Character of the Galatians.—These people were of Celtic descent. They were
the relics of a Gaulish invasion which swept over South-eastern Europe in the
early part of the third century before Christ and poured into Asia Minor. Here
the Celtic tribes maintained themselves in independence under their native
princes, until a hundred years later they were subdued by the Romans. Their
country now formed a province of the empire. They had retained much of their
ancient language and manners; at the same time, they readily acquired Greek
culture, and were superior to their neighbours in intelligence. Jews had settled
among them in considerable numbers and had prepared the way of the Gospel;
it was through their influence that the Judaistic agitation took so strong a hold
of the Galatian Churches. The epistle implies that its readers generally were
acquainted with the Old Testament and with Hebrew history, and that they
took a lively interest in the affairs of the Churches of Jerusalem and Antioch.
None of the New Testament Churches possesses a more strongly marked character.
They exhibit the well-known traits of the Celtic nature. They were generous,
impulsive, vehement in feeling and language; but vain, fickle, and quarrelsome.
Cæsar wrote: “The infirmity of the Gauls is that they are fickle in their
resolves, fond of change, and not to be trusted”; and by Thierry they are
characterised thus: “Frank, impetuous, impressible, eminently intelligent, but
at the same time extremely changeable, inconstant, fond of show, perpetually
quarrelling, the fruit of excessive vanity.” Eight of the fifteen works of the
flesh enumerated in chap. v. 20, 21 are sins of strife. They could hardly
be restrained from “biting and devouring one another” (ch. v. 15). Like
their kinsmen at this time in the west of Europe, they were prone to revellings
and drunkenness. They had probably a natural bent towards a scenic and
ritualistic type of religion, which made the spirituality of the Gospel pall upon
their taste and gave to the teaching of the Judaisers its fatal bewitchment.
The authorship of the epistle.—That it was written by St. Paul has never
been seriously doubted. His authorship is upheld by the unanimous testimony
of the ancient Church. Allusions and indirect citations are found in the writings
of the apostolic Fathers—Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp, and Justin Martyr, or
whoever wrote the Oratio ad Græcos. The internal evidence of Pauline authorship
is conclusive by allusions to the history and by the self-portrayal of the
writer’s character. No forger ever made an imitation in which were so many
secret threads of similarity, which bore such a stamp of originality, or in which
the character, the passion, the mode of thought and reasoning, were so naturally
represented. The apostle’s mental characteristics are indelibly impressed on the
letter.
The time of writing the epistle.—Lightfoot, in disagreement from most
earlier interpreters, maintained that this epistle was written between 2 Corinthians
and Romans—that is, during the latter part of Paul’s journey in Macedonia, or
the earlier part of his sojourn at Corinth, towards the close of the year 57 or
58 a.d. Dr. Beet comes to the same conclusion. There is nothing in the letter
itself to fix definitely either the place or time of its composition. From chap.
i. 9, iv. 13, v. 3 we gather that St. Paul had now been in Galatia twice; the
epistle was therefore subsequent to the journey which he took across Asia Minor
in setting out on his third missionary tour (Acts xviii. 22—xix. 1). All students
are agreed that it belongs to the period of the legalist controversy and to the
second group of the epistles. On every account one is inclined to refer the letter to
the last rather than to an earlier period of the third missionary tour. Comparison
with the other epistles of the group raises this probability almost to a certainty
and enables us to fix the date and occasion of this letter with confidence.
The purpose and analysis of the epistle.—It is intensely polemical. It is a
controversial pamphlet rather than an ordinary letter. The matter of dispute is
twofold: 1. Paul’s apostleship; and 2. The nature of the Gospel and the sufficiency
of faith in Christ for full salvation. This gives the order of the first two and
main parts of the epistle. A third section is added of a moral and hortatory
nature. The contents of the epistle may be thus analysed:—
I. Introductory address.—1. The apostolic salutation (i. 1–5). 2. The
Galatians’ defection (i. 6–10).
II. Personal apologia: an autobiographical retrospect.—The apostle’s
teaching derived from God and not man, as proved by the circumstances of:
1. His education (ch. i. 13, 14). 2. His conversion (ch. i. 15–17). 3. His intercourse
with the other apostles (ch. i. 18–24, ii. 1–10). 4. His conduct in the controversy
with Peter at Antioch (ch. ii. 11–14). The subject of which controversy was the
supersession of the law by Christ (ch. ii. 15–21).
III. Dogmatic apologia: inferiority of Judaism, or Legal Christianity, to
the doctrine of faith.—1. The Galatians bewitched into retrogression from a
spiritual system into a carnal system (ch. iii. 1–5). 2. Abraham himself a witness to
the efficacy of faith (ch. iii. 6–9). 3. Faith in Christ alone removes the curse which
the law entails (ch. iii. 10–14). 4. The validity of the promise unaffected by the law
(ch. iii. 15–18). 5. Special pædagogic function of the law (iii. 19–29). 6. The law
a state of tutelage (ch. iv. 1–7). 7. Meanness and barrenness of mere ritualism
(ch. iv. 8–11). 8. The past zeal of the Galatians contrasted with their present
coldness (ch. iv. 12–20). 9. The allegory of Isaac and Ishmael (ch. iv. 21–31).
IV. Hortatory application of the foregoing.—1. Christian liberty excludes
Judaism (ch. v. 1–6). 2. The Judaising intruders (ch. v. 7–12). 3. Liberty not licence,
but love (ch. v. 13–15). 4. The works of the flesh and of the Spirit (ch. v. 16–26).
5. The duty of sympathy (ch. vi. 1–5). 6. The duty of liberality (ch. vi. 6–10).
V. Autograph conclusion.—1. The Judaisers’ motive (ch. vi. 12, 13). 2. The
apostle’s motive (ch. vi. 14, 15). 3. His parting benediction and claim to be freed
from further annoyance (ch. vi. 16–18). (Findlay and Sanday.)
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.
Ver. 1. Paul, an apostle.—He puts his own name and apostleship prominent, because his
apostolic commission needs to be vindicated against deniers of it. Not of, or from, men, but
by, or from, Jesus Christ and God the Father. The Divine source of his apostleship is
emphatically stated, as also the infallible authority for the Gospel he taught.
Ver. 6. I marvel that ye are so soon removed.—So quickly removed; not so soon after
your conversion, or soon after I left you, but so soon after the temptation came; so readily
and with such little persuasion (cf. ch. v. 7–9). It is the fickleness of the Galatians the
apostle deplores. An early backsliding, such as the contrary view assumes, would not have
been matter of so great wonder as if it had taken place later.
Vers. 8, 9. Any other gospel.—The apostle is here asserting the oneness, the integrity of
his Gospel. It will not brook a rival. It will not suffer any foreign admixture. Let him be
accursed.—Devoted to the punishment his audacity merits. In its spiritual application the
word denotes the state of one who is alienated from God by sin.
Ver. 11. Not after man.—Not according to man; not influenced by mere human considerations,
as it would be if it were of human origin.
Ver. 12. But by the revelation of Jesus Christ.—Probably this took place during the three
years, in part of which the apostle sojourned in Arabia (vers. 17, 18), in the vicinity of the
scene of the giving of the law; a fit place for such a revelation of the Gospel of grace
which supersedes the ceremonial law. Though he had received no instruction from the
apostles, but from the Holy Ghost, yet when he met them his Gospel exactly agreed with
theirs.
Ver. 14. Exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers.—St. Paul seems to have
belonged to the extreme party of the Pharisees (Acts xxii. 3, xxiii. 7, xxvi. 5; Phil. iii. 5, 6),
whose pride it was to call themselves “zealots of the law, zealots of God.” A portion of
these extreme partisans, forming into a separate sect under Judas of Galilee, took the name
of zealots par excellence, and distinguished themselves by their furious opposition to the
Romans.
Ver. 16. To reveal His Son in me that I might preach Him.—The revealing of His Son by
me to the Gentiles was impossible, unless He had first revealed His Son in me; at first on
my conversion, but especially at the subsequent revelation from Jesus Christ (ver. 12),
whereby I learnt the Gospel’s independence of the Mosaic law.
Ver. 24. They glorified God in me.—He does not say, adds Chrysostom, they marvelled at
me, they praised me, they were struck with admiration of me, but he attributes all to grace.
They glorified God in me. How different, he implies to the Galatians, their spirit from
yours.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 1–5.
Apostolic Credentials.
I. That apostolic credentials claim distinctively Divine authority.—“Paul,
an apostle, not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father”
(ver. 1). It must have been a painful moment when Paul first became aware
that spurious teachers questioned the validity of his apostolic call, and a still
more painful disappointment when he discovered his Galatian converts so readily
gave credence to those who maligned him. His fears were roused, not so much
for his personal reputation as for the injury to the religious life of his converts
if they cherished suspicions as to the Divine character of the truth they had been
taught. The mischief must be dealt with at once. He boldly and emphatically
declared that his commission was direct from God and bore the same Divine
stamp as that of the other apostles, whose authority even the false teachers had
not the temerity to deny. It has been ever the rôle of the subtle adversary of
man to strive to eliminate the Divine element from the truth and drag it down
to a common human level. Truth then loses its stability, begins to move in a
flux of confused human opinions, and the soul is plunged into bewilderment and
doubt. Whatever tends to vitiate the truth brings peril to the peace and
upward progress of the soul. The power of the teacher increases with an ever-deepening
conviction of the Divine authority of his message.
II. That apostolic credentials recognise the oneness of the Christian brotherhood.—“And
all the brethren which are with me” (ver. 2). Here is the
indication that St. Paul was not unduly solicitous about his personal reputation.
While insisting upon the unquestioned Divine source of his apostleship, he does
not arrogate a haughty superiority over his brethren. He is one with them in
Christ, in the belief of and fidelity to the truth, in the arduous labours of pioneer
work, in building up and consolidating the Church, and unites them with himself
in his Christian greeting. It is the sublime aim of the Gospel to promote universal
brotherhood by bringing men into spiritual union with Christ, the Elder
Brother. Christ is the unifying force of redeemed humanity. Ecclesiastical
ranks are largely human expedients, necessary for maintaining order and
discipline. The great Head of the Church has promulgated the unchallengeable
law of religious equality: “One is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are
brethren” (Matt. xxiii. 8).
III. That apostolic credentials justify the use of a sublime and comprehensive
greeting.—“Grace be to you and peace,” etc. (ver. 3). A greeting like this
from some lips would be fulsome, or at the best mere exaggerated politeness.
But coming from one who was in constant communion with the Source of the
blessings desired, and from which Source he had received his call to the apostleship, it
is at once dignified, large-hearted, and genuine. Grace and peace are inclusive of
the best blessings Heaven can bestow or man receive. They are Divine in their
origin and nature—“from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.” Grace
is the spontaneous outflow of Divine love in the redemption of the race and is
the more precious because unmerited; and peace is the conscious experience of
that grace in the believing soul—peace from outward dissension and inward
fret, peace of conscience, peace with God and man. The blessings the apostle
desires God is ever eager to bestow. “Filling up our time with and for God is
the way,” said David Brainerd, “to rise up and lie down in peace. I longed
that my life might be filled up with fervency and activity in the things of God.
Oh, the peace, composure, and God-like serenity of such a frame! Heaven must
differ from this only in degree, not in kind.”
IV. That apostolic credentials are evident in the clear statement of the
great principles of the Gospel salvation.—“Who gave Himself for our sins,
that He might deliver us,” etc. (vers. 4, 5). In these words, we have a suggestive
epitome of the whole Gospel. Man is delivered from sin and from the present
evil age by the self-sacrifice of Jesus; and this method is “according to the will
of God,” and brings unceasing glory to His name. This is the Gospel in a
nutshell and involves all the grand principles of redemption the apostle was
commissioned to declare, and which he develops more clearly in the course of
this epistle. Deliverance is Divinely provided, irrespective of human effort or
merit. The Galatians in seeking to return to legal bondage ignored the root
principles of the Gospel and imperilled their salvation. The apostle vindicated
the credentials of his high office by faithful remonstrance and plain authoritative
statement of the truth Divinely revealed to him. It is a mark of high intellectual
power to make the greatest truths clear to the humblest mind. Christian
teaching has all the more weight when associated with irreproachable moral
character.
Lessons.—1. God should be gratefully recognised as the Giver of all good. 2. The
special endowments of one are for the benefit of all. 3. It is a solemn responsibility
to be entrusted with the preaching of the Gospel.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Ver. 1. The Power of the Gospel.—1. Free
grace doth often light upon
the most unworthy, not only by giving
salvation to themselves, but making
them instrumental for the kingdom of
Christ, and bringing about the salvation
of others. 2. Faithful and called
ministers of Christ are to be so far
from cowardly ceding, or heartless
fainting under the bold, bitter, and
unjust aspersions of those who question
their calling, and thereby weaken their
authority and render the truth of their
doctrine doubtsome, that they ought
the more to avow their calling against
all who question it. 3. The office of
an apostle had this peculiar to itself,
that the designation was not mediately
by the election and suffrages of men,
as in the calling of ordinary office-bearers,
but immediately from God, so
that the function of the apostles ceased
with them and did not pass by succession
to a pope or any other. 4. The
false apostles, that they might shake
the truth preached by Paul and establish
their own contrary error, alleged
that he was no lawful apostle. This
Paul refutes by showing he was called
by Christ after He was raised from
the dead and had taken possession of
His kingdom, so that his calling had
at least no less dignity and glory in it
than if he had been called by Christ
when He was on earth.—Fergusson.
Ver. 2. The Church a Witness.—1. The
more they are whom God
maketh use of to hold out the beauty
of truth that we may embrace and
follow it, or the deformity and danger
of error that we may fly from and hate
it, we are the more to take heed how
we reject or embrace what is pressed
upon us, as there will be the more to
bear witness of our guilt and subscribe
to the equity of God’s judgment if we
obey not. 2. We are not so to stumble
at the many sinful failings which may
be in Churches, as to unchurch them,
by denying them to be a Church, or to
separate from them, if their error be
not contrary to fundamental truths,
or if they err from human frailty, and
not obstinately and avowedly.—Ibid.
Ver. 3. Christian Salutation.—1. God’s
gracious favour and goodwill
is to be sought by us in the first place,
whether for ourselves or others, that
being a discriminating mercy betwixt
the godly and the wicked. 2. Peace
is to be sought after grace, and not to
be expected before it. Peace without
grace is no peace. There can be no
peace with God or His creatures, nor
sanctified prosperity, except through
Jesus Christ we lay hold on God’s
favour and grace. 3. Grace and peace
we cannot acquire by our own industry
or pains. They come from God, are to
be sought from Him, and His blessing
is more to be depended on than our
own wisdom or diligence. 4. They to
whom grace and peace belong are such
as acknowledge Christ to be their Lord
to command and rule them, and yield
subjection to Him in their heart and
life.—Ibid.
Grace and Peace.
I. Grace is not any gift in man
but is God’s and in God. It signifies
His gracious favour and goodwill,
whereby He is well pleased with us in Christ.
II. Peace is a gift not in God, but
in us. 1. Peace of conscience—a
quietness and tranquillity of mind
arising from a sense of reconciliation
with God. 2. Peace with the creatures—with
angels, with the godly, with our
enemies. 3. Prosperity and good success.
III. Whereas Paul begins his
prayer with grace we learn that
grace in God is the cause of all good
things in us.
IV. The chief things to be sought
after are the favour of God in Christ
and the peace of a good conscience.
V. As grace and peace are joined
we learn that peace without grace is
no peace.—Perkins.
Vers. 4, 5. The Unselfishness of Jesus.
- Prompting self-surrender.—“Who
gave Himself.”
- His self-surrender was an unmerited
and unlooked-for expiation.—“For
our sins.”
- Creates the hope and possibility
of immediate salvation.—“That He
might deliver us from this present evil
world.”
- Was a suggestive revelation of
the Divine character.—“According to
the will of God and our Father.”
- Should evoke the spirit of
grateful praise.—“To whom be glory
for ever and ever. Amen.”
Ver. 4. Christ our Sacrifice.
I. Whereas Christ is the giver
of Himself it follows that His death
and sacrifice were voluntary.
II. Therefore, all merit and satisfaction
for sin are reduced to the
person of Christ, and there are no
human satisfactions for sin, nor
meritorious works done by us.
III. Christ our sacrifice works love
in us.—We must in mind and meditation
come to the cross of Christ.
1. The consideration of His endless
pains for our sins must breed in us
a godly sorrow. If He sorrowed for
them, much more must we. 2. This
knowledge is the beginning of amendment
of life. 3. Is the foundation of
comfort in them that truly turn to
Christ.
IV. Christ gave Himself that He
might deliver us from this evil world.—1. We
must be grieved at the
wickedness of the world. 2. We must
not fashion ourselves to the wicked
lives of the men of this world. 3. Seeing
we are taken out of this world,
our dwelling must be in heaven.—Perkins.
The Gift of Christ.
I. The gift.—“He gave Himself.”
Regard Christ: 1. As the object of
every prophecy. 2. The substance of
every type and shadow. 3. The subject
of every promise. 4. He was qualified
for the work of redemption. Divine,
human, spotless.
II. Christ’s marvellous act.—“He
gave Himself for our sins.” 1. To
what He gave Himself. To all the
privations and sorrows of human life,
to obscurity and indigence, to scorn
and infamy, to pain and anguish, to
an ignominious and painful death.
2. The purpose for which He gave
Himself. To deliver us from sin’s
curse, defilement, dominion, and from
the effects of sin in this world and in
eternity.
III. The design of Christ’s offering.—“That
He might deliver us from the
present evil world.” From its evil
practices, its spirit, from attachment to
it, and from the condemnation to which
it will be subjected.
IV. Christ’s offering was according
to the will of God.—1. It was the will
of God we should be saved. 2. Christ
was the appointed agent. 3. The sacrifice
of Christ was voluntary.—Helps.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 6–9.
The One Gospel.
I. Is an introduction into the grace of Christ.—“I marvel that ye are so
soon removed from Him that called you into the grace of Christ” (ver. 6). The
one true Gospel is the emphatic call of God to man to participate and revel in the
grace of Christ as the element and the only means by which his salvation
can be secured. The grace of Christ, with its persuasive gentleness and vast
redemptive resources, is in vivid contrast to the grim formalism and impossible
demands of the yoke of bondage into which the Galatians were being so foolishly
seduced. There is only one Gospel that can introduce the soul into the midst
of saving influences and bring it into contact with the living Christ. This one
fact differentiates the Gospel from all mere human methods and gives it a unique
character as the only remedial agency in dealing with human sin and sorrow.
II. The perversion of the one Gospel is not a gospel.—“Unto another gospel
which is not another” (vers. 6, 7).
1. It is a caricature of the true Gospel.—“And would pervert the gospel of
Christ” (ver. 7). The perversion is not in the one Gospel, which is impossible
of perversion (for truth is an incorruptible unity), but in the mind of the false
teacher. He distorts and misrepresents the true Gospel by importing into it
his own corrupt philosophy, as the wolf did with Baron Munchausen’s horse.
Beginning at the tail, it ate its way into the body of the horse, until the baron
drove the wolf home harnessed in the skin of the horse. The Gospel has suffered
more from the subtle infusion of human errors than from the open opposition
of its most violent enemies.
2. It occasions distractions of mind.—“There be some that trouble you” (ver. 7).
A perverted gospel works the greatest havoc among young converts. They are
assailed before they reach the stage of matured stability. Their half-formed
conceptions of truth are confused with specious ideas, attractive by their novelty,
and mischief is wrought which in many cases is a lifelong injury. The spirit
that aims at polluting a young beginner in the way of righteousness is worse
than reckless; it is diabolical.
III. The propagator of a perverted gospel incurs an awful malediction.—“But
though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel, . . . let him
be accursed” (vers. 8, 9). Let him be devoted to destruction, as one hateful
to God and an enemy of the truth. The word denotes the condition of one
alienated from God by persistent sin. He not only rejects the truth himself,
but deliberately plots the ruin of others. He reaps the fruit of his own sowing.
It is impossible to do wrong without suffering. The greater the wrong-doing,
the more signal is the consequent punishment. All perversions of truth are
fruitful in moral disasters. It is a mad, suicidal act for man to fight against God.
Lessons.—1. There can be but one true and infallible Gospel. 2. The best human
method for moral reformation is but a caricature of the true. 3. The false teacher
will not escape punishment.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 6, 7. Remonstrance with
Revolters against the Gospel.
I. The apostle reproves with meekness
and tenderness of heart.
II. He frames his reproof with great
wariness and circumspection.—He
says not, ye of yourselves do remove to
another gospel, but ye are removed.
He blames them but in part and lays
the principal blame on others.
III. The revolt was a departure
from the calling to the grace of Christ.—1. They
were soon carried away. This
shows the lightness and inconstancy of
man’s nature, especially in religion.
The multitude of people are like wax
and are fit to take the stamp and
impression of any religion; and it is
the law of the land that makes the
most embrace the Gospel, and not
conscience. 2. That we may constantly
persevere in the profession of
the true faith we must receive the
Gospel simply for itself. 3. We must
be renewed in the spirit of our minds
and suffer no by-corners in our hearts.
4. We must not only be hearers but
doers of the Word in the principal duties
to be practised.
IV. The Galatians revolt to another
gospel, compounded of Christ and
the works of the law.—Here we see the
curious niceness and daintiness of man’s
nature that cannot be content with the
good things of God unless they be
framed to our minds. If they please us
for a time, they do not please us long,
but we must have new things. The
apostle shows that, though it be another
gospel in the estimation of the false
teachers, is not another, but a
subversion of the Gospel of Christ.
There is but one Gospel, one in number,
and no more. There is but one way
of salvation by Christ, whereby all are
to be saved from the beginning of the
world to the end.
V. The apostle charges the authors
of this revolt with two crimes.—1. They
trouble the Galatians, not
only because they make divisions, but
because they trouble their consciences
settled in the Gospel of Christ. 2. They
overthrow the Gospel of Christ. They
did not reach a doctrine flat contrary.
They maintained the Gospel in word
and put an addition to it of their own
out of the law—salvation by works.
They perverted and turned upside-down
the Gospel of Christ.—Perkins.
The Perversion of Truth—
- Supplants the Gospel with a
valueless imitation.—“Another gospel
which is not another.”
- Is contrary to the Divine purpose.—“From
Him that called you
into the grace of Christ.”
- Creates a gulf between the
soul and God.—“I marvel that ye
are so soon removed from Him.”
- Unsettles the faith of new
converts.—“There be some that
trouble you and would pervert the
gospel of Christ.”
Ver. 6. Disappointed Hopes in
Christian Work.—1. It is the duty of
Christian ministers, not only to hold
out the pure truth of the Gospel, but to
defend it by convicting gainsayers and
reproving solidly those who are carried
away with contrary errors. 2. Ministers
in all their reproofs are to use
much wariness and circumspection, not
omitting any circumstance which may
justly extenuate the sin or furnish
ground of hope of amendment. Hereby
the bitter portion of a medicinal
reproof is much sweetened, and the
guilty patient allured to the more
thorough receiving of it. 3. The most
quick-sighted may be deceived and disappointed
in their expectation of good
things from some eminent professors,
and so may readily fall short of their
hope. 4. As the dangerous consequences
which follow upon error
ought to be presented unto people that
they may fly from it, so there are
some errors in doctrine which do no
less separate from God than profanity
of life doth, of which errors this is one—the
maintaining of justification by
works. 5. It is ordinary for seducers
to usher in their errors by some excellent
designations as of new lights, a
more pure gospel way, and what not,
as here they designate their error
by the name of another gospel.—Fergusson.
Ver. 7. The Inviolable Unity of the
Gospel.—1. There is but one Gospel,
one in number and no more, and but
one way to salvation, which is by
faith. 2. The effect of error is to
trouble the Church’s peace; peace
among themselves, the patrons of
error being zealous of nothing so much
as to gain many followers, to attain
which they scruple not to make woeful
rents and deplorable schisms; inward
peace of conscience, while some are
perplexed and anxious what to choose
and refuse until they question all
truth, and others to embrace error for
truth and so ground their peace on an
unsure foundation. 3. The doctrine
which maintains that justification is
partly by Christ and partly by the
merit of good works is a perverting
and total overturning of the Gospel, in
so far as it contradicts the main scope
of the Gospel, which is to exalt Christ
as our complete Saviour, Mediator,
and Ransom, and not in part only.—Fergusson.
Ver. 8. The Inviolability of Christianity.
I. The import and construction of
the Gospel cannot be vague and indeterminate.—The
character of the
Gospel was alleged to be its truth.
This was, to the sophists of that era,
a strange and novel pretension. To
require faith to a testimony only so
far as conformable to fact, only so far
as supported by evidence, appeared to
them a startling affectation. In the
fixed character we recognise the true
perfection of the Gospel. It is the
same through all ages, not changing to
every touch and varying beneath every
eye but unfolding the same features
and producing the same effects. Unless
there was this invariableness in the
Christian system, if a fixed determination
of its purport is impossible, we
should be at a loss in which manner to
follow the conduct and imbibe the spirit
of the early Christians. Those lights
and examples of the Church would only
ensnare us into a mien and attitude
ridiculous as profane. It would be
the dwarf attempting to bare a giant’s
arm, a wayfaring man aspiring to a
prophet’s vision. The truth as it is in
Jesus is contained in that Word which
is the truth itself; there it is laid up
as in a casket and hallowed as in a
shrine. No change can pass upon it.
It bears the character of its first perfection.
Like the manna and the rod
in the recess of the Ark, it is the incorruptible
bread of heaven, it is the
ever-living instrument of might, without
an altered form or superseded virtue.
II. Its Divine origin and authority
cannot be controverted.—The history
of Saul of Tarsus has often been cited
with happy success in confirmation of
Christianity. 1. What must have been
the strength and satisfaction of conviction
entertained by the writer! The
conviction has to do with facts. It
pertains to no favourite theory, no
abstract science, but occurrences which
he had proved by sensible observation
and perfect consciousness. Wonders
had teemed around him; but his own
transformation was the most signal
wonder of all. Nothing without him
could equal what he discerned within.
2. As we estimate the measure and
force of his convictions, inquire what
weight and credibility should be allowed
them. Put his conduct to any rack,
his design to any analysis, and then
determine whether we are not safe
where he is undaunted, whether we
may not decide for that on which he
perils all, whether the anathema which
he dares pronounce does not throw
around us the safeguard of a Divine
benediction.
III. Its efficacy cannot be denied.—It
was not called into operation until
numberless expedients of man had been
frustrated. Philosophy, rhetoric, art,
were joined to superstitions, radicated
into all habits and vices of mankind.
The very ruins which survive the fall
of polytheism—the frieze with its
mythological tale, the column yet soaring
with inimitable majesty, the statue
breathing an air of divinity—recall the
fascinations which it once might boast
and of the auxiliaries it could command.
Yet these were but the decorations of
selfishness most indecently avowed, of
licentiousness most brutally incontinent,
of war the most wantonly bloody, of
slavery the most barbarously oppressive.
And Christianity subverted these
foundations of iniquity; and yet so all-penetrating
is its energy, that it did
not so much smite them as that they
sank away before it. It reaches the
human will and renews the human
heart. And a thousand blessings which
may at first appear derived from an
independent source are really poured
forth from this.
IV. The authority and force of the
present dispensation of Divine truth
cannot be superseded.—It is final. In
it He hath spoken whose voice shall be
heard no more until it “shake not the
earth only but also heaven.” No other
sensible manifestation can be given,
the doctrine is not to be simplified, the
ritual is not to be defined to any
further extent, nothing more will be
vouchsafed to augment its blessings or
ratify its credentials. We possess the
true light, the perfect gift, the brightest
illumination, the costliest boon. Such
a dispensation constituted to be co-existent
with all future time, must
resist every view which would impress
a new form or foist a strange nature
upon it.
V. No circumstance or agency can
endanger the existence and stability
of the Christian revelation.—When
the security of the Gospel is to be most
confidently predicted and most strongly
ascertained, supernatural power is
restrained—a curse encloses it round
about, a “flaming sword turning every
way guards this tree of life.” It shall
endure coevally with man. Feeble are
our present thoughts, confused our
perceptions; we see everything as from
behind a cloud and in a disproportion.
Our convictions are more like conjectures
and our speculations dreams.
But we shall soon emerge from this
state of crude fancies and immature
ideas. Worthy sentiments and feelings
will fill up our souls. Each view shall
be as a ray of light striking its object,
and each song the very echo of its
theme. Then shall we adequately
understand why apostles kindled into
indignation and shook with horror at
the idea of “another gospel,” and why
even angels themselves must have been
accursed had it been possible for them
to have divulged it.—R. W. Hamilton.
A Supernatural Revelation.—There
can be no doubt whatever as a matter
of historic fact, that the apostle Paul
claimed to have received direct revelation
from heaven. He is so certain
of that revelation that he warns the
Galatians against being enticed by
any apparent evidence to doubt it.
It would be impossible to express a
stronger, a more deliberate, and a more
solemn conviction that he had received a
supernatural communication of the will
of God.—Dr. Wace, Bampton Lectures.
The Best Authority to be obeyed.—A
dispute having arisen on some question
of ecclesiastical discipline and ritual,
King Oswi summoned in 664 a great
council at Whitby. The one set of disputants
appealed to the authority of
Columba, the other to that of St. Peter.
“You own,” cried the puzzled king to
Colman, “that Christ gave to Peter the
keys of the kingdom of heaven: has
He given such power to Columba?”
The bishop could but answer, “No.”
“Then I will obey the porter of
heaven,” said Oswi, “lest when I reach
its gates he who has the keys in his
keeping turn his back on me, and there
be none to open.”
Latitudinarianism.—Referring to
Erasmus’s temporising policy in the
Reformation, Froude says: “The question
of questions is, what all this
latitudinarian philosophising, this cultivated
epicurean gracefulness, would
have come to if left to itself, or rather,
what was the effect which it was inevitably
producing? If you wish to
remove an old building without bringing
it in ruin about your ears, you
must begin at the top, remove the
stones gradually downwards, and touch
the foundation last. But latitudinarianism
loosens the elementary principles
of theology. It destroys the
premises on which the system rests. It
would beg the question to say that this
would in itself have been undesirable;
but the practical effect of it, as the
world then stood, would have been only
to make the educated into infidels, and
to leave the multitude to a convenient
but debasing superstition.”
Ver. 9. The True Gospel to be preached
and believed.
I. The repetition of these words by
Paul signify that he had not spoken
rashly but advisedly, whatsoever he
had said before.
II. That the point delivered is an
infallible truth of God.
III. That we may observe and
remember what he had said as the
foundation of our religion—that the
doctrine of the apostles is the only
infallible truth of God, against which
we may not listen to Fathers, Councils,
or to the very angels of God.
IV. They are accursed who teach
otherwise than the Galatians had
received.—As Paul preached the Gospel
of Christ, so the Galatians received it.
The great fault of our times is that
whereas the Gospel is preached it is
not accordingly received. Many have
no care to know it; and they who
know it give not unto it the assent of
faith, but only hold it in opinion.—Perkins.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 10–12.
The Superhuman Origin of the Gospel.
I. The Gospel is not constructed on human principles.—“But I certify you,
brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man” (ver. 11).
Its character is such as the human mind would never have conceived. When
it was first proclaimed it was the puzzle of the religious and the ridicule of the
learned—“unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness.”
It is wholly opposed to the drift of human tendencies. Its supreme aim is to
effect a complete transformation of human nature. Not to destroy that nature,
but to renew, elevate, and sublimate it. By its principle of self-sacrificing love,
its insistence of the essential oneness of the race, its methods in dealing with the
world’s evils, its lofty morality, and its uncompromising claims of superiority the
Gospel transcends all the efforts of human ingenuity. Augustine, the father of
Western theology in the fifth century, divided the human race into two classes—the
one who lived according to man and the other who lived according to
God. The Gospel is the only revelation that teaches man how to live according
to God.
II. The Gospel does not pander to human tastes.—“For do I now persuade
men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should
not be the servant of Christ” (ver. 10). The adversaries of the apostle insinuated
that he was a trimmer, observing the law among the Jews and yet persuading
the Gentiles to renounce it; becoming all things to all men that he might form
a party of his own. Such an insinuation was based on an utter misconception
of the Gospel. So far from flattering, Paul preached a Gospel that humbled
men, demanding repentance and reform. It often came in collision with popular
tastes and opinions; and though the apostle was a man of broad views and
sympathies, he was ever the faithful and uncompromising servant of Christ.
Public opinion may be hugely mistaken, and there is danger of over-estimating
its importance. It is the lofty function of the preacher to create a healthy
public opinion and Christianise it, and he can do this only by a scrupulous and
constant representation of the mind of Christ, his Divine Master. The wise
Phocion was so sensible how dangerous it was to be touched with what the
multitude approved that upon a general acclamation made when he was making
an oration he turned to an intelligent friend and asked in a surprised manner,
“What slip have I made?” George Macdonald once said, “When one has
learned to seek the honour that cometh from God only, he will take the withholding
of the honour that cometh by man very lightly indeed.”
III. The Gospel has a distinctly superhuman origin.—“For I neither received
it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ”
(ver. 12). Paul’s reception of the Gospel was not only a revelation of Christ to
him, but at the same time a revelation of Christ in him. The human vehicle
was spiritually prepared for the reception and understanding of the Divine
message; and this moral transformation not only convinced him of the superhuman
character of the Gospel, but also empowered him with authority to
declare it. The Gospel carries with it the self-evidencing force of its Divine
origin in its effect upon both preacher and hearer. It is still an enigma to the
mere intellectual student; only as it is received into the inmost soul, by the
aid of the Holy Spirit, is its true nature apprehended and enjoyed.
Lessons.—1. Man everywhere is in dire need of the Gospel. 2. The human
mind is incapable of constructing a saving Gospel. 3. The Gospel is inefficacious
till it is received as a Divine gift.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Ver. 10. Fidelity in the Ministry.
I. The proper nature of the ministry
is not the word or doctrine of man
but of God.—Ministers are taught to
handle their doctrine with modesty
and humility, without ostentation, with
reverence, and with a consideration of
the majesty of God, whose doctrine it
is they utter.
II. The dispensing of the Word must
not be for the pleasing of men but God.—Ministers
must not apply and fashion
their doctrine to the affections, humours,
and dispositions of men, but keep a
good conscience and do their office.
III. If we seek to please men we
cannot be the servants of God.—He
that would be a faithful minister of
the Gospel must deny the pride of his
heart, be emptied of ambition, and set
himself wholly to seek the glory of
God in his calling.—Perkins.
The Servant of Christ.
I. There is nothing dishonourable
in the idea of a servant absolutely
considered.—On the contrary, there
may be much in it that is noble
and venerable. Nothing can be more
contemptible than an affectation of
independence which resents or is
ashamed of a servant’s name. And
many who despise servants should be
told that they themselves are so
worthless that nobody would think of
honouring them with hiring them for
service. It was Christ’s honour that
His Father so employed Him for the
work of our salvation, and said, “Behold
My Servant, whom I have chosen”:
and the highest honour of the preachers
of the Gospel is that they are the
ministers, that is, the servants, both
of Christ and His Church. There are
cases, no doubt, in which servitude is
degrading. The master may be infamous;
though even then the servant’s
condition is not dishonourable unless
he be employed in infamous work.
Many servants have wrought out most
honourable names for themselves in
doing good work under bad masters.
Matthew Henry has said well that
there is nothing mean but sin, and
with such meanness and dishonour is
every man affected who is not a servant
of Christ. There is for us all the
choice of only two conditions; there
is not a third and neutral one. The
alternative is a servant of the Son of
God or a slave of sin. It may not be
of sin in its most hideous forms, in
the form in which it tyrannises over
the drunkard, the lewd man, or the
ambitious, but even in its milder and
less-offensive form, when it may reign
only with the power which it exercises
over the worshipper of wealth or of
human applause; still, it is a degrading
vassalage. Let no worldly man, then,
affect to pity or scorn the disciple of
the Gospel as being one whom superstition
enslaves, though it were
admitted to be a slavery; he himself
labours under one infinitely more
oppressive and degrading. Whose
appears the greater liberty and the
least oppression, he who is governed
by the salutary laws of the Gospel,
or he who is the sport and victim of
his own ignorance and passions, or
of the opinion of the world, to which,
at the expense of the violation of his
own conscience, he feels himself compelled
ignominiously to submit? The
question needs not an answer. There
is everything honourable in the one
service, everything dishonourable in the
other. Only that man is truly a free
man who is a servant of Christ.
II. The servant of Christ.—Others
profess that they are servants of God;
the Christian replies that he is a
servant of Christ. There is perhaps
nothing by which his faith is more
distinctly characterised than this.
“Is he not, then, a servant of God?”
some one may ask, either in the spirit
of a scorning objector or in that of
an astonished inquirer who is as yet
ignorant of the beautiful mystery of
Christian salvation. When others
profess that they are the servants of
God, and when the Christian replies
that he is a servant of Christ, does it
signify that he is not a servant of the
eternal Father? Such is the question;
and our reply is, that in serving
Christ he approves himself not only
the best servant of God, but the only
one whose service is genuine. In
serving Christ he serves God, because
God has so appointed and ordained.
He has ordained that we be the servants
of His Son; and if we serve not
His Son, then we resist His ordination,
so that we serve neither His Son nor
Himself.
III. The Christian is Christ’s servant,
not by hire, but by purchase.—This
is a circumstance which claims
our most thoughtful consideration.
In the case of a servant who is hired
there is a limitation of the master’s right,
by the terms of the agreement,
in respect to the kind and amount of
labour to be exacted. There is also
a definite term, at the expiry of which
the right of service ceases, and the
remuneration of the service is exigible
by law. There is a vast difference in
the case of a purchased servant, or, as
otherwise expressed, a slave. He is
his master’s property, to be treated
entirely according to his master’s
discretion. There is no limitation
either to the amount or nature of the
work which he may exact. The period
of service is for life, and no remuneration
can be claimed for the labour,
howsoever heavy and protracted. Our
servant-condition in relation to Christ
is of this character: He does not hire
us but has purchased us—purchased
us by His blood, and made us His
property, to be used according to His
sovereign will. But this is far from
being all. Our gracious Master often
sinks, as it were, the consideration of
His past services—His humiliation,
His privation, His wounds and agony
by which He saved us from punishment
and woe—and reasons and deals with
us as if we were hired servants and
could merit something at His hand,
animating us in our work by exhibiting
to our hope that crown of glory
which He will confer on all who are
faithful unto death. Blessed servitude—the
servitude of the Christian!
Servitude of peace! Servitude of
honour! Servitude of liberty! Servitude
of victory and everlasting glory!
1. The Christian, as a servant, submits
his mind to the authority of Christ—submits
it to Him in respect of his
opinions; at the utterance of His Word
renounces its own judgments and
prejudices, and turns away from the
teaching of the world’s philosophy and
priesthood in scorn, saying, “You have
no part in me. Christ is the Lord of
my conscience; I will listen to Him.”
2. As the servant of Christ, the
Christian subjects his body to His control
and regulation in the gratifying of
its appetites, and in providing for its
comfort and adornment; his lips in
what they speak; his hands in what
they do; his ears in what they listen
to; his eyes in what they read and
look at; and his feet in all their
journeying and movements. 3. As
the servant of Christ, he regulates his
family according to his Master’s mind
and law. 4. As a servant of Christ,
he conducts his business according to
Christ’s law, with the strictest honesty,
and for Christ’s end, distributing his
profits in a proportion—I shall say
a large proportion; nay, I shall say
a very large proportion—to the maintenance
and education of his family, and
some provision of an inheritance for
them, and even a considerable proportion
for the gratification of his own
tastes. Is not that a large allowance
for a slave? But oh, some of you!
you seize on all—wickedly appropriate
all to yourselves, or part, and that
with a grudge, a murmur, and a scowl,
with but the smallest fraction to the
Master’s poor and the Master’s Church!
Slaves indeed! Slaves of Avarice and
his daughter, Cruelty! 5. As a
servant of Christ, the country of the
Christian is Christ’s, to be regulated,
so far as his influence and vote may
extend, by Christ’s rule, for Christ’s
ends.—W. Anderson, LL.D.
Vers. 11, 12. The Gospel and the Call
to preach it.
I. It is necessary that men should
be assured and certified that the doctrine
of the Gospel and the Scripture
is not of man but of God.—That the
Scripture is the Word of God there are
two testimonies. 1. One is the evidence
of God’s Spirit imprinted and expressed
in the Scriptures, and this is an excellence
of the Word of God above all
words and writings of men and angels.
2. The second testimony is from the
prophets and apostles, who were
ambassadors of God extraordinarily to
represent His authority unto His
Church, and the penmen of the Holy
Ghost to set down the true and proper
Word of God.
II. It is necessary that men should
be assured in their consciences that
the calling and authority of their
teachers are of God.—To call men to the
ministry and dispensation of the Gospel
belongs to Christ, who alone giveth
the power, the will, the deed; and the
Church can do no more than testify,
publish, and declare whom God
calleth.
III. The Gospel which Paul
preached was not human—he did not
receive it, neither was he taught it
by man; and preached it not by
human but by Divine authority.
1. Christ is the great prophet and doctor
of the Church. His office is: (1) To
manifest and reveal the will of the
Father touching the redemption of mankind.
(2) To institute the ministry of
the Word and to call and send ministers.
(3) To teach the heart within by
illuminating the mind and by working
a faith of the doctrine taught.
2. There are two ways whereby Christ
teaches those who are to be teachers.
(1) By immediate revelation. (2) By
ordinary instruction in schools by the
means and ministry of men.
IV. They who are to be teachers
must first be taught, and they must
teach that which they have first
learned themselves. They are first to
be taught, and that by men where
revelation is wanting. This is the
foundation of the schools of the
prophets. All men should pray that
God would prosper and bless all schools
of learning where this kind of teaching
is in use.—Perkins.
The Gospel a Divine Revelation.
- It is not constructed by human
ingenuity.—“The gospel which was
preached of me is not after man”
(ver. 11).
- It derives no authority from
man.—“For I neither received it of
man” (ver. 12).
- It is not acquired by mere
mental culture.—“Neither was I
taught it.”
- It is a direct and special
revelation from heaven.—“But by the
revelation of Jesus Christ.”
Apostolic Assurance of the Supernatural
Character of the Gospel.—1. It
is the custom of the adversaries of the
truth, when they have nothing to say
in reason against the doctrine itself, to
cast reproach on those who preach it,
and to question their call and authority
to preach, that so they may indirectly
at least reflect upon the doctrine.
