1 Corinthians 1:31

That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(31) That.—So that it might be as the prophet wrote, “He that boasteth, let him boast in the Lord.” This is not a literal quotation, but only an adaptation and paraphrase from the LXX. of Jeremiah 9:23-24. Our only true boasting before God is that we are in Christ, that all we have we owe entirely to Him; we can only glory in, not ourselves or what we have or are, but in the fact that He is our benefactor. Thus, in St. Chrysostom’s quaint words, Paul “always fasteneth them on with nails to the name of Christ.”

This concludes St. Paul’s general explanation of God’s method, and he then turns to his own conduct, to show how entirely it was in harmony with God’s plan, which he has just explained and vindicated.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

1:26-31 God did not choose philosophers, nor orators, nor statesmen, nor men of wealth, and power, and interest in the world, to publish the gospel of grace and peace. He best judges what men and what measures serve the purposes of his glory. Though not many noble are usually called by Divine grace, there have been some such in every age, who have not been ashamed of the gospel of Christ; and persons of every rank stand in need of pardoning grace. Often, a humble Christian, though poor as to this world, has more true knowledge of the gospel, than those who have made the letter of Scripture the study of their lives, but who have studied it rather as the witness of men, than as the word of God. And even young children have gained such knowledge of Divine truth as to silence infidels. The reason is, they are taught of God; the design is, that no flesh should glory in his presence. That distinction, in which alone they might glory, was not of themselves. It was by the sovereign choice and regenerating grace of God, that they were in Jesus Christ by faith. He is made of God to us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption; all we need, or can desire. And he is made wisdom to us, that by his word and Spirit, and from his fulness and treasures of wisdom and knowledge, we may receive all that will make us wise unto salvation, and fit for every service to which we are called. We are guilty, liable to just punishment; and he is made righteousness, our great atonement and sacrifice. We are depraved and corrupt, and he is made sanctification, that he may in the end be made complete redemption; may free the soul from the being of sin, and loose the body from the bonds of the grave. And this is, that all flesh, according to the prophecy by Jeremiah, Jer 9:23-24, may glory in the special favour, all-sufficient grace, and precious salvation of Jehovah.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

As it is written - This is evidently a quotation made from Jeremiah 9:23-24. It is not made literally; but the apostle has "condensed" the sense of the prophet into a few words, and has retained essentially his idea.

He that glorieth - He that boasts or exults.

In the Lord - Not ascribing his salvation to human abilities, or learning, or rank, but entirely to God. And from this we see:

(1) That the design of the plan of salvation is to exalt God in view of the mind.

(2) that the design is to make us humble; and this is the design also of all his works no less than of the plan of salvation. All just views of the creation tend to produce true humility.

(3) it is an evidence of piety when we are thus disposed to exalt God, and to be humble. It shows that the heart is changed; and that we are truly disposed to honor him.

(4) we may rejoice in God. We have no strength, and no righteousness of which to boast; but we may rejoice in him. He is full of goodness and mercy. He is able to save us. He can redeem us out of the hand of all our enemies. And when we are conscious that we are poor, and feeble, and helpless; when oppressed with a sense of sin, we may rejoice in him as our God; and exult in him as our Saviour and Redeemer. True piety will delight to come and lay everything at his feet; and whatever may be our rank, or talent, or learning, we shall rejoice to come with the temper of the humblest child of poverty, and sorrow, and lack, and to say, "not unto us, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory for thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake," Psalm 115:1.

"Not to our names, thou only just and true,

Not to our worthless names is glory due;

Thy power and grace, thy truth and justice claim.

Immortal honours to thy sovereign name."

Watts.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

31. glory in … Lord—(Jer 9:23, 24)—in opposition to "flesh glorying in His presence" (1Co 1:29). In contrast to morbid slavish self-abasement, Paul joins with humility the elevating consciousness of our true dignity in Christ. He who glories is to glory in the Lord, not in the flesh, nor in the world.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

God doth this, or hath done this, for this end, that man should have nothing to glory in, neither wisdom, nor righteousness, nor sanctification, nor redemption, but should glory in the Lord; acknowledging that whatsoever wisdom, righteousness, or holiness he hath, it is all from God, in and through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

That, according as it is written,.... Jeremiah 9:23.

He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord; not in his own wisdom, riches, and strength; but in Christ, as his wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.

