pool indeed. That religion which seeks to get all and give nothing knows no spirit of the Christ. The individual who reads the Bible without teaching it to others; who rejoices in the Gospel invitation, but never repeats it; who is thankful for a personal experience of grace, but never openly confesses it; who sings, Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a gift far too small, and yet lets no nickel escape his fingers for the Gospels sake, is shriveling and being dwarfed into spiritual imbecility. That spring is purest and best that overflows continually, that gives out itself with every passing hour, and so is that human life.
Self-seeking only departs from the individual, bloated and blighted, to touch the community with wrong and robbery. He who gets more from this world than he gives back to it, is a social, a political or religious, thief! He who gets just as much from the world as he contributes to it, is a nonentity, and had as well remained unborn. We sometimes hear people praising individuals as self-made men. That can only be in a comparative sense. There are ten thousand contributions to every mans life, if that life amounts to much, and for every one of these he becomes a debtor to somebody or something. His debt may be partly due to the condition of society at the time of his entrance into it. That society was waiting for just such a man. Mordecai said to Esther, Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this? That condition of things which opened the way to position of queen to the young Jewess laid her under tribute, and she would have wronged herself, her people, and her God, if she had failed to pay the debt by taking her life into her own hands to become intercessor with the king.
The contribution may be the sympathy and assistance given by friends, and if so we owe an equal amount of sympathy and assistance to somebody, and we who dont give it will go out of the world at last leaving behind us unpaid debts. As I look back over my own past life today, I do not recall many times in which society has laid me under financial obligations, for I have had to earn with the sweat of my brow almost every dollar, and if I went out of the world today many would say of me, He owed no man anything, but that would be a falsehood. There are ten years immediately behind me, no single day of which has passed but my life has been laid under tribute by some bright sympathy, some deed of kindness enjoyed, some tender expression of favor received, some earnest prayer prayed in my behalf. I confess to you this morning that I find myself made up for the most part by contributions from without. I am indebted to every friend who has devoutly wished me good; I owe every Christian who has bidden a hearty God-speed; I am under obligations to every author from whose volumes I have brought anything of wisdom or instruction; every teacher from whose presence I have turned away with fuller head or heart; every church through which I have passed, to know its respect and love. If I was unkind to men as I met them, I should display the basest ingratitude to that society whose members have been kind to me. If I sought not to instruct others, my own teachers might bitterly complain; if I gave no sympathy to the sorrowing or assistance to the afflicted, my former days of sickness ought to return, and all the sorrow which others have helped me to bear, be brought and laid upon my shoulders afresh; if I sought my own good and not my neighbors, I should seem to despise the only real life, and if I spent not my soul in telling the plan of redemption, I would crucify afresh the Christ who gave His life to redeem me! Oh, how much we owe. We are taught to owe no man any thing, but to love one another, but can we ever discharge the debt of love? Surely not, if our lives are spent in self-seeking!
I am brought to say finally, then,
SELF-OFFERING IS THE TRUEST LAW OF LIVING
Just as a man by intense selfishness can rob and wrong the society in which he moves, so conversely a man by unselfishness may enrich every greater life-circle. I sometimes think that human nature has gone so far awry that it might be profited by following out lessons to be learned from the nature that is normal, that has never gone wrong. There is much in nature to illustrate the text, It is more blessed to give than to receive. Every spring rising out of earths bosom into the crystal stream that hastens away through ravine and valley; every rivulet winding its way through meadow and forest to the distant lake where it loses itself forever; every majestic river sweeping on to the ocean depths, is an illustration of the beauty and utility of this best law of existence, the law of giving. Every candle disseminating the darkness with its rays; every star glistening through the shadows of night; every central sun pouring out its essence of warmth and light to a myriad of worlds, is an illustration of this blessedness of giving. Gods precept is Gods practice, my friend, for He owed no man anything, and yet He gave Himself to the world that so needed Him. An obligation in life has both length and breadth. Its breadth is our ability, its length is our opportunity. I am able to give something to the social circles through which I move. Those circles offer me time and place for my contribution. If I dont pay it, I will have wronged at once my own soul, and have excited that societys contempt. The same thing is true in matters of civil and religious concern. Let us not say then that society is a sham and I propose to let it alone; that politics is a muddy pool, and I will keep far away from its banks; that religion is a question of opinions and I will live my life out without passing judgment. That is cowardly; that is a mistake; that is almost insane! If society is a sham then it is yours to help make it grandly solid; if politics are corrupt you are under obligations to cast in your contribution of salt to help purify the pool; if religion is a question of faiths, you must seek out the true belief or die like the careless beast and leave religion in deeper doubt by your irreligious course! You are in debt to them all, my friend, and you must pay, or prove yourself unworthy the name of man!