2. As none may take upon him to
dispense the Word of God publicly
unto others without a call from God,
so there are several sorts of callings:
one of men and ordinary when God
calls by the voices and consent of men;
another of God and extraordinary, the
call of the Church not intervening.
3. It is required of an apostle to have
the infallible knowledge of the truth
of the Gospel and this not wholly by
the help of human means, as we learn
at schools and by private study, but
mainly by immediate inspiration from
the Spirit of God. Paul shows that the
Gospel was not taught him of man; and
this he saith, not to depress human
learning, but that he may obviate
the calumny of his adversaries who
alleged he had the knowledge of the
Gospel by ordinary instruction from
men only, and so was no apostle.—Ferguson.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 13, 14.
A Zealous Ritualist—
I. Is conspicuous for his adherence to religious formalities.—“For ye
have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews’ religion” (ver. 13)—of
my manner of life formerly in Judaism. Saul of Tarsus was a full-blown
ritualist, and a master-leader in the art, setting the pattern to all his
contemporaries. He did not play at forms and ceremonies. Their observance
was to him a matter of life and death. An intense nature like his could do
nothing by halves. The listlessness and pictorial parade of modern ritualism he
would have denounced with withering scorn. Religious formality has for some
minds an irresistible fascination. It appeals to the instinct of worship which is
latent in all, and to the love of æstheticism which is shared by most in varying
degrees. The votary deludes himself into the belief that signs and symbols
represent certain great truths; but the truths soon fade away into the background,
and he is in turn deluded in regarding the outward ceremonies as everything.
Formality is the tendency of the mind to rest in the mere externals of
religion to the neglect of the inner life of religion itself. It is the folly of
valuing a tree for its bark instead of its goodly timber, of choosing a book for its
ornate binding irrespective of its literary genius, of admiring the finished
architecture of a building regardless of its accommodation or the character of
its inmates. “There are two ways of destroying Christianity,” says D’Aubigné;
“one is to deny it, the other is to displace it.” Formality seeks to displace it.
Ritualism may be of use in the infantile stage, either of the world or the
individual. It is a reversion to the petrifaction of ancient crudities. A robust
and growing spiritual manhood is superior to its aids.
II. Violently opposes the representatives of genuine piety.—“How that
beyond measure I persecuted the Church of God, and wasted it” (ver. 13).
Animated by extravagant zeal for the religion of his forefathers, the bigoted
Pharisee became the deadliest enemy of the Church of Christ in its infant days.
Indifferent to personal peril or to the feelings of the oppressed, he prosecuted
his work of destruction with savage energy. He was a type of the Jewish
fanatics who afterwards thirsted and plotted for his life, and the forerunner of
the cruel zealots of the Inquisition and the Star Chamber in later times. The
curse of ritualism is excessive intolerance. Blinded and puffed up with its
unwarrantable assumptions, it loses sight of the essential elements of true
religion. It sees nothing good in any other system but its own, and employs all
methods that it dare, to compel universal conformity. It admits no rival. It
alone is right; everything else is wrong, and all kinds of means are justifiable
in crushing the heresy that presumes to deny its supreme claims. “Christ and
Ritualism,” says Horatius Bonar, “are opposed to each other, as light is to
darkness. The cross and the crucifix cannot agree. Either ritualism will banish
Christ or Christ will banish ritualism.”
III. Is distinguished by his ardent study and defence of traditional religionism.—“And
profited in the Jews’ religion above many my equals in my mine own
nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers” (ver. 14).
The apostle had studied the Mosaic law under the ablest tutors of his day. He
knew Judaism by heart and won a distinguished reputation for learning and for
his strict adherence to the minutest details of traditional legalism. He was one
of the ablest champions of the Mosaic system. The zealous ritualist spends his
days and nights in studying, not the Word of God, but the sayings of men and
the rules of the Church handed down by the traditions of past generations.
Divine revelation is ignored, and human authority unduly exalted. His studies
are misdirected, and his zeal misspent. He is wasting his energy in defending a
lifeless organism. No man can honestly and prayerfully study God’s Word and
catch its meaning, and remain a mere ritualist.
Lessons.—1. Ritualism is the worship of external forms. 2. It breeds a spirit of
intolerance and persecution. 3. It supplants true religion.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 13, 14. Mistaken Zeal—
- May create a reputation for
religious devotion.—“Ye have heard
of my conversation in time past in
the Jews’ religion” (ver. 13).
- Breeds the spirit of violent
persecution.—“How that beyond
measure I persecuted the Church of
God, and wasted it” (ver. 13).
- Makes one ambitious for
superiority.—“Profited . . . above
many my equals, . . . being more
exceedingly zealous of the traditions of
my fathers” (ver. 14).
- Is neither good nor wise.
- Stores up a retrospect of bitter
and humiliating regret.
Review of a Misspent Life.—1. A
sincere convert will not shun to make
confession of his wicked life, not
omitting anything which may tend to
a just aggravation of it, not in a
boasting manner, but that the freedom
of God’s grace may be commended.
2. That the Scriptures were indited by
the Spirit of God, and the penmen not
actuated with human policy, appears
from this, with other evidences in the
Scripture itself, that they concealed
not their own faults, but blazed them
to the world when the glory of God
did so require. 3. Though the Church
of God, as to the inward estate, cannot
be utterly wasted, neither can the
outward state be so far decayed as to
cease to be, yet the Lord may so far
give way to the rage of persecutors
that the outward face and beauty of
the Church may be totally marred, the
members partly killed, partly scattered,
the public ordinances suppressed, and
the public assemblies interrupted.
4. The life and way of some engaged
in a false religion may be so blameless
and, according to the dictates of their
deluded conscience, so strict, as that it
may be a copy unto those who profess
the true religion and a reproof for
their palpable negligence. 5. As our
affections of love, joy, hatred, anger,
and grief are by nature so corrupt
that even the choicest of them, if not
brought in subjection to the Word by
the Spirit, will lay forth themselves
upon forbidden and unlawful objects,
so our zeal and fervency of spirit will
bend itself more toward the maintenance
of error than of truth. Error
is the birth of our own invention; so
is not truth.—Fergusson.
True and False Zeal.
I. Zeal is a certain fervency of
spirit arising out of a mixture of love
and anger, causing men earnestly to
maintain the worship of God and all
things pertaining thereto, and moving
them to grief and anger when God is
in any way dishonoured.
II. Paul was zealous for the outward
observance of the law and for
Pharisaical unwritten traditions.
III. He himself condemns his zeal
because it was against the Word, and
tended to maintain unwritten traditions,
and justification by the works of the
law, out of Christ. What Paul did in
his religion we are to do in the profession
of the Gospel. 1. We are to
addict and set ourselves earnestly to
maintain the truth of the Gospel.
2. We are to be angry in ourselves
and grieved when God is dishonoured
and His Word disobeyed. 3. We are
not to give liberty to the best of our
natural affections as to zeal, but
mortify and rule them by the Word.—Perkins.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 15–19.
The Imperative Claims of a Divine Commission—
I. Are independent of personal merit.—“But when it pleased God, who
separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by His grace” (ver. 15).
From the beginning the apostle was Divinely destined to fulfil his high vocation.
His Hebrew birth and Hellenistic culture combined to prepare him for his
future work. When he developed into a hot persecutor of the Christian faith
he seemed far away from his life-mission. But a change took place, and it soon
became apparent that, not on the ground of any merit of his own, but because
it pleased God, the training from his birth was the best possible preparation for
his lofty calling. We cannot see far into the future or forecast the issue of our
own plans or of those we form for others.
“There is a Divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough hew them as we may.”
The Divine element in our lives becomes more evident as we faithfully do the
duty imposed on us. Joseph recognised this when he declared to his brethren,
“It was not you that sent me hither, but God” (Gen. xlv. 8).
II. Are based on an unmistakably Divine revelation.—“To reveal His
Son in me, that I might preach Him among the heathen” (ver. 16). The
dazzling appearance of Christ before his eyes, and the summons of His voice
addressed to Saul’s bodily ears, formed the special mode in which it pleased God
to call him to the apostleship. But there was also the inward revelation of
Christ to his heart by the Holy Ghost. It was this which wrought in him the
great spiritual change and inspired him to be a witness for Christ to the
Gentiles. His Judaic prejudices were swept away, and he became the champion
of a universal Gospel. The same revelation that made Paul a Christian made
him the apostle of mankind. The true preacher carries within his own spiritually
renovated nature evidence and authority of his Divine commission.
“This is what makes him the crowd-drawing preacher,
There’s a background of God to each hard-working feature;
Every word that he speaks has been fierily furnaced
In a blast of a life which has struggled in earnest.”
III. Are superior to the functions of human counsel.—“I conferred not
with flesh and blood: neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles
before me” (vers. 16, 17). The counsel of the wise and good is valuable, and
ordinarily should be diligently sought and thoughtfully pondered. But when
God calls, the commission is beyond either the advice or the opposition of men.
Paul had reached a state into which no human authority could lift him, and
from which it could not dislodge him. He might legitimately confer with others
as to methods of work, but his call to work was imposed upon him by a power
to which all human counsellors and ecclesiastical magnates must submit.
Channing once said: “The teacher to whom are committed the infinite realities
of the spiritual world, the sanctions of eternity, the powers of the life to come,
has instruments to work with which turn to feebleness all other means of
influence.”
IV. Stimulate to active service.—“But I went into Arabia, and returned
again unto Damascus” (ver. 17). Immediately after his conversion
the history tells us, “Straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues”
(Acts ix. 20). In Arabia, a country of the Gentiles, he doubtless preached the
Gospel, as he did before and after at Damascus, and thus demonstrated the
independence of his apostolic commission. A call to preach demands immediate
response and impels to earnest and faithful endeavour. It is said that
Whitefield’s zealous spirit exhausted all its energies in preaching, and his full
dedication to God was honoured by unbounded success. The effect produced by
his sermons was indescribable, arising in a great degree from the most perfect
forgetfulness of self during the solemn moment of declaring the salvation that
is in Christ Jesus. His evident sincerity impressed every hearer and is said to
have forcibly struck Lord Chesterfield when he heard him at Lady Huntingdon’s.
The preacher, as the ambassador for Christ, is eager to declare His message, and
anxious it should be understood and obeyed.
V. Are recognised by the highest ecclesiastical authority.—“Then after
three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and . . . James the Lord’s
brother” (vers. 18, 19). The claims of Paul to the apostleship, evidenced by
such supernatural signs and such solid Christian work and patient suffering,
were at length acknowledged by the chief leaders of the mother Church in
Jerusalem. Good work advertises itself, and sooner or later compels recognition.
What an eventful meeting of the first Gospel pioneers, and how momentous the
influence of such an interview and consultation! Though the call of God is
unacknowledged, ridiculed, and opposed, its duties must be faithfully discharged.
The day of ample reward will come.
Lessons.—1. God only can make the true preacher. 2. A call to preach involves
suffering and toil. 3. The fruit of diligent and faithful work will certainly
appear.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 15–17. The Conversion and
Vocation of St. Paul.
I. The causes of St. Paul’s conversion.—1. The
good pleasure of
God. 2. His separation from the
womb, which is an act of God’s
counsel whereby He sets men apart
to be members of Christ and to be
His servants in this or that office.
3. His vocation by grace—the accomplishment
of both the former in the
time which God had appointed.
II. The manner of his vocation.—“To
reveal His Son in me.” 1. By
preparation. God humbled and subdued
the pride and stubbornness of his
heart and made him tractable and
teachable. 2. By instruction. (1) Propounding
unto him the commandment
of the Gospel, to repent and believe in
Christ. (2) Offering to him the promise
of remission of sins and life everlasting
when he believed. 3. By a real and
lively teaching when God made Paul
in his heart answer the calling. Ministers
of Christ must learn Christ as
Paul learned Him.
III. The end of Paul’s conversion.—To
preach Christ among the Gentiles.
1. Christ is the substance or subject-matter
of the whole Bible. 2. To
preach Christ is: (1) To teach the
doctrine of the incarnation of Christ,
and His offices as King, Prophet, and
Priest. (2) That faith is an instrument
to apprehend and apply Christ.
(3) To certify and reveal to every
hearer that it is the will of God to
save him by Christ if he will receive
Him. (4) That he is to apply Christ
with His benefits to himself in particular.
3. To preach to the Gentiles:
(1) Because the prophecies of the calling
of the Gentiles must be fulfilled.
(2) Because the division between the
Jews and Gentiles is abolished.
IV. Paul’s obedience to the calling
of God (vers. 16, 17).—1. God’s Word,
preached or written, does not depend
on the authority of any man—no, not
on the authority of the apostles themselves.
2. There is no consultation or
deliberation to be used at any time
touching the holding or not holding
of our religion. 3. Our obedience to
God must be without consultation.
We must first try what is the will of
God, and then absolutely put it into
execution, leaving the issue to God.
4. Paul goes into Arabia and Damascus,
and becomes a teacher to his professed
enemies.—Perkins.
Vers. 15, 16. Conversion as illustrated
by that of St. Paul.—In the
case of St. Paul there are many
circumstances not paralleled in the
general experience of Christians; but
in its essential features, in the views
with which it was accompanied and
the effects it produced, it was exactly
the same as every one must experience
before he can enter into the kingdom
of God.
I. Its causes.—1. Paul was chosen
by God before his birth to be a vessel
of honour. “It pleased God, who
separated me from my mother’s
womb.” Are not all genuine Christians
addressed as “elect of God” or
chosen of God, through sanctification
of the Spirit, unto obedience and the
sprinkling of the blood of Jesus
Christ? Why should not the real
Christian give scope to those emotions
of gratitude which such reflections
will inspire? 2. The more immediate
cause was the call of Divine grace.
“And called me by His grace.” There
is a general call in the Gospel addressed
to all men indiscriminately. There is,
in every instance of real conversion,
another and inward call, by which the
Spirit applies the general truth of the
Gospel to the heart. By this interior
call Christ apprehends, lays hold on
the soul, stops it in its impenitent progress,
and causes it to hear His voice.
II. The means by which conversion
is effected.—“To reveal His Son in
me.” The principal method which the
Spirit adopts in subduing the heart
of a sinner is a spiritual discovery of
Christ. There is an outward revelation
of Christ—in the Scriptures; and
an internal, of which the understanding
and the heart are the seat. 1. The
Spirit reveals the greatness and dignity
of Christ. 2. The transcendent beauty
and glory of Christ. 3. The suitableness,
fulness, and sufficiency of Christ
to supply all our wants and relieve all
our miseries.
III. The effect of conversion on
St. Paul.—“Immediately I conferred
not with flesh and blood.” He set himself
without hesitation or demur to
discharge the duties of his heavenly
vocation. 1. His compliance with the
will of Christ was immediate. 2. Universal
and impartial. 3. Constant and
persevering.—Robert Hall.
Ver. 16. The Qualification of the
True Minister—
- Begins in an unmistakable revelation
of Christ to his own soul.—“To
reveal His Son in me.”
- Urges him to declare the Gospel
to the most needy.—“That I might
preach Him among the heathen.”
- Raises him above the necessity
of mere human authority.—“Immediately
I conferred not with flesh and
blood.”
Ver. 17. The Divine Call to the
Apostleship.—1. That extraordinary
way whereby the Lord made known
His mind to the penmen of Scripture
was so infallible in itself and so evident
to those to whom it came to be no
delusion that they were above all
doubt and needed not to advise with
the best of men in order to their
confirmation about the reality of it.
2. The Lord maketh sometimes the first
piece of public service as hazardous, uncouth,
and unsuccessful as any wherein
He employs them afterwards, that His
ministers may be taught to depend
more on God’s blessing than on human
probabilities, and that they may give
proof of their obedience. Thus it was
with Moses (Exod. ii. 10), and Jeremiah
(Jer. i. 19). 3. The apostles were not
fixed to any certain charge, as ordinary
ministers are. Their charge was the
whole world. They went from place
to place as the necessities of people
required, or as God by His providence
and Spirit directed.—Fergusson.
Ver. 18. Requirement of a Preparation
for Work.—“I went into Arabia,
and returned again unto Damascus.”
1. Affording opportunity for thought
and self-testing. 2. Gives leisure for
study and forming plans for future
service. 3. Is often the prelude of a
busy and prosperous career.
Vers. 18, 19. The Divine Call acknowledged.—1. That
nothing of Peter’s
supposed supremacy over Paul and the
rest of the apostles can be gathered
from this place appears from this,
that Paul went first to his work before
he came to Peter, and that his business
with Peter was not to receive ordination
from him or to evidence his subjection
to him, but from respect and reverence
to give him a friendly visit. 2. It
ought to be the endeavour of Christ’s
ministers to entertain love and familiarity
one with another, as also to make
their doing so evident to others, it being
most unseemly for those who preach
the Gospel of peace to others to live
in discord among themselves. 3. As
ministers may and ought to meet sometimes
together, to evidence and entertain
mutual love and concord, and
because of that mutual inspection
which they ought to have one of
another, so their meeting ought
neither to be so frequent nor of so
long continuance that their flocks
suffer prejudice.—Fergusson.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 20–24.
God glorified in His Servant—
I. By the undoubted truthfulness of his statements.—“Now the things which
I write unto you, behold, before God, I lie not” (ver. 20). The assertions of the
apostle flatly contradicted the allegations of his enemies. They insinuated that
Paul was but a messenger of the authorities of the Church at Jerusalem, and
that all he knew of the Gospel had been learned from the twelve. So far from
this being the case it is evident that for several years he had been preaching the
Gospel, and had not seen any of the twelve, except Peter and James, and that
only for a fortnight at Jerusalem about three years after his conversion. “In
the present case,” remarks Professor Jowett, “it is a matter of life and death to
the apostle to prove his independence from the twelve.” Having said all he can to
substantiate his point, he concludes by a solemn appeal to God as to his veracity:
“Behold, before God, I lie not.” The apostle never makes an appeal like this
lightly, but only in support of a vital truth he is specially anxious to enforce
(Rom. ix. 1; 2 Cor. i. 17, 18, 23; 1 Thess. ii. 5).
“When fiction rises pleasing to the eye;
Men will believe, because they love the lie;
But truth herself, if clouded with a frown,
Must have some solemn proof to pass her down.”—Churchill.
The vigorous and faithful maintenance of the truth brings glory to God.
II. By his evangelistic activity.—“Afterwards I came into the regions of
Syria and Cilicia” (ver. 21). During this tour very probably the Churches were
founded, referred to in Acts xv. 23, 41. “A man’s work,” says George
Macdonald, “does not fall upon him by chance, but it is given him to do; and
everything well done belongs to God’s kingdom, and everything ill done to the
kingdom of darkness.” God is the sublime end of all human activity, and our
powers can never be more nobly employed than in expounding His will, unfolding
His gracious character, advancing the interests of His kingdom, and striving
to promote His glory among the children of men. Man is never so great, so
luminous, so grand as when he is doing work for God with the light and help of
God; and all such work is a revelation of the character and purposes of God
open to the eyes of all who will see.
III. By the reputation of his changed life.—“And was unknown by face
unto the Churches: . . . they had heard only, That he which persecuted us in times
past now preached the faith which once he destroyed” (vers. 22, 23). The
conversion of Saul of Tarsus was one of the most striking events in the early
history of the Church. It was a marvel to all who had known his previous life.
It was an unanswerable testimony to the power of the Gospel, and an argument
that has been used in all ages to illustrate the possibility of the salvation of
the worst of sinners. It is said the Duke of Burgundy was born terrible. He
would indulge in such paroxysms of rage that those who were standing by would
tremble for his life. He was hard-hearted, passionate, incapable of bearing the
least opposition to his wishes, fond of gambling, violent hunting, the gratifications
of the table, abandoned to his pleasures, barbarous, and born to cruelty.
With this was united a genius of the most extraordinary kind; quickness of
humour, depth and justice of thought, versatility and acuteness of mind. The
prodigy was, that in a short space of time the grace of God made him a new
man. He became a prince, affable, gentle, moderate, patient, modest, humble,
austere only to himself, attentive to his duties, and sensible of their extent. If
we could lay a hand on the fly-wheel of the Scotch express, running fifty or
sixty miles an hour, and stop it, we should perform an astounding miracle.
But this is what God does in His miracles of conversion. He laid His mighty
hand on the fly-wheel of Paul’s life, and not only stopped its mad career, but
turned it right round in the opposite direction. The persecutor becomes a
preacher.
IV. By the recognition of His Divine call.—“And they glorified God in me”
(ver. 24). The attempt to disparage the authority of Paul was the work of
a few malcontents, who sought to ruin his influence in order to extend their
own. The Churches of Jerusalem and Judea, though many of them had not
seen the apostle, acknowledged and praised God for the Divine work done in him
and by him. A few false teachers may work much mischief, but they cannot
overturn the work of God, nor prevent its full recognition. The faithful servant
may safely leave his reputation in the hands of God. It lifts humanity, especially
Christianised humanity, into special dignity, when it is discovered that God is
glorified in man.
Lessons.—1. The Gospel elevates man by transforming him. 2. The conscientious
worker has God on his side. 3. God is glorified by obedient toil.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Ver. 20. Self-conscious Truth.—1. The
choicest servants of Christ may be
looked upon as liars and unworthy to
be trusted, even by those to whom they
are sent, and yet they must not give
over to preach as knowing that the
Word spoken by them doth still get
credit from some, and will beget trust
to itself from others, and for the rest
it will seal up their condemnation and
make them inexcusable. 2. It is not
unlawful for Christians to take an
oath, providing it be with these conditions:
(1) That the thing we swear
be truth. (2) That there be weighty
reasons for taking an oath. (3) That
we swear only by the name of God,
and not by the creatures, seeing none
but God can bear witness to the secrets
of the heart.—Fergusson.
Vers. 21–24. The Self-evidencing Proof
of a Divinely commissioned Messenger.—1. Seen
in disinterested labours and
travels (vers. 21, 22). 2. Seen in a
remarkable change of character and
conduct (ver. 23). 3. Seen in that the
glory of his work is ascribed to God
(ver. 24).
Practical Proofs of Apostleship.
I. Paul went from Jerusalem into
Syria and Cilicia.—1. Because he was
ordained specially to be the apostle of
the Gentiles. 2. Because Cilicia was
his own country, and his love to his
country was great. If any apostle
above the rest be the pastor and universal
bishop of the Church over the
whole world, it is Paul and not Peter.
II. Paul was known to the Christian
Jews only by hearsay, because it
is the office of an apostle not to build
on the foundation of another or to
succeed any man in his labour, but to
plant and found the Church of the
New Testament.
III. Seeing the intent of the devil
and wicked men is to destroy the faith,
we must have a special care of our
faith.—1. We must look that our faith
be a true faith. 2. We must keep and
lock up our faith in some safe and sure
place—in the storehouse or treasury of
a good conscience. 3. Our care must
be to increase in faith that our hearts
may be rooted and grounded in the love
of God.
IV. Our duty is to sanctify and
glorify the name of God in every
work of His.—Neglect in glorifying
and praising God is a great sin.—Perkins.
Ver. 24. God glorified in Good Men.—We
are taught to honour God in
man and man in God. We are taught
to avoid, on the one hand, all creature
idolatry, and, on the other, that cynical
severity, or ungrateful indifference to
the Author of all good in man, which
undervalues or neglects the excellencies
which ought to be held up to admiration
that they may be imitated by
ourselves and others. Each of these
extremes robs God of His just revenue
of grateful praise. In what does
creature idolatry consist but in honouring
and trusting in the natural and
acquired excellencies of creatures to the
exclusion of God? But is there then
no wisdom, no might, no excellence, in
man? As it were absurd to deny this,
it would be affectation to pretend to
overlook it. Admire and deny not this
wisdom, acknowledge this efficiency,
and affect not to lower its estimate;
only glorify God who worketh all in
all. If He has chosen any of them to
be more eminently His instruments for
the furtherance of His purposes of
mercy to mankind, He does it by virtue
of His sovereignty. If He continues
their useful lives, whilst you have their
light rejoice in the light and glorify
Him from whom it comes as its
original and source; and when He
chooses to quench these stars of His
right hand in the darkness of death,
still glorify Him. As to us, this is to
remind us of our dependence on Him,
who appointed their orbit and invested
them with their different degrees of
glory; and as to them, though their
lustre fades from these visible skies,
it is that it may be rekindled in
superior glory in the kingdom of their
Father.—R. Watson.
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.
Ver. 1. Then fourteen years after.—From Paul’s conversion inclusive. I went again to
Jerusalem.—The same visit referred to in Acts xv., when the council of the apostles and
Church decided that Gentile Christians need not be circumcised.
Ver. 2. I went up by revelation.—Quite consistent with the fact that he was sent as a
deputy from the Church at Antioch (Acts xv. 2). The revelation suggested to him that this
deputation was the wisest course. Communicated privately to them which were of reputation.—It
was necessary that the Jerusalem apostles should know beforehand that the Gospel
Paul preached to the Gentiles was the same as theirs, and had received Divine confirmation
in the results it wrought on the Gentile converts.
Ver. 3. Neither Titus [not even Titus], being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised.—The
apostles, constrained by the firmness of Paul and Barnabas, did not compel or insist on
his being circumcised. Thus they virtually sanctioned Paul’s course among the Gentiles,
and admitted his independence as an apostle. To have insisted on Jewish usages for Gentile
converts would have been to make them essential parts of Christianity.
Ver. 4. False brethren unawares [in an underhand manner] brought in privily to spy
out.—As foes in the guise of friends, wishing to destroy and rob us of our liberty—from the
yoke of the ceremonial law.
Ver. 5. To whom we gave place by subjection not for an hour.—We would willingly have
yielded for love, if no principle was at issue, but not in the way of subjection. Truth
precise, unaccommodating, abandons nothing that belongs to itself, admits nothing that is
inconsistent with it (Bengel).
Ver. 6. They in conference added nothing to me.—As I did not by conference impart to
them aught at my conversion, so they now did not impart aught additional to me above
what I already knew. Another evidence of the independence of his apostleship.
Ver. 9. They gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship.—Recognising me as
a colleague in the apostleship, and that the Gospel I preached to the Gentiles by
special revelation was the same as theirs.
Ver. 10. Remember the poor.—Of the Jewish Christians in Judea then distressed. Paul’s
past care for their poor prompted this request. His subsequent zeal in the same cause was
the answer to their appeal (Acts. xi. 29, 30; Rom. xv. 26, 27; 1 Cor. xvi. 3; 2 Cor. ix. 1;
Acts xxiv. 17).
Ver. 11. When Peter was come to Antioch I withstood him to the face.—The strongest
proof of the independence of his apostleship in relation to the other apostles, and an unanswerable
argument against the Romish dogma of the supremacy of St. Peter.
Ver. 13. The other Jews dissembled likewise with him.—The question was not whether
Gentiles were admissible to the Christian covenant without becoming circumcised, but
whether the Gentile Christians were to be admitted to social intercourse with the Jewish
Christians without conforming to the Jewish institution. It was not a question of liberty
and of bearing with others’ infirmities, but one affecting the essence of the Gospel, whether
the Gentiles are to be virtually compelled to live as do the Jews in order to be justified.
Ver. 14. Walked not uprightly according to the truth of the Gospel.—Which teaches that
justification by legal works and observances is inconsistent with redemption by Christ.
Paul alone here maintained the truth against Judaism, as afterwards against heathenism
(2 Tim. iv. 16, 17).
Ver. 17. Is therefore Christ the minister of sin?—Thus to be justified by Christ it was
necessary to sink to the level of Gentiles—to become sinners, in fact. But are we not thus
making Christ a minister of sin? Away with the profane thought! No; the guilt is not in
abandoning the law, but in seeking it again when abandoned. Thus, and thus alone, we
convict ourselves of transgression (Lightfoot).
Ver. 19. I through the law am dead to the law.—By believing union to Christ in His
death we, being considered dead with Him, are severed from the law’s past power over us.
Ver. 21. If righteousness came by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.—Died needlessly,
without just cause. Christ’s having died shows that the law has no power to justify us, for
if the law can justify or make us righteous, the death of Christ is superfluous.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 1–9.
Confirmatory Proofs of a Divine Call—
I. Seen in a prudent consultation with the acknowledged leaders of the
church (vers. 1, 2).—The men of reputation referred to in these verses are not
so called by way of irony, but because of their recognised authority in the
mother Church. Paul was not summoned to Jerusalem, but Divinely directed to
take the journey. Neither his teaching nor his office was called in question, nor
did he fear the most searching inquiry into his commission. Conscious of his
Divine call, he claimed equality of status with the rest of the apostles and
explained to them and to the Church the principles and methods of the Gospel he
preached. He had nothing to fear, whatever might be the judgment of the
Church leaders in Jerusalem. He expected from them nothing but sympathy
and encouragement in his work, and he hailed with joy the opportunity of
sharing the counsel of men as interested as himself in the success of the Gospel.
With his God-given convictions and views, it was impossible for him to meet the
apostles on any other ground than that of perfect equality.
II. Seen in a prompt and stern refusal to compromise principle (vers. 3–5).—The
object of Paul’s visit to Jerusalem was to discuss a vital principle of the Gospel—the
right of the Gentiles to the privileges of the Gospel without observing the
works of the Jewish law. A misunderstanding at that critical moment might
have imperilled the liberty of the Gospel. The presence of Barnabas and Titus
was significant—the one a pure Jew, a man of gentle disposition and generous
impulse; and the other a Gentile convert, representing the world of the uncircumcised.
It is to the credit of the Church leaders at Jerusalem that, with
their strong Jewish prejudices, they admitted that the legal rite of circumcision
must not be imposed on Gentile converts. They were so convinced that this was
the will of God, and that He had already sanctioned this an essential feature
of the Gospel, that they dared do no other. An attempt was made, not by the
apostles, but by certain “false brethren,” to insist that Titus should be circumcised;
but this was promptly and stoutly opposed. A concession on this point
would have been fatal to the universality of the Gospel—the whole Gentile
world would have been trammelled with the bondage of legal ceremonies. It
was then that the great battle of Christian liberty was fought and won. The
victory was another testimony of the validity and power of the Divine commission
with which Paul was entrusted.
III. Seen in the inability of the wisest leaders to add anything to the
Divine authority.—“But of these who seemed to be somewhat . . . in conference
added nothing to me” (ver. 6). When Paul was called to the apostleship he
“conferred not with flesh and blood”; now he affirms that flesh and blood did
not confer anything on him. In conference and debate with the chiefs of the
Church he showed himself their equal, and on the great essentials of the Gospel
he was in perfect agreement with them. Though Paul is too modest to say it,
so far from his learning anything from them, they were more likely to learn
something from him, especially as to the wider scope of the Gospel. “In doctrine
Paul holds the primacy in the band of the apostles. While all were inspired by
the Spirit of Christ, the Gentile apostle was in many ways a more richly
furnished man than any of the rest. The Paulinism of Peter’s first epistle goes
to show that the debt was on the other side. Their earlier privileges and priceless
store of recollections of all that Jesus did and taught were matched on
Paul’s side by a penetrating logic, a breadth and force of intellect applied to the
facts of revelation, and a burning intensity of spirit which in their combination
was unique. The Pauline teaching, as it appears in the New Testament, bears
in the highest degree the marks of original genius, the stamp of a mind whose
inspiration is its own” (Findlay).
IV. Seen in winning the recognition of a special mission and of equality in
the apostleship.—“They saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed
unto me, . . . and perceived the grace that was given unto me,” etc.
(vers. 7–9). Paul won the confidence and admiration of his fellow-apostles. They
listened with candour and ever-deepening interest to his explanations, and,
whatever might have been their prejudices, they frankly acknowledged his
Divine commission. What a memorable day was that when James, Peter, John,
and Paul met face to face! “Amongst them they have virtually made the New
Testament and the Christian Church. They represent the four sides of the one
foundation of the City of God. Of the evangelists, Matthew holds affinity with
James; Mark with Peter; and Luke with Paul. James clings to the past and
embodies the transition from Mosaism to Christianity. Peter is the man of the
present, quick in thought and action, eager, buoyant, susceptible. Paul holds
the future in his grasp and schools the unborn nations. John gathers present,
past, and future into one, lifting us into the region of eternal life and love.”
Lessons.—A Divine call.—1. Confers the necessary qualifications to carry out
its mission. 2. Demands courage and fidelity. 3. Compels public recognition.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 1, 2. Truth its Own Evidence.—1. Though
the minister of Jesus
Christ is not to depend upon the
approbation of others for confirmation
of his doctrine, as if he were
uncertain before their testimony is
added, yet he is not to be so self-willed
as to misregard what others judge
or think, but ought to demit himself
so far as to give a friendly account
of the doctrine, that mistakes arising
from misinformation may be removed
and the joint consent of others to
the truth obtained. 2. As there are
always some in the Church of God
who have deservedly more reputation
than others, so Christian prudence
will teach a man to be so far from
striving against such that he will
endeavour, by giving due respect to
them, to receive approbation from such,
that he may be in a better capacity
to do good to others. 3. Nothing
marreth the success of the Gospel more
than difference of judgments and strifes
and debates among eminent preachers,
many resolving to believe nothing till
preachers agree among themselves, and
many stumbling-blocks are cast before
people by the venting of passions,
jealousies, animosities, and revenge.
Paul endeavoured to get the consent
of the other apostles to the doctrines
preached by him, lest by the calumnies
of his adversaries his preaching should
be useless.—Fergusson.
Vers. 3–5. The Power of Truth.
- Superior to ceremonial observances (ver. 3).
- Detects and exposes the wiliest
tactics of false teachers (ver. 4).
- Is uncompromising in its attitude
towards the subtlest errors (ver. 5).
Vers. 4, 5. False Brethren and their
Treatment.
I. The Church of God on earth,
even at the best, hath wicked men
and hypocrites in it.
II. They who teach Christ, joining
some other thing with Him in the
cause of salvation, are said to creep
in, because in appearance they maintain
Christ; yet because they add
something to Christ, they neither
enter nor continue in the true Church
with any good warrant from God.
III. No man can set down the precise
time when errors had their beginning,
for the authors thereof enter in secretly,
not observed of men.
IV. The false brethren urged
circumcision to bring the converts
into bondage.—They that be of a
corporation stand for their liberties.
What a shame it is that men should
love bondage and neglect the spiritual
liberty which they have by Christ.
V. The false brethren urged the
apostles to use circumcision but once;
but they would not yield so much as
once, because their act would have tended
to the prejudice of Christian liberty
in all places. Julian, sitting in a
chair of state, gave gold to his soldiers
one by one, commanding them to cast
frankincense so much as a grain into the
fire that lay upon a heathenish
altar. Christian soldiers refused to do
it, and they which had not refused
afterwards recalled their act and
willingly suffered death. We are
not to yield the least part of the
truth of the Gospel. This truth is
more precious than the whole world
beside. There is no halting between
two religions.
VI. The apostles gave no place by
way of subjection.—They willingly
suffered their doctrine to be tried,
yet they were not bound to subjection.
We are to give place by meek and
patient bearing of that which we
cannot mend, but we are not to give
place by subjection.
VII. If circumcision be made a
necessary cause of salvation, the
truth of the Gospel does not continue,
and falsehood comes in the
room.—Perkins.
Ver. 4. A Spy.—Captain Turner
Ashby was a young officer in the
Confederate army, the idol of the
troops for his general bravery, but
especially for his cleverness in gathering
information of the enemy. On
one occasion he dressed himself in a
farmer’s suit of homespun that he
borrowed and hired a plough-horse
to personate a rustic horse-doctor.
With his saddlebags full of some
remedy for spavin or ringbone, he
went to Chambersburg, and returned
in the night with an immense amount
of information. His career was one
full of romantic episode.
Ver. 5. Fidelity to Truth.—1. Though
much may be done for composing
Church differences by using meekness
and forbearance towards those who
oppose themselves, yet we are not for
peace’ sake to quit the least part of
truth. Thus Paul, who for lawful
ceding became all things to all men,
would not give place by way of subjection,
so as to yield the cause to
the adversaries; neither would he do
anything, in its own nature indifferent,
that would be an evidence of yielding.
2. A minister, when called to confess
and avow truth, hath not only his own
peace with God and keeping of a good
conscience to look to, but also the
condition of his flock, who will be
shaken or confirmed in the truth by
his faint or bold and faithful confession.
3. It is not enough that people have the
name of the Gospel among them or some
truths mixed with errors; but all, and
especially ministers, should endeavour
to have the Gospel in purity and integrity,
free from any mixture of contrary
errors.—Fergusson.
The Truth not to be yielded.—Shortly
after James I. came to the throne of
England he set up a claim to all
the small estates in Cumberland and
Westmorland, on the plea that the
Statesmen were merely the tenants of
the Crown. The Statesmen met, to
the number of two thousand, at
Ratten Heath, between Kendal and
Staveley, where they came to the
resolution that “they had won their
lands by the sword and were able
to hold them by the same.” After
that meeting no further claim was
made to their estates on the part of
the Crown.
Vers. 6–9. Recognition of a Special
Mission.
- By men of reputation who confessed
their inability to augment its
authority (ver. 6).
- Acknowledging that the commission
was distinctly Divine (vers.
7, 8).
- Confirmed by cordially admitting
the messenger into the fellowship
of highest service (ver. 9).
Vers. 8, 9. Divine Blessing the Highest
Sanction of Ministerial Authority.—1. It
is not the pains of ministers, or any
virtue in the Word preached, from
whence success flows, but from the
effectual working of the Spirit. Paul
ascribed the success both of his own
and Peter’s ministry to this. 2. Whom
God doth call to any employment, and
chiefly whom He calls to the ministry,
He fitteth with gifts and abilities
suitable thereto. James, Cephas, and
John did not acknowledge Paul to
be an apostle called by God, but
on perceiving that grace and gifts,
ordinary and extraordinary, were
bestowed upon him. 3. We ought
not to withhold our approbation,
especially when it is craved, from
that which by evident signs and
reasons we perceive to be approved
of God, though the giving of our
approbation may disoblige those who
pretend much friendship towards us.—Fergusson.
The Efficacy of the Christian Ministry.
- That grace or power to regenerate
is not included in the Word
preached, as virtue to heal in a
medicine. To regenerate is the proper
work of God.
- That grace is not inseparably
annexed and tied to the Word preached,
for to some it is the savour of death
unto death.
- The preaching of the Word is
an external instrument of faith and
regeneration, and the proper effect of
it is to declare or signify.
- The apostles at Jerusalem
acknowledged Paul to be an apostle
because he had the gifts of an apostle,
and because his ministry was powerful
among the Gentiles.
- As all minsters in their places
are pillars, they are hereby admonished
to be constant in the truth against all
enemies whatsoever.
- As ministers are pillars, we are
taught to cleave to them and their
ministry at all times—in life and
death.—Perkins.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verse 10.
Christianity and Poverty.
I. Christianity has ever been the friend of the poor.—1. The poor who are
made so by accepting Christianity. Accepting Christ often means the loss of
friends, of status, of fortune. The discovery of this result among the first
Christians might have much to do in the formation of a common fund. There
are many Jews and heathen to-day who are convinced of the truth of Christianity
but hesitate to make a public avowal of their belief because of the apparent
impossibility of gaining a livelihood and the certainty of social ostracism.
Christian missionaries are not in a position to guarantee their support, nor do
they wish to encourage, a system that might easily degenerate into wholesale
bribery. There are converts who run all risks and deliberately accept Christ
and poverty. All such the Christian Church, often at great sacrifice, does its
best to befriend.
2. The poor who are made so by unavoidable calamity.—Judea was devastated
by famine in the reign of Claudius Cæsar, and the apostles promptly organised
relief for the sufferers in the Jewish Churches (Acts xi. 27–30). Christianity has
ever been ready to help the distressed and unfortunate. The hospitals, alms-houses,
and other benevolent institutions that abound are substantial monuments
of the practical benevolence of the Christian Church. Christianity is the best
friend of the people.
II. Christianity inculcates a zealous and unselfish charity.—“Only they
would that we should remember the poor; the same I also was forward [zealous]
to do.” Paul had already rendered noble service in this direction, and was prompted
by the Spirit of the Gospel to continue to do so. He was zealous in good works,
though he stoutly denied any merit in them to justify the sinner. His first
concern was to help the Jewish poor, though many of them impugned his
apostolic authority and strove to ruin his influence. As champion of the
Gentiles he employed the wealth of his converts in supplying the needs of his
famishing Jewish brethren. Christian charity is superior to the jealousies of
sects and parties, and even to personal insult and wrong. Behind the hand of
the generous alms-giver is the heart of love.
III. Christianity elevates and enriches the poor.—It enjoins temperance,
industry, honesty, and perseverance—the practice of which has raised many from
poverty to wealth. The man who has prospered should never forget the claims
of the poor. It is said that a certain man dreamed that the Saviour appeared
to him and upbraided him with giving so little to His cause. The man replied,
“I can’t afford it.” “Very well,” said the Saviour; “let it be so. But do you
remember, that when that business panic happened, how you prayed to Me to
keep you out of difficulties? and I heard your prayer and tided you over the
trouble. And do you remember also, when your little child was sick, how you
prayed that her life might be spared, and again I heard your prayer and
restored her? But now let it be an understanding between us that henceforth
when you are in trouble I do nothing for you, seeing you can’t afford to help
Me.” The man’s conscience was touched, and he exclaimed, “Lord, take what
I have; it is Thine.”
Lessons.—1. Christianity is the source of the highest philanthropy. 2. Is the
unfailing hope and comfort of the poor. 3. Has achieved its greatest triumphs
among the poor.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Ver. 10. Remember the Poor.
I. The Church of Jerusalem was
in extreme poverty.—1. Because the
poorer sort received the Gospel.
2. Because the richer were deprived of
their riches for their profession of the
name of Christ.
II. It is the office of pastors and
teachers, not only to preach and dispense
the Word, but also to have care
of the poor.
III. Satisfaction, recompense, and
restitution are the way to life by the
appointment of God.—1. He must
restore who is the cause of any wrong
or loss to others and all that are
accessory. 2. Restitution is to be
made to him that is wronged and
bears the loss if he be known and
alive; if he be dead, to his heirs; if
all be dead, to the poor. 3. The things
to be restored are those which are of
us unjustly received or detained, either
known to us or unknown. 4. As to
the order of restitution, things certain
must first be restored, and things
uncertain after.
IV. It is not enough for us to give
good words and wish well, but we
must in our places and calling do our
endeavour that relief may be sealed
to our poor.—1. The charge was great
to maintain the altar of the Lord in
the Old Testament; the poor come
in the room of the altar. 2. The
poor represent the person of Christ.