Geneva Study Bible

That, according as it is written, {b} He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

(b) Let him yield all to God and give him thanks: and so by this place is man's free will beaten down, which the papists so dream about.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

1 Corinthians 1:31. The fact that God is the author of your connection with Christ, and thereby of the blessings you receive as Christians (1 Corinthians 1:30), should, according to the divine purpose (ἵνα), determine you to comply with that word of Scripture which calls for the true lowly καυχᾶσθαι: he that boasteth himself, let him boast himself in the Lord, praise his own privileges only as God’s work, boast himself only as the object of His grace.

That the Κύριος is not Christ (Rückert) but God, and not Christ and God (Hofmann), is proved by the emphatic ἐξ αὐτοῦ, 1 Corinthians 1:30, and ἐνώπ. τ. Θεοῦ, 1 Corinthians 1:29. Comp on 2 Corinthians 10:17.

The apostle quotes Jeremiah 9:24, abbreviating quite freely, after the LXX. The construction, however, is anacoluthic; for Paul purposely retains the scriptural saying unaltered in its strong imperative form, and leaves it to the reader to supply the change from the imperative to the subjunctive, which the syntax, properly speaking, would require. Comp on Romans 15:3.

Expositor's Greek Testament

1 Corinthians 1:31. “In order that, as it stands written, he who glories, in the Lord let him glory;” by “the Lord” the readers could only understand Christ, already five times thus titled; so, manifestly, in 2 Corinthians 10:17 f., where the citation reappears. Paul quotes the passage as a general Scriptural principle, which eminently applies to the relations of Christians to Christ; ἐν Κυρίῳ belongs to his adaptation of the original: God will have no flesh (see note, 1 Corinthians 1:29) exult in his wisdom, strength, high birth (cf. the objects of false glorying in Jer[284]) before Him; He will have men exult in “the Lord of glory” (1 Corinthians 2:8; cf. Php 2:9 ff.), whom He sent as His own “wisdom” and “power unto salvation” (1 Corinthians 1:24; 1 Corinthians 1:30). What grieves the Ap. most and appears most fatal in the party strifes of Cor[285], is the extolling of human names by the side of Christ’s and at his expense (see notes on 12–15; also 1 Corinthians 3:5; 1 Corinthians 3:21-23, and 2 Corinthians 4:5, Galatians 6:14). Christians are specifically οἱ καυχώμενοι ἐν Χ. Ἰ., Php 3:3. The irregularity of mood after ἵνα—καυχάσθω for subj. καυχᾶται—s accounted for in two ways: either as in anacoluthon, the impv[286] of the origina. being transplanted in lively quotation (cf Romans 15:3; Romans 15:21); or as an ellipsis, with γένηται or πληρωθῇ mentally supplied (cf. Romans 4:16, Galatians 2:9, 2 Corinthians 8:13)—explanations not materially different. Clem. Rom. (§ 13) quotes the text with the same peculiarity.

[284] Jerome, Hieronymus.

[285] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

[286] imperative mood.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

31. He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord] The whole work of salvation is of God. The Corinthians, like many others since, were inclined to take some of the credit to themselves. The Apostle reminds them to Whom it is due. These words are a paraphrase of Jeremiah 9:23-24.

Bengel's Gnomen

1 Corinthians 1:31. Ἵνα, that) viz. it may be.—ὁ καυχώμενος, he who glories) It is not the privilege of all to glory.—ἐν Κυρίῳ, in the Lord) not in himself, not in the flesh, not in the world.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 31. - As it is written. A compressed quotation from the Septuagint Version of Jeremiah 9:23, 24; 1 Samuel 2:10. Let him glory in the Lord. The word rendered "glory" is more literally, boast. The reference is to Jeremiah 9:23, 24; 1 Samuel 2:10 (LXX.). The prevalence of "boasting" among the Corinthians and their teachers drove St. Paul to dwell much on this word - from which he so greatly shrinks - in 2 Corinthians 10:12. (where the word occurs twenty times), and to insist that the only true object in which a Christian can glory is the cross (Galatians 6:14), not in himself, or in the world, or in men.



1 Corinthians 1:31

Vincent's Word Studies

He that glorieth, etc.

From Jeremiah 9:23, Jeremiah 9:24, abridged after the Septuagint.