Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.
All Commentaries on 1 Corinthians 4:5 Go To 1 Corinthians 4
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light, &c. He will reveal the thoughts and actions of men that lie hid in darkness. He means, then, that to God alone are naked and open the hidden things of Prayer of Manasseh , his intentions, his secret motives, and the depths of his heart, which is to him like a bottomless sea, and therefore that none but God sees man"s justification. None, therefore, save God should judge another, or even himself, for his faith, his works, or the grace of Christ. For we often think that we are doing right when we are acting amiss: we often suppose that we are led by the grace of Christ, and act out of love for Him, when all the time we are impelled by our own lust or by the love of our own fame. Cf. Chrysostom and Ambrose and S. Jerome ( Dial2contra Pelag.). S. Augustine, too, has some beautiful remarks on this point in his sermon on Psalm 42, where he says that the deep of human misery and blindness calls to the deep of Divine mercy and illumination.
This argument is confirmed by the following reflections: (1.) that God even does not look upon us as justified by works but by faith, and this, according to the Protestants, we know of as well as God does; for we believe, they say, by faith. Therefore, according to them, what the Apostle says is false; for he says that God alone knows it and not we. (2.) The words which say that God beings to light the hidden things of darkness, and makes manifest the counsels of the hearts, do not mean that God surveys and manifests men"s faith, but their designs, their motives, and works. (3.) Just as the nature of our works is uncertain to us, so too is our faith, which according to Protestants alone justifies: for no man can know for a certainty that he believes on Christ with a faith that is firm and Divine, and therefore still less can he know that he is justified by it. The Holy Spirit often says the same elsewhere. Cf. Ecclesiastes 9:1; Proverbs 20:9; Job 9:21; Jeremiah 17:9.