3. Compassion in us is a pledge or an
impression of the mercy that is in God
towards us, and by it we may know or
feel in ourselves that mercy belongs
unto us. The observing of the commandment
of relief is the enriching of
us all.—Perkins.
Christian Duty to the Poor.—1. It is
frequently the lot of those who are
rich in grace to be poor in the things
of the present life, and driven into
such straits as to be forced to live upon
some charitable supply from others,
God seeing it convenient hereby to
wean them from worldly contentments
that heaven may be more longed after
and more sweet when it comes.
2. Though those who are our own
poor, within the bounds where we live,
are chiefly to be relieved by us, yet in
cases of extremity the poor who live
remote from us are also to be supplied.
3. Ministers ought to press upon the
people, not only duties which are easy
and cost them nought, but also those
that are burdensome and expensive,
especially that they would willingly
give of those things they enjoy for the
supply of others who want.—Fergusson.
The Poor Representative of Christ.—One
evening at supper, when one of
the boys had said the grace, “Come,
Lord Jesus, be our Guest, and bless
what Thou hast provided,” a little
fellow looked up and said, “Do tell
me why the Lord Jesus never comes.
We ask Him every day to sit with us,
and He never comes!” “Dear child,
only believe, and you may be sure He
will come, for He does not despise our
invitation.” “I shall set a seat,” said
the little fellow, and just then there
was a knock at the door. A poor
frozen apprentice entered, begging a
night’s lodging. He was made welcome,
the chair stood empty for him, every
child wanted him to have his plate,
and one was lamenting that his bed
was too small for the stranger, who
was quite touched by such uncommon
attentions. The little one had been
thinking hard all the time. “Jesus
could not come, and so He sent this
poor man in His place: is that it?”
“Yes, dear child; that is just it. Every
piece of bread and every drink of water
that we give to the poor, or the sick,
or the prisoners for Jesus’ sake, we
give to Him.”—Memoir of John Falk.
Remembrance of the Poor recommended.
I. The nature of the assertion.—1. Remember
the work of the poor.
2. The deprivations of the poor.
3. Our remembrance of the poor should
be founded on a personal acquaintance
with their circumstances. “Indeed,
sir,” said a person of large property,
“I am a very compassionate man; but
to tell you the truth, I do not know
any person in want.” He kept aloof
from the poor.
II. Obligations to comply with the
recommendation.—1. The dictates of
humanity require it. 2. The demands
of duty. 3. The rights of justice.
4. The claims of interest.
III. Answer objections.—Such as:
1. My circumstances are impoverished
and I have nothing to spare. 2. Charity
must begin at home. 3. I have a
right to do what I will with my own.
4. The poor do not deserve to be
remembered.—Beta.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 11–21.
A Fearless Defence of Fundamental Truth—
I. Does not hesitate to impeach a distinguished Church dignitary of inconsistency.—“But
when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face,
because he was to be blamed,” etc. (vers. 11–14). Peter had been accustomed to
mingle with the Gentile converts on the ground of perfect social equality.
Influenced by the fierce bigots of legalism, who insinuated that the circumcised
occupied a superior status to the uncircumcised, he withdrew from the social
circle of the Gentiles and confined himself to that of his Jewish brethren. The
pliability of his impulsive nature led him into this as into other mistakes. To
create a social distinction between Jew and Gentile was to undermine the Gospel.
Paul saw at a glance the threatened peril, and it needed all his tact and courage
to confront it. Though it meant a public impeachment of the sincerity and consistency
of one of the most venerated apostles, the champion of the Gentiles did
not hesitate. Alone, even Barnabas having for the time being deserted him, he
stood up boldly for the truth of the Gospel.
II. Is the opportunity for an authoritative restatement of the truth imperilled
(vers. 15–18).—In these verses the apostle again sets forth the fundamental
doctrine of justification by faith, without the works of the law. The
Judaisers contended that to renounce legal righteousness was in effect to promote
sin—to make Christ the minister of sin (ver. 17). Paul retorts the charge on
those who made it and showed that they promote sin who set up legal righteousness
again (ver. 18). The reproach of the Judaisers was in reality the same
that is urged against evangelical doctrine still—that it is immoral, placing the
virtuous and vicious in the common category of sinners (Findlay). “The complaint
was this,” says Calvin,—“Has Christ therefore come to take away from
us the righteousness of the law, to make us polluted who were holy? Nay, Paul
says—he repels the blasphemy with detestation. For Christ did not introduce
sin but revealed it. He did not rob them of righteousness, but of the false show
thereof.”
III. Is made more impressive by showing the effect of the truth on personal
experience (vers. 19–21).—In these words the apostle indicates that his own
deliverance from the law was effected by being dead to the law—being crucified
with Christ; and that his own spiritual life was originated and sustained by a
living faith in a loving and self-sacrificing Christ. “Legalism is fatal to the
spiritual life in man. Whilst it clouds the Divine character, it dwarfs and
petrifies the human. What becomes of the sublime mystery of the life hid with
Christ in God, if its existence is made contingent on circumcision and ritual performance?
To men who put meat and drink on a level with righteousness and
peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, or in their intercourse with fellow-Christians
set points of ceremony above justice, mercy, and faith, the very idea of a spiritual
kingdom of God is wanting. The religion of Jesus and of Paul regenerates
the heart, and from that centre regulates and hallows the whole ongoing of life.
Legalism guards the mouth, the hands, the senses, and imagines that through
these it can drill the man into the Divine order. The latter theory makes
religion a mechanical system; the former conceives it as an inward, organic life.”
Lessons.—1. The leaven of error is not easily suppressed. 2. True religion has
never lacked a race of brave defenders. 3. Experimental religion is the best
guarantee of its permanence.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 11–13. Christian Consistency—
- May be spoilt by yielding to an
unworthy fear (ver. 12).
- Should be strictly maintained
for the sake of others (ver. 13).
- Should be defended with intrepid
courage (ver. 11).
Ver. 11. An Astute Defender of the
Faith.
I. Here we have an example of
true virtue, in St. Paul resisting evil
to the utmost of his power. In like
manner must every one of us resist
evil, first in himself and then in them
that appertain to him.
II. An example of boldness and
liberty in reproving sin.—1. This
liberty in reproving is not the fruit of
a bold and rash disposition, but is the
fruit of God’s Spirit, and is so to be
acknowledged. 2. This liberty is to be
ordered by a sound mind whereby we
are able to give a good account of our
reproofs, both for the matter and
manner of them. 3. Our admonitions
must be seasoned and tempered with
love.
III. An example of an ingenuous
and honest mind.—When Paul sees
Peter he reproves him to the face. Contrary
to this is the common practice in
backbiting, whispering, and tale-bearing,
whereby it comes to pass that
when a man is in fault every man
knows it save he who is in fault. We
see that excellent men, even the chief
apostles, are subject to err and be
deceived.—Perkins.
Vers. 12, 13. The Power of Example.—1. So
weak and inconstant are the
best of men that, being left to themselves,
the least blast of temptation
will make them break off the course
of doing well in the very midst, and
without respect either to conscience or
credit, openly desert it. 2. To separate
from a true Church and break off
communion with its members cannot
be attempted without sin, not though
we eschew the offence and stumbling
of many. 3. Of so great force is the
bad example of men, eminent, gracious,
and learned, that not only the weak
and infirm, but even those who are
strong and richly endowed with both
grace and parts, will sometimes be
corrupted by it. It is usual for us
unawares to esteem such as more than
men and being once so far engaged in
our esteem of them we do not so
narrowly examine their actions as we
do those of other men. 4. An
inundation of evil examples, though
held forth by private Christians,
is so impetuous and of such force to
carry others along with it, that even
the very best of men can hardly stand
against it.—Fergusson.
An Erring Apostle.
I. Peter’s sin was simulation.—Among
the Gentiles at Antioch he
used Christian liberty in eating things
forbidden by the ceremonial law; yet
after the coming of certain Jews from
Jerusalem, he separates himself from
the Gentiles, and plays the Jew among
the Jews. This act of Peter was not
a sin in itself, but the circumstances
made it a sin. 1. He not only
abstained from meats forbidden by the
ceremonial law but withdrew himself
from the Gentiles and kept company
apart with the Jews. 2. He abstained
not among the Jews at Jerusalem, but
at Antioch among the Gentiles, where
a little before he had openly done the
contrary, using his Christian liberty.
3. He used this abstinence when
certain Jews came from Jerusalem to
search out the liberty of the Gentiles.
4. While Peter seeks to avoid the
small offence of some Jews, he incurs
a greater offence of all the Gentiles.
5. This act of Peter tended to the
overthrowing of Paul’s ministry and
the suppressing of the truth of the
Gospel.
II. The cause of Peter’s sin was
fear of offending the Jews.—It was a
sin because he feared man more than
God. It was a sin, not of malice, but
infirmity. A sin of infirmity is when
there is a purpose in the heart not to
sin, and yet for all this the sin is committed,
by reason the will is over-carried
by temptation, or by violence
of affection as by fear, anger, lust.
III. The effect of Peter’s sin.—He
drew the Jews and Barnabas to
the like dissimulation. Here we see
the contagion of an evil example.
1. Ministers of the Word must join
with good doctrine the example of a
good life. 2. Practice in the ministry
is a part of the teaching. 3. All
superiors are warned to go before their
inferiors by good example. 4. The
consent of many together is not a
note of truth. Peter, Barnabas, and
the Jews, all together are deceived;
Paul alone has the truth. Ponormitane
said, “A layman bringing
Scripture is to be preferred before a
whole council.” Paphnutius alone had
the truth, and the whole council of
Nice inclined to error.—Perkins.
Vers. 14–16. Justification by Faith,
not by Works.—1. Though private
sins, which have not broken forth to
a public scandal, are to be rebuked
in private, public sins are to receive
public rebukes, that public scandal
may be removed, and others scared
from taking encouragement to do the
like (ver. 14). 2. Though the binding
power of the ceremonial law was
abrogated at Christ’s death, and the
practice in some things left as a thing
lawful and in itself indifferent, yet
the observance, even for that time,
was dispensed with more for the Jews’
sake, and was more tolerable in them
who were born and educated under
that yoke, than in the Gentiles, to
whom that law was never given,
and so were to observe it, or any part
of it, only in case of scandalising the
weak Jews by their neglecting of it
(ver. 14). 3. Though every man by
nature is a child of wrath and enemy
to God, yet those born within the
visible Church have a right to Church
privileges and to enjoy the external
means of grace and salvation (ver. 15).
4. The doctrine of justification by faith
and not by works was early opposed,
and no doctrine so much opposed,
because no truth is more necessary to
be kept pure, as if it be kept pure
several other truths are kept pure also,
and if it fall other truths fall with it
(ver. 16).—Fergusson.
Ver. 16. Justification by Faith.
I. Man is justified by the mere
mercy of God.—And there is excluded
by justification all merit of congruity,
all meritorious works of preparation
wrought by us, all co-operation of
man’s will with God’s grace in the
effecting of our justification.
II. Man is justified by the mere
merit of Christ.—That is, by the
meritorious obedience which He
wrought in Himself, and not by anything
wrought by Him in us.
III. A sinner is justified by mere
faith.—That is, nothing within us
concurs as a cause of our justification
but faith, and nothing apprehends
Christ’s obedience for our justification
but faith. This will more easily appear
if we compare faith, hope, and love.
Faith is like a hand that opens itself
to receive a gift, and so is neither love
nor hope. Love is also a hand, but
yet a hand that gives out, communicates,
and distributes. For as faith
receives Christ into our hearts, so love
opens the heart and pours our praise
and thanks to God and all manner of
goodness to men. Hope is no hand,
but an eye that wistfully looks and
waits for the good things faith believes.
Therefore, it is the only property of
faith to clasp and lay hold of Christ
and His benefits.
IV. The practice of them that are
justified is to believe.—To put their
trust in Christ. 1. Faith and practice
must reign in the heart and have all
at command. We must not go by
sense, feeling, reason, but shut our
eyes and let faith keep our hearts
close to the promise of God. Faith
must overrule and command nature
and the strongest affections thereof.
2. When we know not what to do by
reason of the greatness of our distress,
we must fix our hearts on Christ with
separation, as he that climbs up a
ladder or some steep place: the higher
he goes the faster he holds.—Perkins.
Vers. 17, 18. False Methods of
Salvation—
- To seek justification in any other
way than through Christ.—“If, while
we seek to be justified by Christ, we
ourselves are found sinners” (ver. 17).
- Reflect unjustly on the character
of the only Saviour.—“Is therefore
Christ the minister of sin? God
forbid” (ver. 17).
- Aggravate our sin by restoring
in practice what we have abandoned
in theory.—“For if I build again the
things which I destroyed, I make
myself a transgressor” (ver. 18).
Ver. 19. The Christian Dead to the
Law.
I. The state in which the apostle
describes himself to be.—“I am dead
to the law.” Not the moral law of
God. Every rational creature in the
universe is under its dominion, the
believer as well as others. He must
escape from existence before he can
escape from the law of God. The
apostle means he is dead to it as a
covenant between God and himself.
There still stands the law before him
in all its primitive authority, purity,
and majesty; he honours it and strives
to obey it, and often rejoices in the
thought that the time will come
when he shall have his soul in a state
of perfect conformity to it, but this is
all. Its life-giving, death-bringing
powers are utterly at an end, and he
knows they are at an end. He is dead
to all hope from the law, dead to
all expectation of heaven or of salvation
from it. He builds no more hope on
his obedience to it than as though the
law had ceased to exist, and no more
fear has he of condemnation from it.
The believer, dead to the legal covenant,
rests from it. The connection between
him and it is over, and with it are over
the feelings within him, the painful,
perturbing, apprehensive, slavish feelings
arising out of it.
II. The means whereby the apostle
has been brought into the state he
describes.—“I through the law am
dead to the law.” Suppose a man
anxious to pass from one country to
another, from a dangerous and wretched
country to a safe and happy one.
Directly in his road stands a mountain
which he cannot pass over, and which
he at first imagines he can without
much difficulty climb. He tries, but
scarcely has he begun to breast it
when a precipice stops him. He
descends and tries again in another
direction. There another precipice or
some other obstacle arrests his course;
and still ever as he begins his ascent
he is baffled, and the little way he
contrives to mount serves only to show
him more and more of the prodigious
height of the mountain, and its stern,
rugged, impassable character. At last,
wearied and worn, heart-sick with
labour and disappointment, and
thoroughly convinced that no efforts
of his can carry him over, he lies down
at the mountain’s foot in utter despair,
longing still to be on the other side,
but making not another movement to
get there. Now ask him as he lies
exhausted on the ground what has
occasioned his torpor and despair; he
will say that mountain itself: its
situation between him and the land of
his desires, and its inaccessible heights
and magnitude. So stands the law of
God between the Christian and the
land he longs for. The impossibility
of making our way to God by means
of the law arises from the extent of its
requirements, and the unbending, inexorable
character of its denunciations.
We can do nothing but die to it, sink
down before this broad, high, terrific
mountain in utter despair. While
through the law the believer dies to all
hope from the law, through the cross
of Christ he also dies to all apprehension
from it.
III. The design of this deadness to
the law in the Christian’s soul.—“That
I might live unto God.” This
living unto God dethrones self, discovers
to the man the base, degrading idol to
which he has been bowing down, makes
him ashamed of the worship he has
paid it, and places on the throne of his
heart his Saviour and his God. His
renunciation of his self-righteousness
has gradually brought on other renunciations
of self. The law driving
him to Christ has been the means of
driving him out of self altogether. It
has brought him into the sphere of the
Gospel and among those soul-stirring
principles, feelings, and aspirations
connected with the Gospel. There is
no greater mistake than to imagine
that the Gospel has destroyed the law
or loosened in any degree its hold on
men. The Gospel rests on the law.
But for the law and its unbending,
unchangeable, external character the
Gospel had not existed, for it would not
have been needed. Dead to the law
and alive unto God are two things
that go together; the one springs out
of the other. The more completely we
die to the law as a covenant, the more
fully, freely, and happily shall we live
unto God.—C. Bradley.
Dead to the Law by the Law.
I. The person justified is dead to
the law.—Here the law is compared
to a hard and cruel master, and we
to slaves or bondmen, who so long as
they are alive are under the dominion
and at the command of their masters;
yet when they are dead they are free
from that bondage, and their masters
have no more to do with them. To be
dead to the law is to be free from the
dominion of the law. 1. In respect of
the accusing and damnatory sentence
of the law. 2. In respect of the
power of the law. 3. In respect of
the rigour of the law, exacting most
perfect obedience for our justification.
4. In respect of the obligation of the
conscience to the observance of ceremonies.
II. The justified person is dead to
the law by the law.—By the law of
Moses I am dead to the law of Moses.
The law accuses, terrifies, and condemns
us, and therefore occasions us to flee
unto Christ who is the cause that we
die unto the law. As the needle goes
down and draws in the thread which
sews the cloth, so the law goes before
and makes a way that grace may
follow after and take place in the
heart.
III. The end of our death to the
law is that we may live to God.—We
live to God wisely in respect of ourselves,
godly in respect go God, justly
in respect to men. That we may live
godly we must: 1. Bring ourselves
into the presence of the invisible God
and set all we do in His sight and
presence. 2. We must take knowledge
of the will of God in all things. 3. In
all we do and suffer we must depend
on God for success and deliverance.
4. In all things we must give thanks
and praise to God.—Perkins.
Ver. 20. The Believer crucified with
Christ, and Christ living in the Believer.
I. The believer is conformed to the
death of Christ.—1. The nature of
this crucifixion. It is figurative, not
literal; yet real, and not chimerical.
It not only signifies suffering and
dying to sin, but also to effect this by
the efficacy of Christ’s cross. 2. The
objects to which the Christian is
crucified, and the principles which
thereby expire: (1) The law considered
as a means of justification.
(2) The world—its applause, treasures,
gratification. (3) Self. 3. The sufferings
which accompany this crucifixion.
Severe conviction and mortification.
The complete surrender of
heart is attended with many pangs.
The continuance of the struggle is
grievous.
II. The believer participates in the
life of Christ.—1. The principle of the
life—Christ living in the soul. 2. The
evidences of this life—holy tempers,
spiritual conversation, benevolent actions.
3. The instrument by which
this life is introduced and maintained
in the soul—faith.
Lessons.—1. This subject furnishes a
test to try the reality of our religion
and the measure of our attainments.
2. Exposes the delusion of Pharisees,
hypocrites, and antinomians. 3. Exhibits
the dignity, felicity, and exalted hopes
of the real believer.—Delta.
The Religious Life of the Apostle—
- Was characterised from the
beginning by promptitude of action.
- Was marked by a constant
solicitude for his own personal salvation.
- Was eminent for its spirit of
devotion.
- Was one of high fellowship
with the Divine.
- Had its foundation and power
in a living faith in Christ.
Truths to live on.—Some one has
said, “Give me a great truth that I
may live on it.” And the preacher
may well say, “Give me a great truth
that I may preach it.” There are
many great truths in this verse. And
yet how simply are they put! The
first great truth taught in this verse is
the oneness between Christ and those
who believe in Him. What St. Paul
means is this, that having died with
Christ on the cross, he has in Christ
paid the penalty of sin, and it is no longer
his old self that lives and rules, but
Christ lives in him. And is not this
the Christ I want? Not only a Christ
to copy, not a Christ outside me, but
a Christ living and reigning within.
The believer lives by faith, and faith
lives on the promises, for faith is a
loving trust. The presence or absence
of faith rules the whole destiny of
every man. The man who believes
will live one way. The unbeliever will
live in another way. If you have this
simple trust in Christ, you may appropriate
the last clause of the verse,
“He loved me, and gave Himself for
me.” When did that love begin?
Never. When will that love end?
Never.
"Every human tie may perish,
Friend to friend ungrateful prove,
Mothers cease their own to cherish,
Heaven and earth at last remove;
But no changes
Can attend the Saviour's love."
For those Christ loves He will undertake
altogether. He gives them His
peace, His joy, His smile, His arm,
His hand, His home. For He gave
Himself. There are all treasures in
Him. Strength for every need, wisdom
for every question, comfort for
every sorrow, healing for every wound,
provision for every day. “For me,”
so insignificant, unworthy, so bad; for
me, whose iniquities have darkened the
blue heavens; for me, a slave of sin.
"Why was I made to hear Thy voice
And enter while there's room,
While thousands made a wretched choice,
And rather starve than come?
'Twas the same love that spread the feast,
That gently forced me in,
Else I had still refused to taste,
And perished in my sin."
—F. Harper, M.A.
The Love of the Son of God to Men.
I. The existence of this amazing
affection.—Let not the strangeness of
the love stagger us into doubt or disbelief,
but let us receive and rest in
the revealed fact. Viewed from the
side of the Divine, it is affection from
a superior towards those vastly inferior.
Viewed from the side of the human
beings beloved, it is an affection
altogether undeserved. The contrast
between His dignity and our demerit
is the background on which His love
stands out conspicuously.
II. The proof of affection He gave.—Not
left to assertion or speculation,
but proved by a public act. What he
did expresses what He felt. He showed
it openly by self-denial and self-surrender.
He gave not His substance
or possessions, not another being, but
to procure our salvation and express
His love He delivered up His own
person.
III. The personality or individuality
of the affection.—He died for
all and for each. His love to each
human being might be inferred from
that to the whole race, but it is
affirmed directly. Each singly had a
distinct place in His loving death.
Each was a unit before Him, and had
a personal interest in His affection.—W. Smiley, B.A.
The Life of Faith.
I. The life which the apostle lived
in the flesh.—1. His whole life was a
life of religious decision. He made
his choice and never faltered in it.
He saw what he had to do, and he
began to do it at once. He allowed
no parley with the enemy. Nor was
this resolution fleeting; it continued
through life.
2. His life was marked by a solemn
regard and care for his own personal
salvation.—There are two sources of
religious danger of which we are not
always sufficiently aware—zeal for
doctrinal truth, and active employment
in promoting the spread of truth.
How possible it is that, through the
treachery of our hearts, even these
may be allowed insensibly to sap the
very foundations of that solemn fear,
as to our own selves, which ought to
influence us! Remember that truth
is not the substance of salvation but
its instrument. Water others, but
neglect not your own vineyard.
3. His life was truly a life of devotion.—His
was a life of prayer. Philosophy
asks for a reason for the efficacy of
prayer, and waiting for an answer,
never prays at all. Religion hears
that God will be inquired of by us,
thankfully bends the knee, touches the
golden sceptre, and bears away the
blessing. We always want; we must
always pray. And wish we for a
model of high aspiration in prayer?
Let the apostle elevate and expand our
languid desires.
4. His life was one of heavenly-mindedness.—He
lived indeed in the
flesh, but his life was in heaven.
Heavenly-mindedness is the result of
three things—an assurance of present
acceptance with God, habitual intercourse
with Him through His Son, and
the extinction of the worldly spirit.
Our fears and aversions result from
principles directly opposite.
5. His life was one of cheerful submission
to providential appointments.—His
was no life of envied ease. In
every city bonds and afflictions awaited
him. These dispensations operated on
a tender and delicate mind, for in him
were united great energy and great
tenderness. Yet this man, hunted like
a beast of prey, always preserves and
exhibits a contented cheerfulness.
There was no sorrow for himself, none
allowed to others for him. The principle
itself reason could not furnish;
but when furnished it is seen to be
most reasonable.
6. His life was one of laborious usefulness.—He
lived not to himself, but
to Christ Jesus his Lord, in the promotion
of His will in the moral benefit
and eternal salvation of men. This
was the life he lived in the flesh, even
to spread the light and influence of
the Gospel to all.
II. The principle and source of his
life.—1. It is Christian faith. Its
object, the Son of God. It receives
His words as true, and regards Him as
an atoning sacrifice. “He gave Himself
for me.”
2. In its nature it is confiding
and appropriating.—How does faith
connect itself with the results stated?
(1) It regenerates as well as justifies.
(2) It produces vital union with
Christ. (3) It is habitual in its exercise.
(4) It is realising. It gives a
spiritual apprehension of invisible and
eternal realities.—R. Watson.
Self-abolished and Replaced.—Caroline
Herschel, the sister of the great
astronomer, was through all her life
the most attached servant of her
brother. She called herself “a mere
tool, which my brother had the trouble
of sharpening.” She learned the details
of observing with such success that she
independently discovered eight comets.
Her devotion was most complete.
Wherever her brother was concerned
she abolished self and replaced her
nature with his. Having no taste for
astronomy, her work at first was distasteful
to her; but she conquered this
and lived to help his work and fame.
Ver. 21. The Perils of False Teaching.
- It seeks to base personal righteousness
on an effete legalism.—“If
righteousness come by the law.”
- It defeats the gracious purposes
of God.—“I do not frustrate the grace
of God.”
- It renders the sacrifice of
Christ nugatory.—“Then Christ is
dead in vain.”
Frustrating Divine Grace.—1. The
joining of works with faith in the
manner of justification is a total excluding
of God’s free grace and favour
from any hand in the work. Grace
admits of no partner. If grace does
not all, it does nothing; if anything be
added, that addition makes grace to
be no grace. 2. That the apostle doth
exclude in this dispute from having
any influence in justification the
works, not only of the ceremonial but
also of the moral law, appears from
this—that he opposes the merit of
Christ’s death to all merit of our own,
whether by obedience to the one law or
the other. 3. If there had been any
other way possible by which the salvation
of sinners could have been brought
about but by the death of Christ, then
Christ would not have died. To suppose
Christ died in vain or without
cause is an absurdity. If justification
could have been attained by works or
any other means, then His death had
been in vain, and it were an absurd
thing to suppose He would have died
in that case.—Fergusson.
Justification by Works makes Void the
Grace of God.
I. Grace must stand wholly and
entirely in itself.—God’s grace cannot
stand with man’s merit. Grace is not
grace unless it be freely given every
way. Grace and works of grace in the
causing of justification can no more
stand together than fire and water.
II. The apostle answers the objection
that if a sinner is justified only
by faith in Christ then we abolish the
grace of God.—He shows that if we
be justified by our own fulfilment of
the law then Christ died in vain to
fulfil the law for us.
III. We have here a notable ground
of true religion.—That the death of
Christ is made void if anything be
joined with it in the work of our justification
as a means to satisfy God’s
justice and to merit the favour of God.
Therefore the doctrine of justification
by works is a manifest error.—Perkins.
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.
Ver. 1. Who hath bewitched you?—Fascinated you, as if overlooked by the evil eye, so that
your brain is confused. The Galatians were reputed to possess acute intellects: the apostle
marvelled the more at their defection. That you should not obey the truth.—Omitted in R.V.
Before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified.—In preaching, a
vivid portraiture of Christ crucified has been set before you as if depicted in graphic
characters impossible to mistake.
Ver. 3. Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?—What monstrous
folly is this! Will you so violate the Divine order of progress? The flesh may be easily
mistaken for the Spirit, even by those who have made progress, unless they continue to
maintain a pure faith (Bengel).
Ver. 4. Have ye suffered so many things in vain?—Since ye might have avoided them by
professing Judaism. Will ye lose the reward promised for all suffering?
Ver. 5. He that worketh miracles among you.—In you, at your conversion and since.
Ver. 6. Even as Abraham believed God.—Where justification is there the Spirit is, so that
if the former comes by faith the latter must also.
Ver. 8. Preached before the Gospel unto Abraham.—Thus the Gospel in its essential germ
is older than the law, though the full development of the former is subsequent to the latter.
The promise to Abraham was in anticipation of the Gospel, not only as announcing the
Messiah, but also as involving the doctrine of righteousness by faith.
Ver. 10. As many as are of the works of the law are under the curse.—This the Scripture
itself declares. It utters an anathema against all who fail to fulfil every single ordinance
contained in the book of the law (Deut. xxvii. 26).
Ver. 13. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse.—Bought us off from our bondage and
from the curse under which all lie who trust to the law. The ransom price He paid was
His own precious blood (1 Pet. i. 18, 19). Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.—Christ’s
bearing the particular curse of hanging on the tree is a sample of the general curse
which He representatively bore. Not that the Jews put to death malefactors by hanging,
but after having put them to death otherwise, in order to brand them with peculiar
ignominy, they hung the bodies on a tree, and such malefactors were accursed by the law.
The Jews in contempt called Him the hanged one. Hung between heaven and earth as
though unworthy of either.
Ver. 17. The covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law cannot disannul.—From
the recognised inviolability of a human covenant (ver. 15), the apostle argues the
impossibility of violating the Divine covenant. The law cannot set aside the promise.
Ver. 19. Wherefore then serveth the law?—As it is of no avail for justification, is it
either useless or contrary to the covenant of God? It was added because of transgressions.—To
bring out into clearer view the transgression of the law; to make men more fully
conscious of their sins, by being perceived as transgression of the law, and so make them
long for the promised Saviour. It was ordained by angels in the hand of a Mediator.—As
instrumental enactors of the law. In the giving of the law the angels were representatives
of God; Moses, as mediator, represented the people.
Ver. 20. Now a Mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one.—The very idea of
mediation supposes two persons at least, between whom the mediation is carried on. The
law then is of the nature of a contract between two parties—God on the one hand, and the
Jewish people on the other. It is only valid so long as both parties fulfil the terms of the
contract. It is therefore contingent and not absolute. Unlike the law, the promise is
absolute and unconditional. It depends on the sole decree of God. There are not two
contracting parties. There is nothing of the nature of a stipulation. The Giver is everything,
the recipient nothing (Lightfoot).
Ver. 22. The Scripture hath concluded all under sin.—The written letter was needed so
as permanently to convict man of disobedience to God’s command. He is shut up under
condemnation as in a prison.
Ver. 24. The law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ.—As a tutor, checking our
sinful propensities, making the consciousness of the sinful principle more vivid, and showing
the need of forgiveness and freedom from the bondage of sin.
Ver. 26. Ye are all the children of God.—No longer children requiring a tutor, but sons
emancipated and walking at liberty.
Ver. 28. Ye are all one in Christ Jesus.—No class privileged above another, as the Jews
under the law had been above the Gentiles. Difference of sex makes no difference in
Christian privileges. But under the law the male sex had great privileges.
Ver. 29. If ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed and heirs.—Christ is Abraham’s
seed, and all who are baptised into Christ, put on Christ (ver. 27), and are one in Christ
(ver. 28), are children entitled to the inheritance of promise.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 1–5.
The Deceptive Glamour of Error—
I. Diverts the gaze of the soul from the most suggestive truth.—“Before
whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified” (ver. 1). The
cross of Christ was the great theme of Paul’s preaching. He depicted it in such
vivid colours and dwelt on every detail of the story with such intense earnestness
and loving emphasis, that the Galatians were arrested, excited, charmed.
They were smitten with a sense of sin. They seemed to be actors in the scene,
as if their own hands had driven in the nails that pierced the sacred Victim.
They were bowed with shame and humiliation, and in an agony of repentance
they cast themselves before the Crucified and took Him for their Christ and
King. While they looked to Jesus they were secure, but when they listened to
the deceptive voice of error, their gaze was diverted, and the deep significance of
the cross became obscured. Then backsliding began. Like mariners losing
sight of their guiding star, they drifted into strange waters. The cross is the
central force of Christianity; when it fades from view Christianity declines.
“As the sun draws the vapours of the sea, and then paints a rainbow on them,
so Christ draws men and then glorifies them. His attraction is like that of the
sun. It is magnetic too, like that of the magnet to the pole. It is not simply
the Christ that is the magnet; it is the crucified Christ. It is not Christ without
the cross, nor the cross without Christ; it is both of them together.”
II. Confuses the mind as to the nature and value of spiritual agencies.—1. Concerning
the method of their first reception.—“Received ye the Spirit by the
works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?” (ver. 2). Making it appear that
spiritual blessings were acquired by outward observance rather than by inward
contemplation and faith. Confusing the true method of moral regeneration, it
arrests all growth and advancement in the spiritual life. It throws back the
soul on the weary round of toilsome and hopeless human effort.
2. Concerning the purpose for which they were given.—“Having begun in the
Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” (ver. 3). It was a reversal of
the Divine order. Having begun in the Spirit, so they must continue, or they
would be undone. It was absurd to look for perfection in the flesh, especially
when they had discovered its helplessness and misery. Pharisaic ordinances could
do nothing to consummate the work of faith and love; Moses could not lead
them higher than Christ; circumcision could never effect what the Holy Ghost
failed to do. Spiritual results can be brought about only by spiritual agencies.
3. Rendering suffering on behalf of the truth meaningless.—“Have ye suffered
so many things in vain?” (ver. 4). The Galatians on their conversion were
exposed to the fiercest persecution from the Jews and from their own countrymen
incited by the Jews. No one could come out of heathen society and espouse
the cause of Christ in those days, nor can he do so to-day, without making
himself a mark for ridicule and violence, without the rupture of family and
public ties, and many painful sacrifices. But if the truth may be so easily
abandoned, all early struggles against opposition and all the educative influence
and promised reward of suffering must go for nothing. It is disappointing and
disastrous when a youthful zeal for religion degenerates in maturer life into
apathy and worldliness, when the great principles of right and liberty, for which
our fathers fought and suffered, are treated by their descendants with supine
indifference.
III. Creates misconceptions as to the Divine method of ministering spiritual
blessing.—“He that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles, doeth he
it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?” (ver. 5). One of the most
subtle effects of error is to suspend the mind in a state of hesitation and doubt.
It is a dangerous mood. Confidence in the truth is shaken, and for the moment
the soul has nothing stable on which to lay hold. It is the opportunity for the
enemy, and damage is done which even a subsequent return to the truth does
not wholly efface. Paul saw the peril of his converts, and he suggests this test—the
Spirit of God had put His seal on the apostle’s preaching and on the faith of
his hearers. Did any such manifestation accompany the preaching of the legalists?
He takes his stand on the indubitable evidence of the work of the Spirit. It
is the only safe ground for the champion of experimental Christianity (1 Cor.
ii. 14, 15).
Lessons.—1. Every error is the distortion of some truth. 2. The cross is the
central truth of Christianity. 3. The highest truths are spiritually discerned.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Ver. 1. Faithful Reproof.—1. The
minister when he is called to insist
upon the clearing up of truth, whether
positively by showing what is revealed
in Scripture or controversially by
refuting errors, should mix his discourse
with exhortation and reproof, to excite
and quicken the affections of his
hearers. 2. False teachers, who by
fair words deceive the simple, are
spiritual sorcerers, and error is spiritual
witchcraft. As sorcerers by deluding
the senses make people apprehend that
they see what they see not, so false
teachers, by casting a mist of seeming
reason before the understanding,
delude it, and make the deluded person
to believe that to be truth which
is not. 3. Though Christ and His
sufferings are to be vividly represented
and pictured by the plain and powerful
preaching of the Gospel, yet it does not
follow they are to be artificially painted
with colours on stone or timber for
religious use. The graven image is a
teacher of lies (Hab. ii. 18).—Fergusson.
The Folly of Disobedience.
I. We are wise in matters of the
world, but in matters concerning the
kingdom of heaven the most of us
are fools, besotted and bewitched with
worldly cares and pleasures, without
sense in matters of religion; like a
piece of wax without form, fit to take
the form and print of any religion.
II. The truth here mentioned is the
heavenly doctrine of the Gospel, so
called because it is absolute truth
without error, and because it is a
most worthy truth—the truth according
to godliness.
III. The office of the minister is
to set forth Christ crucified.—1. The
ministry of the Word must be plain,
perspicuous, and evident, as if the
doctrine were pictured and painted out
before the eyes of men. 2. It must
be powerful and lively in operation,
and as it were crucifying Christ within
us and causing us to feel the virtue of
His passion. The Word preached must
pierce into the heart like a two-edged
sword. 3. The effectual and powerful
preaching of the Word stands in three
things: (1) True and proper interpretation
of the Scripture. (2) Savoury
and wholesome doctrine gathered out
of the Scriptures truly expounded.
(3) The application of the said doctrine,
either to the information of the
judgment or the reformation of the
life.
IV. The duty of all believers is to
behold Christ crucified.—And we must
behold Him by the eye of faith, which
makes us both see Him and feel Him,
as it were, crucified in us. 1. By
beholding Christ crucified we see our
misery and wickedness. 2. This sight
brings us true and lively comfort.
3. This sight of Christ makes a
wonderful change in us. The chameleon
takes the colours of the things it sees
and that are near to it; and the believing
heart takes to it the disposition
and mind that was in Christ—Perkins.
Attractiveness of Worth.—In the Paris
Salon some few years ago there was a
bust of the painter Baudry by Paul
Dubois, one of the greatest modern
sculptors. Mr. Edmund Gosse was
sitting to contemplate this bust when
an American gentleman strolled by,
caught sight of it, and after hovering
round it for some time came and sat
by his side and watched it. Presently
he turned to Mr. Gosse inquiring if he
could tell him whose it was, and
whether it was thought much of,
adding with a charming modesty, “I
don’t know anything about art; but
I found that I could not get past that
head.” Would that we could so set
forth Christ that His Word might be
fulfilled, “I, if I be lifted up, will draw
all men unto me”! (John xii. 32).
Vers. 2–5. Searching Questions.—1. As
to the mode of receiving the
Spirit (ver. 2). 2. As to the folly of
expecting advancement by substituting
an inferior for a superior force (ver. 3).
3. As to the uselessness of suffering
(ver. 4). 4. As to the exercise of
spiritual and miraculous power (ver. 5).
Ver. 4. Suffering for the Truth.—1. They
may suffer many things for
truth who afterwards fall from it. As the
example of others, particular
interest and general applause will
make even hypocrites suffer much, so
continued suffering will make even the
godly faint for a time. The best, being
left to themselves, in an hour of
temptation, will turn their back upon
truth, so that no profession, no experience
or remembrance of the joy
and sweetness found in the way of
truth, nor their former sufferings for
it, will make them adhere to it.
2. Whatever have been the sufferings
for truth, they are all in vain, lost and
to no purpose, if the party make
defection from and turn his back upon
the truth. 3. Though those who have
suffered much for the truth should
afterwards fall from it, we are to keep
charity towards them, hoping God will
give them repentance and reclaim
them. All our sharpness towards them
ought to be wisely tempered, by expressing
the charitable thoughts we
have of them.—Fergusson.
The Uses of Suffering.—1. They serve
for trial of men, that it may appear
what is hidden in their hearts.
2. They serve for the correction of
things amiss in us. 3. They serve
as documents and warnings to others,
especially in public persons. 4. They
are marks of adoption if we be content
to obey God in them. 5. They are the
trodden and beaten way to the kingdom
of heaven.—Perkins.
Ver. 5. Miracles confirmatory of the
Truth.—1. The Lord accompanied the
first preaching of the Gospel with the
working of miracles that the truth
of the doctrine might be confirmed,
which being once sufficiently done, there
is no further use for miracles. 2. So
strong and prevalent is the spirit of
error, and so weak the best in themselves
to resist it, that for love
to error they will quit truth, though
confirmed and sealed by the saving
fruits of God’s Spirit in their hearts.—Fergusson.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 6–9.
The Abrahamic Gospel—
I. Recognised the principle that righteousness is only by faith.—“Abraham
believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness” (ver. 6). The
promise to Abraham contained the germ of the Gospel and was the only Gospel
known to pre-Christian times. Though dimly apprehending its vast import,
Abraham trusted in God’s Messianic promise, and his unfaltering faith, often
severely tried, was in the judgment of the gracious God imputed to him as
rectitude. “In this mode of salvation there was after all nothing new. The
righteousness of faith is more ancient than legalism. It is as old as Abraham.
In the hoary patriarchal days as now, in the time of promise as of fulfilment,
faith is the root of religion; grace invites, righteousness waits upon the hearing
of faith.”
II. Was universal in its spiritual provisions.—“The Scripture, foreseeing
that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel
unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed” (ver. 8). Twice is
Abraham designated “the friend of God.” The Arabs still call him the friend.
His image has impressed itself with singular force on the Oriental mind. He is
the noblest figure of the Old Testament, surpassing Isaac in force, Jacob in
purity, and both in dignity of character. His religion exhibits a heroic strength
and firmness, but at the same time a large-hearted, genial humanity, an elevation
and serenity of mind, to which the temper of those who boasted themselves
his children was utterly opposed. Father of the Jewish race, Abraham was no
Jew. He stands before us in the morning light of revelation a simple, noble,
archaic type of man, true father of many nations. And his faith was the secret
of the greatness which has commanded for him the reverence of four thousand
years. His trust in God made him worthy to receive so immense a trust for the
future of mankind (Findlay).
III. Shares its privilege and blessing with all who believe.—“They which
are of faith, the same are the children of . . . are blessed with faithful Abraham”
(vers. 7, 9). With Abraham’s faith the Gentiles inherit his blessing. They
were not simply blessed in him, through his faith which received and handed
down the blessing but blessed with him. Their righteousness rests on the same
principle as his. Reading the story of Abraham, we witness the bright dawn of
faith, its springtime of promise and of hope. These morning hours passed away;
and the sacred history shuts us in to the hard school of Mosaism, with its
isolation, its mechanical routine and ritual drapery, its yoke of legal exaction ever
growing more burdensome. Of all this the Church of Christ was to know
nothing. It was called to enter into the labours of the legal centuries without
the need of sharing their burdens. In the “Father of the Faithful” and the
“Friend of God” Gentile believers were to see their exemplar, to find the warrant
for that sufficiency and freedom of faith of which the natural children of Abraham
unjustly strove to rob them (Findlay).
Lessons.—1. The Gospel has an honourable antiquity. 2. Righteousness is the
practical side of true religion. 3. Faith is the way to righteousness.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 6–9. Righteousness through
Faith.
- The Divine method of blessing in
past ages (ver. 6).
- Modern believers are spiritual
successors of the most eminent examples
of faith in ancient times
(ver. 7).
- The unchanging Gospel taught
in Holy Scripture (ver. 8).
- Ensures the enjoyment of
promised blessings (ver. 9).
Vers. 6, 7. Imitators of Abraham’s
Faith.
I. We must have knowledge of the
main and principal promise touching
the blessing of God in Christ, and all
other promises depending on the
principal; and we must know the
scope and tenor of them that we be
not deceived.
II. We must with Abraham believe
the truth and power of God in the
accomplishment of the said promises,
or in the working of our vocation,
justification, sanctification, glorification.
