(with Galatians 5:6; Galatians 6:15)
Forms versusCharacter..
Note:
I. The emphatic proclamation of the nullity of outward rites.
II. Look at the threefold variety of the designation of the essentials. (1) The keeping of the commandments of God is everything (1 Corinthians 7:19). (2) "A new creature" (Galatians 6:15). The one thing needful is keeping the commandments of God, and the only way by which we can keep the commandments of God, is that we should be formed again into the likeness of Him, of whom alone it is true that He always did the things that pleased God. (3) "Faith which worketh by love" (Galatians 5:6). If we are to be made over again, we must have faith in Jesus Christ. We have got to the root now, so far as we are concerned. We must keep the commandments of God; if we are to keep the commandments we must be made over again, and if our hearts ask how can we receive that new creating power into our lives, the answer is, by "faith which worketh by love."
A. Maclaren, Christ in the Heart,p. 229.
References: 1 Corinthians 7:19-24. Homiletic Quarterly,vol. iv., p. 210. 1 Corinthians 7:22. Parker, Hidden Springs,p. 366.