All Commentaries on 1 Corinthians 3:23 Go To 1 Corinthians 3
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
Ye are Christ"s. You are the mystical members of Christ, your Head and Lord, and therefore you are His possession, having been bought by His Blood. Therefore you should glory in Christ, not in Paul or Apollos. So S. Thomas and Anselm.
And Christ is God"s. (1.) Because, as God, He is the Son of God. Ambrose says, "Christ is the Son of God, and does His will, that we too may do it." Song of Solomon , too, Chrysostom, Theodoret, Anselm. (2.) Christ as man is God"s, as His Lord and Head, being His creature and His possession. So S. Thomas and Cajetan.
From what has been said it appears that all the faithful, and especially the elect, are the end for which God created all things. The end of all things is Christ as man. For this glory was the due of such a Prayer of Manasseh , viz, that all things should serve Him, be ordained foe Him, and look to Him as their end. But Christ is for God and His glory, and therefore all glory is to be given, not to Paul or Apollos, but to God alone.
S. Chrysostom (Hom10 Moral.) says beautifully: "All that we are and all that we have comes from Christ: life and light, and spirit, and air and earth. If any of these be taken from us we perish, for we are but strangers and pilgrims. "Mine and thine" are, when carefully considered, but empty words. Though you may speak of your house as being your own, you speak foolishly; for indeed the air, the earth, the material of which it is made, yourself who build it, and all other things are the property of the Creator. Even if the use of it is yours it is of uncertain duration, not only because of death, but also because of the uncertainty of all things before death. for we are God"s in two ways—by creation and Revelation -creation; and if your soul is not your own, how can you say that your money is? Since, therefore, it is not your own, you should expend it upon your fellow-servants. Do not say, then, "I spend my own." It is not your own, it is another"s, nay, it is common to thee and thy fellow-servant, like as the sun and air and all things are."
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