III. We must by faith obey God
in all things, shutting our eyes and
suffering ourselves to be led blindfold,
as it were, by the Word of God. Thus
did Abraham in all things, even in
actions against nature. But this
practice is rare among us. For there
are three things which prevail among
us—the love of worldly honour, the
love of pleasure, and the love of riches;
and where these bear sway there faith
takes no place.—Perkins.
Vers. 8, 9. All Nations blessed in
Abraham.—1. The covenant of grace
with Abraham extended not only to
his carnal seed, but to all believers,
even among the Gentiles. 2. The
blessings promised to Abraham were
not only temporal, but heavenly and
spiritual: the temporal were often inculcated
on the ancient Church, not as
if they were all or the main blessings
of the covenant, but as they were
shadows of things heavenly. 3. The
promise to Abraham contained the
sum of the Gospel—the glad tidings
of all spiritual blessings, and that the
Gentiles should have access, in the
days of the Gospel, to these blessings.
The Gospel is therefore no new doctrine,
but the same in substance with that
taught to Abraham and to the Church
under the Old Testament. 4. Eminent
privileges bestowed on particular
persons do not exempt them from
walking to heaven in the common
pathway with others. Abraham, the
father of believers, in whom all nations
were blessed, enjoyed the blessing, not
because of his own merit, but freely
and by faith as well as others.—Fergusson.
The Abrahamic Gospel intended for
All.
I. The nation of the Jews shall be
called and converted to the participation
of this blessing.—When and
how, God knows; but it shall be done
before the end of the world. If all
nations be called, then the Jews.
II. That which was foretold to
Abraham is verified in our eyes.—This
nation and many other nations
are at this day blessed in the seed of
Abraham. 1. Give to God thanks and
praise that we are born in these days.
2. We must amend and turn to God
that we may now be partakers of the
promised blessing. 3. We must bless
all, do good to all, and hurt to none.
III. All men who are of Abraham’s
faith shall be partakers of the same
blessing with him.—God respects not
the greatness of our faith so much as
the truth of it.—Perkins.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 10–14.
The Conflict between the Law and Faith.
I. The law condemns the least violation of its enactments.—“Cursed is
every one that continueth not in all things . . . in the law to do them” (ver. 10).
The law is a unity; to violate a part is to violate the whole. It is like a perfect
bell, every stroke resounds through every atom of the metal. If the bell is
fractured in the least degree, the dissonance is evident in every part. Law is
so all-pervasive and so perfect that to break one law is to be guilty of all. It
is intolerant of all imperfection and makes no provision to prevent or repair
imperfection except by a rigid obedience to every statute. If obedience could
be perfect from this moment onwards, the past disobedience would not be
condoned; we should be still liable to its penalties, still be under the curse.
To pledge ourselves to unsinning obedience is to pledge ourselves to the impossible.
All our efforts to obey law—to conform our life to the law of righteousness, the
purity and beauty of which we perceive even while in a state of lawless unnature—are
futile. It is like running alongside a parallel pathway into which we are
perpetually trying to turn ourselves, but all in vain. We cannot escape the
condemnation of the disobedient.
II. The law cannot justify man.—“But that no man is justified by the law
in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith” (ver. 11). The
law reveals our sin and our utter helplessness to rid ourselves of its misery.
The law forces out the disease that is spreading under the skin. Such is its task.
But healing it does not bring. “The law,” says Luther, “is that which lays
down what man is to do; the Gospel reveals whence man is to obtain help.
When I place myself in the hands of the physician, one branch of art says where
the disease lies, another what course to take to get quit of it. So here. The law
discovers our disease, the Gospel supplies the remedy.” We become aware in
critical moments that our evil desires are more powerful than the prohibition
of law and are in truth first stirred up thoroughly by the prohibition. And
this disposition of our heart is the decisive point for the question, “Whether then
the holy law, the holy, just and good commandment makes us holy, just, and
good men?” The answer to this is, and remains a most decided, “No.”
III. The law ignores faith.—“The law is not of faith: but, The man that
doeth them shall live in them” (ver. 12). Its dictum is do, not believe; it takes
no account of faith. To grant righteousness to faith is to deny it to legal works.
The two ways have different starting-points, as they lead to opposite goals. From
faith one marches through God’s righteousness to blessing; from works, through
self-righteousness, to the curse. In short, the legalist tries to make God believe
in him. Abraham and Paul are content to believe in God. Paul puts the
calm, grand image of Father Abraham before us for our pattern, in contrast
with the narrow, painful, bitter spirit of Jewish legalism, inwardly self-condemned.
IV. The law, the great barrier to man’s justification, is done away in Christ.—“Christ
hath redeemed us from the curse of the law” (ver. 13). Christ brought
us out of the curse of the law by Himself voluntarily undergoing its penalty
and submitting to the utmost indignity it imposed—hanging on a tree. It was
this crowning scandal that shocked the Jewish pride and made the cross an
offence to them. Once crucified, the name of Jesus would surely perish from
the lips of men; no Jew would hereafter dare to profess faith in Him. This
was God’s method of rescue; and all the terrors and penalties of law disappear,
being absorbed in the cross of Christ. His redemption was offered to the Jew
first. But not to the Jew alone, nor as a Jew. The time of release had come
for all men. Abraham’s blessing, long withheld, was now to be imparted, as it
had been promised, to all the tribes of the earth. In the removal of the legal
curse, God comes near to men as in the ancient days. In Christ Jesus crucified,
risen, reigning, a new world comes into being, which restores and surpasses
the promise of the old.
V. Faith ends the conflict of the law by imparting to man a superior
spiritual force.—“That we might receive the promise of the Spirit through
faith” (ver. 14). Faith is a spiritual faculty, and its exercise is made possible
by the operation of the Holy Spirit. The law of works is superseded by the
higher law of the Spirit. It is in the human soul that law has its widest sweep
and accomplishes its highest results. The soul can never rise higher in its
experience and efforts than the law by which it is governed. The law of sin has
debased and limited the soul, and only as it is united by faith to Christ and
responds to the lofty calls of His law will it break away from the corruption
and restraints of the law of sin and rise to the highest perfection of holiness.
“In every law,” says F. W. Robertson, “there is a spirit, in every maxim a
principle; and the law and the maxim are laid down for the sake of conserving
the spirit and the principle which they enshrine. Man is severed from submission
to the maxim because he has got allegiance to the principle. He is free from
the rule and the law because he has got the spirit written in his heart.”
Lessons.—1. It is hopeless to attain righteousness by law. 2. Faith in Christ
is the only and universal way of obedience. 3. The law is disarmed by obeying it.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 10–12. The Inexorability of
Law.
- The law renders no help in
fulfilling its requirements but curses
the incompetent (ver. 10).
- The law, though strictly observed,
is powerless to justify
(ver. 11).
- The law does not admit of
faith; it offers life only to the doer
(ver. 12).
Ver. 11. Man is justified by Faith
alone.—One day wishing to obtain an
indulgence promised by the Pope to all
who should ascend on their knees what
is called Pilate’s Staircase, the poor
Saxon monk, Luther, was humbly
creeping up those steps when he
thought he heard a voice of thunder
crying from the bottom of his heart,
as at Wittenberg and Bologna, “The
just shall live by faith!” He rises in
amazement, he shudders at himself, he
is ashamed of seeing to what a depth
superstition had plunged him. He
flies from the scene of his folly. It
was in these words God then said,
“Let there be light, and there was
light” (Gen. i. 3).—D’Aubigné.
Ver. 12. The Difference between the
Law and the Gospel.
I. The law promises life to him
who performs perfect obedience, and
that for his works. The Gospel
promises life to him who doeth nothing
in the cause of his salvation, but only
believes in Christ; and it promises
salvation to him who believeth, yet
not for his faith or for any works else,
but for the merit of Christ. The law
then requires doing to salvation, and
the Gospel believing and nothing else.
II. The law does not teach true
repentance, neither is it any cause of
it, but only an occasion. The Gospel
only prescribes repentance and the
practice of it, yet only as it is a fruit
of our faith and as it is the way to
salvation.
III. The law requires faith in God,
which is to put our affiance in him.
The Gospel requires faith in Christ,
the Mediator God-man; and this faith
the law never knew.
IV. The promises of the Gospel
are not made to the work, but to the
worker; and to the worker not for his
work, but for Christ’s sake, according
to His work.
V. The Gospel considers not faith
as a virtue or work, but as an
instrument, or hand, to apprehend
Christ. Faith does not cause or procure
our salvation, but as the beggar’s
hand it receives it, being wholly
wrought and given of God.
VI. This distinction of the law and
the Gospel must be observed carefully,
as the two have been often confounded.
It has been erroneously stated that the
law of Moses, written in tables of
stone, is the law; the same law of
Moses, written in the hearts of men
by the Holy Ghost, is the Gospel.
But I say again that the law written
in our hearts is still the law of Moses.
This oversight in mistaking the distinction
of the law and the Gospel is
and has been the ruin of the Gospel.—Perkins.
Vers. 13, 14. Redemption and its
Issues.
- Redemption was effected by
Christ enduring the penalty of violated
law (ver. 13).
- Redemption by Christ has
brought blessing to all nations.—“That
the blessing of Abraham might
come on the Gentiles through Jesus
Christ” (ver. 14).
- The spiritual results of redemption
are realised only by faith.—“That
we might receive the promise
of the Spirit through faith” (ver. 14).
Ver. 13. The Curse and Sentence of
the Law lies on record against sinners,
it puts in its demand against our
acquittance, and lays an obligation
upon us unto punishment. God will
not reject nor destroy His law. Unless
it be answered, there is no acceptance
for sinners. Christ answered the curse
of the law when He was made a curse
for us, and so became, as to the
obedience of the law, the end of the
law for righteousness to them that
believe. And as to the penalty that
it threatened, He bore it, removed it,
and took it out of the way. So hath
He made way for forgiveness through
the very heart of the law; it hath not
one word to speak against the pardon
of those who believe.—John Owen.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 15–18.
The Divine Covenant of Promise—
I. Is less susceptible of violation than any human covenant.—“Though
it be but a man’s covenant, yet if it be confirmed [approved], no man
disannulleth, or addeth thereto” (ver. 15). Common equity demands that
a contract made between man and man is thoroughly binding and should
be rigidly observed; and the civil law lends all its force to maintain the
integrity of its clauses. How much more certain it is that the Divine covenant
shall be faithfully upheld. If it is likely that a human covenant will not be
interfered with, it is less likely the Divine covenant will be changed. Yet even
a human covenant may fail; the Divine covenant never. It is based on the
Divine Word which cannot fail, and its validity is pledged by the incorruptibility
of the Divine character (Mal. iii. 6).
II. Is explicit in defining the channel of its fulfilment.—“Now to Abraham
and his seed were the promises made; . . . to thy seed, which is Christ” (ver. 16).
The promise is in the plural because the same promise was often repeated
(Gen. xii. 3, 7, xv. 5, 18, xvii. 7, xxii. 18), and because it involved many things—earthly
blessings to the literal children of Abraham in Canaan, and spiritual
and heavenly blessings to his spiritual children; and both promised to Christ—the
Seed and representative Head of the literal and spiritual Israel alike.
Therefore the promise that in him “all families of the earth shall be blessed”
joins in this one Seed—Christ—Jew and Gentile, as fellow-heirs on the same
terms of acceptability—by grace through faith; not to some by promise, to others
by the law, but to all alike, circumcised and uncircumcised, constituting but one
seed in Christ. The law, on the other hand, contemplates the Jews and Gentiles
as distinct seeds. God makes a covenant, but it is one of promise; whereas the
law is a covenant of works. God makes His covenant of promise with the one
Seed—Christ—and embraces others only as they are identified with and represented
by Him (Fausset).
III. Cannot be set aside by the law which was a subsequent revelation.—“The
covenant, . . . the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot
disannul” (ver. 17). The promise to Abraham was a prior settlement, and must
take precedence, not only in time but also in authority, of the Mosaic law. It
was a bold stroke of the apostle to thus shatter the supremacy of Mosaism; but
the appeal to antiquity was an argument the most prejudiced Jew was bound to
respect. “The law of Moses has its rights; it must be taken into account as
well as the promise to Abraham. True; but it has no power to cancel or restrict
the promise, older by four centuries and a half. The later must be adjusted to
the earlier dispensation, the law interpreted by the promise. God has not made
two testaments—the one solemnly committed to the faith and hope of mankind,
only to be retracted and substituted by something of a different stamp. He
could not thus stultify Himself. And we must not apply the Mosaic enactments,
addressed to a single people, in such a way as to neutralise the original provisions
made for the race at large. Our human instincts of good faith, our reverence
for public compacts and established rights, forbid our allowing the law of Moses
to trench upon the inheritance assured to mankind in the covenant of Abraham”
(Findlay).
IV. Imposed no conditions of legal obedience.—“If the inheritance be of the
law, it is no more of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise” (ver. 18).
The law is a system of conditions—so much advantage to be gained by so much
work done. This is all very well as a general principle. But the promise of
God is based on a very different ground. It is an act of free, sovereign grace,
engaging to confer certain blessings without demanding anything more from the
recipient than faith, which is just the will to receive. The law imposes obligations
man is incompetent to meet. The promise offers blessings all men need
and all may accept. It simply asks the acceptance of the blessings by a submissive
and trustful heart. The demands of the law are met and the provisions of
the covenant of promise enjoyed by an act of faith.
Lessons.—1. God has a sovereign right to give or withhold blessing. 2. The
Divine covenant of promise is incapable of violation. 3. Faith in God is the
simplest and sublimest method of obedience.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 15–18. The Promise a Covenant
confirmed.
I. The promises made to Abraham
are first made to Christ, and then in
Christ to all that believe in Him.—1. Learn
the difference of the promises
of the law and the Gospel. The
promises of the law are directed and
made to the person of every man
particularly; the promises of the Gospel
are first directed and made to Christ,
and then by consequent to them that
are by faith ingrafted into Christ.
2. We learn to acknowledge the communion
that is between Christ and us.
Christ died upon the cross, not as a
private person, but as a public person
representing His people. All died in
Him, and with Him; in the same
manner they must rise with Him to
life. 3. Here is comfort against the
consideration of our unworthiness.
There is dignity and worthiness sufficient
in Him. Our salvation stands in
this, not that we know and apprehend
him, but that He knows and
apprehends us first of all.
II. The promise made to Abraham
was a covenant confirmed by oath.—Abraham
in the first making and in
the confirmation thereof must be considered
as a public person representing
all the faithful. Here we see God’s
goodness. We are bound simply to
believe His bare Word; yet in regard
of our weakness He ratifies His promise
by oath, that there might be no occasion
of unbelief. What can we more require
of him?
III. If the promise might be disannulled,
the law could not do it.—1. The
promise, or covenant, was made
with Abraham, and continued by God
four hundred and thirty years before
the law was given. 2. If the law
abolish the promise, then the inheritance
must come by the law. But that
cannot be. If the inheritance of
eternal life be by the law, it is no
more by the promise. But it is by
the promise, because God gave it unto
Abraham freely by promise; therefore,
it comes not by the law. This giving
was no private but a public donation.
That which was given to Abraham
was in him given to all that should
believe as he did.—Perkins.
Vers. 15–17. Divine and Human
Covenants.
- A covenant, as between man and
man, is honourably binding (ver. 15).
- The Divine covenant made to
Abraham ensures the fulfilment of
promises to all who believe as Abraham
did (ver. 16).
- The law cannot abrogate the
Divine covenant of promise (ver. 17).
Ver 18. Law and Promise.—1. So
subtle is the spirit of error that it will
seem to cede somewhat to truth, intending
to prejudice the truth more than
if it had ceded nothing. The opposers
of justification by faith did sometimes
give faith some place in justification
and pleaded for a joint influence of
works and faith, of law and promise.
2. The state of grace here and glory
hereafter is the inheritance of the
Lord’s people, of which the land of
Canaan was a type. There are only
two ways of attaining a right to this
inheritance—one by law, the other by
promise. 3. There can be no mixture
of these two, so that a right to heaven
should be obtained partly by the merit
of works and partly by faith in the
promise. The only way of attaining
it is by God’s free gift, without the
merit of works.—Fergusson.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 19, 20.
The Inferiority of the Law.
I. It did not justify but condemn the sinner by revealing his sin.—“It was
added because of transgressions” (ver. 19). Law has no remedial efficacy. It
reveals and emphasises the fact of sin. It has no terror while it is obeyed.
When it is violated then it thunders, and with pitiless severity terrifies the
conscience and inflicts unsparing punishment. There is no strain of mercy in
its voice, or in the inflexibility of its methods. It surrenders the condemned to
an anguish from which it offers no means of escape. It is said that, after the
murder of Darnley, some of the wretches who were concerned in it were found
wandering about the streets of Edinburgh crying penitently and lamentably for
vengeance on those who had caused them to shed innocent blood.
II. It was temporary in its operation.—“Till the seed should come to whom
the promise was made” (ver. 19). The work of the law was preparatory and
educative. Centuries rolled away and the promised Seed was long in coming,
and it seemed as if the world must remain for ever under the tutelage of the
law. All the time the law was doing its work. God was long in fulfilling His
promise because man was so slow to learn. When Christ, the promised Seed,
appeared, the law was superseded. Its work was done. The preparatory gave
place to the permanent; the reign of law was displaced by the reign of grace.
The claims of the law were discharged once for all.
III. Its revelation was through intermediaries.—“It was ordained by angels
in the hand of a Mediator” (ver. 19). In the Jewish estimation the administration
of the law by angels enhanced its splendour, and the pomp and ceremony
with which Moses made known the will and character of Jehovah added to the
impressiveness and superiority of the law. In the Christian view these very
methods were evidences of defect and inferiority. The revelations of God by
the law were veiled and intermediate; the revelation by Grace is direct and
immediate. Under the law God was a distant and obscured personality, and the
people unfit to enter His sacred presence; by the Gospel God is brought near to
man and permitted to bask in the radiance of His revealed glory, without the
intervention of a human mediator. The law, with its elaborate ceremonial and
multiplied exactions, is a barrier between the soul and God.
IV. It was contingent, not absolute, in its primal terms.—“Now a Mediator is
not a mediator of one, but God is one” (ver. 20). Where a mediator is necessary
unity is wanting—not simply in a numerical but in a moral sense, as a matter of
feeling and of aim. There are separate interests, discordant views, to be consulted.
This was true of Mosaism. It was not the absolute religion. The theocratic
legislation of the Pentateuch is lacking in the unity and consistency of a perfect
revelation. Its disclosures of God were refracted in a manifest degree by the
atmosphere through which they passed. In the promise God spoke immediately
and for Himself. The man of Abraham’s faith sees God in His unity. The
legalist gets his religion at second-hand, mixed with undivine elements. He projects
on the Divine image confusing shadows of human imperfection (Findlay).
Lessons.—1. The law is powerless to remove the sin it exposes. 2. The law had
the defect of all preparatory dispensations. 3. The law imposes conditions it does
not help to fulfil.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 19, 20. The Law is for Transgressors.
I. We are taught to examine and
search our hearts by the law of God.—1. When
any sin is forbidden in any
commandment of the law, under it all
sins of the same kind are forbidden,
all causes of them and all occasions.
2. A commandment negative includes
the affirmative, and binds us not only
to abstain from evil, but also to do
the contrary good. 3. Every commandment
must be understood with a
curse annexed to it, though the curse
be not expressed. 4. We must especially
examine ourselves by the first and last
commandments. The first forbids the
first motions of our hearts against
God, and the last forbids the first
motions of our hearts against our neighbour.
II. The law of God to be reverenced.—1. Because
it was ordained or
delivered by angels. 2. We are to
fear to break the least commandment,
because the angels observe the keepers
and breakers of it, and are ready to
witness against them that offend.
3. If thou offend and break the law,
repent with speed, for that is the
desired joy of angels. 4. If thou sin
and repent not, look for shame and
confusion before God and His angels.
III. God, the Author and Source of
law, is one.—1. He is unchangeable.
2. His unchangeableness the foundation
of our comfort. 3. We should be
unchangeable in faith, hope, love, good
counsels, honest promises, and in the
maintenance of true religion.—Perkins.
Ver. 19. The Use of the Law.
- It is a standard to measure our
defects.
- It is a sword to pierce our conscience.
-
It is a seal to certify that we
are in the way of grace.—Tholuck.
No Trust in Legal Prescriptions.—St.
Paul, with the sledge-hammer force
of his direct and impassioned dialectics,
shattered all possibility of trusting in
legal prescriptions, and demonstrated
that the law was no longer obligatory
on Gentiles. He had shown that the
distinction between clean and unclean
meats was to the enlightened conscience
a matter of indifference, that circumcision
was nothing better than a
physical mutilation, that ceremonialism
was a yoke with which the free, converted
Gentile had nothing to do, that
we are saved by faith and not by
works, that the law was a dispensation
of wrath and menace introduced for
the sake of transgressions, that so far
from being, as all the Rabbis asserted,
the one thing on account of which the
universe had been created, the Mosaic
code only possessed a transitory,
subordinate, and intermediate character,
coming in, as it were in a secondary
way, between the promise of Abraham
and the fulfilment of that promise in
the Gospel of Christ.—Dean Farrar.
The Use of the Law under the Gospel.
I. The law never was intended to
supersede the Gospel as a means of life.
II. The most perfect edition of the
Gospel, so far from having abolished
the least tittle of the moral law, has
established it.
III. The use of the law.—1. To
constitute probation. 2. The law is
our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.
3. The law serves to give beauty and
symmetry to the hidden man of the
heart. 4. To vindicate the conduct of
our Judge in dooming the impenitent
to eternal death.
Lessons.—1. Since the law as a
covenant has been superseded by a
covenant better adapted to our guilty
and helpless circumstances, let us make
a proper use of the mercy, acquaint
ourselves with its demands, and abound
in the holiness it enjoins. 2. Mark
those who set aside the law, shun their
company, and pray for their repentance.—Iota.
Ver. 20. The Unity of God and His
Purpose regarding Man.—1. The
covenant with Adam in his innocency
was immediate, no mediator intervening
to make them one; there was no
disagreement betwixt them because of
sin. 2. No man can attain heaven, or
reap any advantage, except he be
perfectly holy. God made no covenant
of works with men on Mount Sinai,
nor could they have reaped benefit
from such a covenant as they were
a sinful people, standing in need of
a midsman betwixt God and them.
3. The Lord in all His dispensations is
always one and like to Himself without
shadow of turning. If any plead
a right to heaven by the merit of their
works, God will abate nothing of what
He did once prescribe and require of
man in the covenant of works.—Fergusson.
An Effectual Mediator.—Edward III.,
after defeating Philip of France at
Creçy, laid siege to Calais, which, after
an obstinate resistance of a year, was
taken. He offered to spare the lives
of the inhabitants on the condition that
six of their principal citizens should be
delivered up to him, with halters
around their necks, to be immediately
executed. When these terms were
announced the rulers of the town came
together, and the question was proposed,
“Who will offer himself as an
atonement for the city? Who will
imitate Christ who gave Himself for
the salvation of men?” The number
was soon made up. On reaching the
English camp they were received by
the soldiers of Edward with every
mark of commiseration. They appeared
before the king. “Are these the
principal inhabitants of Calais?” he
inquired sternly. “Of France, my
lord,” they replied. “Lead them to
execution.” At this moment the
queen arrived. She was informed of
the punishment about to be inflicted
on the six victims. She hastened to
the king and pleaded for their pardon.
At first he sternly refused, but her
earnestness conquered, and the king
yielded. When we submit our hearts
as captives to the Father, and feel that
we are condemned and lost, we have
an effectual Mediator who stays the
hand of justice.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 21–25.
The True Use of the Law—
I. Was not intended to bestow spiritual life.—“If there had been a law
given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the
law” (ver. 21). The law was not against the promises. It was a Divine
method in dealing with man, and one Divine method never conflicts with another.
It was intended to mediate between the promise and its fulfilment. It is not
the enemy but the minister of grace. It did not profess to bestow spiritual life;
but in its sacrifices and oblations pointed to the coming Christ who is “the end
of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth” (Rom. x. 4).
II. Was to reveal the universal domination of sin.—“The Scripture hath
concluded all under sin” (ver. 22). The Bible from the beginning and throughout
its course, in its unvarying teaching, makes the world one vast prison-house
with the law for gaoler, and mankind held fast in chains of sin, condemned
and waiting for the punishment of death. Its perpetual refrain is, “All have
sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Its impeachment covers the whole
realm of human life, thought, and desire. “Every human life,” says Martensen,
“that has not yet become a partaker of redemption is a life under the law, in
opposition to the life under grace. The law hovers over his life as an unfulfilled
requirement; and, in the depth of his own being, remains as an indismissible
but unsatisfied and unexpiated claim on him, which characterises such a human
existence as sinful and guilt-laden.”
III. Was to teach the absolute necessity of faith in order to escape its
condemnation.—“But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up
unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed” (ver. 23). The law was
all the while standing guard over its subjects, watching and checking every
attempt to escape, but intending to hand them over in due time to the charge
of faith. The law posts its ordinances, like so many sentinels, round the
prisoner’s cell. The cordon is complete. He tries again and again to break
out; the iron circle will not yield. But deliverance will yet be his. The day of
faith approaches. It dawned long ago in Abraham’s promise. Even now its
light shines into his dungeon, and he hears the word of Jesus, “Thy sins are
forgiven thee; go in peace.” Law, the stern gaoler, has after all been a good
friend if it has reserved him for this. It prevents the sinner escaping to a
futile and illusive freedom (Findlay).
IV. Was to act as a moral tutor to train us to the maturity and higher
freedom of a personal faith in Christ.—“Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster
to bring us unto Christ,” etc. (vers. 24, 25). The schoolmaster, or pedagogue,
among the Greeks meant a faithful servant entrusted with the care of the boy
from childhood, to keep him from evil, physical and moral, and accompany him
to his amusements and studies. “If then the law is a pedagogue,” says
Chrysostom, “it is not hostile to grace, but its fellow-worker; but should it
continue to hold us fast when grace has come, then it would be hostile.”
Judaism was an education for Christianity. It trained the childhood of the
race. It humbled and distressed the soul with the consciousness of sin. It
revealed the utter inadequacy of all its provisions to justify. It brought the
despairing soul to Christ and showed that the true way to righteousness was by
personal faith in Him.
Lessons.—1. Law is the revealer of sin. 2. Law demands universal righteousness.
3. Law is a training for faith.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 21, 22. The Law not contrary to
the Divine Promise.—1. It is the way of
some to make one Scripture contradict
another, yet their bold allegations will
be found always false, and truth to be
every most consonant and never contrary
to itself. 2. So exact and full
is the righteousness required in order
to life, and so far short do all mankind
come of it, that no works of our
own, done in obedience to the law,
can amount to that righteousness.
3. Though all men by nature be under
sin, it is a matter of no small difficulty
to convince any man of it. The work
of the law, accusing, convincing, or
condemning the sinner, is compared to
the work of a judge detaining a malefactor
in prison which is not effectuated
but with force and violence. 4. The
law by its threatenings prepares and
necessitates the soul to embrace
salvation by faith in the Christ revealed
in the promise.—Fergusson.
Ver. 22. The Great Prison; or, All
concluded under Sin.—1. Satan does
indeed draw and drive men into sin—this
is the accursed work of his restless,
Sabbath-less life; and when he has got
them there he binds them fast and
will not let them flee from his toils.
He builds a high wall of sin all round
them so that they shall not look over
it into the goodly land beyond, and
here he shuts them up together, sinner
with sinner, a never-ending ghastly
multitude, that they may encourage
and pamper each other in wickedness,
and that no example, no voice of
holiness, may ever reach and startle
them. But God never drove, never
drew, any man into sin. He is calling
us to come out from the deadly land,
from the loathsome, plague-breathing
dungeon. So, when the Scripture concludes,
or shuts all men up together
under sin, it is not by driving them
into sin, but for the sake of calling
them out of it. 2. With all the light
of the Scripture shining around us,
with the law of God ever sounding in
our ears, and the life of Christ set continually
before us, how prone are we
to forget our sinfulness, to turn away
from the thought of it, to fancy we
are as good as we need be, and that,
though we might certainly be better,
yet it does not matter much! How
apt are we still to forget that we are
concluded under sin, to forget that we
are shut up in a prison! Although
the souls of so many millions are lying
around us, bloated with the poison of
sin, how tardily do we acknowledge
that the poison by which they perished
must also be deadly to us! 3. Suppose
you were to be carried before an
earthly court of justice, and that one
sweeping accusation were to be brought
against you; suppose you were found
guilty, and the excuse you set up were
the complete proof of your guilt,—what
would follow? The judge would
straightway pass sentence upon you,
and you would be condemned to suffer
punishment according to the measure
of your offence. And must we not
expect that the course of things should
be the very same when you are carried
before a heavenly court of justice?
4. When a man’s eyes are opened to
see the prison in which he is shut up,
to see and feel the chains that are fast
bound round his soul and have eaten
into it; when he has learnt to see and
know that the pleasures, whatever
they may, of sin are only, like the
flesh-pots of Egypt, intoxicating drugs,
given to him to deprive him of all
sense of his captivity,—then will he
long for a deliverer, rejoice on hearing
of his approach, hail him when he
comes in view, and follow him whithersoever
he may lead. As unbelief is
the one great universal sin, in which
all mankind are concluded, as it is only
from having let slip our faith in God
that we have yielded our hearts to the
temptations of the world and given
ourselves up to its idolatries, so it is
only through faith that we can be
brought back to God—that we can
receive the promise given to those who
believe.—J. C. Hare.
Ver. 23. “Shut up unto the faith.”
The Reasonableness of Faith.—The mode
of conception is military. The law is
made to act the part of a sentry,
guarding every avenue but one, and
that one leads those, who are compelled
to take it, to the faith of the Gospel.
Out of the leading varieties of taste
and sentiment which obtain in the
present age we may collect something
which may be turned into an instrument
of conviction for reclaiming men
from their delusions and shutting them
up to the faith.
I. There is the school of natural
religion.—It is founded on the competency
of the human mind to know
God by the exercise of its own faculties,
to clothe Him in the attributes of its
own demonstration, to serve Him by a
worship and a law of its own discovery,
and to assign to Him a mode of procedure
in the administration of this
vast universe upon the strength and
plausibility of its own theories. They
recognise the judicial government of
God over moral and accountable
creatures. They hold there is a law.
One step more, and they are fairly
shut up to the faith. That law has
been violated.
II. There is the school of classical
morality.—It differs from the former
school in one leading particular. It
does not carry in its speculations so
distinct and positive a reference to the
Supreme Being. Our duties to God
are viewed as a species of moral accomplishment,
the effect of which is to
exalt and embellish the individual.
We ask them to look at man as he is
and compare him with man as they
would have him to be. If they find
that he falls miserably short of their
ideal standard of excellence, what is
this but making a principle of their
own the instrument of shutting them
up unto the faith of the Gospel, or at
least shutting them up into one
of the most peculiar of its doctrines, the
depravity of our nature, or the dismal
ravage which the power of sin has
made upon the moral constitution of
the species? This depravity the Gospel
proposes to do away.
III. There is the school of fine
feeling and poetical sentiment.—It
differs from the school of morality in
this—the one makes virtue its idol
because of its rectitude, the other
makes virtue its idol because of its
beauty, and the process of reasoning
by which they are shut up unto the
faith is the same in both. However
much we may love perfection and
aspire after it, yet there is some want,
some disease, in the constitution of
man which prevents his attainment of
it, that there is a feebleness of principle
about him, that the energy of his
practice does not correspond to the
fair promises of his fancy, and however
much he may delight in an ideal
scene of virtue and moral excellence,
there is some lurking malignity in his
constitution which, without the operation
of that mighty power revealed to
us in the Gospel, makes it vain to wish
and hopeless to aspire after it.—Dr. Thomas Chalmers.
Vers. 24, 25. The Law our Schoolmaster.—There
was a time when God
put His world under a schoolmaster;
then it would have been preposterous
to apply faith. There is a time
when a larger spirit has come, and
then it would be going back to use
law.
I. The uses of restraint in the
heart’s education.—1. The first use of
law is to restrain from open violence. It
is necessary for those who feel the inclination
to evil, and so long as the inclination
remains so far must a man be
under law. Imagine a governor amidst
a population of convicts trusting to high
principle. Imagine a parent having
no fixed hours, no law in his household,
no punishment for evil. There is a
morbid feeling against punishment;
but it is God’s method.
2. The second use of restraint is to
show the inward force of evil.—A steam-engine
at work in a manufactory is so
quiet and gentle that a child might
put it back. But interpose a bar of
iron many inches thick, and it cuts
through as if it were so much leather.
Introduce a human limb—it whirls
round, and the form of man is in one
moment a bleeding, mangled, shapeless
mass. It is restraint that manifests
this unsuspected power. In the same
way law discovers the strength of evil
in our hearts.
3. The third use is to form habits of
obedience.—In that profession which is
specially one of obedience—the military
profession—you cannot mistake the
imparted type of character. Immediate,
prompt obedience, no questioning
“why?” Hence comes their
decision of character. Hence, too,
their happiness. Would you have
your child, happy, decided, manly?
Teach him to obey. It is an error to
teach a child to act on reason, or
to expect reasons why a command is
given. Better it is that he should
obey a mistaken order than be taught
to see that it is mistaken. A parent
must be the master in his own house.
4. The fourth use is to form habits
of faith.—As Judaism was a system
calculated to nurture habits of
obedience, so was it one which
nourished the temper of faith. All
education begins with faith. The
child does not know the use of the
alphabet, but he trusts. The boy
beginning mathematics takes on trust
what he sees no use in. The child has
to take parental wisdom for granted.
Happy the child that goes on believing
that nothing is wiser, better, greater,
than his father! Blessed spirit of
confiding trust which is to be transferred
to God.
II. The time when restraint may
be laid aside.—1. When self-command is
obtained. Some of us surely there are
who have got beyond childish meanness:
we could not be mean; restraint is no
longer needed; we are beyond the
schoolmaster. Some of us there are
who have no inclination to intemperance;
childish excess in eating and
drinking exists no longer. Some of us
there are who no longer love indolence.
We have advanced beyond it. The
law may be taken away, for we are
free from law. True Christian liberty
is this—self-command, to have been
brought to Christ, to do right and love
right, without a law of compulsion to
school into doing it.
2. When the state of justification by
faith has been attained.—There are two
states of justification—by the law and
by faith. Justification by the law
implies a scrupulous and accurate performance
of minute acts of obedience
in every particular; justification by
faith is acceptance with God, not
because a man is perfect, but because
he does all in a trusting, large,
generous spirit, actuated by a desire to
please God. In Christianity there are
few or no definite laws—all men are
left to themselves.
3. Restraint must be laid aside when
the time of faith has come, whether faith
itself have come or not.—It is so in
academical education. We may have
attained the full intellectual comprehension
of the Gospel, but religious
goodness has not kept pace with it,
and the man wakes to conviction that
the Gospel is a name and the powers of
the world to come are not in him. You
cannot put him to school again. Fear
will not produce goodness. Forms will
not give reverence. System will not
confer freedom. Therefore the work of
childhood and youth must be done
while we are young, when the education
is not too late.—F. W. Robertson.
Ver. 24. The Law preparing for
Christ.
I. The law led men to Christ by
foreshadowing Him.—This was true of
the ceremonial part of it. The ceremonies
meant more than the general
duty of offering to God praise and
sacrifice, since this might have been
secured by much simpler rites. What
was the meaning of the solemn and
touching observance of the Jewish Day
of Atonement? We know that what
passed in that old earthly sanctuary
was from first to last a shadow of the
majestic self-oblation of the true High
Priest of Christendom, Jesus Christ
our Lord and Saviour. Each ceremony
was felt to have some meaning beyond
the time then present, and so it
fostered an expectant habit of mind;
and as the ages passed these expectations
thus created converged more
and more towards a coming Messiah,
and in a subordinate but real way
the ceremonial law did its part in
leading the nation to the school of
Christ.
II. By creating in man’s conscience
a sense of want which Christ alone
could relieve.—This was the work of
the moral law, of every moral precept
in the books of Moses, but especially of
those most sacred and authoritative
precepts which we know as the Ten
Commandments. So far from furnishing
man with a real righteousness, so
far from making him such as he should
be, correspondent to the true ideal of
his nature, the law only inflicted on
every conscience that was not fatally
benumbed a depressing and overwhelming
conviction that righteousness,
at least in the way of legal obedience,
was a thing impossible. And this
conviction of itself prepared men for a
righteousness which should be not the
product of human efforts, but a gift
from heaven—a righteousness to be
attained by the adhesion of faith to
the perfect moral Being, Jesus Christ,
so that the believer’s life becomes incorporate
with His.
III. By putting men under a discipline
which trained them for Christ.—What
is the Divine plan for training,
whether men or nations? Is it not
this—to begin with rule and to end
with principle, to begin with law and
to end with faith, to begin with Moses
and to end with Christ? God began
with rule. He gave the Mosaic law,
and the moral parts of that law being
also laws of God’s own essential nature
could not possibly be abrogated; but
as rules of life the Ten Commandments
were only a preparation for something
beyond them. In the Christian revelation
God says, “Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ.” When you have done
this, and He on His part has by His
Spirit infused into you His Divine life
so that you are one with Him, you will
not depend any longer mainly upon
rules of conduct. Justification by
faith is so far from being moral
anarchy that it is the absorption of
rule into the higher life of principle.
In the experience of the soul faith
corresponds to the empire of principle
in the growth of individual character
and in the development of national
life, while the law answers to that
elementary stage in which outward
rules are not yet absorbed into principle.—H. P. Liddon.
The Law a Schoolmaster.
I. The Jewish religion brought men
to Christ by the light, the constraining
force, of prophecy.—First, a human
deliverance of some kind, then a personal
Saviour, is announced. He was
exactly what prophecy had foretold.
He Himself appealed to prophecy as
warranting His claims.
II. By that ceremonial law which
formed so important a part of it.—The
Jewish ceremonial pointed to
Christ and His redemptive work from
first to last. The epistle to the
Hebrews was written to show this—that
the ceremonial law was far from
being a final and complete rule of life
and worship, did but prefigure blessings
that were to follow it, that it was a
tutor to lead men to the school of
Christ.
III. By creating a sense of moral
need that Christ alone could satisfy.—The
moral law—God’s essential, indestructible
moral nature in its relation
to human life, thrown for practical
purposes into the form of commandments—is
essentially, necessarily beyond
criticism; but when given to
sinful man it does, but without grace,
discover a want which it cannot satisfy.
It enhanced the acting sense of unpardoned
sin before a holy God. It
convinced man of his moral weakness,
as well as of his guilt, of his inability
without the strengthening grace of
Christ ever to obey it.
Lessons.—1. We see a test of all religious
privileges or gifts: Do they or do
they not lead souls to Christ? 2. Observe
the religious use of all law—to teach
man to know his weakness and to throw
himself on a higher power for pardon
and strength. 3. We see the exceeding
preciousness of Christ’s Gospel—the
matchless value of that faith which lives
in the heart of the Church of God.—H. P. Liddon.
The Progress of Revelation.
I. The law was our schoolmaster
as giving precepts in which principles
were involved but not expressly
taught.
II. As teaching inadequate and not
perfect duties—a part instead of the
whole, which was to develop into the
whole. Examples—the institution of
the Temple worship; the observance of
the Sabbath; the third commandment.
Lessons:—1. Revelation is education.
2. Revelation is progressive.
3. The training of the character in God’s
revelation has always preceded the illumination
of the intellect.—F. W. Robertson.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 26–29.
The Dignity of Sonship with God—
I. Enjoyed by all who believe in Christ.—“For ye are all children of
God by faith in Christ Jesus” (ver. 26). Faith in Christ emancipates the soul
from the trammels and inferior status of the tutorial training and lifts it to the
higher and more perfect relationship of a free son of God. The believer is no
longer a pupil, subject to the surveillance and restrictions of the pedagogue; but
a son, enjoying immediate and constant intercourse with the Father and all the
privileges and dignities of a wider freedom. The higher relation excludes the
lower; an advance has been made that leaves the old life for ever behind. The
life now entered upon is a life of faith, which is a superior and totally different
order of things from the suppressive domination of the law.
II. It is to be invested with the character of Christ.—“For as many as have
been baptised into Christ have put on Christ” (ver. 27). For if Christ is Son of
God, and thou hast put on Him, having the Son in thyself and being made like
to Him, thou wast brought into one kindred and one form of being with Him
(Chrysostom). To be baptised into Christ is not the mere mechanical observance
of the rite of baptism; the rite is the recognition and public avowal of the exercise
of faith in Christ. In the Pauline vocabulary baptised is synonymous with
believing. Faith invests the soul with Christ, and joyfully appropriates the
estate and endowments of the filial relationship. Baptism by its very form—the
normal and most expressive form of primitive baptism, the descent into and rising
from the symbolic waters—pictured the soul’s death with Christ, its burial and
its resurrection in Him, its separation from the life of sin, and entrance upon the
new career of a regenerated child of God (Rom. vi. 3–14).
III. Implies such a complete union with Christ as to abolish all secondary distinctions.—“For
there is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, male nor female;
for ye are all one in Christ Jesus” (ver. 28). All distinctions of nationality,
social status, and sex—necessary as they may be in the worldly life—disappear in
the blending of human souls in the loftier relationship of sons of God. The
Gospel is universal in its range and provisions and raises all who believe in Christ
to a higher level than man could ever reach under the Mosaic regimen. To add
circumcision to faith would be not to rise but to sink from the state of sons to
that of serfs. Christ is the central bond of unity to the whole human race;
faith in Him is the realisation by the individual of the honours and raptures of
that unity.
IV. Is to be entitled to the inheritance of joint heirship with Christ.—“If ye be
Christ’s, then are ye . . . heirs according to the promise” (ver. 29). In Christ the
lineal descent from David becomes extinct. He died without posterity. But He
lives and reigns over a vaster territory than David ever knew; and all who are
of His spiritual seed, Jew or Gentile, share with Him the splendours of the
inheritance provided by the Father. Here the soul reaches its supreme glory
and joy. In Worcester Cathedral there is a slab with just one doleful word on
it as a record of the dead buried beneath. That word is Miserrimus. No name,
no date; nothing more of the dead than just this one word to say he who lay
there was or is most miserable. Surely, he had missed the way home to the
Father’s house and the Father’s love, else why this sad record? But in the
Catacombs at Rome there is one stone recently found inscribed with the single
word Felicissima. No name, no date again, but a word to express that the dead
Christian sister was most happy. Most happy; why? Because she had found
the Father’s house and love, and that peace which the storms of life, the persecutions
of a hostile world, and the light afflictions of time could neither give nor
take away.
