1 Corinthians 6:3

Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(3) We shall judge angels.—Many conjectures have been made as to the exact significance of the word “angels” here. Some suggest that it must signify bad angels; but this would be an unusual use of the word without any qualifying adjective. It is better, perhaps, to regard the passage as a climax arising out of the Apostle’s intense realisation of the unity of Christ and His Church triumphant—a point which seems ever present to the mind of St. Paul when he speaks of the dignity of Christianity. In this sense, redeemed humanity will be superior to, and judges of, the spiritual world. That the words have some such large significance, and are not the expression of a hard and literal fact regarding some members of the angelic host, is, I think, borne out by the subsequent words, where the contrast to “angels” is not “men,” but “things” relating to this life.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

6:1-8 Christians should not contend with one another, for they are brethren. This, if duly attended to, would prevent many law-suits, and end many quarrels and disputes. In matters of great damage to ourselves or families, we may use lawful means to right ourselves, but Christians should be of a forgiving temper. Refer the matters in dispute, rather than go to law about them. They are trifles, and may easily be settled, if you first conquer your own spirits. Bear and forbear, and the men of least skill among you may end your quarrels. It is a shame that little quarrels should grow to such a head among Christians, that they cannot be determined by the brethren. The peace of a man's own mind, and the calm of his neighbourhood, are worth more than victory. Lawsuits could not take place among brethren, unless there were faults among them.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Shall judge angels - All the angels that shall be judged, good or bad. Probably the reference is to fallen angels, as there is no account that holy angels will then undergo a trial. The sense is, "Christians will be qualified to see the justice of even the sentence which is pronounced on fallen angels. They will be able so to embrace and comprehend the nature of law, and the interests of justice, as to see the propriety of their condemnation. And if they can so far enter into these important and eternal relations, assuredly they ought to be regarded as qualified to discern the nature of justice 'among men,' and to settle the unimportant differences which may arise in the church." Or, perhaps, this may mean that the saints shall in the future world be raised to a rank in some respects more elevated than even the angels in heaven. (Prof. Stuart.) In what respects they will be thus elevated, if this is the true interpretation, can be only a matter of conjecture. It may be supposed that it will be because they have been favored by being interested in the plan of salvation - a plan that has done so much to honor God; and that "to have been" thus saved by the "immediate and painful" intervention of the Son of God, will be a higher honor than all the privileges which beings can enjoy who are innocent themselves.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

3. judge angels—namely, bad angels. We who are now "a spectacle to angels" shall then "judge angels." The saints shall join in approving the final sentence of the Judge on them (Jude 6). Believers shall, as administrators of the kingdom under Jesus, put down all rule that is hostile to God. Perhaps, too, good angels shall then receive from the Judge, with the approval of the saints, higher honors.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

That the saints shall judge angels, is here so plainly asserted, as a thing within their knowledge, that none can doubt it; but how, or when, or what angels, is not so easily determined. The best interpreters understand it of the evil angels, that is, the devils, whom the saints shall judge at the last day, agreeing with the Judge of the whole earth in the sentence which he shall then give against the evil angels, confining them to the bottomless pit, who, while this world lasteth, have a greater liberty as princes of the air, to rove abroad in the air, and to work mightily in the children of disobedience. Others understand the judging of angels here mentioned, of the spoiling of the devils of the kingdom that they exercise in the world, in the places where the gospel hath not prevailed, by lying oracles, and seducing men to idolatry, and the worshipping of devils: in which sense Christ said: Now shall the prince of this world be cast out, Jos 12:31. From hence the apostle argues the competency of their brethren to judge of and to determine those little matters which were in difference between them, being but things concerning this life, and so of far less consequence than the judging of the world and the evil angels at the last day.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Know ye not that we shall judge angels,.... Meaning not the ministers of the Gospel, and pastors of churches, called "angels", Revelation 1:20 whose doctrines are examined, tried, and judged by the saints, according to the word of God; nor the good angels, who, were it possible that they could, or should publish a Gospel contrary to what has been preached by the apostle, would be contradicted, condemned, and accursed by him, see Galatians 1:8 but the evil angels, the devil and his angels: and this is to be understood not of their future final judgment and condemnation at the last day, when saints will subscribe unto, and approve of the sentence pronounced upon them, and will triumph over them in their destruction; but of the judgment of them, and of their ejection out of the Gentile world, out of their oracles, idols, and idol temples, to which Christ refers, John 12:31 and calls the judgment of this world, and the casting out of the prince of it by the ministry of his apostles; and which was now already begun, and ere long would be fully accomplished: accordingly the Syriac version renders it, "know ye not , that we are about to judge angels?" and the Arabic, "know ye not that we judge angels?" from whence the apostle infers very justly,

how much more things that pertain to this life? this animal life; to the trade and business of life; to pecuniary matters, to estates and possessions in this world, about which differences may arise between one saint and another.

Geneva Study Bible

Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

1 Corinthians 6:3-4. Climactic parallels to 1 Corinthians 6:2, 1 Corinthians 6:3 corresponding to the first half of the preceding verse, and 1 Corinthians 6:4 to the second; hence 1 Corinthians 6:4 also should be taken as a question.