I am firmly convinced that the law of giving is the law of growing. Christ was not merely exhorting a set of covetous men and trying to stir them up to some missionary effort when in a sermon He said, Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal, it shall be measured to you again. When Christ said that, He simply expressed a principle that may be observed upon in every relation of life. Giving is growing! The fountain grows because it gives. The stream grows because it gives. The river grows because it gives. The old ocean, for which they appear to be robbing themselves, will pay them back and more, sending up a mist that shall gather into a cloud and halting over hill and valley, give itself into fountain, and rivulet, and river again. The exalted stations in life all lie at the end of humilitys path. That is why Christ said, He that humbleth himself shall be exalted. The thrones of earth lie at the end of paths of service. That is why Christ said, Whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant. The way to be filled is to empty self. That is why God put into the Prophets lips the sentence, The liberal soul shall be made fat. Covetousness is the crying sin of the age, and covetousness is the most appalling poverty. Many a man has gone hungry and ragged because the habit of withholding has grown until he is too penurious to expend his wealth of his own body even, and many a soul will go down in leanness to the grave, because of its utter want of liberality. There are many men salving their conscience by praying. Better prove your love to God by giving at the same time. Dr. Sewall of Maine is said to have entered a meeting one day, just after the collection for foreign missions was taken. The pastor called on Sewall to pray. He thrust his hand into his pocket. The pastor repeated the request. Still Sewall was fishing in his pocket. Finally the pastor said, Doctor, I didnt ask you to give, I asked you to pray. Oh, yes, said Sewall, I heard you, but I cant pray until I have given something. If this text is the truth of God, while men are perishing without the truth, no man can pray until he has given something.
To give proves our kinship to God. He is the Great Giver. I sometimes wonder if we appreciate our own words when we call Him The Giver of All Good. I love to think of the great throbbing heart of the Infinite that lies back of and prompts such beneficence! And it is only the Christ spirit in man that discovers to him the blessedness of serving his fellow, giving to relieve their needs, and suffering to lighten their sorrows. In reading Henry Drummonds Tropical Africa, I was pleased with his method of rebuking the heartless covetousness of his native guides. One of their number had been run down by a wounded buffalo, and gored almost to death. Chicken soup was the only food he could take and be profited by it. The natives doggedly refused to share their fowls with the poor sufferer. For three whole days Drummond gave up his meals to the wounded man and went without himself. At the end of that time, the guides grew heartily ashamed and begged his pardon and afterward willingly divided with the wounded man. I sometimes wonder how man can be indifferent to suffering souls that are starving without the bread of life, and withhold their paltry dollars before the very face of the Man who died on Calvary to save such souls. Oh, when will we grow ashamed of our covetousness? Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren,. But whoso hath this worlds good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
(24) But every man anothers wealth.Better, but each one anothers good. The English word wealth has, in process of time, come to bear a limited significance, such as did not originally belong to it. By wealth we now mean temporal possessions or advantage; it originally meant good, including more especially moral welfare, as in the collect for the Queen in the Prayer Book, Grant her in health and wealth long to live.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
24. His own Advantage or gratification.
Another’s Regulating your practice, not solely by your own convenience, but for another’s spiritual safety. And he proceeds now to specify how this is to be done.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Let no man seek his own, but each his neighbour’s good.’
A much better catch phrase, suggests Paul, is, ‘let no man seek his own but each his neighbour’s’. In other words a man should not be always thinking of himself and his own freedom and his rights to this or that, but should be thinking of what is good for his neighbour (compare Rom 15:2). And this they were failing to do.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
1Co 10:24. Let no man seek his own This precept cannot be taken in a strict and literal sense, but should be interpreted comparatively, so as to understand the Apostle as exhorting them not to seek their own advantage entirely, or not so much as that of others. Mr. Locke’s paraphrase is, “No one must seek barely his own private particular interest alone, but let every one seek the good of others also.”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
1Co 10:24 . Let no one be striving to satisfy his own interest, but , etc. Comp 1Co 10:33 . We must not impair the ideal , to which this rule gives absolute expression (otherwise in Phi 2:4 ), by supplying and , as Grotius and others do. See rather Rom 15:1 f. Even the limitation to the question in hand about sacrificial feasts (Pott), or to the adiaphora in general (Billroth, de Wette, Osiander), is unwarranted; for the special duty of the is included under this quite general rule, the application of which to the matter in dispute is not to come till afterwards.