Lessons.—1. Faith confers higher privileges than the law. 2. Faith in Christ
admits the soul into sonship with God. 3. The sons of God share in the fulness of
the Christly inheritance.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 26–29. Baptism.
I. The doctrine of Rome.—Christ’s
merits are instrumentally applied by
baptism; original sin is removed by
a change of nature; a new character
is imparted to the soul; a germinal
principle or seed of life is miraculously
given; and all this in virtue, not of
any condition in the recipient, nor of
any condition except that of the due
performance of the rite. The objections
to this doctrine are: 1. It
assures baptism to be not the testimony
to a fact, but the fact itself. Baptism
proclaims the child of God; the
Romanist says it creates him. 2. It
is materialism of the grossest kind.
3. It makes Christian life a struggle
for something that is lost, instead
of a progress to something that lies
before.
II. The doctrine of modern Calvinism.—Baptism
admits all into the
visible Church, but into the invisible
Church only a special few. The real
benefit of baptism only belongs to the
elect. With respect to others, to
predicate of them regeneration in the
highest sense is at best an ecclesiastical
fiction, said in the judgment of charity.
You are not God’s child until you
become such consciously. On this
we remark: 1. This judgment of
charity ends at the baptismal font.
2. This view is identical with the
Roman one in this respect—that it
creates the fact instead of testifying to it.
3. Is pernicious in its results in the
matter of education.
III. The doctrine of the Bible.—Man
is God’s child, and the sin of the
man consists in perpetually living as if
it were false. To be a son of God is
one thing; to know that you are and
call Him Father is another. Baptism
authoritatively reveals and pledges to
the individual that which is true of the
race. 1. This view prevents exclusiveness
and spiritual pride. 2. Protests
against the notion of our being separate
units in the Divine life. 3. Sanctifies
materialism.—F. W. Robertson.
Ver. 26. The Children of God.
- We are all children.
- We are all children of God.
- We are all children of God through faith.
-
We are all children of God
in Christ Jesus.—Dr. Beet.
God’s Children.
- If thou be God’s child, surely
He will provide all things necessary
for soul and body.—Our care must be
to do the duty that belongs to us;
when this is done our care is ended.
They who drown themselves in worldly
cares live like fatherless children.
- In that we are children we
have liberty to come into the presence
of God.
- Nothing shall hurt those who
are the children of God.
- Walk worthy of your profession
and calling.—Be not vassals of sin
and Satan; carry yourselves as King’s
sons.
- Our care must be to resemble
Christ.
- We must have a desire and
love to the Word of God that we may
grow by it.
- We must have afflictions, if
we be God’s children, for He corrects
all His children.—Perkins.
Vers. 27, 28. The Christly Character—
- Acquired by a spiritual union
with Christ.—“Baptised into Christ.”
- Is a complete investiture with
Christ.—“Have put on Christ.”
- Is a union with Christ that
absorbs all conventional distinctions
(ver. 28).
Ver. 27. Profession without Hypocrisy.—Hypocrisy
is professing without
practising. Men profess without feeling
and doing or are hypocrites in nothing
so much as in their prayers. Let a
man set his heart upon learning to
pray and strive to learn, and no
failures he may continue to make in
his manner of praying are sufficient to
cast him from God’s favour. Let him
but be in earnest, striving to master
his thoughts and to be serious, and all
the guilt of his incidental failings will
be washed away in his Lord’s blood.
We profess to be saints, to be guided
by the highest principles, and to be
ruled by the Spirit of God. We have
long ago promised to believe and obey.
It is true we cannot do these things
aright—nay, even with God’s help
we fall short of duty. Nevertheless,
we must not cease to profess. There
is nothing so distressing to a true
Christian as to have to prove himself
such to others, both as being conscious
of his own numberless failings and
from his dislike of display. Christ has
anticipated the difficulties of his
modesty. He does not allow such a
one to speak for himself; He speaks
for him. Let us endeavour to enter
more and more fully into the meaning
of our own prayers and professions;
let us humble ourselves for the very
little we do and the poor advance we
make; let us avoid unnecessary display
of religion. Thus we shall, through
God’s grace, form within us the
glorious mind of Christ.—Newman.
Teachings of Baptism—
I. Our baptism must put us in
mind that we are admitted and received
into the family of God.
II. Our baptism in the name of
the Trinity must teach us to know
and acknowledge God aright.
III. Our baptism must be unto us
a storehouse of comfort in time of
need.
IV. Baptism is a putting on of
Christ.—Alluding to the custom of
those who were baptised in the
apostle’s days putting off their garments
when they were baptised, and
putting on new garments after baptism.
1. In that we are to put on Christ we
are reminded of our moral nakedness.
2. To have a special care of the
trimming and garnishing of our souls.
3. Though we be clothed with Christ
in baptism, we must further desire to
be clothed upon—clad with immortality.—Perkins.
Ver. 28. All are One in Christ.
- People of all nations, all conditions,
and all sexes.
- They who are of great birth and
high condition must be put in mind
not to be high-minded, nor despise
them of low degree, for all are one in
Christ.
- All believers must be of one
heart and mind.
- We learn not to hate any
man, but do good to all.—Men turn
their swords and spears into mattocks
and scythes, because they are one with
Christ by the bond of one Spirit.—Perkins.
Ver. 29. The Promise of Grace.—The
specific form of the whole Gospel is
promise, which God gives in the Word
and causes to be preached. The last
period of the world is the reign of
grace. Grace reigns in the world only
as promise. Grace has nothing to do
with law and requisition of law; therefore,
the word of that grace can be no
other than a word of promise. The
promise of life in Christ Jesus is the
word of the new covenant. The
difference between the Gospel of the
old covenant and that of the new rests
alone on the transcendently greater
glory of its promise.—Harless.
Heirs according to the Promise.
- The basest person, if he believes
in Christ, is in the place of Abraham,
and succeeds him in the inheritance
of the kingdom of heaven.
- Believers must be content in
this world with any estate God may
lay upon them, for they are heirs
with Abraham of heaven and earth.
- They that believe in Christ
must moderate their worldly cares
and not live as drudges of the world,
for they are heirs of God, and are
entitled to all good things promised
in the covenant.
- Our special care must be for
heaven.—The city of God is thy portion,
or child’s part.—Perkins.
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.
Ver. 1 The heir, as long as he is a child.—An infant, one under age. Differeth nothing
from a servant.—A slave. He is not at his own disposal. He could not perform any act but
through his legal representative.
Ver. 2. Under tutors and governors.—Controllers of his person and property.
Ver. 3. Under the elements of the world.—The rudimentary religious teaching of a nonreligious
character. The elementary lessons of outward things.
Ver. 4. God sent forth His Son.—Sent forth out of heaven from Himself. Implies the
pre-existence of the Son. Made of a woman.—Made to be born of a woman. Indicating a
special interposition of God in His birth as man. Made under the law.—By His Father’s
appointment and His own free will, subject to the law, to keep it all, ceremonial and
moral, for us, as the Representative Man, and to suffer and exhaust the full penalty of our
violation of it.
Ver. 5. The adoption of sons.—Receive as something destined or due. Herein God makes
of sons of men sons of God, inasmuch as God made of the Son of God the Son of man
(Augustine).
Ver. 6. Abba, Father.—Abba is the Chaldee for father. The early use of it illustrates
what Paul has been saying (ch. iii. 28) of the unity resulting from the Gospel; for Abba, Father,
unites Hebrew and Greek on one lip, making the petitioner at once a Jew and a Gentile.
Ver. 9. How turn ye again [anew]?—Making a new beginning in religion, lapsing from
Christianity just in as far as they embrace legalism. To the weak and beggarly elements.—Weak
is contrasted with power as to effects, and beggarly with affluence in respect of
gifts. The disparaging expression is applied; not to the ritualistic externalism of heathen
religions, but rather to that God-given system of ritualistic ordinances which had served the
Church in her infancy. That which was appropriate food for a babe or sick man is feeble
and poor for a grown man in full health.
Ver. 12. Be as I am, for I am as ye are.—Paul had become as a Gentile, though he was
once a passionate Jew. Their natural leanings towards Judaism they ought to sacrifice as
well as he.
Ver. 13. Ye know how through infirmity of flesh I preached.—The weakness may have
been general debility, resulting from great anxieties and toils. It has been supposed that
Paul was feeble-eyed, or blear-eyed (Acts xxii. 6), and that this special weakness had been
aggravated at the time now in question.
Ver. 17. They zealously affect you, but not well.—They keenly court you, but not honourably.
They would exclude you—from everything and every one whose influence would tend
to bring the Galatians back to loyalty to the Gospel.
Ver. 20. I desire to be present with you, and to change my voice.—To speak not with the
stern tones of warning, but with tender entreaties. I stand in doubt of you.—I am sorely
perplexed, nonplussed, bewildered, as if not knowing how to proceed.
Ver. 24. Which things are an allegory.—Under the things spoken of—the two sons, with
their contrast of parentage and position—there lies a spiritual meaning.
Ver. 25. Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.—Judaism as
rejecting the light and liberty of the new dispensation.
Ver. 26. But Jerusalem which is above is free.—Is the spiritual reality which, veiled under
the old dispensation, is comparatively unveiled in the dispensation of grace, and destined
to be fully and finally manifested in the reign of glory. Christians are very different in
standing to slave-born slaves.
Ver. 27. The desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.—The
special purpose of the quotation appears to be to show that the idea of a countless Church,
including Gentiles as well as Jews, springing out of spiritual nothingness, was apprehended
under the Old Testament as destined for realisation under the New.
Ver. 30. Cast out the bondwoman and her son.—Even house-room to Judaism is not matter
of right, but only by sufferance, and that so long and so far as it leaves the Gospel undisturbed
in full possession.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 1–7.
The Nonage of the Pre-Christian World.
I. Mankind in pre-Christian times was like the heir in his minority.—1. In
a state of temporary servitude, though having great expectations. “The heir
differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; but is under tutors
and governors” (vers. 1, 2). Under the Old Testament the bond-servant had this
in common with a son, that he was a recognised member of the family; and the
son had this in common with the slave, that he was in servitude, but with this
difference, the servitude of the son was evanescent, that of the slave was
permanent. The heirship is by right of birth, but possession and enjoyment
can be reached only by passing through servitude and attaining majority. The
minor is in the hands of guardians who care for his person and mental training,
and of stewards who manage his estate. So the world, though possessing the
promise of great blessing, was held for ages in the servitude of the law.
2. Subject to the restraint of external ordinances.—“Were in bondage under
the elements of the world” (ver. 3). The commandments and ordinances
imposed by the law belonged to an early and elementary period. In their
infantile externalism they stand contrasted with the analogous things of the
new dispensation, in which the believer is a grown man who casts away childish
things. The Mosaic system watched over and guarded the infancy of the world.
It exacted a rigid obedience to its mandates, and in doing so trained mankind to
see and feel the need and appreciate the rich heritage of the covenant of
grace. Mosaism rendered invaluable service to Christianity. It safe-guarded
the writings that contained promises of future blessings and educated the race
throughout the period of its nonage.
II. The matured sonship of mankind is accomplished through redemption.—1. The
Redeemer is Divinely provided and of the highest dignity. “God sent
forth His Son” (ver. 4). The mystical Germans speak of Christ as the ideal Son
of man, the foretype of humanity; and there is a sense in which mankind was
created in Christ Jesus, who is “the image of God, the first born of every
creature.” But the apostle refers here to a loftier dignity belonging to Christ.
He came in the character of God’s Son, bringing His sonship with Him. The
Word, who became flesh, was with God, and was God, in the beginning. The Divine
Son of God was sent forth into the world by the all-loving Father to be the
Redeemer of mankind and to put an end to the world’s servitude.
2. The Redeemer assumes the nature and condition of those He redeems.—“Made
of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law”
(vers. 4, 5). Christ was born of woman as other men are, and, like them, was
at first a weak and dependent babe. His child-life has for ever beautified and
consecrated child-nature. He was born under law—not the law as a mere Jew,
which would have limited His redeeming work to the Jewish nation, but under
law in its widest application. He submitted not only to the general moral
demands of the Divine law for men, but to all the duties and proprieties incident
to His position as a man, even to those ritual ordinances which His coming was
to abolish. The purpose of His being sent was “to redeem them that were under
the law”—to buy them out of their bondage. He voluntarily entered into the
condition of the enslaved that He might emancipate them.
3. The sonship acquired through redemption is not by merit or legal right, but by
adoption.—“That we might receive the adoption of sons” (ver. 5). The sonship is
by grace, not of nature. Man lost his sonship by sin; by grace he gets it back
again. Adoption we do not get back; we simply receive it. It is an act of God’s
free grace.
III. The attainment of sonship is a conscious reality.—1. Made evident by
the Spirit of God witnessing in us and crying to Him as to a Father. “Because
ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying,
Abba, Father” (ver. 6). God sent forth His Son into the world of men: He
sent forth the Spirit of His Son into their individual hearts. The filial
consciousness was born within them, supernaturally inspired. When they
believed in Christ, when they saw in Him the Son of God, their Redeemer, they
were stirred with a new ecstatic impulse; a Divine glow of love and joy kindled
in their breasts; a voice not their own spoke to their spirit; their soul leaped
forth upon their lips, crying to God “Father, Father!” They were children of
God and knew it.
2. Confirmed by the heirship that results from the Divine adoption.—“If a son,
then an heir of God through Christ” (ver. 7). The nonage, the period of
servitude and subjection, is passed. It gives place to the unrivalled privilege
of a maturer spiritual manhood, and the heirship to an inheritance of indescribable
and imperishable blessedness.
Lessons.—1. The law held the world in bondage. 2. The Gospel is a message of
liberty by redemption. 3. Redemption by Christ confers distinguished privileges.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 4, 5. Christ’s Mission for the
Adoption of Sons in the Fulness of Time.
I. The mission of Jesus Christ and
the manner in which He manifested
Himself.—“God sent forth His Son.”
These words present the great fact of
Christ’s mission from the Father and
His appearance in the world. To
denote the inexpressible dignity of
Jesus, as being one with the Father
in His most essential prerogatives and
perfections, He is here styled, “His
Son.” He was “made of a woman.”
The circumstances of His incarnation
placed Him at an immeasurable distance
from all other parts of the human
race. He was the immediate production
of God, by His Divine power He
was conceived of the Holy Ghost, and
thereby completely exempted from the
taint of original sin. He was the holy
thing born of a virgin. He was by
constitution placed in the same state
as our first parents. He underwent a
similar but severer trial and maintained
His innocence against all the
assaults of Satan. He was “made
under the law”; whereas all other
creatures are under it by the very
terms of their existence, by the condition
of their nature. He was made
under the ceremonial law, under the
moral law, under the mediatorial law.
II. The design of Christ’s mission.—“To
redeem.” He came not merely to
exemplify a rule of life, but to satisfy
its violation; not to explain the statutes
of heaven, but to pay the penalty
arising from the curse announced
against their transgression. He came
essentially to change the moral situation
of mankind. Christ has added to our
original brightness; He has not only
redeemed us from the first transgression,
but accumulated blessings which man,
even in innocence, could never have
obtained.
III. The fitness of the season at
which Christ was manifested.—“The
fulness of time.” 1. It was the period
foretold by the prophets. Hence the
general expectation of His coming.
2. It was a period of advancement in
politics, legislation, science, and arts,
and manners; an age of scepticism.
3. It was a period of toleration. The
epoch will arrive when this world shall
be thought of as nothing but as it
furnished a stage for the manifestation
of the Son of God.—Robert Hall.
Ver. 4. The Fulness of the Time.—Christ
comes when a course of preparation,
conducted through previous
ages, was at last complete. He was
not the creation of His own or any
preceding age. What is true of all
other great men, who are no more
than great men, is not true of Him.
They receive from their age as much
as they give it; they embody and
reflect its spirit. Christ really owed
nothing to the time or the country
which welcomed His advent.
I. The world was prepared politically
for Christ’s work.—There was
a common language—the Greek; a
common government—the Roman.
II. There was a preparation in the
convictions of mankind.—The epoch of
religious experiments had been closed
in an epoch of despair.
III. There was a preparation in the
moral experience of mankind.—The
dreadful picture of the pagan world
which St. Paul draws at the close of
the first chapter of his epistle to the
Romans is not a darker picture than
that of pagan writers—of moralists
like Seneca, of satirists like Juvenal,
of historians like Tacitus; and yet
enough survived of moral truth in the
human conscience to condemn average
pagan practice. It led them to yearn
for a deliverer, although their aspirations
were indefinite enough. This
widespread corruption, this longing for
better things, marked the close of the
epoch of moral experiments.
Lessons.—1. The earthly life of Christ
stood in a totally different relation towards
moral truth from that of every
other man. 2. It was a life at harmony
with itself and a revelation of higher
truth. 3. His incarnation delivers us
from false views of the world and of life,
from base and desponding views of our
human nature, and from bondage.—H. P. Liddon.
Christ Obedient to the Law.
I. This obedience was not a matter
of course, following upon His incarnation.
He might have lived and died,
had it been consistent with His high
purpose, in sinless purity, without expressly
undertaking as He did openly
to fulfil the law. It was a voluntary
act, becoming and fit for the great
work He had in hand.
II. This obedience was not only an
integral but a necessary part of
His work of redemption.—Had this
not been so, redemption would have
been incomplete. Not only God’s unwritten
law in the conscience, but
God’s written law in the tables of
stone, must be completely satisfied. It
being shown, by both Gentile and Jew,
that neither by nature nor by revealed
light was man capable of pleasing God,
all men were left simply and solely
dependent on His free and unmerited
grace. All cases of guilt must be
covered, all situations of disobedience
taken up and borne and carried triumphantly
out into perfection and accordance
with the Father’s will, by the
Son of God in our flesh.
III. This obedience for man was to
be not only complete, so that Christ
should stand in the root of our nature
as the accepted man, but was to be
our pattern, that as He was holy so
we might be holy also.
IV. This obedience arose from the
requirements of His office connected
with the law.—He was the end of the
law. It all pointed to Him. Its
types and ceremonies all found fulfilment
in His person and work. All
has been fulfilled. All looked forward
to One that was to come—to one who
has come, and in His own person has
superseded that law by exhausting its
requirements, has glorified that law
by filling out and animating with
spiritual life its waste and barren
places. So that God has not changed,
nor has His purpose wavered, nor are
His people resting on other than their
old foundation.—Dean Alford.
Ver. 5. Under the Law—
I. As the rule of life.—Thus angels
are under the law. Adam was before
his fall, and the saints in heaven are
so now. None yield more subjection
to the law than they, and this subjection
is their liberty.
II. As a grievous yoke which none
can bear.—1. It bound the Church of
the Old Testament to the observance
of many and costly ceremonies. 2. It
binds every offender to everlasting death.
3. It is a yoke as it increases sin and is
the strength of it. The wicked nature
of man is the more to do a thing the
more he is forbidden.—Perkins.
Adoption.
I. In what adoption consists.—1. The
points of resemblance between
natural and spiritual adoption. (1) We
cease to have our former name and
are designated after the name of God.
(2) We change our abode. Once in
the world, now in the Church and
family of God. (3) We change our
costume. Conform to the family
dress: garments of salvation. 2. The
points of difference between natural
and spiritual adoption. (1) Natural
adoption was to supply a family defect.
God had hosts of children. (2) Natural
adoption was only of sons. No distinction
in God’s adoption. (3) In
natural adoption there was only a
change of condition. God makes His
children partakers of His own nature.
(4) In natural adoption only one was
adopted, but God adopts multitudes.
(5) In natural adoption only temporal
advantages were derived, but in
spiritual the blessings are eternal.
II. Signs of adoption.—1. Internal
signs. Described in ch. iv. 6; Rom. viii. 14–16.
2. External signs. (1) Language;
(2) Profession; (3) Obedience.
III. Privileges of adoption.—1. Deliverance
from the miseries of our
natural state. 2. Investiture into
all the benefits of Christ’s family.
3. A title to the celestial inheritance.
Learn—1. The importance of the blessing.
2. Seek the good of God’s family.
3. Invite strangers to become sons and
heirs of God.—Sketches.
Adoption and its Claims.—Among
the American Indians when a captive
was saved to be adopted in the place
of some chieftain who had fallen, his
allegiance and his identity were looked
upon as changed. If he left a wife
and children behind him, they were to
be forgotten and blotted from memory.
He stood in the place of the dead
warrior, assumed his responsibilities,
he was supposed to cherish those whom
he had cherished and hate those whom
he had hated; in fact, he was supposed
to stand in the same relation of consanguinity
to the tribe.—Bancroft.
Vers. 6, 7. Evidences of Sonship.
I. The presence of the Spirit in the
heart.—1. The beginning of our new
birth is in the heart, when a new light
is put into the mind, a new and
heavenly disposition into the will and
affection. 2. The principal part of
our renovation is in the heart were
the Spirit abides. 3. The beginning
and principal part of God’s worship
is in the heart. 4. Keep watch and
ward about thy heart, that it may be
a fit place of entertainment for the
Spirit, who is an Ambassador sent
from God to thee.
II. The work of the Spirit.—1. Bestowing
conviction that the Scriptures
are the Word of God. 2. Submission
to God and a desire to obey Him.
3. The testimony of the Spirit—a
Divine manner of reasoning framed in
the mind—that we are God’s children.
4. Peace of conscience, joy, and affiance
in God.
III. The desires of the heart
directed towards God.—1. Our cries
are to be directed to God with reverence.
2. With submission to His will.
3. With importunity and constancy.—Perkins.
The Character and Privileges of the
Children of God.
I. The distinguishing characteristic
of the children of God.—1. It
is a spirit of filial confidence as
opposed to servile fear. No unpardoned
sinner has a sufficient ground
of confidence in God. Till assured that
God loves him, he knows not how God
may treat him at any particular time.
But we cannot believe that God loves
us and at the same time doubt His
mercy. He that heartily reposes
on God’s favour cannot dread His
vengeance.
2. This filial spirit is one of holy
love as opposed to the bondage of
sin.—The love of God is a powerful
element well calculated to change the
whole of our inner man. It gives a
new bias to our wayward affections and
a healthful vigour to every good desire.
3. The filial spirit is one of ready
obedience as opposed to the gloomy
spirit of servitude.—The service of a
slave is unwilling, extorted, unsatisfactory;
the obedience of a child is
ready, loving, energetic. Love is self-denying,
soul-absorbing, devoted.
II. Some of the distinguishing
privileges of the children of God.—1. The
child of God has a part in the
Father’s love and care. 2. Has a filial
resemblance to the heavenly Father.
3. Children of God have the privileges
of family communion and fellowship.
4. Have a share in the family provisions.
5. Have a title to the future inheritance.—Robert M. Macbrair.
Ver. 7. God’s Offspring.—1. This is
the state of all poor heathen, whether
in England or foreign countries: they
are children, ignorant and unable to
take care of themselves, because they
do not know what they are. Paul
tells them they are God’s offspring,
though they know it not. He does
not mean that we are not God’s
children till we find out that we are
God’s children. You were God’s heirs
all along, although you differed nothing
from slaves; for as long as you were
in heathen ignorance and foolishness
God had to treat you as His slaves,
not as His children. They thought
that God did not love them, that they
must buy His favours. They thought
religion meant a plan for making God
love them. 2. Then appeared the love
of God in Jesus Christ, who told men
of their heavenly Father. He preached
to them the good news of the kingdom
of God, that God had not forgotten
them, did not hate them, would freely
forgive them all that was past; and
why? Because He was their Father
and loved them so that He spared not
His only begotten Son. And now God
looks at us in the light of Jesus Christ.
He does not wish us to remain merely
His child, under tutors and governors,
forced to do what is right outwardly
and whether it likes or not. God
wishes each of us to become His son,
His grown-up and reasonable son.
3. It is a fearful thing to despise
the mercies of the living God, and
when you are called to be His sons
to fall back under the terrors of His
law in slavish fear and a guilty conscience
and remorse which cannot
repent. He has told you to call Him
your Father; and if you speak to Him
in any other way, you insult Him and
trample underfoot the riches of His
grace. You are not God’s slaves, but
His sons, heirs of God and joint-heirs
of Christ. What an inheritance of
glory and bliss that must be which
the Lord Jesus Christ Himself is to
inherit with us—an inheritance of all
that is wise, loving, noble, holy, peaceful,
all that can make us happy and like
God Himself.—C. Kingsley.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 8–11.
Legalism a Relapse.
I. Legalism is no advance on heathenism.—“When ye knew not God, ye did
service unto them which by nature are no gods” (ver. 8). Paganism was an
elaborate system of formalism. The instinct of worship led men to sacrifice to
imaginary deities—gods which were no gods. Ignorant of the true God, they
multiplied deities of their own. The Galatian pagans created a strange Pantheon.
There were the old weird Celtic deities before whom our British forefathers
trembled. On this ancestral faith had been superimposed the frantic rites of the
Phrygian mother Cebele, with her mutilated priests, and the more genial and
humanistic cultus of the Greek Olympian gods. The oppressive rites of legalism
were little better than the heathen ritual. Religion degenerated into a meaningless
formality. Dickens describes how in Genoa he once witnessed a great feast
on the hill behind the house, when the people alternately danced under tents in
the open air and rushed to say a prayer or two in an adjoining church bright
with red and gold and blue and silver—so many minutes of dancing and of
praying in regular turns of each.
II. Legalism to converted heathen, is a disastrous relapse.—“After ye have
known God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements? . . . Ye observe
days and months and times and years” (vers. 9, 10). The heathen in their
blindness and ignorance might be excused, and ritualism, even to the Jews before
the coming of the Messiah, might be well enough; but for Christians, who had
received ampler knowledge and been illumined by the Holy Spirit, to return to
the weak and beggarly elements, was irrational, monstrous! Having tasted the
sweets of liberty, what folly to submit again to slavery! having reached spiritual
manhood, how childish to degenerate! Legalism destroys the life of religion
and leaves only a mass of petrified forms. In his Stones of Venice, Ruskin
says: “There is no religion in any work of Titian’s; there is not even the smallest
evidence of religious temper or sympathies either in himself or those for whom he
painted. His larger sacred themes are merely for the exhibition of pictorial
rhetoric—composition and colour. His minor works are generally made subordinate
to the purposes of portraiture. The Madonna in the Frari church is a mere
lay figure, introduced to form a link of connection between the portraits of
various members of the Pesaro family who surround her. Bellini was brought
up in faith; Titian in formalism. Between the years of their births the vital
religion of Venice had expired.”
III. A relapse to legalism is an occasion of alarm to the earnest Christian
teacher.—“I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain”
(ver. 11). The apostle knew something of the fickleness of the Galatians and of
the weakness of human nature but was hardly prepared for such a collapse of
the work which he had built up with so much anxiety and care. He saw, more
clearly than they, the peril of his converts, and the prospect of their further
defection filled him with alarm and grief. It meant the loss of advantages
gained, of precious blessing enjoyed, of peace, of character, of influence for good.
It is a painful moment when the anxious Christian worker has to mourn over
failure in any degree.
Lessons.—1. Legalism suppresses all religious growth. 2. Is a constant danger
to the holiest. 3. Shows the necessity for earnest vigilance and prayer.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 8–11. The Dilemma of Turncoats.
I. Their first condition was one of
ignorance.—1. Ignorance of God.
(1) The light of nature is imperfect,
because we know by it only some few
and general things of God. (2) It is
weak, because it serves only to cut off
excuse, and is not sufficient to direct us
in the worship of God. (3) It is a
great and grievous sin.
2. Idolatry.—(1) When that which is
not God is placed and worshipped in the
room of the true God. (2) When men
acknowledge the true God, but do not
conceive Him as He will be conceived,
and as He has revealed Himself.
(3) What a man loves most, cares for
most, and delights in most, that is his
god. Where the heart is, there is thy
god.
II. Their changed condition is the
knowledge of God in Christ.—1. This
is a special knowledge whereby we must
acknowledge God to be our God in
Christ. 2. This knowledge must be
not confused, but distinct. (1) We
must acknowledge God in respect of
His presence in all places. (2) In
respect of His particular providence
over us. (3) In respect of His will in
all things to be done and suffered.
3. This knowledge must be an effectual
and lively knowledge, working in us
new affections, and inclinations.
III. Their revolt is an abandonment
of salvation.—It is an exchange
of knowledge for ignorance, of the
substance for the shadow, of reality
for emptiness—a return to weak and
beggarly elements. It is the substitution
of ceremonies for genuine
worship.
IV. The conduct of turn-coats is an
occasion of ministerial disappointment
and alarm (ver. 11).—Work that is in
vain in respect of men is not so before
God.—Perkins.
Vers. 8, 9. Ignorance of God a Spiritual
Bondage.—1. However nature’s
light may serve to make known there
is a God and that He ought to be
served, it is nothing else but ignorance,
as it leaves us destitute of the knowledge
of God in Christ, without which
there is no salvation. 2. Men are
naturally inclined to feign some representation
of the Godhead by things
which incur in the outward senses,
from which they easily advance to give
Divine worship unto those images and
representations. 3. Though the Levitical
ceremonies were once to be
religiously observed as a part of Divine
worship leading to Christ, yet when
the false teachers did urge them as a
part of necessary commanded worship,
or as a part of their righteousness
before God, the apostle is bold to give
them the name of “weak and beggarly
elements.” 4. People may advance
very far in the way of Christianity,
and yet make a foul retreat afterwards
in the course of defection and apostasy.—Fergusson.
Vers. 9, 10. God’s Sabbatic Law antedated
the Mosaic Law.—And whatever
of legal bondage has been linked with
the observance of the Jewish Sabbath
was eliminated together with the
change to the first day of the week.
This at once removes the Lord’s Day
from the category of days, and also
of weak and beggarly elements. The
mode of observance is learned from the
Lord’s words, “The Sabbath was made
for man, and not man for the Sabbath,”
which at the same time imply, when
rightly understood, the perpetual
necessity for a Sabbath.—Lange.
Ver. 11. Ministerial Anxiety—1. Prompts
to earnest efforts in imparting
the highest spiritual truths.
2. Looks for corresponding results in
consistency of character and conduct.
3. Is grieved with the least indications
of religious failure.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 12–20.
The Pleadings of an Anxious Teacher with his Pupils in Peril.
I. He reminds them of the enthusiastic attachment of former days.—1. Urges
them to exercise the same freedom as he himself claimed. “Be as I am; for I am
as ye are” (ver. 12). Though himself a Jew, Paul had assumed no airs of
superiority, and did not separate himself from his Gentile brethren; he became
as one of them. He asks them to exercise a similar liberty; and lest they should
fear he would have a grudge against them because of their relapse, he hastens
to assure them, “Ye have not injured [wronged] me at all” (ver. 12).
2. Recalls their extravagant expression of admiration on their first reception of
his teaching.—“Ye know how through infirmity I preached at the first. My
temptation ye despised not; but received me as an angel of God. . . . Ye would
have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me” (vers. 13, 14, 15).
His physical weakness, which might have moved the contempt of others, elicited
the sympathy of the warm-hearted Galatians. They listened with eagerness and
wonder to the Gospel he preached. The man, with his humiliating infirmity,
was lost in the charm of his message. They were thankful that, though his
sickness was the reason of his being detained among them, it was the opportunity
of their hearing the Gospel. Had he been an angel from heaven, or Jesus Christ
Himself, they could not have welcomed him more rapturously. They would have
made any sacrifice to assure him of their regard and affection.
3. Shows he was not less their friend because he rebuked them.—“Am I therefore
become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?” (ver. 16). And now they
rush, with Gallic-like fickleness, to the opposite extreme. Because he attacks
the new fancies with which they have become enamoured, and probes them with
some wholesome and unwelcome truths, they imagine he has become their enemy.
Not so; he is but using the privilege of a true and faithful friend.
II. He warns them against the seductive tactics of false teachers.—1. Their
zealous flattery was full of danger. “They zealously affect you, but not well;
they would exclude you” (ver. 17). They are courting you, these present suitors
for your regard, dishonourably; they want to shut us out and have you to themselves,
that you may pay court to them. They pretend to be zealous for your
interests; but it is their own they seek. They would exclude you from all opportunities
of salvation—yea, from Christ Himself. The flatterer should be always
suspected. The turning away from sound doctrine goes hand in hand with a
predilection for such teachers as tickle the ear, while they teach only such things
as correspond to the sinful inclinations of the hearers.
2. Though genuine zeal is commendable.—“It is good to be zealously affected
always in a good thing” (ver. 18). Christian zeal must be seen not only to
correspond and to be adapted to the intellect but must also be in harmony
with the highest and profoundest sentiments of our nature. It must not be
exhibited in the dry, pedantic divisions of a scholastic theology; nor must it
be set forth and tricked out in the light drapery of an artificial rhetoric, in
prettiness of style, in measured sentences, with an insipid floridness, and in the
form of elegantly feeble essays. No; it must come from the soul in the language
of earnest conviction and strong feeling.
III. He pleads with the tender solicitude of a spiritual parent.—“My little
children, of whom I travail in birth again, . . . I desire to be present with you, and
to change my voice; for I stand in doubt of you” (vers. 19, 20). As a mother,
fearful of losing the affection of her children for whom she has suffered so much,
the apostle appeals to his converts in tones of pathetic persuasion. His heart is
wrung with anguish as he sees the peril of his spiritual children, and he breaks
out into tender and impassioned entreaty. And yet he is perplexed by the attitude
they have taken, and as if uncertain of the result of his earnest expostulations.
The preacher has to learn to be patient as well as zealous.
Lessons.—1. Strong emotions and warm affections are no guarantee for the permanence
of religious life. 2. How prone are those who have put themselves in the
wrong to fix the blame on others. 3. Men of the Galatian type are the natural prey
of self-seeking agitators.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Ver. 12. Christian Brotherhood.—Here
is: 1. A loving compellation—“Brethren.”
2. A submissive address
by way of comprecation—“I beseech
you.” 3. A request most reasonable—“Be
ye as I am; for I am as ye are.”
4. A wise and prudent preoccupation
or prevention which removes all obstructions
and forestalls those jealousies,
those surmises and groundless
suspicions, which are the bane of
charity and the greatest enemies to
peace. “Ye have not injured me at
all.”
I. Nature herself hath made all
men brethren.—1. This may serve to
condemn all those who look upon men
under other consideration than as men
or view them in any other shape than
as brethren. And the very name of
man and of brother should be an
amulet for all mankind against the
venom of iniquity and injustice.
2. By this light of nature we may
condemn ourselves when any bitterness
towards our brother riseth in our hearts,
and allay or rather root it out as
inhuman and unnatural. None can
dishonour us more than ourselves do,
when one man hath trodden down
another as the clay in the streets,
when we think ourselves great men by
making our brethren little, when we
contemn and despise, hate and persecute
them.
II. Brethren as Christians professing
the same faith.—There is such a
brotherhood that neither error nor sin
nor injury can break and dissolve it.
1. Men may err and yet be brethren.—We
may be divided in opinion and
yet united in charity. Consider the difficulty
of finding out truth in all things
and avoiding error, that our brother
may err rather from want of light
than out of malice and wilfully and
conceive it possible we may err as
foully as others.
2. Men may sin and yet be brethren.—Charity,
because she may err, nay,
because she must err, looks upon every
Christian as a brother. If he err, she
is a guide to him; if he sin, she is a
physician; if he fall, she strives to lift
him up, being a light to the blind and
a staff to the weak.
3. Men may injure each other and
yet be brethren.—Socrates, being overcome
in judgment, professed he had no
reason to be angry with his enemies
unless it were for this, that they conceived
and believed they had hurt him.
Indeed, no injury can be done by a
brother to a brother. The injury is
properly done to God, who reserves all
power of revenge to Himself. “If a
brother strike us,” said Chrysostom,
“kiss his hand; if he would destroy us,
our revenge should be to save him.”
Nazianzen said to the young man who
was suborned to kill him, “Christ
forgive thee, who hath also forgiven
me, and died to save me.”
Lessons.—1. Brotherly love is pleasant
and delightful. 2. Profitable and advantageous.
3. So necessary that it had
been better for us never to have been than
not to love the brethren.—A. Farindon.
Vers. 13–15. Love for the Preacher—
- Notwithstanding the physical infirmity
of the messenger (ver. 13).
- Generates the loftiest esteem
for his character and abilities (ver. 14).
- Is often expressed in exaggerated
terms (ver. 15).
Ver. 14. The Authority of the Messenger
of God.
- He is to be heard even as Christ
Himself, because in preaching he is the
mouth of God.
- Here we see the goodness of God,
who does not speak to us in His
majesty, but appoints men in His
stead, who are His ambassadors.
- There must be fidelity in
teachers.—They stand in the stead of
Christ, and must deliver only that
which they know to be the will of
Christ.
- They must have especial care
of holiness of life.
- The people are to hear their
teachers with reverence, as if they
would hear the angels or Christ Himself.
- The comfort of the ministry is
as sure as if an angel came down from
heaven, or Christ Himself, to comfort
us.—Perkins.
Ver. 16. The Right Mode of giving
and receiving Reproof.—Should it be
esteemed the part of a friend faithfully
to tell men the truth? and should the
suppression of truth and the substitution
of its opposite be held to mark
the character of an enemy? How
often has the amicable state of feeling
been broken up by telling the truth,
even when done in a proper spirit and
manner!
I. What would you wish your
friend to be?—1. Sincere. 2. That he
should take a very general interest in
my welfare and be desirous to promote
it. 3. A person of clear, sound, discriminating
judgment, and with a decided
preference in all things. 4. That he
should not be a man full of self-complacency,
a self-idolater, but observant
and severe towards his own errors and
defects. 5. A man who would include
me expressly in his petitions, praying
that I may be delivered from those
evils which he perceives in me, and
God far more clearly. 6. Such that,
as the last result of my communications
with him, a great deal of what
may be defective and wrong in me
shall have been disciplined away.
II. Why do we regard a friend as
an enemy because he tells us the
truth?—1. Because plain truth, by
whatever voice, must say many things
that are displeasing. 2. Because
there is a want of the real earnest
desire to be in all things set right.
3. Because there is pride, reacting
against a fellow-mortal and fellow-sinner.
4. Because there is not seldom
a real difference of judgment on the
matters in question. 5. Because there
is an unfavourable opinion or surmise
as to the motives of the teller of
truth.
III. How should reproof be administered?—1. Those
who do this should
well exercise themselves to understand
what they speak of. 2. It should be
the instructor’s aim that the authority
may be conveyed in the truth itself,
and not seem to be assumed by him as
the speaker of it. 3. He should watch
to select favourable times and occasions.
IV. How should reproof be received?—1. By
cultivating a disposition
of mind which earnestly desires
the truth, in whatever manner it may
come to us. 2. There have been
instances in which a friend, silent
when he should have spoken, has himself
afterwards received the reproof for
not having done so from the person
whom he declined to admonish. 3. If
there be those so painfully and irritably
susceptible as to be unwilling to hear
corrective truth from others, how
strong is the obligation that they
should look so much the more severely
to themselves.—John Foster.
Ver. 18. Zeal.
I. Various kinds of zeal.—1. There
is a zeal of God which is not according
to knowledge. 2. There is a mistaken
zeal for the glory of God. (1) When
that is opposed which is right, under a
false notion of its being contrary to
the glory of God. (2) When ways and
methods improper are taken to defend
and promote the glory of God.
(3) There is a superstitious zeal, such
as was in Baal’s worshippers, who cut
themselves with knives and lancets;
particularly in the Athenians, who
were wholly given to idolatry; and
the Jews, who were zealous of the
traditions of the fathers. (4) There is
a persecuting zeal, under a pretence
of the glory of God. (5) There is a
hypocritical zeal for God, as in the
Pharisees, who make a show of great
zeal for piety, by their long prayers,
when they only sought to destroy
widows’ houses by that means.
(6) There is a contentious zeal, which
often gives great trouble to Christian
communities. (7) True zeal is no
other than a fervent, ardent love to
God and Christ, and a warm concern
for their honour and glory.
II. The objects of zeal.—1. The
object of it is God. The worship of
God, who must be known, or He cannot
be worshipped aright. 2. The cause
of Christ is another object of zeal.
The Gospel of Christ; great reason
there is to be zealous for that, since
it is the Gospel of the grace of God.
3. The ordinances of Christ, which
every true Christian should be zealous
for, that they be kept as they were
first delivered, without any innovation
or corruption. 4. The discipline of
Christ’s house should be the object of
our zeal. 5. True zeal is concerned in
all the duties of religion and shows
itself in them.
III. Motives exciting to the exercise
of true zeal.—1. The example of
Christ. 2. True zeal answers a
principal end of the redemption of
Christ. 3. It is good, the apostle says,
to be zealously affected in and for that
which is good. 4. A lukewarm
temper, which is the opposite to zeal,
seems not consistent with true religion,
which has always life and heat in it.
5. The zeal of persons shown in a false
way should stimulate the professors of
the true religion to show at least an
equal zeal.—Pulpit Assistant.
Christian Zeal—
- Implies unwavering steadfastness
of purpose.
- Universal and hearty obedience
to God’s commands in all things, small
as well as great.
- Supreme devotion of heart and
life to Christ.
- Should be exercised in a good
thing.—True zeal seeks benevolent
ends by lawful means, else it is
fanaticism. It seeks practical ends by
wise means, else it is enthusiasm.
Zeal should be shown in active and
useful devotion to the cause of religion,
rather than in excitement and warm
devotional exercise.
- Should be uniform, not periodical.—It
should not depend upon the
fluctuations of feeling, but should act
upon principle. Periodical fervours
are deceitful, dangerous, injurious,
dishonourable to religion. They are
commonly a proof of superficial piety,
or of none at all.—Stephen Olin.
Godly Zeal and its Counterfeits.
I. Let us distinguish between mere
natural zeal and spiritual ardour.—1. There
is a zeal of sympathy which is
awakened by the zeal of others with
whom we associate. It is only that of
the soldier who, though himself a coward,
is urged on to battle by the example of
those around him. 2. There is constitutional
zeal, a warmth, an ardour, which
enters into all we say or do, which pervades
all our actions and animates all
our services. This is not strictly religious
but animal excitement and is no more
allied to our soul-life than our arms
or our feet. 3. There is a zeal which
is merely sentimental. It throws
a romantic glamour over our objects;
but its exercises are too occasional, too
random, to produce much effect.