ἀγγέλους] angels, and that—since no defining epithet is added—in the good sense, not as Chrysostom, Theodoret, Oecumenius, Theophylact, Erasmus, Beza, Calovius, Bengel, and most commentators make it, demons (Judges 1:6; 2 Peter 2:4), nor good and bad angels (so Cornelius a Lapide, al[895]; also, as it would appear, Hofmann). Other expositors, such as Grotius, Billroth, Rückert, de Wette, leave the point undecided. But comp on 1 Corinthians 4:9. That angels themselves shall come within the sphere of the judicial activity of glorified believers, is stated here as a proposition established to the believing consciousness of the readers,—a proposition, the ground for which is to be found in the fact that in Christ, whose glorified saints will reign with Him, is given the absolute truth and the absolute right, and, consequently, the highest judicial court of resort, even as regards the world of angels, from the jurisdiction of which not even the loftiest of created beings can be excepted. There is nothing of a more detailed nature on this subject in the N. T.; but comp in general, Hebrews 1:14, according to which their service must be one for which they are to render an account; and Galatians 1:8, according to which, in a certain supposed case, they would incur an ἀνάθεμα.[898] All modes of explaining away the simple meaning of the words are just as inadmissible as in 1 Corinthians 6:2; as, for example, Chrysostom: ὅταν γὰρ αἱ ἀσώματοι δυνάμεις αὗται ἔλαττον ἡμῶν εὑρεθῶσιν ἔχουσαι τῶν σάρκα περιβεβλημένων, χαλεπωτέραν δώσουσι δίκην; Erasmus: “vestra pietas illorum impietatem, vestra innocentia illorum impuritatem condemnabit;” Calovius: the judicium is approbativum, making manifest, that is to say, before the whole world the victory of the saints already in this life over the devil; Lightfoot: what is meant is, that the influence of the kingdom of Satan is to be destroyed by Christianity; while Nösselt, Ernesti, and Stolz make it ability to judge, if an angel were to preach a false gospel (Galatians 1:8).

μήτιγε βιωτικά] is not to be included in the question, so that we should have to put only a comma after κρινοῦμεν (as Tischendorf does). For βιωτικά, things which belong to the necessities of this life, disputes as to the meum and tuum, (comp Polybius, xiii. 1. 3 : τῶν βιωτικῶν συναλλαγμάτων), will not be among the subjects of the future judgment, to which κρινοῦμεν refers. We must retain, therefore, the mark of interrogation after κρινοῦμεν (Lachmann), and put a full stop after βιωτ., so that μήτιγε βιωτ. may be seen to be the condensed conclusio: to say nothing then of private disputes! i.e. How far less can it be doubtful that we have to judge βιωτικά! Comp Dem. Ol. i. (ii.) 23, and Bremi in loc[901] p. 159. See generally as to μήτιγε (found only here in the N. T.), nedum sc[902] dicam; Herm. a[903] Viger. p. 803; Schaefer, Appar. ad Dem. I. p. 265; Hartung, Partikell. II. p. 154 f. Regarding the relation of βιωτικός to the later Greek, see Lobeck, a[904] Phryn. p. 355.

The antithesis of ἀγγέλους and βιωτικά turns on this, that the former belong to the higher superterrestrial sphere of life (ὡς ἂν ἐκείνων οὐ κατὰ τὸν βίον τοῦτον ὄντων, Theodore of Mopsuestia). The ἀγγέλ. without the, article is qualitative.

[895] l. and others; and other passages; and other editions.

[898] Observe also the different classes of angels referred to in Romans 8:38; Ephesians 1:21; Colossians 1:16; 1 Peter 3:22. We cannot conceive these distinctions in rank to exist without ethical grounds. Moreover, the angels are not to be regarded as absolutely good, Mark 10:18. Comp. on Colossians 1:20.

[901] n loc. refers to the note of the commentator or editor named on the particular passage.

[902] c. scilicet.

[903] d refers to the note of the commentator or editor named on the particular passage.

[904] d refers to the note of the commentator or editor named on the particular passage.