After we are mentally to supply from the preceding . See Bernhardy, p. 458; Stallbaum, a [1700] Plat. Symp. p. 192 E, Rep. p. 366 C; Buttmann, neut. Gr. p. 336 [E. T. 392].
[1700] d refers to the note of the commentator or editor named on the particular passage.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
24 Let no man seek his own, but every man another’s wealth .
Ver. 24. Let no man seek his own ] Self miscarries us all, and makes us eccentric in our motions, nothing more.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
24. ] Further following out of . This ought to be our object: the bringing on one another to perfection, not the pleasing ourselves, see Rom 15:2-3 . In the second clause, must be supplied from (hence it has found its way into the rec.): so Plato, Rep. ii. p. 366 D, , , i.e. . See Bernhardy, Syntax, p. 458.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
1Co 10:24 . With . . . . cf. 1Co 13:5 , Rom 14:7 ; Rom 15:2 , Gal 6:2 , Phi 2:1 ff. After understand , from the previous : cf. the ellipsis in 1Co 3:1 ; 1Co 3:7 , 1Co 7:19 (Bm [1544] , p. 392). For (= , Rom 15:2 ), wider than (1Co 8:11 ; cf. 1Co 8:27 f.) “the other” in contrast with oneself see parls.; Gr [1545] idiom prefers “the other” where we say “others“. , implies some definite good “his own, the other’s interest”: a N.T. h. l. ; the pl [1546] elsewhere in such connexion ( cf. Mat 22:21 ).
[1544] A. Buttmann’s Grammar of the N.T. Greek (Eng. Trans., 1873).
[1545] Greek, or Grotius’ Annotationes in N.T.
[1546]
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
no man = no one. Greek. medeis.
his own = his own things.
every man = each one, but the texts omit.
another’s wealth = the things of the other. (Greek. heteros. App-124.) Compare Php 1:2, Php 1:4.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
24.] Further following out of . This ought to be our object: the bringing on one another to perfection, not the pleasing ourselves, see Rom 15:2-3. In the second clause, must be supplied from (hence it has found its way into the rec.): so Plato, Rep. ii. p. 366 D, , ,-i.e. . See Bernhardy, Syntax, p. 458.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
1Co 10:24
1Co 10:24
Let no man seek his own, but each his neighbors good. -Spiritual good is under consideration, and he warns them to let no man seek his own good to the disregard of his neighbors good. In neglecting his neighbors good, he destroys his own. Spiritual good is unlike material good, the more we seek the good of others, the more we promote our own. The more we look to our own good to the neglect of others, the more we destroy our own good. The more we divide our blessings with others, the more our own blessings grow.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
seek: 1Co 10:33, 1Co 9:19-23, 1Co 13:5, Phi 2:4, Phi 2:5, Phi 2:21
Reciprocal: Rom 15:2 – General 1Co 6:12 – are not 1Co 8:9 – take 2Co 6:3 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Co 10:24. There is no original word for wealth. The verse means that no man should be selfish, but should seek to bring happiness to others.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
1Co 10:24. Let no man seek his own, but each his neighbours goodGr. his neighbours things, meaning his benefit, in the widest sense. As this is Gods own design in all His works, but pre-eminently in redemption, so it is the grand law of the Christian life, and the chiefest ornament of the Christian character. Now for the application.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
These words may be understood two ways:
1. Let no man seek his own, that is, only his own wealth.
2. Let no man seek his own wealth: that is, to the prejudice of others, though never so much to his own advantage;
teaching us, that it is the duty of every Christian not merely to look at his own profit and pleasure, but at the benefit and advantage of others, as that which edifies, or tends to promote holiness in others; and that in the use of our Christian liberty we must regard rather the edification and salvation of others, than the gratification of ourselves.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Vv. 24. Let no man seek his own, but each his neighbour’s good.
It is the idea of , edifying, which rules in this verse. It is not necessary to understand the adverb : Let no man seek only… The exclusion is absolute, because it condemns every pursuit of self-interest which is inspired by egoism: Let no man seek his own enjoyment or advantage; but let him in his conduct always take account of the interest of others.
In the application of this rule to the particular subject with which Paul is dealing, two cases might present themselves to the Christian: that of a meal in his own house (1Co 10:25-26), or that of a meal in a strange house (1Co 10:27-30).
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
Let no man seek his own, but each his neighbor’s good. [As to eating idolatrous meat and all similar questions of liberty, be more careful to think of the interests of others than to assert your own rights.]
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
The well-being of one’s neighbor is of primary importance. The exercise of all one’s liberties is of secondary importance (cf. Rom 15:2; Php 2:4). The Corinthians viewed their freedom as an opportunity to pursue their own interests. Paul viewed it as an opportunity to benefit and build up another person.