4. There is a zeal of affectation like
that of Jehu (2 Kings x. 16). This
is religious foppery and hypocritical
vanity. 5. Christian zeal is a fair
demonstration of what is felt within.
It seeks not the eye of man but acts
under the conviction of God’s omniscience.
II. Consider the objects to which
Christian zeal should be directed.—This
“good thing” may be taken as
including all true religion, and embracing:
1. The promotion of God’s glory.
2. The extension of Christ’s kingdom.
3. The salvation of men. 4. The conversion
of the world.
III. The good that results from the
exercise of Christian zeal to the
persons that possess it.—1. It renders
them more Christ-like. 2. It furthers
the Divine designs in the most effective
way. 3. We become worthy followers
of the great heroes of faith in the past
ages.—The Preacher’s Magazine.
True Christian Zeal.
I. The Christian convert is zealously
affected in a good thing.—1. All the
teachings of Christianity are good.
They enlighten, guide, and sanctify.
They are peculiar, harmonious, infallible,
Divine. Their morality is sublime,
their spirit heavenly, their effect
glorious.
2. The influence of Christianity is
good.—It has created the sweet
charities of national and domestic
life, sanctified advancing civilisation,
softened the fierceness of war, stimulated
science, promoted justice and
liberty. Sceptics have admitted this.
3. All that Christianity accomplishes
for man is good.—It saves him from
sin, from the stings of guilt, from the
eternal consequences of wrong-doing.
II. The zeal of the Christian convert
is to be steady and continuous.—There
should be no diminution nor
fluctuation in our zeal. 1. Because no
reason can be assigned why we should
not be as zealous at any after-hour as at
the hour of our conversion. 2. Because
it is only by steady and continuous zeal
that a proper measure of Christian
influence can be exerted. 3. Because
only by steady and continuous zeal
can Christian character be matured.
4. Because only thus can success in
Christian enterprises be attained.
5. Because steady and continuous zeal
will alone bring Divine approval.
III. The zeal of the Christian
convert is not to be unduly influenced
by the presence of others.—While Paul
was with the Churches in Galatia
they were zealous, but after his
departure their zeal ceased. To lose
our zeal because we have lost the
influence of another is to show:
1. That we never possessed true Christian
motives. 2. That our supposed attachment
to Christ and His cause was delusive.
3. That our zeal had merely
been an effort to please men, not God.—The Lay Preacher.
Ver. 19. The Christmas of the Soul.—The
apostle refers to the spiritual
birth. The soul then rises into a
consciousness of its infinite importance;
its thoughts, sympathies, and purposes
become Christ-like, and Christ is
manifested in the life. The soul-birth
were impossible if Christ had not been
born in Bethlehem. That was an
era in the world’s history, this in the
individual life; that was brought about
by the Holy Spirit, this is effected by
the same Divine Agent; that was
followed by the antagonism of the
world, this is succeeded by the opposition
of evil, both within and without;
that was the manifestation of God in
the flesh, this is the renewing of man’s
nature in the image of God; that came
to pass without man’s choice, this
requires man’s seeking. Has this
spiritual birth taken place in you?
If so, you have a right to the enjoyment
of a happy Christmas. Keep the
feast as a new man in Christ Jesus.—Homiletic Monthly.
Ver. 20. A Preacher’s Perplexity—
- Occasioned by the defection of his
converts.—“I stand in doubt of you.”
- As to what method he should
adopt to restore them.—“And to
change my voice.”
- Increased by the difficulty of
effecting a personal interview.—“I
desire to be present with you now.”
“I stand in doubt of you.” Doubtful
Christians.
I. Persons whose religion is
liable to suspicion.—1. Those who
have long attended the means of
grace, and are very defective in
knowledge. 2. Who profess much
knowledge and are puffed up with it.
3. Who contend for doctrinal religion
rather than for that which is practical
and experimental. 4. Who waver in
their attachment to the fundamental
principles of the Gospel. 5. Who
neglect the ordinances of God’s house.
6. Who neglect devotional exercises.
7. Who co-operate not with the Church
to advance the kingdom of Christ in
the world.
II. The improvement to be made of
the subject.—1. Should lead to self-examination.
2. Shows the loss and
danger of persons so characterised.
3. Should lead to repentance and faith.
4. While exercising a godly jealousy
over others, let Christians watch with
greater jealousy over themselves.—Helps.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 21–31.
The History of Hagar and Sarah allegorical of the Law and the Gospel.
I. The two women represented two different covenants.—1. Hagar represented
Sinai, typical of the law with its slavish exactions and terrible threatenings (vers.
22, 25). Sinai spoke of bondage and terror. It was a true symbol of the working
of the law of Moses, exhibited in the present condition of Judaism. And round
the base of Sinai Hagar’s wild sons had found their dwelling. Jerusalem was no
longer the mother of freemen. Her sons chafed under the Roman yoke. They
were loaded with self-inflicted burdens. The spirit of the nation was that of
rebellious, discontented slaves. They were Ishmaelite sons of Abraham, with
none of the nobleness, the reverence, the calm and elevated faith of their father.
In the Judaism of the apostle’s day the Sinaitic dispensation, uncontrolled by the
higher patriarchal and prophetic faith, had worked out its natural result. It
gendered to bondage. A system of repression and routine, it had produced men
punctual in tithes of mint and anise, but without justice, mercy, or faith; vaunting
their liberty while they were servants of corruption. The Pharisee was the
typical product of law apart from grace. Under the garb of a freeman he
carried the soul of a slave.
2. Sarah represented Jerusalem, typical of the Gospel with its higher freedom and
larger spiritual fruitfulness (vers. 26–28).—Paul has escaped from the prison of
legalism, from the confines of Sinai; he has left behind the perishing earthly
Jerusalem, and with it the bitterness and gloom of his Pharisaic days. He is a
citizen of the heavenly Zion, breathing the air of a Divine freedom. The yoke is
broken from the neck of the Church of God; the desolation is gone from her
heart. Robbed of all outward means, mocked and thrust out as she is by Israel
after the flesh, her rejection is a release, an emancipation. Conscious of the
spirit of sonship and freedom, looking out on the boundless conquests lying
before her in the Gentile world, the Church of the new covenant glories in
her tribulations. In Paul is fulfilled the joy of prophet and psalmist, who sang
in former days of gloom concerning Israel’s enlargement and world-wide
victories (Findlay).
II. The antagonism of their descendants represented the violent and
incessant opposition of the law to the Gospel.—“As he that was born after the
flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. . . . Cast
out the bondwoman and her son” (vers. 29, 30). Sooner or later the slave-boy
was bound to go. He has no proper birthright, no permanent footing in the house.
One day he exceeds his licence, he makes himself intolerable; he must be gone.
The Israelitish people showed more than Ishmael’s jealousy toward the infant
Church of the Spirit. No weapon of violence or calumny was too base to be
used against it. Year by year they became more hardened against spiritual
truth, more malignant towards Christianity, and more furious and fanatical in
their hatred towards their civil rulers. Ishmael was in the way of Isaac’s safety
and prosperity (Ibid.).
III. The Gospel bestows a richer inheritance than the law.—“The son of the
bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. . . . We are children
of the free” (vers. 30, 31). The two systems were irreconcilable. The law and
the Gospel cannot coexist and inherit together; the law must disappear before
the Gospel. The higher absorbs the lower. The Church of the future, the
spiritual seed of Abraham gathered out of all nations, has no part in legalism.
It embraces blessings of which Mosaism had no conception—“an inheritance
incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away” (1 Pet. i. 4).
Lessons.—1. The law and the Gospel differ fundamentally. 2. The law
imposes intolerable burdens. 3. The Gospel abrogates the law by providing a higher spiritual
obedience.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 21–31. Legal Bondage and
Spiritual Freedom contrasted—
- In their inception and development
(vers. 21–27).
- In their ceaseless antagonism
(ver. 29).
- In their inevitable results
(vers. 28, 30, 31).
Ver. 21. A Lesson from the Law—
- Addressed to those eager for its
subjection.—“Ye that desire to be
under the law.”
- Is suggestive of solemn warning.
- Should be seriously pondered.—“Tell
me, do ye not hear the law?”
Ver. 26. Jerusalem Above.
I. The Church of Christ as she exists
in the present world.—“Jerusalem,
above and free.”
1. Above; that is, seen in connection
with God and the scenes of the heavenly
world.—(1) Her Head is from above.
(2) If we take the Church as a whole,
though she is in part on earth, the
greater number of her members are in
heaven. (3) Our Jerusalem is above
because her members all fix their affections
there and thither then as the
great end of their profession.
2. Jerusalem above is free, and so
are her children.—From the bondage of
seeking salvation by works of law, from
the guilt of sin, from its dominion.
II. The filial sentiment with which
we ought to regard the Church of
Christ.—She is “the mother of us all.”
The general idea is, that if we are
indeed spiritual, under God, we owe
all to the Church. To her God has
committed the preservation of His
truth. In stormy times she has
sheltered her lamps in the recesses of
the sanctuary, and in happier times
has placed them on high to guide and
save. The Spirit of God is in the
Church. To her you owe your
hallowed fellowships. In the Church
it is that God manifests Himself.
III. The animating anticipations
we are thus taught to form of the
Church as glorified.—Turn to the
description given in Revelation xxi.
1. Mark the wall great and high—denoting
the perfect, impregnable
security of those who dwell there.
2. At the gates are angels—still ushering
in the heirs of salvation and disdaining
not to be porters to this glorious city.
3. Mark the foundations, garnished
with all manner of precious stones—implying
permanency. 4. Mark the
circumstance that in the twelve
foundations are inscribed the names
of the twelve apostles—the whole
being the result of their doctrine.
5. The whole city is a temple all filled
with the presence and glory of God.
No holiest of all is there where every
part is most holy. All are filled,
sanctified, beatified, by the fully manifested
presence of God. He is all in
all; all things in and to all.—Richard
Watson.
Jerusalem a Type of the Universal
Church.
I. God chose Jerusalem above all
other places to dwell in. The Church
catholic is the company chosen to be
the particular people of God.
II. Jerusalem is a city compact in
itself by reason of the bond of love
and order among the citizens. In like
sort the members of the Church
catholic are linked together by the
bond of one Spirit.
III. In Jerusalem was the sanctuary,
a place of God’s presence, where
the promise if the seed of the woman
was preserved till the coming of the
Messiah. Now the Church catholic
is in the room of the sanctuary, in it
we must seek the presence of God and
the Word of life.
IV. In Jerusalem was the throne of
David. In the Church catholic is the
throne or sceptre of Christ.
V. The commendation of a city, as
Jerusalem, is the subjection and
obedience of the citizens. In the
Church catholic all believers are citizens,
and they yield voluntary obedience
and subjection to Christ their King.
VI. As in Jerusalem the names of
the citizens were enrolled in a register,
so the names of all the members of
the Church catholic are enrolled in the
Book of Life.
VII. The Church catholic is said to
be above: 1. In respect to her beginning.
2. Because she dwells by faith
in heaven with Christ.—Perkins.
Ver. 28. Believers Children of Promise.
I. The character.—1. Believers are
the children of promise by regeneration.
2. By spiritual nourishment. 3. In respect
of education. 4. With respect to
assimilation, likeness, and conformity.
II. State the comparison.—1. Isaac
was the child of Abraham, not by
natural power. Believers are children
of Abraham by virtue of promise.
2. Isaac was the fruit of prayer, as well
as the child of the promise. 3. Isaac’s
birth was the joy of his parents. Even
so with reference to believers. 4. Isaac
was born not after the flesh, but by
the promise; not of the bondwoman,
but of the free. So, believers are not
under the law. 5. Isaac was no sooner
born but he was mocked by Ishmael;
so, it is now. 6. Isaac was the heir
by promise, though thus persecuted.
Even so believers.
III. How the promise hath such
virtue for begetting children to God.—1. As
it is the discovery of Divine love.
2. The object of faith. 3. The ground
of hope. 4. The seed of regeneration.
5. The communication of grace.
6. The chariot of the Spirit.
Inferences.—1. If believers are
children of promise, then boasting is
excluded. 2. Then salvation is free.
3. The happiness and dignity of believers—they
are the children of God.—Pulpit Assistant.
Ver. 29. On Persecution.
I. That no privilege of the Church
can exempt her from persecution.—1. From
the consideration of the quality
of the persons here upon the stage, the one
persecuting, the other suffering. (1) The
persecuting—“born after the flesh.”
Like Hannibal, they can part with
anything but war and contention; they
can be without their native country,
but not without an enemy. These
whet the sword, these make the furnace
of persecution seven times hotter than
it would be. The flesh is the treasury
whence these winds blow that rage and
beat down all before them. (2) The
suffering—“born after the Spirit.”
Having no security, no policy, no
eloquence, no strength, but that which
lieth in his innocency and truth, which
he carrieth about as a cure, but it is
looked upon as a persecution by those
who will not be healed. “For he must
appear,” said Seneca, “as a fool that
he may be wise, as weak that he may
be strong, as base and vile that he
may be more honourable.” If thou be an
Isaac, thou shalt find an Ishmael.
2. From the nature and constitution
of the Church which in this world is
ever militant.—Persecution is the
honour, the prosperity, the flourishing
condition of the Church. When her
branches were lopped off she spread
the more, when her members were
dispersed there were more gathered
to her, when they were driven about
the world they carried that sweet-smelling
savour about them which
drew in multitudes to follow them.
3. From the providence and wisdom
of God who put this enmity between these
two seeds.—God’s method is best. That
is method and order with Him which
we take to be confusion, and that which
we call persecution is His art, His way
of making saints. In Abraham’s family
Ishmael mocketh and persecuteth
Isaac, in the world the synagogue
persecuteth the Church, and in the
Church one Christian persecuteth
another. It was so, it is so, and it
will be so to the end of the world.
II. The lessons of persecution.—1. The
persecution of the Church should
not create surprise. 2. Not to regard
the Church and the world as alike.
3. Build ourselves up in faith so as to
be prepared for the fiery trial. 4. Love
the truth you profess. 5. Be renewed in
spirit.—A. Farindon.
Ver. 30. Cast out the Bondwoman
and her Son.—To cast out is an act of
violence, and the true Church evermore
hath the suffering part. How
shall the Church cast out those of her
own house and family? 1. By the
vehemency of our prayers that God
would either melt their hearts or
shorten their hands, either bring them
into the right way, or strike off their
chariot wheels. 2. By our patience
and longsuffering. 3. By our innocency
of life and sincerity of conversation.
4. By casting our burden upon the
Lord.—Ibid.
The Fate of Unbelievers.
I. All hypocrites, mockers of the
grace of God, shall be cast forth of
God’s family, though for a time they
bear a sway therein. This is the
sentence of God. Let us therefore
repent of our mocking and become
lovers of the grace of God.
II. The persecution of the people of
God shall not be perpetual, for the
persecuting bondwoman and her son
must be cast out.
III. All justiciary people and
persons that look to be saved and
justified before God by the law, either
in whole or in part, are cast out of
the Church of God, and have no
part in the kingdom of heaven. The
casting out of Hagar and Ishmael is
a figure of the rejection of all such.—Perkins.
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.
Ver. 1. Stand fast in.—Stand up to, make your stand for. The liberty wherewith Christ has
made you free.—As Christ has given you this liberty you are bound to stand fast in it. Be not
entangled.—Implicated in a way which involves violence to true spontaneous life. The yoke
of bondage.—Contrasted with the yoke of Christ, which is compatible with the fullest spiritual
freedom.
Ver. 2. If ye be circumcised.—Not simply as a national rite, but as a symbol of Judaism and
legalism in general; as necessary to justification. Christ shall profit you nothing.—The
Gospel of grace is at an end. He who is circumcised is so fearing the law, and he who fears
disbelieves the power of grace, and he who disbelieves can profit nothing by that grace which
he disbelieves (Chrysostom).
Ver. 5 Wait for the hope of righteousness.—Righteousness, in the sense of justification, is
already attained, but the consummation of it in future perfection is the object of hope to be
waited for.
Ver. 6. Faith which worketh by love.—Effectually worketh, exhibits its energy by love,
and love is the fulfilling of the law.
Ver. 9. A little leaven.—Of false doctrine, a small amount of evil influence.
Ver. 10. He that troubleth you.—The leaven traced to personal agency; whoever plays the
troubler. Shall bear his judgment.—Due and inevitable condemnation from God.
Ver. 11. Then is the offence of the cross ceased.—The offence, the stumbling-block, to the
Jew which roused his anger was not the shame of Messiah crucified, but the proclamation of
free salvation to all, exclusive of the righteousness of human works.
Ver. 12. I would they were cut off which trouble you.—Self-mutilated, an imprecation more
strongly expressed in chap. i. 8, 9. Christian teachers used language in addressing Christians
in the then heathen world that would be regarded as intolerable in modern Christendom,
purified and exalted by Christ through their teachings.
Ver. 13. Use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh.—Do not give the flesh the handle or
pretext for its indulgence, which it eagerly seeks for. By love serve one another.—If ye
must be in bondage, be servants to one another in love.
Ver. 15. If ye bite and devour one another, . . . consumed.—Figures taken from the rage
of beasts of prey. The biting of controversy naturally runs into the devouring of controversial
mood waxing fierce with indulgence. And the controversialists, each snapping at and gnawing
his antagonist, forget the tendency is to consume the Christian cause. Strength of soul,
health of body, character, and resources, are all consumed by broils.
Ver. 18. If ye be led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law.—Under no irksome restraint.
To him who loves, law is not irksome bondage but delightful direction. Active spiritual life
is a safeguard against lawless affection.
Ver. 19. The works of the flesh.—1. Sensual vices—“adultery [omitted in the oldest MSS.],
fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness.” 2. Theological vices—“idolatry, witchcraft.”
3. Malevolent vices—“hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings,
murders.” 4. Vices of excess—“drunkenness, revellings.”
Ver. 22. The fruit of the Spirit.—The singular fruit, as compared with the plural works,
suggests that the effect of the Spirit’s inworking is one harmonious whole, while carnality
tends to multitudinousness, distraction, chaos. We are not to look for a rigorous logical
classification in either catalogue. Generally, the fruit of the Spirit may be arranged as:
I. Inward graces—“love, joy, peace.” II. Graces towards man—“longsuffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith.” III. A more generic form of inward graces—“meekness, temperance.”
Ver. 23. Against such there is no law.—So far from being against love, law commands it.
Ver. 24. Have crucified the flesh.—Not human nature, but depraved human nature. With
the affections and lusts.—Affections refer to the general frame of mind; the lusts to special
proclivities or habits.
Ver. 26. Not to be desirous of vainglory, provoking [challenging], envying one
another.—Vaingloriousness
provokes contention; contention produces envy.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verse 1.
Christian Liberty—
I. Should be valued considering how it was obtained.—“The liberty wherewith
Christ hath made us free.” It is a liberty purchased at a great cost.
Christ, the Son of God, became incarnated, suffered in a degree unparalleled
and incomprehensible, and died the shameful and ignoble death of the crucified
to win back the liberty man had forfeited by voluntary sin. The redemption of
man was hopeless from himself, and but for the intervention of a competent
Redeemer he was involved in utter and irretrievable bondage. Civil liberty,
though the inalienable right of every man, has been secured as the result
of great struggle and suffering. “With a great sum,” said the Roman captain
to Paul, “obtained I this freedom;” and many since his day have had to pay
dearly for the common rights of citizenship. But Christian liberty should be
valued as the choicest privilege, remembering it was purchased by the suffering
Christ, and that it has been defended through the ages by a noble army of
martyrs.
II. Should remind us of the oppression from which it delivers.—“And be
not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” The Galatians had been bondmen,
enslaved by the worship of false and vile deities. If they rush into the
snare of the legalists, they will be bondmen again, and their bondage will be
the more oppressive now they have tasted the joys of freedom. Disobedience
involves us in many entanglements. It is among the most potent of the energies
of sin that leads astray by blinding and blinds by leading astray; that the
soul, like the strong champion of Israel, must have its eyes put out, when it
would be bound with fetters of brass and condemned to grind in the prisonhouse
(Judg. xvi. 21). Redemption from the slavery of sin should fill the
heart with gratitude. A wealthy and kind Englishman once bought a poor
Negro for twenty pieces of gold. He presented him with a sum of money that
he might buy a piece of land and furnish himself a home. “Am I really free?
May I go whither I will?” cried the Negro in the joy of his heart. “Well, let
me be your slave, massa; you have redeemed me, and I owe all to you.” The
gentleman took him into his service, and he never had a more faithful servant.
How much more eagerly should we do homage and service to the divine Master,
who Himself has made us free!
III. Should be rigorously maintained.—“Stand fast therefore.” The price
of freedom is incessant vigilance; once gained it is a prize never to be lost, and
no effort or sacrifice should be grudged in its defence. “As far as I am a
Christian,” said Channing, “I am free. My religion lays on me not one chain.
It does not hem me round with a mechanical ritual, does not enjoin forms,
attitudes, and hours of prayer, does not descend to details of dress and food, does
not put on me one outward badge. It teaches us to do good but leaves us to
devise for ourselves the means by which we may best serve mankind.” The
spirit of Christian liberty is eternal. Jerusalem and Rome may strive to imprison
it. They might as well seek to bind the winds of heaven. Its seat is the throne
of Christ. It lives by the breath of His Spirit. Not to be courageous and
faithful in its defence is disloyalty to Christ and treachery to our fellow-men.
Lessons.—1. Christ is the true Emancipator of men. 2. Christian liberty does
not violate but honours the law of love. 3. Liberty is best preserved by being
consistently exercised.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSE.
Ver. 1. Freedom from Bondage.—1. Every
man by nature is a bondslave,
being under the bondage of sin.
The Jews were under bondage to the
ceremonial law, involving great trouble,
pain in the flesh, and great expense.
2. Jesus Christ by His obedience
and death has purchased freedom and
liberty to His Church—liberty not
to do evil, nor from the yoke of new
obedience, nor from the cross, nor
from that obedience and reverence
which inferiors owe to superiors; but
from the dominion of sin, the tyranny
of Satan, the curse and irritating
power of the law, and from subjecting
our consciences to the rites, doctrines,
ceremonies, and laws of men in the
matter of worship. 3. Though civil
liberty be much desired, so ignorant
are we of the worth of freedom from
spiritual bondage that we can hardly
be excited to seek after it, or made to
stand to it when attained, but are in
daily hazard of preferring our former
bondage to our present liberty.—Fergusson.
Bondage and Liberty.
I. We are in bondage under sin.
II. We are subject to punishment.—Implying:
1. Bondage under Satan,
who keeps unrepentant sinners in his
snare. 2. Bondage under an evil
conscience, which sits in the heart as
accuser and judge, and lies like a wild
beast at a man’s door ready to pluck
out his throat. 3. Bondage under the
wrath of God and fear of eternal
death.
III. We are in bondage to the
ceremonial law.—To feel this bondage
is a step out of it; not to feel it is to
be plunged into it.
IV. We have spiritual liberty by
the grace of God.—1. Christian liberty
is a deliverance from misery. (1) From
the curse of the law for the breach
thereof. (2) From the obligation of
the law whereby it binds us to perfect
righteousness in our own persons.
(3) From the observance of the
ceremonial law of Moses. (4) From
the tyranny and dominion of sin.
2. Christian liberty is freedom in
good things. (1) In the voluntary
service of God. (2) In the free use
of all the creatures of God. (3) Liberty
to come to God and in prayer to be
heard. (4) To enter heaven.
V. Christ is the great Liberator.—He
procured this liberty: 1. By the
merit of His death. The price paid—His
precious blood—shows the excellence
of the blessing, and that it
should be esteemed. 2. By the efficacy
of His Spirit—assuring us of our
adoption and abating the strength
and power of sin.
VI. We are to hold fast our liberty
in the day of trial.—1. We must
labour that religion be not only in
mind and memory but rooted in the
heart. 2. We must join with our
religion the soundness of a good conscience.
3. We must pray for all
things needful.—Perkins.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 2–6.
Christianity Superior to External Rites.
I. External rites demand universal obedience.—“Every man that is circumcised
is a debtor to do the whole law” (ver. 3). The Galatians were in a state
of dangerous suspense. They were on the brink of a great peril. Another step
and they would be down the precipice. That step was circumcision. Seeing the
imminence of the danger the apostle becomes more earnest and emphatic in his
remonstrance. He warns them that circumcision, though a matter of indifference
as an external rite, would in their case involve an obligation to keep the whole
law. This he has shown is an impossibility. They would submit themselves
to a yoke they were unable to bear, and from whose galling tyranny they would
be unable to extricate themselves. Knowing this, surely they would not be so
foolish as, deliberately and with open eyes, to commit such an act of moral suicide.
There must be a strange infatuation in ritualistic observances that tempts man
to undertake obligations he is powerless to perform, utterly heedless of the most
explicit and faithful warnings.
II. Dependence on external rites is an open rejection of Christ.—“Christ
shall profit you nothing; . . . is become of no effect unto you; ye are fallen from
grace” (vers. 2, 4). Here the result of a defection from the Gospel is placed in
the most alarming aspect and should give pause to the wildest fanatic. It is
the forfeiture of all Christian privileges, it is a complete rejection of Christ, it is
a loss of all the blessings won by faith, it is a fall into the gulf of despair and
ruin. It cannot be too plainly understood, nor too frequently iterated, that
excessive devotion to external rites means the decline and extinction of true
religion. Ritualism supplants Jesus Christ. “It is evident that the disciples
of the Church of Rome wish to lead us from confession and absolution to
the doctrine of transubstantiation, thence to the worship of images, and
thence to all the abuses which at the end of the fifteenth century and at the
beginning of the sixteenth excited the anger and scorn of Luther, Calvin,
Zwinglius, and others. The primary faith of the Reformers is in the words
of Christ. The primary faith of the ritualists is in Aristotle. If the British
nation is wise, it will not allow the Roman Church with its infallible head, or the
ritualists with their mimic ornaments, or those who are deaf to the teachings
of Socrates and Cicero, of Bacon and Newton, to deprive them of the inestimable
blessings of the Gospel.”
III. Christianity as a spiritual force is superior to external rites.—1. It
bases the hope of righteousness on faith. “For we through the Spirit wait for
the hope of righteousness by faith” (ver. 5). Look on this picture and on
that. Yonder are the Galatians, all in tumult about the legalistic proposals,
debating which of the Hebrew feasts they shall celebrate and with what rites,
absorbed in the details of Mosaic ceremony, all but persuaded to be circumcised
and to settle their scruples out of hand by a blind submission to the law.
And here on the other side is Paul with the Church of the Spirit, walking
in the righteousness of faith and the communion of the Holy Spirit, joyfully
awaiting the Saviour’s final coming and the hope that is laid up in heaven. How
vexed, how burdened, how narrow and puerile is the one condition; how large,
lofty, and secure the other! Faith has its great ventures; it has also its seasons
of endurance, its moods of quiet expectancy, its unweariable patience. It can
wait as well as work (Findlay).
2. Faith is a spiritual exercise revealing itself in active love.—“Faith worketh
by love” (ver. 6). In ver. 5 we have the statics of the religion of Christ; in
ver. 6 its dynamics. Love is the working energy of faith. “Love gives faith
hands and feet; hope lends it wings. Love is the fire at its heart, the life-blood
coursing in its veins; hope the light that gleams and dances in its eyes.” In
the presence of an active spiritual Christianity, animated by love to Christ and
to men, ritualism diminishes into insignificance. “In Jesus Christ neither
circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision” (ver. 6). The Jew is no
better or worse a Christian because he is circumcised; the Gentile no worse or
better because he is not. Love, which is the fulfilling of the law, is the essence
of Christianity, and gives it the superiority over all external rites.
Lessons.—1. Externalism in religion imposes intolerable burdens. 2. To prefer
external rites is an insult to Christ. 3. The superiority of Christianity is its
spiritual character.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 2–4. Christianity nullified by
Legalism.
- To accept legalism is to reject
Christ (vers. 2, 4).
- Legalism demands universal
obedience to its enactments (ver. 3).
- Legalism is a disastrous abandonment
of Christianity.—“Ye are
fallen from grace” (ver. 4).
Vers. 5, 6. Righteousness attained by
Active Faith.—1. No personal righteousness
entitles us to the blessed hope of
the heavenly inheritance, but only the
righteousness of Christ apprehended
by faith. It is only the efficacious
teaching of God’s spirit which can
sufficiently instruct us in the knowledge
of this righteousness and make us with
security and confidence venture our
hope of heaven upon it. 2. To impose
the tie of a command on anything as
a necessary part of Divine worship
wherein the Word has left us free, or
to subject ourselves to such command,
is a receding from and betrayal of
Christian liberty. 3. The sum of a
Christian’s task is faith; but it is
always accompanied with the grace of
love. Though faith and love are conjoined,
faith, in the order of nature,
has the precedency.—Fergusson.
Ver. 6. Religion is Faith working by
Love.
I. External and bodily privileges
are of no use and moment in the
kingdom of Christ.—1. We are not
to esteem men’s religion by their
riches and external dignities. 2. We
are to moderate our affections in
respect of all outward things, neither
sorrowing too much for them nor
joying too much in them.
II. Faith is of great use and acceptance
in the kingdom of Christ.—1. We
must labour to conceive faith
aright in our hearts, by the use of the
right means—the Word, prayer, and
sacraments, and in and by the
exercises of spiritual invocation and
repentance. 2. Faith in Christ must
reign and bear sway in our hearts and
have command over reason, will, affection,
lust. 3. It is to be bewailed that
the common faith of our day is but a
ceremonial faith.
III. True faith works by love.—Faith
is the cause of love, and love is
the fruit of faith.—Perkins.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 7–12.
Disturber of the Faith—
I. Checks the prosperous career of the most ardent Christian.—“Ye did run
well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?” (ver. 7). The
Galatians were charmed with the truth as it fell from the lips of the apostle;
it was to them a new revelation; they eagerly embraced it, it changed their
lives, and they strove to conform their conduct to its high moral teachings.
The apostle was delighted with the result and commended their Christian
enthusiasm. They were running finely. But the intrusion of false teaching
changed all this. Their progress was arrested, their faith was disturbed, they
wavered in their allegiance, and were in danger of losing all the advantages they
had gained. The influence of false doctrine is always baneful, especially so to
new beginners, in whom the principles of truth have not become firmly rooted.
The loss of truth, like inability to believe, may be traced back to an unhealthy
corruption of the mind. The great danger of unsound doctrine lies in this, that,
like a cancer, it rankles because it finds in the diseased condition of the religious
life ever fresh nourishment.
II. Is opposed to the Divine method of justification.—“This persuasion
cometh not of Him that calleth you” (ver. 8). The disturber of the Galatians
taught a human method of salvation—a salvation by the works of the law. This
was diametrically opposed to the Divine calling, which is an invitation to the
whole race to seek salvation by faith. The persuasion to which the Galatians
were yielding was certainly not of God. It was a surrender to the enemy. All
error is a wild fighting against God, an attempt to undermine the foundations
that God has fixed for man’s safety and happiness.
III. Suggests errors that are contagious in their evil influence.—“A little
leaven, leaveneth the whole lump” (ver. 9). A proverbial expression the meaning
of which is at once obvious. A small infusion of false doctrine, or the evil
influence of one bad person, corrupts the purity of the Gospel. It is a fact well
known in the history of science and philosophy that men, gifted by nature with
singular intelligence, have broached the grossest errors and even sought to
undermine the grand primitive truths on which human virtue, dignity, and hope
depend. The mind that is always open to search into error is itself in error,
or at least unstable (1 Cor. xv. 33; Eccles. ix. 18).
IV. Shall not escape chastisement whatever his rank or pretensions.—1. Either
by direct Divine judgment. “He that troubleth you shall bear his
judgment, whosoever he be” (ver. 10). The reference here may be to some one
prominent among the seducers, or to any one who plays the troubler. God will
not only defend His own truth but will certainly punish the man who from
wicked motives seeks to corrupt the truth or to impair the faith of those who
have embraced it. The seducer not only deceives himself but shall suffer
judgment for his self-deception and the injury he has done to others.
2. Or by excision from the Church.—“I would they were even cut off which
trouble you” (ver. 12). An extravagant expression, as if the apostle said, “Would
that the Judaising troublers would mutilate themselves,” as was the custom with
certain heathen priests in some of their religious rites. The phrase indicates the
angry contempt of the apostle for the legalistic policy, and that the troublers
richly deserved to be excluded from the Church and all its privileges. The
patience of the Gentile champion was exhausted and found relief for the moment
in mocking invective.
V. Does not destroy the hope and faith of the true teacher.—1. He retains
confidence in the fidelity of those who have been temporarily disturbed. “I have
confidence in you through the Lord, that ye will be none otherwise minded”
(ver. 10). Notwithstanding the insidious leaven, the apostle cherishes the
assurance that his converts will after all prove leal and true at heart. He
has faithfully chided them for their defection, but his anger is directed, not
towards them, but towards those who have injured them. He is persuaded the
Galatians will, with God’s help, resume the interrupted race they were running
so well.
2. His sufferings testify that his own teaching is unchanged.—“If I preach
circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? Then is the offence of the cross
ceased” (ver. 11). The rancour and hostility of the legalists would have been
disarmed, if Paul advocated their doctrine, and the scandalous “offence of the
cross”—so intolerable to the Jewish pride—would have been done away. But the
cross was the grand vital theme of all his teaching, that in which he most
ardently gloried, and for which he was prepared to endure all possible suffering.
The value of truth to a man is what he is willing to suffer for it.
Lessons.—1. The man who perverts the truth is an enemy to his kind. 2. The
false teacher ensures his own condemnation. 3. Truth becomes more precious the
more we suffer for it.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 7–10. How Perfection is attained.—Everything
in the universe
comes to its perfection by drill and
marching—the seed, the insect, the
animal, the man, the spiritual man.
God created man at the lowest point,
and put him in a world where almost
nothing would be done for him, and
almost everything should tempt him to
do for himself.—Beecher.
Ver. 7. The Christian Life a Race.
I. Christians are runners in the
race of God.—1. They must make
haste without delay to keep the commandments
of God. It is a great fault
for youth and others to defer amendment
till old age, or till the last and
deadly sickness. That is the time to
end our running, and not to begin.
2. We are to increase and profit in all
good duties. We in this age do otherwise.
Either we stand at a stay or go
back. There are two causes for this:
(1) Blindness of mind. (2) Our unbelief
in the article of life everlasting. 3. We
must neither look to the right nor the
left hand, or to things behind, but
press forward to the prize of eternal
life. 4. We must not be moved with
the speeches of men which are given of
us, for or against. They are lookers
on and must have their speeches.
Our care must be not to heed them
but look to our course.
II. Christians must not only be
runners, but run well.—This is done
by believing and obeying, having faith
and a good conscience. These are the
two feet by which we run. We have
one good foot—our religion—which is
sound and good; but we halt on the
other foot. Our care to keep conscience
is not suitable to our religion. Three
things cause a lameness in this foot:
the lust of the eye—covetousness, the
lust of the flesh, and the pride of
life.
III. Christians must run the race
from the beginning to the end.—1. We
must cherish a love and fervent
desire of eternal life, and by this means
be drawn through all miseries and
overpass them to the end. 2. We
must maintain a constant and daily
purpose of not sinning.—Perkins.
Bad Companions.—“Bad company,”
wrote Augustine, “is like a nail driven
into a post, which, after the first or
second blow, may be drawn out with
very little difficulty; but being once
driven up to the head, the pincers
cannot take hold to draw it out, which
can only be done by the destruction of
the wood.” Of course, it is useless
to define bad company. Men and women,
boys and girls, feel instinctively when
they have fallen in with dangerous
associates; if they choose to remain
amongst them they are lost. So in the
high tides, barks of light draught will
float over Goodwin quicksands; in
summer at low tide the venturous boys
and young people will play cricket
thereon: but neither can remain long
in the neighbourhood. The time comes
when the sands are covered with but a
thin surface of water, and beneath is
the shifting, loose, wet earth, more
dangerous and treacherous than springtide
ice; and then it is that to touch is
to be drawn in, and to be drawn in is
death. So is it with bad company.—The Gentle Life.
Cowardly Retreat.—General Grant
relates that just as he was hoping to
hear a report of a brilliant movement
and victory of General Sigel, he received
an announcement from General
Halleck to this effect: “Sigel is in
full retreat on Strasburg; he will do
nothing but run; never did anything
else.” The enemy had intercepted him,
handled him roughly, and he fled.
Vers. 8–10. The Disintegrating Force
of Error.—1. Whatever persuasion
cometh not of God and is not grounded
on the Word of truth, is not to be
valued, but looked upon as a delusion
(ver. 8). 2. The Church of Christ,
and every particular member thereof,
ought carefully to resist the first
beginnings of sin, for the least of
errors and the smallest number of
seduced persons are here compared to
leaven, a little quantity of which
secretly insinuates itself and insensibly
conveys its sourness to the whole lump
(ver. 9). 3. The minister is not to
despair of the recovery of those who
oppose themselves, but ought in charity
to hope the best of all men, so long as
they are curable; and to show how
dangerous their error was by denouncing
God’s judgment against their
prime seducers (ver. 10). 4. So just
is God, He will suffer no impenitent
transgressor, however subtle, to escape
His search, or to pass free from the dint
of His avenging stroke, whoever he
be for parts, power, or estimation.—Fergusson.
Ver. 9. Reform of Bad Manners.
I. We must resist and withstand
every particular sin.—One sin is able
to defile the whole life of man. One
fly is sufficient to mar a whole box of
sweet ointment. One offence in our
first parents brought corruption on
them and all mankind; yea, on heaven
and earth.
II. We must endeavour to the
utmost to cut off every bad example
in the societies of men.—One bad
example is sufficient to corrupt a whole
family, a town, a country. A wicked
example, being suffered, spreads abroad
and does much hurt.
III. We are to withstand and cut
off the first beginnings and occasions
of sin.—We say of arrant thieves they
began to practise their wickedness in
pins and points. For this cause,
idleness, excessive eating, drinking and
swilling, riot, and vanity in apparel
are to be suppressed in every society as
the breeder of many vices.—Perkins.
Ver. 11. The Perversion of Apostolic
Preaching.—There are two attempts or
resolves in constant operation as to the
cross. One is man’s, to accommodate
to human liking and taste; the second
is God’s, to raise human liking and
taste to it.
I. The aim of man.—The following
may be named as the principal exceptions
taken to the cross by those who
rejected it:—
1. It was an improbable medium of
revelation.—Man can talk loudly how
God should manifest Himself. Shall
the cross be the oracle by which He
will speak His deepest counsels to our
race?
2. It was a stigma on this religion
which set it in disadvantageous contrast
with every other.—It was unheard of
that the vilest of all deaths should
give its absolute character to religion,
and that this religion of the cross
should triumph over all.
3. It was a violent disappointment of
a general hope.—There was a desire of
all nations. And was all that the
earliest lay rehearsed, all that the
highest wisdom enounced, only to be
wrought out in the shameful cross?
4. It was a humiliating test.—Ambition,
selfishness, insincerity, licentiousness,
ferocity, pride, felt that it
was encircled with an atmosphere in
which they were instantly interrupted
and condemned. Man is desirous of
doing this away as a wrongful and
unnecessary impression. He would
make the offence of the cross to cease:
(1) By fixing it upon some extrinsic
authority. (2) By torturing it into
coalition with foreign principles.
(3) By transforming the character of its
religious instructions. (4) By applying
it to inappropriate uses. (5) By
excluding its proper connections.
II. The procedure of God.—1. It is
necessary, if we would receive the proper
influence of the cross, that we be prepared
to hail it as a distinct revelation.
Science and the original ethics of
our nature do not fall within the
distinct province of what a revelation
intends. Its strict purpose, its proper
idea, is to make known that which is
not known, and which could not be
otherwise known. Not more directly
did the elemental light proceed from
God who called it out of darkness than
did the making known to man of
redemption by the blood of the cross.
2. When we rightly appreciate the
cross, we recognize it as the instrument
of redemption.—This was the mode of
death indicated by prophecy. The
cross stands for that death; but it is
an idle, unworthy superstition that
this mode of death wrought the stupendous
end. It is only an accessory.
We must look further into the mystery.
“He His own self bore our sin in His
own body on the tree.” It is that
awful identity, that mysterious action,
which expiates, and not the rood.
3. When our mind approves this
method of salvation, it finds in the cross
the principle of sanctification.—A new
element of thought, a new complexion
of motive, enter the soul when the
Holy Spirit shows to it the things of
Christ. We are new creatures. We
reverse all our sins and desires. We
are called unto holiness. (1) Mark
the process. We had hitherto abided
in death. But now we are quickened
with Him. (2) Mark the necessity.
Until we be brought nigh to it, until
we take hold of it, the doctrine of the
crucified Saviour is an unintelligible
and uninteresting thing. (3) Mark
the effect. There is a suddenly, though
a most intelligently, developed charm.
It is the infinite of attraction. All
concentrates on it. It absorbs the
tenderness and the majesty of the
universe. It is full of glory. Our
heart has now yielded to it, is drawn,
is held, coheres, coalesces, is itself
impregnated by the sacred effluence.
The offence of the cross has ceased.—R. W. Hamilton.
Ver. 12. Church Censure.—The spirit
of error may so far prevail among a
people that discipline can hardly attain
its end—the shaming of the person
censured, and the preservation of the
Church from being leavened. In
which case the servants of God should
proceed with slow pace, and in all lenity
and wisdom, and should rather doctrinally
declare the censures deserved
than actually inflict the censure itself.
Judgment on the Troubles of the
Church.
- God watches over His Church
with a special providence.
- The doctrine of the apostles is
of infallible certainty because the
oppugners of it are plagued with the
just judgment of God.
- Our duty is to pray for the
good estate of the Church of God, and
for the kingdoms where the Church is
planted.—Perkins.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 13–18.
Love the Highest Law of Christian Liberty.
I. Love preserves liberty from degenerating into licence.—“Only use not
liberty for an occasion to the flesh” (ver. 13). Christian liberty is a great boon,
but it also a solemn responsibility. It is hard to win and is worth the most
gigantic struggle; but the moment it is abused it is lost. Men clamour for
liberty when they mean licence—licence to indulge their unholy passions unchecked
by the restraints of law. Christian liberty is not the liberty of the
flesh, but of the Spirit, and love is the master-principle that governs and defines
all its exercises.
“He is the freeman whom the truth makes free,
And all are slaves besides.”