Expositor's Greek Testament

1 Corinthians 6:3. The question of 1 Corinthians 6:2 urged to its climax: “Know you not that we shall judge angels?” Paul already does this, hypothetically, in Galatians 1:8. Instructed through the Church (Ephesians 3:10), the heavenly powers will be subject to final correction from the same quarter. The angels were identified, in later Jewish thought, with the forces of nature and the destiny of nations (Psalm 104:4; Daniel 10:13; Daniel 12:1); they must be affected by any judgment embracing the κόσμος. “There is, it seems, a solidarity between the Princes of the nations (cf. Paul’s ἀρχαὶ κ. ἐξουσίαι, 1 Corinthians 15:24, etc.) and the nations directed by them; according to Shir rabba, 27 b, God does not punish a people until He has first humbled its Angel-prince in the higher world, and according to Tanchuma, Beshallach, 13, He will hereafter judge the nations only when He has first judged their Angel-princes” (Weber, Altsynag. paläst. Théologie, p. 165); Satan is κατʼ ἐξοχὴν “the god of this world”(2 Corinthians 4:4; cf. John 14:30, Luke 4:6), and has his “angels” whom P. styles “world-rulers” (Ephesians 6:12, Matthew 25:41). On the throne of world-judgment Christ will sit (Acts 17:31, Matthew 25:31 f.), and “the saints”—sc. after their own acquittal—as His assessors.—κρινοῦσιν in this context qualifies its objects as culpable; cf. ἵνα καταργήσῃ in 1 Corinthians 15:24; also 1 Corinthians 5:12 above, and other parls. The anarthrous ἀγγέλους signifies beings of this order, in contrast with men (cf. 1 Corinthians 4:9; also Judges 1:6); “P. does not wish to mark out this or that class of angels, but to awaken in the Church the sense of its competence and dignity by reminding it that beings of this lofty nature will one day be subject to its jurisdiction” (Gd[898]; also El[899]).—μήτιγε βιωτικά (nedum quidem: not surely a continued interrog., as W.H[900] punctuate)—in sharp contrast to “angels”—“(to say) nothing verily of secular matters!”.—μήτιγε (sc. λέγωμεν) is a N.T. h.l[901],—a sound cl[902] idiom (see Lidd[903] on μήτις, also El[904] ad. loc.),—negative syn[905] for πόσῳ μᾶλλον (Romans 11:12; Romans 11:24); for the γε, cf. 1 Corinthians 4:8.—βιωτικός, of later Gr[906] (after Aristotle), denotes matters relating to βίος (one’s “living”), which differs from ζωὴ as vita quam from vita qua vivimus—“quae ad hujus vitæ usum pertinent” (Bz[907]), or “ad victum pertinentia” (Cv[908]); see Lt[909] ad loc[910], and Trench, Syn[911], § 27.

[898] F. Godet’s Commentaire sur la prem. Ép. aux Corinthiens (Eng. Trans.).

[899] C. J. Ellicott’s St. Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians.

[900] Westcott and Hort’s The New Testament in Greek: Critical Text and Notes.

[901].l. hapax legomenon, a solitary expression.

[902] classical.

[903]idd. Liddell and Scott’s Greek-English Lexicon.

[904] C. J. Ellicott’s St. Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians.

[905] synonym, synonymous.

[906] Greek, or Grotius’ Annotationes in N.T.

[907] Beza’s Nov. Testamentum: Interpretatio et Annotationes (Cantab., 1642).

[908] Calvin’s In Nov. Testamentum Commentarii.

[909] J. B. Lightfoot’s (posthumous) Notes on Epp. of St. Paul (1895).

[910] ad locum, on this passage.

[911] synonym, synonymous.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

3. Know ye not that we shall judge angels?] Cf. 2 Peter 2:4, and Judges 6. Some have thought that good angels are here meant. But it is difficult to see how (1) men could pronounce sentence upon their conduct openly, or (2) acquit or censure them by the silent sentence of a consistent life. For in the first case there would be no sentence to pronounce, and in the second it would be they who would judge the holiest man that ever lived, and not he who would judge them. “The interpretation squares well with the argument. We shall judge devils, who not only were so noble in their original condition, but are still even when fallen immortal beings. What then! shall the paltry things which concern the belly be withdrawn from our decision?”—Calvin. “The good angels are not hereafter to be judged, but they will form a part of Christ’s glorious retinue when He comes to judgment.”—Wordsworth.

Bengel's Gnomen

1 Corinthians 6:3. Ἀγγέλους, angels) Those who are not holy [referring to saints], and so also wicked men. The article is not added; a gradation in respect of the world [i.e. an ascending climax, arguing a fortiori; if angels, much more the world].—βιωτικὰ, things belonging to life) worthless if they be compared with angels.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 3. - That we shall judge angels. Angels, i.e. some who belong, or once did belong, to that class. The statement furnishes no data for further speculation. It can hardly mean "evil spirits," for where the word is entirely unqualified it always means good angels; otherwise we might refer it to the "angels which kept not their first estate" (Jude 1:6). It is impossible, and not straightforward, to explain away the word "angels" as meaning Church officials, etc., or to make the word "judge" mean "involve a condemnation of them by comparison with ourselves." All that we can say is that "God chargeth even his angels with folly, and in his sight the very heavens are not clean" (Job 4:18); and that "to angels hath he not subjected the world to come" (Hebrews 2:5). We must take the plain meaning of the apostle's words, whether we can throw any light on his conceptions or not. The only alternative is to suppose that the word means "those who once were good angels," but are now fallen spirits. It was so understood by Tertullian, Chrysostom, etc. How much more; rather, to say nothing of. The accurate rendering of these verses is a matter of some difficulty, but not to an extent which affects the material sense, or which can be explained without a minute knowledge of Greek. 1 Corinthians 6:3

Vincent's Word Studies

How much more (μήτιγε)

It is hard to render the word accurately. How much more follows the Vulgate quanto magis. It is rather, not to speak of; or to say nothing at all of.

Things that pertain to this life (βιωτικά)

See on Luke 21:34.