t occasions); his purpose is to induce them
to regard it most appreciatively. He gives them an example of his own
gratitude, thanking God on their behalf, for the purpose of calling
forth their especial gratitude when they should consider what they
formerly were and what they now had received through the Gospel. And
again, he would have them beware lest, forgetful of their former
misery and present grace, they relapse into their old blindness. A
sad beginning in such backsliding had been made by factions in their
midst, who, satiated with the Gospel and indifferent to the abundant
grace they enjoyed, began to cast about for something else.

5. Now observe: If the exalted apostle and venerable teacher of the
Gentiles in his day had to witness in his own parish such factions
and sects as those which, in sinful security and ingratitude toward
the Gospel, arose during his life, what wonder is it that today, when
we do not have the excellent preachers and pious Christians of those
times, there are similar sects? We are aware of the great benefits
bestowed upon us, but at the same time we see and realize that the
devil instigates divisions and scandals. And the cause of these evils
may be traced to our ingratitude; we have quickly forgotten the ills
we endured under the blindness of popery, and how miserably we were
deluded and tormented. Necessarily, where God's mercies are lightly
dismissed from the mind and disregarded, gratitude and regard for
God's Word cannot be the result; satiated, listless Christians go
their way fancying that spiritual conditions always were and always
will be as now.

6. The people, therefore, must be awakened to consider their former
destitution, the very wretchedness they were in. The apostle later on
vividly pictures such condition to his Corinthians, while here, in
the opening chapter, he intimates to them, in kind and courteous
words, to consider, in the light of the Gospel benefits they now
enjoy, what they lacked before and might be deprived of again.

7. Therefore he says, You now have received the grace whereby in
everything ye are enriched. Formerly you had not this grace and would
not have it today had not the Gospel been preached to you. You are
enriched in everything pertaining to yonder life, for it is not the
purpose of the Gospel to give earthly riches. But in spiritual
blessings ye come behind in no gift and have need of naught except
this one thing, that the Lord himself should