We know no truth, no privilege, no power, no blessing, no right, which is not
abused. But is liberty to be denied to men because they often turn it into
licentiousness? There are two freedoms—the false, where a man is free to do
what he likes; the true, where a man is free to do what he ought. Love is the
safeguard of the highest liberty.
II. Love is obedience to the highest law.—“For all the law is fulfilled in
one word, even in this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (ver. 14).
“By love serve one another” (ver. 13). We may be as orthodox as Athanasius
and as scrupulous as Jerome, we may be daily and ostentatiously building to
God seven altars and offering a bullock and a ram on every altar, and yet be as
sounding brass and as a clanging cymbal, if our life shows only the leaves of
profession without the golden fruit of action. If love shows not itself by deeds
of love, then let us not deceive ourselves. God is not mocked; our Christianity
is heathenism, and our religion a delusion and a sham. Love makes obedience
delightful, esteems it bondage to be prevented, liberty to be allowed to serve.
"Serene will be our days and bright,
And happy will our nature be,
When love is an unerring light,
And joy its own security."ÂWordsworth.
III. Love prevents the mutual destructiveness of a contentious spirit.—“But
if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of
another” (ver. 15). The condition of the Galatians at this time was very
different from the ideal Paul set before them. The quick, warm temperament
of the Gauls was roused by the Judaistic controversy, and their natural combativeness
was excited. It was easy to pick a quarrel with them at any time,
and they were eloquent in vituperation and invective. The “biting” describes
the wounding and exasperating effect of the manner in which their contentions
were carried on; “devour” warns them of its destructiveness. If this state of
things continued, the Churches of Galatia would cease to exist. Their liberty
would end in complete disintegration. Love is the remedy propounded for all
ills—the love of Christ, leading to the love of each other. Love not only cures
quarrels but prevents them.
IV. Love by obeying the law of the Spirit gains the victory in the feud
between the flesh and the Spirit.—“Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil
the lust of the flesh: . . . these are contrary the one to the other” (vers. 16, 17).
The flesh and the Spirit are rivals, and by their natures must be opposed to and
strive with each other. The strong man is dispossessed by a stronger than he—the
Spirit. The master must rule the slave. “This soul of mine must rule
this body of mine,” said John Foster, “or quit it.” The life of a Christian is
lived in a higher sphere and governed by a higher law—walking in the Spirit.
Christianity says, “Be a man, not a brute. Not do as many fleshly things as you
can but do as many spiritual things as you can.” All prohibitions are negative.
You can’t kill an appetite by starvation. You may kill the flesh by living in the
higher region of the Spirit; not merely by ceasing to live in sin, but by loving
Christ. The more we live the spiritual life, the more sin becomes impossible.
Conquest over the sensual is gained, not by repression, but by the freer, purer
life of love.
V. Love emancipates from the trammels of the law.—“If ye be led by the
Spirit, ye are not under the law” (ver. 18). The Spirit of love does not abolish
the law, but renders it harmless by fulfilling all its requirements, without being
compelled to it by its stern commands. Law does not help the soul to obey its
behests, but it has nothing to say, nothing to threaten, when those behests are
obeyed. To be under the law is to be under sin; but yielding to the influence
of the Spirit, and living according to His law, the soul is free from sin and from
the condemnation of the law. Freedom from sin, and freedom from the
trammels of the Mosaic law—these two liberties are virtually one. Love is
the great emancipator from all moral tyrannies.
Lessons.—1. Love is in harmony with the holiest law. 2. Love silences all
contention. 3. Love honours law by obeying it.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 13, 14. The Service of Love—
- Is the noblest exercise of Christian
liberty (ver. 13).
- Preserves Christian liberty from
degenerating into selfish indulgence
(ver. 13).
- Is the fulfilment of the highest
law (ver. 14).
Ver. 13. The Abuse of Christian
Liberty.
I. To use it as an occasion of
fleshly and carnal liberty.—When men
make more things indifferent than God
ever made. Thus, all abuses of meat,
drink, apparel, rioting, gaming, dicing,
and carding are excused by the names
of things indifferent.
II. Our liberty is abused by an
immoderate use of the gifts of God.—1. Many
gentlemen and others offend
when they turn recreation into an
occupation. 2. When men exceed in
eating and drinking. 3. They offend
who, being mean persons and living by
trades, yet for diet and apparel are as
great gentlemen and gentlewomen.
III. Liberty is abused when the
blessings of God are made instruments
and flags and banners to display our
riot, vanity, ostentation, and pride.—It
is the fashion of men to take unto
themselves a toleration of sinning.
Some presume on the patience of God,
others on the election of grace, and
others on the mercy of God. A certain
dweller in Cambridge made away with
himself. In his bosom was found a
writing to this effect: that God did
show mercy on great and desperate
sinners, and therefore he hoped for
mercy though he hanged himself. Of
this mind are many ignorant persons,
who persevere in their sins, yet persuade
themselves of mercy.—Perkins.
The Right Use of Christian Liberty.
I. We ourselves must be renewed
and sanctified.—The person must first
please God before the action can please
Him.
II. Besides the lawful use of the
creatures we must have a spiritual
and holy use of them.—1. The creatures
of God must be sanctified by the Word
and prayer. 2. We must be circumspect
lest we sin in the use of the creatures.
In these days there is no feasting or
rejoicing unless all memory of God be
buried, for that is said to breed melancholy.
3. We must use the gifts of
God with thanksgiving. 4. We must
suffer ourselves to be limited and
moderate in the use of our liberty.
5. Our liberty must be used for right
ends—the glory of God, the preservation
of nature, and the good of our
neighbour.
III. We must give no occasion of
sinning by means of Christian liberty.—Ibid.
Ver. 14. The Law fulfilled in Love to
Others.
I. The end of man’s life is to serve
God in serving others.
II. True godliness is to love and
serve God in serving man.—To live out
of all society of men, though it be in
prayer and fasting in monkish fashion,
is no state of perfection, but mere
superstition. That is true and perfect
love of God that is showed in duties
of love and in the edification of our
neighbour. It is not enough for thee
to be holy in church; thou mayest be
a saint in church and a devil at home.—Ibid.
Regard for a Neighbour’s Rights.—Speaking
of the early American prairie
settlements a modern historian says:
“Theft was almost unknown. The
pioneers brought with them the same
rigid notions of honesty which they
had previously maintained. A man in
Mancoupin county left his waggon
loaded with corn stuck in the prairie
mud for two weeks near a frequented
road. When he returned he found
some of his corn gone, but there was
money enough tied in the sacks to pay
for what was taken.”
Ver. 15. Church Quarrels.—1. When
schism in a Church is not only maintained
on the one hand with passion,
strife, reproaches, and real injuries,
but also impugned on the other hand,
not so much with the sword of the
Spirit as with the same fleshly means,
then is it the forerunner and procuring
cause of desolation and ruin to both
parties and to the whole Church.
2. As it is a matter of great difficulty
to make men of credit and parts, being
once engaged in contentious debates, to
foresee the consequence of their doing
so further than the hoped-for victory
against the contrary party, so it were
no small wisdom, before folk meddle
with strife, seriously to consider what
woeful effects may follow to the Church
of God.—Fergusson.
Ver. 16. The Positiveness of the Divine
Life.
I. There are two ways of dealing
with every vice.—One is to set to
work directly to destroy the vice; that
is the negative way. The other is to
bring in as overwhelmingly as possible
the opposite virtue, and so to crowd
and stifle and drown out the vice; that
is the positive way. Everywhere the
negative and positive methods of treatment
stand over against each other,
and men choose between them. A
Church is full of errors and foolish
practices. It is possible to attack
those follies outright, showing conclusively
how foolish they are; or it is
possible, and it is surely better, to wake
up the true spiritual life in that Church
which shall itself shed those follies and
cast them out, or at least rob them of
their worst harmfulness. The application
of the same principle is seen in
matters of taste, matters of reform, and
in matters of opinion.
II. In St. Paul and in all the New
Testament there is nothing more beautiful
than the clear, open, broad way
in which the positive culture of
human character is adopted and employed.—We
can conceive of a God
standing over His moral creatures, and,
whenever they did anything wrong,
putting a heavy hand on the malignant
manifestation and stifling it, and so at
last bringing them to a tight, narrow,
timid goodness—the God of repression.
The God of the New Testament is not
that. We can conceive of another
God who shall lavish and pour upon
His children the chances and temptations
to be good; in every way shall
make them see the beauty of goodness;
shall so make life identical with goodness
that every moment spent in
wickedness shall seem a waste, almost
a death; shall so open His Fatherhood
and make it real to them that the
spontaneousness of the Father’s holiness
is re-echoed in the child; not the
God of restraint, but the God whose
symbols are the sun, the light, the
friend, the fire—everything that is
stimulating, everything that fosters,
encourages, and helps. When we read
in the New Testament, lo, that is the
God whose story is written there, the
God whose glory we see in the face of
Jesus Christ. The distinction is everywhere.
Not merely by trying not
to sin, but by entering further and
further into the new life in which,
when it is completed, sin becomes
impossible; not by merely weeding out
wickedness, but by a new and supernatural
cultivation of holiness, does
the saint of the New Testament walk
on the ever-ascending pathway of
growing Christliness and come at last
perfectly to Christ.
III. This character of the New
Testament must be at bottom in conformity
with human nature.—The
Bible and its Christianity are not in
contradiction against the nature of the
man they try to save. They are at
war with his corruptions, and, in his
own interest, they are for ever labouring
to assert and re-establish his true
self. Man’s heart is always rebelling
against repression as a continuous and
regular thing. There is a great human
sense that not suppression, but expression
is the true life. It is the self-indulgence
of the highest and not the
self-surrender of the lowest that is the
great end of the Gospel. The self-sacrifice
of the Christian is always
an echo of the self-sacrifice of Christ.
Nothing can be more unlike the repressive
theories of virtue in their
methods and results than the way in
which Christ lived His positive life, full
of force and salvation. The way to
get out of self-love is to love God.
“Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall
not fulfil the lust of the flesh.”—Phillips Brooks.
The Flesh and the Spirit.
I. When St. Paul talks of man’s
flesh he means by it man’s body, man’s
heart and brain, and all his bodily
appetites and powers—what we call
a man’s constitution, the animal part
of man. Man is an animal with an
immortal spirit in it, and this spirit
can feel more than pleasure and pain;
it can feel trust, hope, peace, love,
purity, nobleness, independence, and,
above all, it can feel right and wrong.
There is the infinite difference between
an animal and man, between our flesh
and our spirit; an animal has no sense
of right and wrong.
II. There has been many a man in
this life, who had every fleshly enjoyment
which this world can give, and
yet whose spirit was in hell all the
while, and who knew it; hating and
despising himself for a mean, selfish
villain, while all the world round was
bowing down to him and envying him
as the luckiest of men. A man’s flesh
can take no pleasure in spiritual things,
while man’s spirit of itself can take no
pleasure in fleshly things. Wickedness,
like righteousness, is a spiritual thing.
If a man sins, his body is not in fault;
it is his spirit, his weak, perverse will,
which will sooner listen to what his
flesh tells him is pleasant than to what
God tells him is right. This is the
secret of the battle of life.
III. Because you are all fallen
creatures there must go on in you
this sore lifelong battle between your
spirit and your flesh—your spirit
trying to be master and guide, and
your flesh rebelling and trying to conquer
your spirit and make you a mere
animal, like a fox in cunning, a peacock
in vanity, or a hog in greedy
sloth. It is your sin and your shame
if your spirit does not conquer your
flesh, for God has promised to help
your spirit. Ask Him, and His Spirit
will fill you with pure, noble hopes,
with calm, clear thoughts, and with
deep, unselfish love to God and man;
and instead of being the miserable
slave of your own passions, and of the
opinions of your neighbours, you will
find that where the Spirit of the Lord
is there is liberty, true freedom, not
only from your neighbours’ sins, but,
what is far better, freedom from your
own.—C. Kingsley.
Walking in the Spirit.
I. The Spirit is a Divine nature,
quality, or condition whereby we are
made conformable to Christ.—1. It is
a rich and liberal grace of God. It
contains the seeds of all virtues. 2. Its
largeness. The Spirit is in all the
powers of them who are regenerate in
mind, conscience, will, affections, and
in the sensual appetite. 3. Its sincerity.
The grace of God is without
falsehood or guile. 4. Its excellency.
The spirit of grace in Christians is
more excellent than the grace of creation,
in respect of the beginning
thereof, and in respect of constancy.
5. Its liveliness, whereby the Spirit is
effectual in operation. (1) The Spirit
works in and by the Word of God.
(2) Works by degrees, to make us feel
our need of Christ, and to kindle in us
a desire for reconciliation with God.
(3) Works to write the law in our
hearts.
II. Walking in the Spirit is to order
our lives according to the direction
and motion of the Spirit.—1. The
Spirit renews our nature. (1) Makes
us put a further beginning to our
actions than nature can, causing us
to do them in faith. (2) To do our
actions in a new manner, in obedience
to the Word. (3) Makes us put on a new
end to our actions—to intend and
desire to honour God. 2. We must
become spiritual men. Must do things
lawful in a spiritual manner. 3. We
must not judge any man’s estate before
God by any one or some few actions,
good or bad, but by his walking, by
the course of his life.—Perkins.
Ver. 17. The Strife of the Flesh and
Spirit.
I. Man, under the influence of corruption,
is called flesh.—He may be
said to be a spiritual being because he
is possessed of an immortal spirit; but
the term flesh seems to be awfully
appropriate, because he is wholly and
exclusively under the dominion of
matter. In the text it implies the
evil principle that inhabits the bosom
of man. It is the mighty autocrat of
humanity in the wreck of the Fall.
Sin is such a mighty monster that
none can bind him in fetters of iron
and imprison him but God Himself.
In the operation of weaving, different
materials cross each other in the warp
and woof in order to make one whole,
and this is the case with the family of
heaven here below. Sin and grace are
perpetually crossing each other.
II. The spiritual offspring which is
born of God is called the new man.—It
is the junior offspring, the junior
disposition, the offspring of the second
Adam. Corruption has its root only
in humanity. Not so with grace.
This springs alone from God. The new
man lives in Him; his head is above
the skies, his feet lower than hell; and
the reason why he is destined to be
conqueror is that he fights in and under
the inspiration of Heaven.
III. These two principles are in a
state of ceaseless warfare, ever opposed
to each other.—They are like
two armies, sometimes encamped, at
others engaged in terrible conflict;
but, whether apparently engaged or
not, each seeks the destruction of the
other perpetually. They are and must
be ever opposed, till one fall; one must
perish and the other live eternally.
Where there is no conflict there can be
no grace.
IV. Consider the wisdom and valour
evinced by this new principle.—It is
illumined by the Spirit and by the
truth of God. The sun does not give
me an eye. God alone can confer this
organ; yet it is equally true my eye
must attain its full vigour in the light
of the sun: so the external means are
necessary to teach us what God is, and
to develop all the principles of the new
man, to clothe it with the panoply of
Deity, and to lead it on from battle to
battle, and from victory to victory, till
the last battle is eventually fought,
the last victory won, and the fruits
of triumph enjoyed for ever.—William
Howels.
Ver. 18. The Leading of the Spirit.—1. The
new man performs the office
of guide to the godly in all actions
truly spiritual. (1) As it is ruled by
the Word, which is the external light
and lantern to direct our steps.
(2) The work of grace itself is the
internal light whereby the regenerate
man spiritually understands the things
of God. (3) The same work of grace
being actuated by the continual supply
of exciting grace from the Spirit is a
strengthening guide to all spiritual
actions. 2. The natural man is so
much a slave to his sinful lusts that
the things appointed by God to curb
and make them weaker are so far from
bringing this about that his lusts are
thereby enraged and made more violent.
The rigidity of the law, which tends to
restrain sin, is turned by the unregenerate
man into an occasion for
fulfilling his lusts.—Fergusson.
The Guidance of the Spirit.
I. Preservation, whereby the Holy
Ghost maintains the gift of regeneration
in them that are regenerate.
II. Co-operation, whereby the will
of God, as the first cause, works together
with the regenerate will of man,
as the second cause. Without this co-operation,
man’s will brings forth no
good action; no more than the tree
which is apt to bring forth fruit yields
fruit indeed till it have the co-operation
of the sun, and that in the proper season
of the year.
III. Direction, whereby the Spirit of
God ordereth and establisheth the mind,
will, and affections in good duties.
IV. Excitation, whereby the Spirit
stirs and still moves the will and mind
after they are regenerate, because the
grace of God is hindered and oppressed
by the flesh.
V. Privilege of believers not to be
subject to the ceremonial law.—“Ye
are not under the law.” Not under
the law respecting its curse and condemnation,
though we are all under
law, as it is the rule of good life.—Perkins.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 19–21.
The Works of the Flesh—
I. Are offensively obtrusive.—“Now the works of the flesh are manifest”
(ver. 19). Sin, though at first committed in secret, will by-and-by work to the
surface and advertise itself with shameless publicity. The rulers of the civilised
world in the first century of the Christian era, such as Tiberius, Caligula, Nero,
Domitian, are the execration of history as monsters of vice and cruelty. Their
enormities would have been impossible if the people they governed had not been
equally corrupt. It is the nature of evil to develop a terrible energy the more it
is indulged, and its works are apparent in every possible form of wickedness.
“Every man blameth the devil for his sins; but the great devil, the house-devil
of every man that eateth and lieth in every man’s bosom, is that idol which
killeth all—himself.”
II. Furnish a revolting catalogue.—The sins enumerated may be grouped
into four classes:—
1. Sensual passions.—“Adultery [omitted in the oldest MSS.], fornication,
uncleanness, lasciviousness” (ver. 19). Fornication was practically universal.
Few were found, even among severe moralists, to condemn it. It is a prostitution
of the physical nature which Jesus Christ wore and still wears, which He claims
for the temple of His Spirit, and will raise from the dead to share His
immortality. Uncleanness is the general quality of licentiousness, and includes
whatever is contaminating in word or look, in gesture or in dress, in thought or
sentiment. Lasciviousness is uncleanness open and shameless. It is the final
loathsome analysis of the works of the flesh.
2. Unlawful dealing in things spiritual.—“Idolatry, witchcraft [sorcery],”
(ver. 20). Idolatry and sensuality have always been closely related. Some of
the most popular pagan systems were purveyors of lust and lent to it the
sanctions of religion. When man loses the true conception of God he becomes
degraded. Sorcery is closely allied to idolatry. A low, naturalistic notion of the
Divine lends itself to immoral purposes. Men try to operate upon it by material
causes, and to make it a partner in evil. Magical charms are made the instruments
of unholy indulgence.
3. Violations of brotherly love.—“Hatred [enmities], variance [strife], emulations
[jealousies], wrath [ragings], strife [factions], seditions [divisions], heresies
[keen controversial partisanship], envyings, murders” (vers. 20, 21). A horrible
progeny of evils having their source in a fruitful hotbed of unreasoning hatred,
each vice preying upon and feeding the other. Settled rancour is the worst form
of contentiousness. It nurses its revenge, waiting, like Shylock, for the time
when it shall “feed fat its ancient grudge.”
4. Intemperate excesses.—“Drunkenness, revellings, and such like” (ver. 21).
These are the vices of a barbarous people. Our Teutonic and Celtic forefathers
were alike prone to this kind of excess. The Greeks were a comparatively sober
people. The Romans were more notorious for gluttony than for hard drinking.
The practice of seeking pleasure in intoxication is a remnant of savagery which
exists to a shameful extent in our own country. With Europe turned into one
vast camp, and its nations groaning audibly under the weight of their armaments,
with hordes of degrading women infesting the streets of its cities, with discontent
and social hatred smouldering throughout its industrial populations, we have
small reason to boast of the triumphs of modern civilisation. Better circumstances
do not make better men (Findlay).
III. Exclude the sinner from the kingdom of God.—“They which do such
things shall not inherit the kingdom of God” (ver. 21). How poor life seems
outside that kingdom! How beautiful and glorious inside its gates! If I tried
to tell you how Christ brings us there, I should repeat to you once more the old
familiar story. He comes and lives and dies and rises again for us. He touches us with
gratitude. He sets before our softened lives His life. He makes us see the
beauty of holiness and the strength of the spiritual life in Him. He transfers
His life to us through the open channel of faith, and so we come to live as He
lives, by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. How old the
story is, but how endlessly fresh and true to him whose own career it describes
(Phillips Brooks). Exclusion from the kingdom of God is man’s own act; it is
self-exclusion. He will not enter in; he loves darkness rather than light.
Lessons.—1. Sin is an active principle whose works are perniciously evident.
2. Sin is the primal cause of every possible vice. 3. Sin persisted in involves
moral ruin.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 19–21. Biblical Account of
Sin.—A mournful catalogue of words,
based on a great variety of images, is
employed in Scripture to describe the
state of sinfulness which man inherits
from his birth. Sometimes it is set
forth as the missing of a mark or aim;
sometimes as the transgressing of a
line—the word occurs seven times in
the New Testament and is twice
applied to Adam’s Fall (Rom. v. 14;
1 Tim. ii. 14); sometimes as disobedience
to a voice, i.e. to hear carelessly,
to take no need of—the word
occurs three times (Rom. v. 19;
2 Cor. x. 6; Heb. ii. 2); sometimes
as ignorance of what we ought to have
done (Heb. ix. 7); sometimes as a
defect or discomfiture—to be worsted,
because, as Gerhard says, “A sinner
yields to, is worsted by, the temptations
of the flesh and of Satan”; sometimes
as a debt (Matt. vi. 12); sometimes as
disobedience to law—the word occurs
fourteen times in the New Testament
and is generally translated by “iniquity.”
The last figure employed in the most
general definition of sin given in the
New Testament—sin is the transgression
of the law (1 John iii. 4).—Trench
and Maclear.
The Works of the Flesh.
I. Sins against chastity.—Adultery,
fornication, uncleanness, wantonness.
1. We must stock up the root of these
things, mortify the passion of concupiscence.
2. All occasions of these sins
must be cut off, two especially, idleness
and the pampering of the body. 3. All
signs of these vices must be avoided, any
speech or action that may give suspicion
of incontinent disposition, as light talk,
wanton behaviour, curiousness and
excess in trimming of the body,
suspected company.
II. Sins against religion.—Idolatry,
witchcraft, heresies.
III. Sins against charity.—Enmity,
debate, emulations, anger, contention,
seditions.
IV. Sins against temperance.—Drunkenness,
gluttony. 1. We may
use meat and drink not only for
necessity, but also for delight. 2. That
measure of meat and drink which in
our experience makes us fit both in
body and mind for the service of God
and the duties of our calling is convenient
and lawful. To be given to
drinking and to love to sit by the cup,
when there is no drunkenness, is a sin.
Drunkenness: (1) Destroys the body.
(2) Hurts the mind. (3) Vile imaginations
and affections that are in men
when they are drunk remain in them
when they are sober, so being sober
they are drunk in affection.—Perkins.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 22–26.
The Fruit of the Spirit—
I. Is evident in manifold Christian virtues.—1. Virtues describing a general
state of heart. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace” (ver. 22). Love is
foremost of the group of Christian graces, and gives a nameless charm to all the
rest, for there is an element of love in all true goodness. Love derives its power
from being in the first place, love to God. When the soul centres its affection
in God through Christ all its outgoings are influenced and regulated accordingly.
Joy is the product of love. A philosophy or religion which has no
room for the joy and pleasure of man is as little conversant with the wants of
man as with the will of God. “Joy in the Lord quickens and elevates, while it
cleanses all other emotions. It gives a new glow to life. It sheds a Diviner
meaning, a brighter aspect, over the common face of earth and sky. Joy is
the beaming countenance, the elastic step, the singing voice, of Christian goodness.”
Peace is the holy calm breathed into the soul by a pardoning God. It
is the gift of Christ, giving rest to the soul in the midst of external agitations.
“It is a settled quiet of the heart, a deep, brooding mystery that ‘passeth all
understanding,’ the stillness of eternity entering the spirit, the Sabbath of God.
It is the calm, unruffled brow, the poised and even temper which Christian
goodness wears.”
2. Virtues exercised in the Christian’s intercourse with his neighbour.—“Longsuffering,
gentleness, goodness.” Charity suffereth long. The heart at peace
with God has patience with men. Longsuffering is the patient magnanimity of
Christian goodness, the broad shoulders on which it “beareth all things.”
Gentleness (or kindness, as the word is more frequently and better rendered)
resembles longsuffering in finding its chief objects in the evil and unthankful.
But while the latter is passive and self-contained, kindness is an active, busy
virtue. It is the thoughtful insight, the delicate tact, the gentle ministering
hand of charity. Linked with kindness comes goodness, which is its other self,
differing from it as only twin sisters may, each fairer for the beauty of the
other. Goodness is perhaps more affluent, more catholic in its bounty; kindness
more delicate and discriminating. Goodness is the honest, generous face, the
open hand of charity (Findlay).
3. Virtues indicating the principles which regulate the Christian’s life.—“Faith
[honesty, trustworthiness], meekness, temperance” (vers. 22, 23). The faith that
unites man to God in turn joins man to his fellows. Faith in the divine Fatherhood
becomes trust in the human brotherhood. He who doubts every one is
even more deceived than the man who blindly confides in every one. Trustfulness
is the warm, firm clasp of friendship, the generous and loyal homage which
goodness ever pays to goodness. Meekness is the other side of faith. It is not
tameness and want of spirit; it comports with the highest courage and activity
and is a qualification for public leadership. It is the content and quiet mien,
the willing self-effacement, that is the mark of Christ-like goodness. Temperance,
or self-control, is the third of Plato’s cardinal virtues. Temperance is a
practised mastery of self. It covers the whole range of moral discipline and
concerns every sense and passion of our nature. It is the guarded step, the sober,
measured walk in which Christian goodness keeps the way of life, and makes
straight paths for stumbling and straying feet (Ibid.).
II. Violates no law.—“Against such there is no law” (ver. 23; comp. ver.
18). The fruit of the Spirit is love; and the law, so far from being against
love, commands it (ver. 14). The practice of love and all its works is the fulfilling
of the law and disarms it of all terror. The expression, “Against such
there is no law,” so far from being more than superfluous, as Hoffman asserts,
is intended to make evident how it is that, by virtue of this, their moral frame,
those who are led by the Spirit are not subject to the Mosaic law. For whosoever
is so constituted that a law is not against him, over such a one the law
has no power.
III. Indicates the reality of a great spiritual change.—1. The old self-hood
is crucified. “They that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh” (ver. 24). This
well expresses how sin must, little by little, be disabled and slain, for the crucified
man did not die at once. He was first made fast with nails to the cross, and then
kept there, till through hunger and thirst and loss of blood he became weaker and
weaker, and finally died. We are to be executioners, dealing cruelly with the
body of sin which caused the acting of all cruelties on the body of Christ.
2. A new law now regulates the life.—“If we live in the Spirit, let us also
walk in the Spirit” (ver. 25). The life is governed, not by the law of the flesh,
but of the Spirit. The electrician can demagnetise and remagnetise a bar of
iron, but the biologist cannot devitalise a plant or an animal and revivify it
again. Spiritual life is not a visit from a force, but a resident tenant in the soul.
The Spirit who created the life within sustains it and directs all its outgoings.
3. Everything provocative of strife and envy is carefully avoided.—“Let us
not be desirous of vainglory, provoking one another, envying one another”
(ver. 26). Vaingloriousness was a weakness of the Galatic temperament; and is
not unknown in modern Christian life. Superiority, or fancied superiority, in
talents or status is apt to proudly display itself. It is indeed a pitiable exhibition
when even spiritual gifts are made matter of ostentation, exciting the
jealousy of inferior brethren, and creating discontent and envy. The cultivation
of the fruit of the Spirit is the best remedy against all bitterness and strife.
Lessons.—1. The fruit of the Spirit a suggestive contrast to the works of the
flesh. 2. Consistency of life is the test of genuine religion. 3. The operations of
the Spirit are in harmony with the highest law.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 22, 23. The Fruit of the
Spirit.
I. Love.—1. The love of God.
(1) Shown in a desire of fellowship
with God. (2) To love the Word of
God above all earthly treasure, and to
tread our own will underfoot. (3) The
love of them that love God and Christ.
2. The love of our neighbour. This is
love indeed, to show love and to do
good to them that wrong and abuse
us.
II. Joy.—1. To rejoice in the true
acknowledgment of God. 2. To rejoice
in the work of our regeneration.
3. To rejoice in the hope of eternal
glory.
III. Peace.—To maintain peace and
concord: 1. Neither take offence nor
give offence. 2. Seek to edify one
another; either do good or take good.
IV. Longsuffering.—To moderate
our anger and desire of revenge when
many and great wrongs are done us.
Set and sow this plant in the furrows
of your heart, and consider: 1. The
goodness of God, who forgives more to
us than we can forgive. 2. It is the
duty of love to suffer and forbear.
3. It is a point of injustice to revenge
ourselves, for then we take to ourselves
the honour of God, and against
all equity—we are the parties and
judge and witness and all. 4. We are
often ignorant of the mind of men in
their actions, and of the true circumstances
thereof, and so may easily be
deceived.
V. Gentleness.—Right courtesy is
with an honest heart to bless when we
are wronged.
VI. Goodness.—The virtue whereby
we communicate to others good things,
for their good and benefit.
VII. Faith.—Faith towards man,
which means: 1. To speak the truth
from the heart. 2. To be faithful and
just in the keeping of our honest
promise and word. This faith a rare
virtue in these days. The common
fashion of them that live by bargaining
is to use glorying, facing, soothing,
lying, dissembling, and all manner of
shifts. They that deal with chapmen
shall hardly know what is truth, they
have so many words and so many
shifts.
VIII. Meekness.—The same in
effect with longsuffering. The difference
is that meekness is more general,
and longsuffering the highest degree of
meekness.
IX. Temperance.—The moderation
of lust and appetite in the use of the
gifts and creatures of God. 1. We
must use moderation in meats and
drinks. That measure of meat and
drink which serves to refresh nature
and make us fit for the service of God
and man is allowed us of God and no
more. 2. We must use moderation
in the getting of goods. 3. In the
spending of our goods—contrary to the
fashion of many who spend their
substance in feasting and company, and
keep their wives and children bare at
home. 4. In our apparel. To apparel
ourselves according to our sex, according
to the received fashion of our
country, according to our place and
degree, and according to our ability.
X. Against such virtues there is no
law.—1. No law to condemn. 2. No
law to compel obedience. Spiritual
men freely obey God, as if there were
no law; they are a voluntary and free
people, serving God without restraint.—Perkins.
Ver. 22. Love an Attendant of Regeneration.—1. Love
is a delight in happiness.
2. Is universal. 3. Is just.
4. Is disinterested. 5. Is an active
principle. 6. Is the only voluntary
cause of happiness. 7. Is the only
equitable spirit towards God and our
fellow-creatures. 8. Is the only disposition
which can be approved or
loved by God.—Dr. Dwight.
The Powers of Love.—If these be the
fruit of the Spirit, they cannot be mere
matters of temperament. When philosophy
gives an account of the human
soul it can find only constitutional
propensities and voluntary acquisitions.
When we interrogate Christianity, we
are told besides of communicated
sanctities, states of mind which inheritance
cannot give or resolution
command, which need some touch of
God to wake them up, which are above
us and yet ours, and seem to lie on the
borderland of communion between the
finite and the infinite Spirit.
I. There is humane love, which constitutes
the humblest and most frequent
form of unselfish feeling. It
finds its objects among the miserable
and attaches itself to them in proportion
to their woes. In human pity
there is a strange combination of repulsion
and attraction, which it is the
paradox of philosophy to state, and
the mercy of God to ordain; it cannot
endure the sight of wretchedness, and
yet can never leave it. But there is a
work ordained for us which this impulse
will not suffice to do. Fastening
itself on suffering alone, it sees nothing
else. Yet beneath the smooth and
glossy surface of easy life there may
hide itself many an inward disease
which the mere glance of pity does not
discern. Flourishing iniquity that
gives no seeming pain it lets alone;
invisible corruption may spread without
arrest.
II. There is imaginative or æsthetic
love, which attaches itself to objects
in proportion as they are beautiful,
kindles the enthusiasm of art, and
completes itself in the worship of
genius. Yet is this affection very
barren until thrown into the midst of
others to harmonise and glorify them.
No reciprocal sympathy is requisite to
this sentiment; that which is admired
as beautiful does not admire in return.
And above all there is a direct tendency
to turn with indifference or even
merciless repugnance from what is unlovely.
III. There is moral love, which has
reference to persons only, not to things,
which attaches itself to them in proportion
as they are good, judges them
by the standard of an internal law,
and expresses itself in tones, not of
tenderness as in pity, or of admiration
as in the trance of beauty, but of grave
and earnest approval. Even this
moral love is not without imperfections.
Its characteristic sentiment of approbation
has always in it a certain
patronising air not welcome to the
mercy of a true heart, and more like
the rigour of a Zeno than the grace of
Christ.
IV. There is a Divine love, directed
first upon God Himself, and thence
drawn into the likeness of His own
love, and going forth upon other
natures in proportion to their worth
and claims. This is the crowning and
calming term of all prior affections,
presupposing them, and lifting them
up from clashing and unrest to harmony
and peace. The humane, the
beautiful, the right, remain only
scattered elements of good till they are
gathered into the Divine and blended
into one by the combining love of God.—Dr. Martineau.
Love the Perfection of Character.—The
fruit of the true vine has been analysed,
and in the best specimens nine ingredients
are found. In poor samples
there is a deficiency of one or other
of these elements. A dry and diminutive
sort is lacking in peace and joy.
A tart kind, which sets the teeth on
edge, owes its austerity to its scanty
infusion of gentleness, goodness, and
meekness. There is a watery, deliquescent
sort which, for the want of
longsuffering, is not easily preserved;
and there is a flat variety which,
having no body of faith or temperance,
answers few useful purposes. Love
is the essential principle which is in
no case entirely absent, and by the
glistening fulness and rich aroma
which its plentiful presence creates
you can recognise the freshest and
most generous clusters, whilst the
predominance of some other element
gives to each its distinguishing flavour,
and marks the growth of Eshcol,
Sibmah, or Lebanon.—Dr. James
Hamilton.
The Power of Meekness and Affection.—Once
in Holland a person of high
rank invited Tersteegen to be his
guest. This individual imagined himself
to have attained to a state of
peculiar inward peace and took
occasion during dinner to criticise
Tersteegen for being too active, and
for not sufficiently knowing the ground
on which he wrought. Tersteegen
attended meekly and silently to all
that was said; and when dinner was
over he offered up a fervent prayer in
which he commended his host to the
Lord in terms of such affection and
compassion that this great and warm-tempered
man was so much struck
and affected by it that his feelings
overpowered him, and he fell upon the
neck of his guest and begged his
forgiveness.
Who are the Meek?—A missionary
to Jamaica was once questioning the
little black boys on the meaning of
Matt. v. 5, and asked, “Who are the
meek?” A boy answered, “Those
who give soft answers to rough
questions.”
The Grace of Gentleness.
I. It is not a gift, but a grace.—It is
not a natural demeanour, amiable and
courteous, a soft, feminine compliance,
but a grace of the Spirit which takes into
it the strength of the Divine. You may
have the instinct of delicacy, a natural
tenderness and affability, yet not have
this grace of the Spirit which impels
you for Christ’s sake to deal gently
and save men. It is the underlying
motive which determines whether grace
or nature reigns. How is it when
your ideas and methods of doing good
are thwarted? Moses seems to have
in Zipporah what Socrates had in
Xantippe, yet her abuse had no more
abiding effect on him than the spray
which angry waves toss against the
rock. Calvin hearing of Luther’s ire
said, “Let him hate me and call me
a devil a thousand times; I will love
him and call him a precious servant
of God.”
II. The cultivation of this grace
will cost you many a struggle.—You
are to get the better of your temper
on your knees. No minstrel as in the
case of Saul can do the work. We
must forgive in our heart those who
offend us.
III. The grace of gentleness is a
queen with a train of virtues.—It
ennobles our whole nature. An
English nobleman could not be bound
to keep the peace, for it was supposed
that peace always kept him. So we
should suppose that every professed
Christian would have this grace; but
if you should put your ear to the door
of some Christian homes, it would be
like listening to a volcano. If you
did not behold a sulphurous flame
bursting out, you might hear a continual
grumbling. A man said to me
once, “When I see Mr. So-and-so my
passion is bigger than myself, and I
long to make him feel it.” The Spirit
of Christ leads us to pray for those
who despitefully use us. Only as His
temper prevails in us shall we be able
to illustrate the beauty of Divine
greatness.—Homiletic Monthly.
Constant Joy.—Father Taylor, the
Boston sailor-preacher, when going
out to make a call, said to his host
on the doorstep, “Laugh till I get
back.”
Ver. 24. Crucifying the Flesh.
I. What is meant by being Christ’s.—It
is to accept of and have an interest
in Christ in His prophetic, kingly,
and sacerdotal offices. By His prophetic
office we come to know His will;
by His kingly office, ruling and governing
us, we come to yield obedience to
that will; and by His sacerdotal or
priestly office we come to receive
the fruit of that obedience in our
justification.
II. What is meant by the flesh.—The
whole entire body of sin and corruption;
that inbred proneness in our
nature to all evil, expressed by concupiscence.
1. It is called flesh because
of its situation and place, which is principally
in the flesh. 2. Because of its
close, inseparable nearness to the soul.
3. Because of its dearness to us. Sin
is our darling, our Delilah, the queen-regent
of our affections; it fills all our
thoughts, engrosses our desires, and
challenges the service of all our actions.
This reveals: (1) The deplorable state
of fallen man. (2) The great difficulty
of the duty of mortification. (3) The
mean and sordid employment of every
sinner—he serves the flesh.
III. What is imported by the crucifixion
of the flesh.—1. The death of it.
He that will crucify his sin must pursue
it to the very death. 2. A violent
death. Sin never dies of age. The
conquest need be glorious, for it will
be found by sharp experience that the
combat will be dangerous. 3. A painful,
bitter, and vexatious death. 4. A shameful
and cursed death.
IV. The duty of crucifying the flesh.—1. A
constant and pertinacious denying
it in all its cravings for satisfaction.
2. Encounter it by actions of the opposite
virtue.—Robert South.
Ver. 25. Life and Walk in the Spirit.—Life
relates to what is inward, walk
to what is outward.
I. To live in the Spirit.—1. The
Spirit begins the life of God in the soul.
2. The Spirit gives new desires and
changes all the motives of life. 3. The
Spirit lives in us.
II. To walk in the Spirit.—1. The
walk will follow from the life, for every
kind of life is after its own kind and
development. 2. Every outward manifestation
will correspond to the inward
principle of life and will be marked
by love to God and love to man.
3. Reputation will correspond to character
and conduct to life.
III. To be led by the Spirit.—1. The
Christian’s life is a growth, his walk a
progress; but he is led and guided by
the Spirit. 2. No new revelation is
made by the Spirit. He leads and
guides by what is written in the
Word.
IV. Learn our relations to the Spirit.—1. We
live under the Spirit’s dispensation.
2. He is the Spirit of God,
and so of life, truth, and authority.
3. He is the Spirit of Christ, and so
unites us to Him. 4. If we live by
the Spirit, let conversation and conduct
be answerable thereunto.—Homiletic
Monthly.
Walking in the Spirit—
I. Is to savour the things of the
Spirit.—To subject a man’s soul to the
law of God in all the faculties and
powers of the soul. The things revealed
in the law are the things of the
Spirit, which Spirit must at no hand
be severed from the Word.
II. To walk in the path of righteousness
without offence to God or man.
III. To walk not stragglingly, but
orderly by rule, by line and measure.—To
order ourselves according to the
rule and line of the Word of God. The
life of a man will discover to the world
what he is.—Perkins.
Ver. 26. Vaingloriousness.
- The exciting cause of many
quarrels.
-
A source of envy and disappointment.
- Unbecoming the dignity and
aims of the Christian life.
The Vice of Vainglory and its Cure.
I. Vainglory is a branch of pride,
wherein men principally refer all their
studies, counsels, endeavours, and gifts
to the honouring and advancing of
themselves. They who have received
good gifts of God are often most vainglorious.
Whereas all other vices feed
upon that which is evil, this vice of
vainglory feeds upon good things. A
man will sometimes be proud even because
he is not proud.
II. The cure of vainglory.—1. Meditation.
(1) God resisteth all proud
persons and gives grace to the humble,
because the vainglorious man, seeking
himself and not God, robs God of His
honour. (2) It is the work of the devil
to puff up the mind with self-liking
and conceit, that thereby he may work
man’s perdition. (3) There is no religion
in that heart that is wholly bent
to seek the praise of men. The man
who desires to be talked of and admired
by others gives notice to the
world that his heart is not sound in
the sight of God. 2. Practice. (1) Endeavour
to acknowledge the great
majesty of God, and our own baseness
before Him. (2) We ought to ascribe
all good things we have or can do to
God alone, and nothing to ourselves.
(3) In all actions and duties of religion
we must first endeavour to approve
ourselves to God, and the next place is
to be given to man. (4) When we are
reviled we must rest content; when we
are praised take heed. Temptations
on the right hand are far more dangerous
than those on the left. (5) Men
who are ambitious, if they be crossed,
grow contentious; if they prosper, they
are envied by others. Abhor and
detest vainglory; seek to preserve and
maintain love.—Perkins.
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.
Ver. 1. Overtaken in a fault.—Be caught red-handed in any transgression, the result of
some sudden and overpowering gust of evil impulse. Restore such an one.—The same word
used of a dislocated limb reduced to its place. Such is the tenderness with which we
should treat a fallen member in restoring him to a better state. In the spirit of meekness.—Meekness
is that temper of spirit towards God whereby we accept His dealings without
disputing; then towards men whereby we endure meekly their provocations, and do not
withdraw ourselves from the burdens which their sins impose upon us (Trench).
Ver. 2. Bear ye one another’s burdens.—The word is “weights,” something exceeding the
strength of those under them. “One another’s” is strongly emphatic. It is a powerful
stroke, as with an axe in the hand of a giant, at censoriousness or vainglorious egotism.
We are not to think of self, but of one another. To bear the burden of an erring brother is
truly Christ-like. And so fulfil the law of Christ.—If you must needs observe a law, let it be
the law of Christ.
Ver. 3. He deceiveth himself.—He is misled by the vapours of his own vanity, he is
self-deceived.
Ver. 4. Rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.—In that his own work stands the
test after severe examination, and not that he is superior to another.
