The Calvinist International
John Calvin was what you might call “a fan, bigly” of the proper use of the motif of the imitation of Christ. He mentions it in various places; but one that is particularly illuminating is found in his comments on 1 Corinthians 11.1, where Paul says, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” […]
Will we need a Mediator even after the perfection brought about to God’s people after the Resurrection and the Last Judgment? In an interpretation of 1 Cor. 15.24 (“Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all […]
Today is the 451st anniversary of John Calvin’s death. In his biography of the Reformer, T.H.L. Parker quotes the prayer with which he concluded his sixty-fifth lecture on Ezekiel, one of the last times he taught in public. He envisions the Christian as already on the “threshold” of the inheritance; the mansion itself awaits, assured […]
An addendum to my citation of Calvin on 1 Cor. 5:7 the other day: There was a sentence in that selection that liked me not, as Bill S. might say. That sentence is the following: “Now there is no reconciliation without a sacrifice; and, besides, the Apostle now expressly confirms it, for he makes use […]
John Calvin on 1 Cor. 5:7 (“Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed”): We come now to the subject-matter. Paul, having it in view to exhort the Corinthians to holiness, shows that what was of old figuratively represented in the passover, ought to be at this day accomplished in us, and explains the correspondence which […]
John Calvin on 1 Corinthians 6:11 and the threefold passive that separates the heirs of the Kingdom from those who will not inherit it: But ye are washed He makes use of three terms to express one and the same thing, that he may the more effectually deter them from rolling back into the condition […]
In 1 Corinthians 4, Paul, in one sense the “father” of the Corinthian believers, exhorts these same believers to engage in godly mimesis–to be imitators of him. How are they to do it? How are they to know what they are to do? To answer that very question–“for that very reason”–Paul has sent Timothy to them. […]
At the beginning of Romans 14, Paul warns the Romans not to judge one another over diet and days, and reserves the harsher term for the stronger judging the weaker: Τὸν δὲ ἀσθενοῦντα τῇ πίστει προσλαμβάνεσθε, μὴ εἰς διακρίσεις διαλογισμῶν. 2 ὃς μὲν πιστεύει φαγεῖν πάντα, ὁ δὲ ἀσθενῶν λάχανα ἐσθίει. 3 ὁ ἐσθίων τὸν μὴ ἐσθίοντα μὴ ἐξουθενείτω, ὁ […]
Below are Ambrosiaster’s comments on 1 Cor. 2:4: “And my speech and my preaching were not in the persuasion of human wisdom, but in the demonstration of the Spirit and power of God.” He here dilates upon the difference between God’s wisdom and man’s wisdom, between power and mere words. Text and Translation Et sermo […]
In 1 Corinthians 2:6, Paul writes, “But we speak wisdom among the perfect.” What is this “wisdom” (σοφίαν), and who are “the perfect” (τοῖς τελείοις)? John Chrysostom thinks that the “wisdom” referred to is nothing other than the Gospel, and that the “perfect” are simply believers in that Gospel. In other words, for Christians there […]