Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
Do ye not know--as a truth universally recognized by Christians. Notwithstanding all your glorying in your "knowledge," ye are acting contrary to it (1 Corinthians 1:4-5; 1 Corinthians 8:1). The oldest manuscripts have "Or" before "know ye not"; that is, "What! (expressing surprise) know ye not," etc.
saints . . . judge--that is, "rule," including judgment: as assessors of Christ. Matthew 19:28, "judging," that is, "ruling over." (Compare Psalms 49:14; Daniel 7:22, Daniel 7:27; Revelation 2:26; Revelation 3:21; Revelation 20:4). There is a distinction drawn by able expositors between the saints who judge or rule, and the world which is ruled by them: as there is between the elected (Matthew 20:23) twelve apostles who sit on thrones judging, and the twelve tribes of Israel that are judged by them. To reign, and to be saved, are not necessarily synonymous. As Jehovah employed angels to carry the law into effect when He descended on Sinai to establish His throne in Israel, so at His coming the saints shall administer the kingdom for, and under, Him. The nations of the earth, and Israel the foremost, in the flesh, shall, in this view, be the subjects of the rule of the Lord and His saints in glorified bodies. The mistake of the Chiliasts was that they took the merely carnal view, restricting the kingdom to the terrestrial part. This part shall have place with the accession of spiritual and temporal blessings such as Christ's presence must produce. Besides this earthly glory, there shall be the heavenly glory of the saints reigning in transfigured bodies, and holding such blessed intercourse with mortal men, as angels had with men of old, and as Christ, Moses, and Elias, in glory had with Peter, James, and John, in the flesh at the transfiguration (2 Timothy 2:12; 2 Peter 1:16-18). But here the "world" seems to be the unbelieving world that is to be "condemned" (1 Corinthians 11:22), rather than the whole world, including the subject nations which are to be brought under Christ's sway; however, it may include both those to be condemned, with the bad angels, and those about to be brought into obedience to the sway of Christ with His saints. Compare Matthew 25:32, Matthew 25:40, "all nations," "these my brethren" on the thrones with Him. The event will decide the truth of this view.
judged by you--or, before you (compare 1 Corinthians 3:22).
smallest matters--The weightiest of earthly questions at issue are infinitely small compared with those to be decided on the judgment-day.
Other commentary entries containing this verse:
Isaiah 32:1
Isaiah 45:14
Ezekiel 1:6
Daniel 7:9
Daniel 7:12
Daniel 7:22
Zechariah 3:7
Malachi 4:3
Matthew 25:46
1 Corinthians 2:15
1 Corinthians 6:1
1 Thessalonians 4:17
2 Timothy 2:12
James 5:14
Revelation 3:21
Revelation 20:6
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