Ver. 6. Communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things.—Go shares with him in
the good things of this life. While each bears his own burden he must think of others,
especially in ministering out of his earthly goods to the wants of his spiritual teacher
(see 2 Cor. xi. 7, 11; Phil. iv. 10; 1 Thess. ii. 6, 9; 1 Tim. v. 17, 18).
Ver. 7. God is not mocked.—The verb means to sneer with the nostrils drawn up in contempt.
Excuses for illiberality may seem valid before men but are not so before God.
Ver. 8. He that soweth to his flesh.—Unto his own flesh, which is devoted to selfishness.
Shall reap corruption.—Destruction, which is not an arbitrary punishment of fleshly-mindedness,
but is its natural fruit; the corrupt flesh producing corruption, which is another
word for destruction. Corruption is the fault, and corruption the punishment.
Ver. 9. Let us not be weary: we shall reap, if we faint not.—“Weary” refers to the will;
“faint” to relaxation of the powers. No one should faint, as in an earthly harvest
sometimes happens.
Ver. 11. Ye see how large a letter I have written with mine own hand.—At this point the
apostle takes the pen from his amanuensis, and writes the concluding paragraph with his
own hand. Owing to the weakness of his eyesight he wrote in large letters. He thus gives
emphasis to the importance of the subjects discussed in the epistle.
Ver. 12. Lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ.—They would escape
the bitterness of the Jews against Christianity and the offence of the cross, by making the
Mosaic law a necessary preliminary.
Ver. 13. For neither they themselves keep the law.—So far are they from being sincere
that they arbitrarily select circumcision out of the whole law, as though observing it would
stand instead of their non-observance of the rest of the law. That they may glory in your
flesh.—That they may vaunt your submission to the carnal rite, and so gain credit with the
Jews for proselytising.
Ver. 14. God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross.—The great object of shame to
them, and to all carnal men, is the great object of glorying to me. By whom the world is
crucified unto me.—By His cross, the worst of deaths, Christ has destroyed all kinds of death.
Legal and fleshly ordinances are merely outward and elements of the world. To be crucified
to the world is to be free from worldliness, and all that makes men slaves to creature
fascinations.
Ver. 15. But a new creature.—All external distinctions are nothing. The cross is the
only theme worthy of glorying in, as it brings about a new spiritual creation.
Ver. 16. As many as walk according to this rule.—Of life: a straight rule to detect
crookedness. Upon the Israel of God.—Not the Israel after the flesh, but the spiritual seed
of Israel by faith.
Ver. 17. I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.—The Judaising teachers gloried
in the circumcision marks in the flesh of their followers; St. Paul in the scars or brands of
suffering for Christ in his own body—the badge of an honourable servitude.
Ver. 18. Brethren.—After much rebuke and monition, he bids them farewell with the
loving expression of brotherhood as his last parting word, as if Greatheart had meant to
say, “After all, my last word is, I love you, I love you.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 1–5.
Mutual Sympathy in Burden-bearing.
I. That sympathy towards the erring is a test of spiritual-mindedness.—1. Shown
in the tenderness with which the erring should be treated. “If a man be
overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of
meekness” (ver. 1). Worldly and self-seeking men are often severe on a
neighbour’s fault. They are more likely to aggravate than heal the wound, to
push the weak man down when he tries to rise than to help him to his feet.
The spiritual, moved by genuine compassion, should regard it as their duty to set
right a lapsed brother, to bring him back as soon and safely as may be to the
fold of Christ. To reprove without pride or acrimony, to stoop to the fallen
without the air of condescension, requires the spirit of meekness in a singular
degree.
2. Reflecting that the most virtuous may some day be in need of similar consideration.—“Considering
thyself, lest thou also be tempted” (ver. 1). The
disaster befalling one reveals the common peril; it is a signal for every member
of the Church to take heed to himself. The scrutiny which it calls for belongs to
each man’s private conscience. The faithfulness and integrity required in those
who approach the wrong-doer with a view to his recovery must be chastened by
personal solicitude. The fall of a Christian brother should be in any case the
occasion of heart-searching and profound humiliation. Feelings of indifference
towards him, much more of contempt, will prove the prelude of a worse overthrow
for ourselves.
II. That sympathy in burden-bearing is in harmony with the highest law.—“Bear
ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ” (ver. 2). As
much as to say, “If ye will bear burdens, bear one another’s burden; if ye will
observe law, observe the highest law—the law of love.” There is nothing more
Christ-like than to bear the burden of a brother’s trespass. Christ bore burdens
which to us would have been intolerable and overwhelming. The heaviest
burden becomes supportable when shared with loving sympathy. Kindness
towards the needy and helpless is work done to Christ. There is a poetic legend
among the Anglian kings that Count Fulc the Good, journeying along Loire-side
towards Tours, saw, just as the towers of St. Martin’s rose before him in the
distance, a leper full of sores who put by his offer of alms and desired to be borne
to the sacred city. Amidst the jibes of his courtiers, the good count lifted him
in his arms and carried him along bank and bridge. As they entered the town
the leper vanished from their sight, and men told how Fulc had borne an angel
unawares! Mutual burden-bearing is the practical proof of the unity and
solidarity of the Christian brotherhood.
III. That no man can afford to be independent of human sympathy.—1. Fancied
superiority to sympathy is self-deception. “If a man think himself
to be something when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself” (ver. 3). Others
will see how little his affected eminence is worth. Some will humour his vanity,
many will ridicule or pity it, few will be deceived by it. Real knowledge is
humble; it knows its nothingness. Socrates, when the oracle pronounced him the
wisest man in Greece, at last discovered that the response was right, inasmuch as
he alone was aware that he knew nothing, while other men were confident of their
knowledge. It is in humility and dependence, in self-forgetting, that true wisdom
begins. Who are we, although the most refined or highest in place, that we
should despise plain, uncultured members of the Church, those who bear life’s
heavier burdens and amongst whom our Saviour spent His days on earth, and
treat them as unfit for our company, unworthy of fellowship with us in Christ?
(Findlay). The most exalted and gifted is never lifted above the need of fellow-sympathy.
2. A searching examination into our conduct will reveal how little cause there is
for boasting a fancied superiority.—“But let every man prove his own work, and
then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another” (ver. 4). As
if the apostle said: “Let each man try his own work. Judge yourselves instead
of judging one another. Mind your own duty rather than your neighbours’
faults. Do not think of your worth or talents in comparison with theirs but see
to it that your work is right.” The question for each of us is not, “What do
others fail to do?” but, “What am I myself really doing? What will my life’s
work amount to when measured by that which God expects from me?” The
petty comparisons which feed our vanity and our class-prejudices are of no avail
at the bar of God. If we study our brother’s work, it should be with a view of
enabling him to do it better, or to learn to improve our own by his example; not
in order to find excuses for ourselves in his shortcomings. If our work abide the
test, we shall have glorying in ourselves alone, not in regard to our neighbour.
Not his flaws and failures, but my own honest work, will be the ground of my
satisfaction (Ibid.).
IV. That individual responsibility is universal.—“For every man shall bear
his own burden [load]” (ver. 5). No man can rid himself of his life-load; he must
carry it up to the judgment-seat of Christ, where he will get his final discharge.
Daniel Webster was present one day at a dinner-party given at Astor House by
some New York friends, and in order to draw him out one of the company put
to him the following question, “Will you please tell us, Mr. Webster, what was
the most important thought that ever occupied your mind?” Mr. Webster
merely raised his head, and passing his hand slowly over his forehead, said, “Is
there any one here who doesn’t know me?” “No, sir,” was the reply; “we all
know you and are your friends.” “Then,” said he, looking over the table, “the
most important thought that ever occupied my mind was that of my individual
responsibility to God”; and he spoke on the subject for twenty minutes. The
higher sense we have of our own responsibility the more considerate we are
in judging others and the more we sympathise with them in their struggles and
trials. Æsop says a man carries two bags over his shoulder, the one with his
own sins hanging behind, that with his neighbour’s sins in front.
Lessons.—1. Sympathy is a Christ-like grace. 2. Sympathy for the erring
does not tolerate wrong. 3. Practical help is the test of genuine sympathy.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Ver. 1. The Sins of Others.
I. The follies and misconduct of
others are the choice subjects of conversation
in every stage of society;
and if we take slander out of these
conversations, we rob them of their
keenest fascination. I have felt it,
that fearful joy which the discovery of
others’ faults produces; and then I
found nothing at all extravagant in
the strongest expressions by which the
Scriptures depict the depth of our fall
and the depravity of our heart.
II. One of your brethren has lapsed:
but you who condemn him, have you
never erred? Do you know his
history? Did he know what you
know yourself? The fall of a brother
should call forth a painful self-examination
and a sincere humiliation before
God.
III. Real and profound compassion
should be felt for the brother whom
sin has overtaken. But sympathy
alone will not suffice. There is a
sympathy which is mere weakness.
Our mission lays upon us the duty of
restoration. This is a delicate and
sublime work, for it is the work
of God, but the work of God destined to
be accomplished by man. Do the work
of Jesus Christ in the spirit of Jesus
Christ. You must have for your
fallen brethren a love without weakness
and a holiness without pride.
We cannot raise them en masse, and by
I know not what a collective action
which would exempt us from individual
love and sacrifice. All will be of no
avail unless each of us, in the post
where God has placed him, acts upon
those around him, and brings them all
individually under that influence of
love which nothing can either equal or
replace. Have you never asked yourself
with terror if you have not lost
some soul? Do you know if, among
all those unfortunate beings whom God
will cast from His presence at the last
day, more than one will not sorrowfully
turn towards you and say, “It is
thou, it is thou that has lost me”?—Eugene Bersier.
Vers. 1, 2. Christian Reformation.
I. A thief is the man who uses, in
order to keep up appearances, that
which does not justly belong to him,
whether that appearance be kept up
by actually robbing his neighbour’s
pocket, or by delaying the payment of
his just debts, or by stinting God and
man of their dues in any way. Such
a one has, for keeping up appearances,
every advantage up to a certain point,
and that point is the moment of detection.
After that, all is changed.
The detected thief is the most miserable
of men. Two ways only are open to
him by which he can endure life or
carry on hope. One if these is to
declare war against society, and become
an open instead of a secret
offender; the other is to begin anew,
and strive to build up a fresh reputation
under more favourable auspices,
it may be by shrewder and deeper
deceit, or it may be in the way of
genuine repentance and amendment.
It is hard to say whether of these two
is the more difficult or hopeless.
II. Were we all true men, safe in
our own consciences, fearless of detection
in any point ourselves, we should
be ever ready to help up an erring
brother or sister; but it is just because
we are afraid of our own weak
and unsound points that we are so
reluctant ever to let a tarnished character
again brighten itself. It is
hardly possible to over-estimate the vast
conspiracy which is arranged against
the delinquent’s effort to be reinstated
in the favour of his fellow-men.
III. It would be by no means uninstructive
to inquire how far these
feelings have influenced us in our
views and practice with regard to the
punishment of crime. The last thing
we believe in is reformation. You
may view this as a judicial consequence
of guilt. Terrible as may be the fears
of a conscience dreading detection, far
more difficulty, far more anguish, far
bitterer self-reproach, is in store for the
penitent struggling to regain peace
and the fair name which he has lost.
He carries the past evermore, as it
were, branded on his brow, for men to
see and avoid.
IV. While we rejoice and are grateful
to God for His mercy to us, we
should at the same time tremble at
our own unworthiness, and ever bear
in mind our personal liability to fall
into sin. In such a spirit should we
set about the blessed work of restoration,
ever looking on the fallen as our
brethren, going to meet them across
the gulf which human Pharisaism has
placed between them and us, the undetected;
as common children of that
God whose grace is able to raise them
up again, bearing their burdens instead
of disclaiming them and letting
them sink under their weight, and so
fulfilling the law of Christ.—Dean Alford.
The Restoration of the Erring.
I. The Christian view of other men’s
sins.—1. The apostle looks upon sin as
if it might be sometimes the result of a
surprise. 2. As that which has left a
burden on the erring spirit. (1) One
burden laid on fault is that chain of entanglement
which seems to drag down to
fresh sins. (2) The burden of the heart
weighing on itself. (3) The burden
of a secret, leading a man to tell the
tale of his crimes as under the personality
of another, as in the old fable of
him who breathed his weighty secret
to the reeds; to get relief in profuse
and general acknowledgment of guilt;
evidenced in the commonness of the
longing for confession. (4) The burden
of an intuitive consciousness of the
hidden sins of others’ hearts.
II. The Christian power of restoration.—1. Restoration
is possible.
2. By sympathy. 3. By forgiveness.
4. In the spirit of meekness. 5. The
motive urging to attempt restoration.—“Considering
thyself,” etc.—F. W. Robertson.
Brotherly Reproof.—1. A man must
so reprove his brother as that it may
be most for the advancement of God’s
glory, best for winning him to God,
and least to the defaming of him
abroad. He must pray that God
would guide his tongue and move the
other’s heart. We may not traduce
him to others, either before or after
our reproof. 2. Every reproof must
be grounded on a certainty of knowledge
of the fault committed. 3. It
is very requisite the reprover be not
tainted with the like fault he reproves
in another. 4. The vinegar of sharp
reprehension must be allayed and
tempered with the oil of gentle exhortation.
The word “restore” signifies
to set a bone that is broken. We are
to deal with a man who has fallen and
by his fall disjoined some member of
the new man as the surgeon does with
an arm or leg that is broken or out of
joint—handle it tenderly and gently,
so as to cause least pain. 5. Every
reproof must be fitted to the quality
and condition of him we reprove and
to the nature of the offence. 6. Must
be administered in fit time when we
may do the most good. 7. Secret sins
known to thee or to a few must be
reproved secretly. 8. We must be
careful to observe the order set down
by our Saviour (Matt. xviii. 15).—Perkins.
Vers. 2, 5. Our Twofold Burdens.—1. The
burden which every man must
bear for himself is the burden of his
own sins, and from this burden no
man can relieve him. 2. If a man be
overtaken in a fault, we are to bear
his burden by trying to restore him.
3. We are to do this in the spirit of
meekness, bending patiently under the
burden which his fault may cast on us.
This spirit towards those who commit
faults is wholly at variance with the
natural man’s way of acting, speaking,
and thinking. We are to love our
friends in spite of their faults, to treat
them kindly, cheerfully, graciously, in
spite of the pain they may give us.
4. Our Saviour has given us an example
of what we should wish and strive to
be and do. The law of Christ is the
law of love.—J. C. Hare.
Ver. 2. Bear One Another’s Burdens.—The
law of Christ was lovingkindness.
His business was benevolence.
If we would resemble Him,—
1. We must raise up the fallen.—This
was hardly ever attempted till
Christ set the pattern. People went
wrong, and the world let them go; they
broke the laws, and the magistrate
punished; they became a scandal, and
society cast them out—out of the
synagogue, out of the city, out of the
world. But with a moral tone infinitely
higher Christ taught a more
excellent way.
2. We must bear the infirmities of the
weak.—Very tiresome is a continual
touchiness in a neighbour, or the
perpetual recurrence of the same
faults in a pupil or child. But if by
self-restraint and right treatment God
should enable you to cure those faults,
from how much shame and sorrow do
you rescue them, from how much
suffering yourself.
3. We must bear one another’s trials.—With
one is the burden of poverty;
with another it is pain or failing
strength, the extinction of a great
hope, or the loss of some precious
faculty. A little thing will sometimes
ease the pressure. In a country road
you have seen the weary beast with
foaming flank straining onward with
the overladen cart and ready to give
in, when the kindly waggoner called
a halt, and propping up the shaft with
a slim rod or stake from the hedgerow,
he patted and praised the willing
creature, till after a little rest they
were ready to resume the rough track
together. Many a time a small prop
is quite sufficient.
4. By thus bearing others’ burdens
you will lighten your own.—Rogers the
poet has preserved a story told him
by a Piedmontese nobleman. “I was
weary of life, and after a melancholy
day was hurrying along the street to
the river, when I felt a sudden check.
I turned and beheld a little boy who
had caught the skirt of my cloak in his
anxiety to solicit my notice. His look
and manner were irresistible. Not less
so was the lesson I learnt. ‘There are
six of us, and we are dying for want of
food.’ ‘Why should I not,’ said I to
myself, ‘relieve this wretched family?
I have the means, and it will not
delay me many minutes.’ The scene of
misery he conducted me to I cannot
describe. I threw them my purse,
and their burst of gratitude overcame
me. It filled my eyes; it went as a
cordial to my heart. ‘I will call again
to-morrow,’ I cried. Fool that I was
to think of leaving a world where such
pleasure was to be had, and so cheaply.”
There is many a load which only grows
less by giving a lift to another. A
dim Gospel makes a cold Christian;
a distant Saviour makes a halting,
hesitating disciple.—Dr. James Hamilton.
Ver. 2. Christian Generosity.
I. The duty enjoined.—1. It may
apply to a weight of labour or bodily
toil. 2. To a weight of personal
affliction. 3. To a weight of providential
losses and embarrassments.
4. To a weight of guilt. 5. Of temptation.
6. Of infirmities.
II. The enforcing motive.—1. The
apostle’s requirement is worthy of the
character of Christ, as it is a law of
equity. 2. It is congenial with the
Spirit of Christ. 3. It is agreeable
to the example of Christ. 4. It is
deducible from the precepts of Christ.
5. It has the approbation of Christ.—Sketches.
Bearing One Another’s Burdens.—The
metaphor is taken from travellers who
used to ease one another by carrying
one another’s burdens, wholly or in
part, so that they may more cheerfully
and speedily go on in their journey.
As in architecture all stones are not
fit to be laid in every place of the
building, but some below and others
above the wall, so that the whole
building may be firm and compact in
itself; so, in the Church those who are
strong must support the weak. The
Italians have a proverb—Hard with
hard never makes a good wall, by
which is signified that stones cobbled
up one upon another without mortar to
combine them make but a tottering
wall that may be easily shaken; but if
there be mortar betwixt them yielding
to the hardness of the stones, it makes
the whole like a solid continued body,
strong and stable, able to endure the
shock of the ram or the shot of the
cannon. So that society, where all are
as stiff as stones which will not yield a
hair one to another, cannot be firm
and durable. But where men are of
a yielding nature society is compact,
because one bears the infirmities of
another. Therefore the strong are to
support the weak, and the weak the
strong; as in the arch of a building
one stone bears mutually, though not
equally, the burden of the rest; or as
harts swimming over a great water do
ease one another in laying their heads
one upon the back of another—the
foremost, having none to support him,
changing his place and resting his head
upon the hindermost. Thus in God’s
providence. Luther and Melancthon
were happily joined together. Melancthon
tempered the heat and zeal of
Luther with his mildness, being as oil
to his vinegar; and Luther, on the
other side, did warm his coldness,
being as fire to his frozenness.—Ralph Cudworth.
Association (A Benefit Club Sermon).—1. This
plan of bearing one another’s
burdens is not only good in benefit
clubs—it is good in families, in
parishes, in nations, in the Church
of God. What is there bearing on
this matter of prudence that makes
one of the greatest differences between
a man and a brute beast? Many
beasts have forethought: the sleep-mouse
hoards up acorns against the
winter, the fox will hide the game he
cannot eat. The difference between
man and beast is, that the beast has
forethought only for himself, but the
man has forethought for others also.
2. Just the same with nations. If the
king and nobles give their whole minds
to making good laws, and seeing
justice done to all, and workmen fairly
paid, and if the poor in their turn are
loyal and ready to fight and work for
their king and their nobles, then will
not that country be a happy and a
great country? 3. Just the same way
with Christ’s Church, the company of
true Christian men. If the people
love and help each other, and obey
their ministers and pray for them, and
if the ministers labour earnestly after
the souls and bodies of their people,
and Christ in heaven helps both
minister and people with His Spirit
and His providence and protection, if
all in the whole Church bear each
other’s burdens, then Christ’s Church
will stand, and the gates of hell will not
prevail against it.—Charles Kingsley.
Burden-bearing.
I. Different kinds of burdens.—1. Those
that are necessary. 2. Those
that are superfluous. 3. Those that are
imaginary.
II. What shall we do with them?—1. Reduce
their number to the limits of
necessity. 2. Some of these we are expected
to carry ourselves. 3. Some we
may expect our friends to help us to
carry. 4. We may take them all to the
Lord that He may either remove them or
sustain us under them.
Lessons.—1. With grace burdens
are removed or lightened. 2. In what
way can we best help others with their
burdens? “Thou lightenest thy load
by lightening his.” 3. Let our burdens
be reduced to light running order.—Homiletic Monthly.
Practical Christian Sympathy.
I. Consider the burdens you can bear
for others.—All have to bear burdens.
Some man can only bear for himself.
Others he can be helped to bear, such
as the burden of carnal tendency,
persecution, anxiety over loved ones,
affliction that is not punishment.
II. Consider how we may bear the
burdens of others.—1. We can bear
them on our hearts in prayer. 2. We
can lighten the burden by friendly help.
3. We can by the strength of our
sympathies come under the burdens of
others.
III. Bearing the burdens of others
is the chief way by which we can
fulfil the law of Christ.—Nothing will
give us such a resemblance to Him.
He lives solely for others. He came
voluntarily under the burden of man’s
miseries, sacrificing Himself for the
race.
IV. Consider the importance of
obeying this injunction.—1. For our
own sakes. 2. For the good of others.
3. For the prosperity of the Church.—The Lay Preacher.
Ver. 5. Burden-bearing.
I. There is the burden of personal
responsibility.—This comes out in the
formation of character.
II. There is the burden of toil.—Among
the steep precipitous mountains
of Thibet the traveller meets long processions
of hungry, ill-clad Chinamen,
carrying enormous loads of tea. There
they go, climb, climbing day after day
up the rough sides of the mountains,
each with his great burden on his back,
eyes fixed on the ground, all silent,
stepping slowly, and leaning on great
iron-pointed sticks, till the leader of
the gang gives the signal for a halt,
and, after standing for a few minutes, the
heavy load again falls on the back and
head, the body is again bent towards
the ground, and the caravan is once
more in motion. You do not wonder
that, with a task so monotonous, these
poor drudges should acquire a dreary,
stupid look, little better than beasts of
burden; and you feel sorry for those in
whose lives there is a large amount
of the like irksome and exhausting
routine. Yet there are many who, in
order to earn their daily bread, must
go through a similar task.
III. There is the burden of sorrow.—Sorrow
dwells beneath a king’s
robes as much as beneath a peasant’s
cloak; the star of the noble, the
warrior’s corslet, the courtier’s silken
vesture, cannot shut it out. That rural
home is such a picture of peace we
cannot believe that care or tears are
there. That noble castle amidst
ancient trees is surely lifted up in its
calm grandeur above sighs and sadness.
Alas! it is not so. Man is the tenant
of both, and wherever man dwells
sorrow is sure to be with him.
IV. There is one burden which it is
wrong to bear.—It is a sin and a
shame to you if you are still plodding
along under the burden of unpardoned
transgression. The load of guilt, the
feeling that our sin is too great for the
blood of Christ to expiate, or the grace
of God to pardon—this burden it is
wrong to bear.—Dr. James Hamilton.
Bearing our Burdens Alone.
I. The loneliness of each one of us.—One
of the tendencies of these bustling
times it to make us forget that we are
single beings, detached souls. Each
great star flung out like an atom of
gold dust into space may seem lost
amid the hundreds of millions of
mightier worlds that surround; and
yet no; it rolls on, grave in itself,
careering in its own orbit, while its
sister-stars sweep round on every side.
We stand cut off from one another. We
are to stave up side by side our own
destiny, we are to be alone with our
burdens, not lost in the forest of
human lives.
II. Look at some of the forms of
this burden.—1. There is the burden of
being itself. 2. The burden of duty.
3. The burden of imperfection and sin.
4. The burden of sorrow. 5. The
burden of dying alone. 6. If a man is
lost, he is lost alone; if saved, he is saved
alone.—The Lay Preacher.
Every Man has his Own Burden.
I. No man can pay a ransom for his
brother, or redeem his soul from death,
or satisfy the justice of God for his sin,
seeing that every man by the tenor of
the law is to bear his own burden,
and by the Gospel none can be our
surety but Christ.
II. We see the nature of sin that is
a burden to the soul.—It is heavier
than the gravel of the earth and the
sand of the sea.
III. We are not to wonder that sin
being so heavy a burden should be
made so light a matter by carnal men,
for it is a spiritual burden.
IV. The more a man fears the burden
of his sins the greater measure of
grace and spiritual life he has, and the
less he feels it the more he is to suspect
himself.
V. The greatest part of the world
are dead in their sins in that they have
no sense of feeling of this heavy burden.
VI. We are to take heed of every
sin, for there is no sin so small but
hath its weight.—Many small sins
will as easily condemn as a few great.
Like as sands, though small in quantity,
yet being many in number, will as soon
sink the ship as if it were laden with
the greatest burden.
VII. Feeling the weight and burden
of our sins, we are to labour to be
disburdened; and this is done by
repentance towards God and faith in
our Lord Jesus Christ.—Perkins.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 6–10.
Moral Sowing and Reaping.
I. Beneficence by the taught towards the teacher is sowing good seed.—“Let
him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in
all good things” (ver. 6). The good things referred to, though not confined
to temporal good, do certainly mean that. While every man must bear
his own burden, he must also help to bear the burden of his brother.
Especially must the taught go shares with his spiritual teacher in all
things necessary. But beneficence shown towards the minister in temporalities
is the least, and with many the easiest, part of the duty. Teacher and taught
should mutually co-operate with each other in Christian work, and share with
each other in spiritual blessings. The true minister of the Gospel is more concerned
in eliciting the co-operation and sympathy of the members of his Church
than in securing their temporal support. If he faithfully ministers to them in
spiritual things, they should be eager to minister unto him of their worldly
substance, and to aid him in promoting the work of God. Every good deed, done
in the spirit of love and self-sacrifice, is sowing good seed.
II. By the operation of unchanging Divine law the reaping will correspond
to the kind of seed sown and the nature of the soil into which it is cast.—“Be
not deceived; God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also
reap. For he that soweth to his flesh,” etc. (vers. 7, 8). Men may wrong each
other, but they cannot cheat God. To expect God to sow His bounties upon
them, and not to let Him reap their gratitude and service, is mockery. But it is
not God they deceive; they deceive themselves. For at last every one shall reap
as he sows. The use made of our seed-time determines exactly, and with a moral
certainty greater even than that which rules in the natural field, what kind of
fruitage our immortality will render. Eternity for us will be the multiplied,
consummate outcome of the good or evil of the present life. Hell is just sin
ripe—rotten ripe. Heaven is the fruitage of righteousness. “He that soweth
to his own flesh reaps corruption”—the moral decay and dissolution of the man’s
being. This is the natural retributive effect of his carnality. The selfish man
gravitates downward into the sensual man; the sensual man downward into the
bottomless pit. “He that soweth to the Spirit reaps life everlasting.” The
sequence is inevitable. Like breeds its like. Life springs of life, and death
eternal is the culmination of the soul’s present death to God and goodness. The
future glory of the saints is at once a divine reward and a necessary development
of their present faithfulness (Findlay, passim).
III. Sowing the seed of good deeds should be prosecuted with unwearied
perseverance.—1. Because the harvest is sure to follow. “Let us not be weary
in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not” (ver. 9). Here is
encouragement for the wearied, baffled worker. We have all our moments of
despondency and disappointment and are apt to imagine our labours are futile
and all our painstaking useless. Not so. We are confounding the harvest with
the seed-time. “In due season”—in God’s time, which is the best time—“we
shall reap, if we faint not.” Our heavenly harvest lies in every earnest and
faithful deed, as the oak with its centuries of growth and all its summer glory
sleeps in the acorn-cup, as the golden harvest slumbers in the seeds under their
covering of wintry snow.
2. Because the opportunity of doing good is ever present.—“As we have
opportunity let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the
household of faith” (ver. 10). The whole of life is our opportunity, and every
day brings its special work. Opportunity is never to seek; it is ever present.
There is not a moment without a duty. While we are looking for a more
convenient opportunity, we lose the one that is nearest to us. As members of
the household of faith there is ever work enough to do—work that fits us to
do good on a wider scale—“unto all men.” True zeal for the Church broadens
rather than narrows our charities. Household affection is the nursery, not the
rival, of love to our fatherland and to humanity.
Lessons.—1. Our present life is the seed-time of an eternal harvest. 2. The
quality of the future harvest depends entirely on the present sowing. 3. God
Himself is the Lord of the moral harvest.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Ver. 6. Pastors and People.
I. It is the duty of the people to
give their pastors not only countenance
but maintenance.
II. It is the law of nations, and a
conclusion grounded on common equity,
that those who spend themselves, as a
candle, to give light to others and for
the common good of all, should be
maintained of the common stock by
all.
III. Every calling is able to maintain
them that live therein, therefore
we may not think that the ministry,
the highest calling, should be so base
or barren as that it cannot maintain
them that attend thereupon.
IV. Ministers are the Lord’s soldiers,
captains, and standard-bearers, and
therefore are not to go a warfare at
their own cost.
V. Ministers are to give themselves
wholly to the building of the Church
and to the fighting of the Lord’s battles.
Therefore they are to have their pay
that they may attend upon their calling
without distraction.
VI. It is the ordinance of God that
they which preach the Gospel should
live of the Gospel.—Ministers should
be liberally provided for, yet with
moderation, that they draw not all
men’s wealth into their purses. He
that would live of the Gospel must
teach the Gospel. A benefit requires
a duty, and diligence is that duty.—Perkins.
Ministerial Maintenance.—1. Seeing
Christ’s ministers are to bestow themselves
wholly in the work of the
ministry and not to be entangled with
the affairs of this life, therefore the
people of God, among whom they spend
their strength, are bound by common
equity to give them worldly maintenance,
that they may be neither diverted
from nor discouraged in their work of
watching over souls. 2. This maintenance,
though it should be moderate
and such as may not through abundance
occasion pride, luxury, and prodigality,
yet should be liberal and
creditable, such as may not only supply
pinching necessities, but also that they
may have wherewith to supply
the necessities of the indigent, to educate
their children so as they may sustain
themselves and be profitable members
both of Church and commonwealth.
3. The Church’s maintenance is only
due unto such ministers as have abilities
to preach and are faithful and
diligent labourers in the Word. Those
who are unfit or unwilling to preach
should be removed from their charge,
and not suffered to eat up the Church’s
maintenance, feeding themselves and
starving the souls of people committed
to their charge.—Fergusson.
Vers. 7–9. Deceived Sowers to the
Flesh.
I. The solemnity of the apostle’s
warning.—He seems to intimate that
such is the audacious wickedness of the
human heart, that it has within it so
many latent mazes of iniquity, that
they might be self-deceived either as to
their apprehensions of that which was
right before God, or as to their own
actual condition in His sight; and he
tells them God is not mocked by this
pretended service, that to Him all
hearts are open, and that in impartial
and discriminating arbitration He will
render to every man according to his
deeds. It is sad to be deceived in a
friend, in our estimate of health, in
our computation of property; but a
mistake about the state of the soul—a
veil folded about the heart so that it
cannot see its own helplessness and
peril—this is a state of which thought
shudders to conceive, and to describe
whose portentousness language has no
words that are sufficiently appalling.
There can be no peril more imminent
than yours. The headlong rider
through the darkness before whom the
dizzy precipice yawns; the heedless
traveller for whom in the bosky woodland
the bandits lie in ambush, or
upon whom from the jungle’s density
the tiger waits to spring; the man who,
gazing faintly upward, meets the cruel
eye and lifted hand and flashing steel
of his remorseless enemy; they of whose
condition you can only poorly image,
who in far dungeons and beneath the
torture of a tyrant’s cruelty groan for
a sight of friend or glimpse of day; all
around whom perils thicken hopelessly,
and to whom, with feet laden with the
tidings of evil, the messengers of
disaster come,—how they move your
sympathy, how you shudder as you
dwell upon their danger, how you would
fain stir yourselves into brave efforts
for their rescue or their warning!
Brethren, your own danger is more
nearly encompassing and is more
infinitely terrible.
II. The import of the apostle’s
statement.—We have largely the
making or the marring of our own
future—that in the thoughts we
harbour, in the words we speak and
in the silent deeds, which, beaded on
Time’s string, are told by some recording
angel as the story of our lives from
year to year, we shape our character and
therefore our destiny for ever. There
are three special sowers to the flesh—the
proud, the covetous, the ungodly.
They are all spiritual sins—sins of which
human law takes no cognisance, and
to which codes of earthly jurisprudence
affix no scathing penalty. There is the
greater need, therefore, that these
spiritual sins should be disclosed in all
their enormity and shown in their
exceeding sinfulness and in their disastrous
wages, in order that men may
be left without excuse if they persist
wilfully to believe a lie.—W. M. Punshon.
Vers. 7, 8. The Double Harvest.
I. Our present life is a moral trial
for another to come.—On till death is
our seed-sowing; after death is the
sure and universal harvest. On till
death is our moral trial; after death
is the life of judicial retribution, alike
for the just and the unjust.
II. Human life has one or the other
of two great characters, and will issue
in one or the other of two great
results.—1. They sow to the flesh who
live under the influence of their natural
inclinations and desires, pleasing only
themselves and despising or neglecting
the holy will of God. They live to the
Spirit the whole current of whose
being has been supernaturally reversed
under the grace of the Gospel. 2. The
sowers to the Spirit live. And this
true and proper life of man, in its
maturity and full perfection, is the
great and glorious reward which, by
Divine appointment, shall eventually
crown the labours of the sowers to the
Spirit. The sowers to the flesh sow
seed which brings forth death. Even
now their life is death in rudiment,
and in the end, they must reap it in
its full and external development. Degraded
existence, miserable existence,
everlastingly degraded and miserable
existence.
III. We are liable to delusions with
respect to these great verities.—All
history and experience teem with illustrations
of the spiritual spells and
juggleries which men, prompted by the
invisible potentate of evil, practise upon
themselves, that so they may reduce to
their convictions the sinfulness of sin,
and may tone the booming of the great
bell of Scripture menace down to the
gentle whisper of an amiable reprimand.—J. D. Geden.
On the Difference between sowing to
the Flesh and to the Spirit.
I. The man who soweth to his
flesh.—It is to spend our lives in
doing these works of the flesh—to lay
out our time, our thoughts, and our
care in gratifying the vain, sensual,
and selfish inclinations which the evil
state of the heart naturally and continually
puts forth. Broken health,
loathsome diseases, ruined fortunes,
disappointed wishes, soured tempers,
infamy, and shame are among those
things which usually come from walking
after the flesh.
II. The man who soweth to the
Spirit.—It is to live under the guidance
of God’s Holy Spirit, and in every part
of our conduct to bring forth the fruits
of the Spirit. He enjoys even at
present the fruit of his labour: inward
peace and joy, and a hope full of immortality.—Edward Cooper.
The Principle of the Spiritual Harvest.
I. The principle is this, “God is not
mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall he also reap.”—There are
two kinds of good possible to men—one
enjoyed by our animal being, the other
felt and appreciated by our spirits.
Reap what you have sown. If you
sow the wind, do not complain if your
harvest is the whirlwind. If you sow
to the Spirit, be content with a spiritual
reward, invisible, within, more life and
higher life.
II. The two branches of the application
of this principle.—1. Sowing to
the flesh includes those who live in
open riot. 2. Those who live in respectable
worldliness. 3. Sowing to
the Spirit, the harvest is life eternal.
4. The reward is not arbitrary but
natural. The thing reaped is the very
thing sown, multiplied a hundredfold.
You have sown a seed of life, you reap
life everlasting.—F. W. Robertson.
Ver. 7. Sowing and Reaping in their
bearing on the Formation of Individual
Character.—There are three plots in
which every man is perpetually engaged
in sowing and reaping—in the plot of
his thoughts, in the plot of his words,
and in the plot of his deeds. And
there is a storehouse into which the
harvests from these three plots are being
secretly but unmistakably garnered—the
storehouse of individual character.
The moral condition of the man
to-day is the inevitable result of his
thoughts, words, and deeds; his selfhood
is rich or poor according to his
sowing and reaping in these respective
fields.
I. Whatever a man sows in
thought that will he also reap in the
formation, tone, and tendency of his
intellectual and moral nature.—1. Vain
thoughts. If we indolently
sport with vain and foolish thoughts,
they will inevitably produce a crop of
the same kind. The mind will be
garnished with flimsy and unprofitable
fancies, inflated with a too conscious
self-importance, and the outcome is
heard in “the loud laugh that proclaims
the vacant mind,” and seen in
the pompous swagger of the intellectual
fop (Prov. xiii. 16; Ps. xciv. 11).
2. Proud thoughts.—The man dominated
by pride is the most pitiable of
objects. His pride of birth will not
bear investigation into three generations,
his pride of social status is
snubbed in a way that leaves a wound
that never heals, his pride of wealth
smitten down by an unexpected turn
of the ever-revolving wheel of fortune,
and his pride of life withered by the
passing breath of the great Destroyer.
But he reaps what he sowed. He
sowed the dragon’s teeth of proud and
boastful thoughts, and the monster grew
up and devoured him (Prov. xvi. 18).
3. Thoughts of sinful pleasure.—If
we allow the mind to dream of pleasures
that are forbidden, the bloom of innocence
is rubbed off never to be again
replaced, the conscience is outraged
till its voice is muffled and but feebly
heard, one vile thought indulged breeds
another that is viler still, and the moral
atmosphere of the soul is poisoned.
What he sows he reaps.
4. Good thoughts.—The mind that
aims at the loftiest style of thought,
declining to tolerate the presence of a
debasing sentiment, that keeps in check
the wild and savage brood of evil
thoughts ever seeking to overrun and
defile the mind, that cultivates a chaste
imagination and cherishes the exalted
and unselfish charity that “thinketh
no evil”—reaps the result in an accession
of intellectual vigour, in the
creation of a nobler standard by which
to judge of men and things, in the
unbounded raptures of a refined and
fertile imagination, and in the increase
of power for doing the highest kind
of work for God and humanity.
II. Whatsoever a man sows in
words that shall he also reap.—1. Bitter
and rancorous words. If a
man studies how much of spiteful venom
he can pack into a single sentence,
how he can most skilfully whet and
sharpen the edge of his words so as
to make the deepest wound and raise
the most violent storm of irritation
and ill-feeling, unalterable as the
course of nature the harvest is sure to
come. “Our unkind words come home
to roost.” The man offensive with his
tongue is the devil’s bellows with which
he blows up the sparks of contention
and strife, and showers of the fiery
embers are sure to fall back upon himself
to scathe and destroy.
2. False words.—If we deliberately
and maliciously concoct a lie, and utter
the same with whispered humbleness
and hypocritical commiseration, as
sure as there is justice in the heavens,
the lie will come back with terrific
recompense upon the head of the
originator.
3. Kind and loving words.—If we
speak in the kindest spirit of others,
especially in their absence, if we stand
up for a friend unjustly maligned and
defend him with dignity and faithfulness,
if we study to avoid words which
cannot but grieve and irritate, then as
we have sown so shall we reap—reap
the tranquil satisfaction of conscious
inoffensiveness, and, best of all, the
Divine approval. “Heaven in sunshine
will requite the kind.”
III. Whatsoever a man sows in
deeds that shall he also reap.—1. Cruel
deeds. If we take a savage
delight in torturing beast or bird or
insect, if we plot how we can inflict
the most exquisite pain on our fellow-man,
if we make sport of the anguish
and distress of others which we make
no effort to relieve, we shall inevitably
reap the harvest—reap it in the embruting
and degradation of our finer
sensibilities, reap it in the tempest of
rebellion and retaliation which those we
outraged will launch upon us.
2. Selfish deeds.—If we live for our
own selfish gratification, indifferent to
the rights and woes of others; if we
surrender ourselves to a covetous spirit,
living poor that we may die rich—as
we sow we reap. The thing we lived
to enjoy ceases to gratify, and our
noblest sentiments are buried amid the
rubbish of our own sordidness.
3. Generous and noble deeds.—If we
aim at the elevation of ourselves and
others, if we seek to act on the highest
level of righteousness and truth, if we
are diligent, unwearied, and persistent
in well-doing, then in due season we
shall reap the harvest—reap it in a
heightened and expansive nobility of
character, in an intensified influence
and enlarged capacity for doing good,
and in the eternal enrichment of the
Divine plaudit, “Well done.”
Be not Deceived.—This phrase occurs
several times as preface to warning,
seeming to indicate thus that the
subject of the warning is one about
which we are specially liable to deception,
and upon examination we find
that observation justifies the presumption.
We are thus guarded
against any deception as to the following
important practical truths:—
- The contaminating influence of
evil associations (1 Cor. xv. 33).
- The personal responsibility of
each for his own sin (Jas. i. 16).
- Entrance into heaven conditioned
on character (1 Cor. vi. 9).
- Human destiny, once settled,
irreversible (Gal. vi. 7).—British and
Foreign Evangelical Review.
Ver. 8. Sowing to the Spirit.
I. The natural man has no desire
for immortality.—He has not been
seized with the earnest and real wish
for a future life; but he is entirely
bound by this world in all his thoughts,
aims, and wishes: he identifies life and
existence altogether with this world,
and life out of this world is a mere
name to him. He is shut up within the
walls of the flesh and within the circle
of its own present aims and projects.
II. The spiritual man has a strong
desire for immortality, and it is the
beginning and foundation of the
religious life he leads here. Every
field of action becomes unimportant
and insignificant compared with the
simply doing good things, because in
that simple exercise of goodness lies
the preparation for eternity.
III. The natural and spiritual man
are divided from each other by these
distinctions—one has the desire for
everlasting life, the other has not.
The success of the one perishes with the
corruptible life to which it belongs;
the success of the other endures for all
ages in the world to come.—J. B.
Mozley.
The Law of Retribution.
I. We see the justice of God—His
bounty and severity.—His bounty in
recompensing men above their deserts;
His severity in punishing sinners
according to their deserts.
II. This doctrine, that we shall
drink such as we brew, reap such as
we sow, and that men have degrees of
felicity or misery answerable to their
works, will make us more careful to
avoid sin.
III. It serves as a comfort against
inequality; whereas the wicked flourish
and the godly live in contempt, the
time shall come when every one shall
reap even as he has sown.
IV. It crosses the conceit of those
who promise to themselves an impunity
from sin and immunity from
all the judgments of God, notwithstanding
they go on in their bad
practices.—Perkins.
Ver. 9. Against Weariness in Well-doing.—1. There
is the prevailing
temper of our nature, the love of ease—horror
of hard labour. 2. The reluctance
and aversion are greater
when the labour is enjoined by extraneous
authority—the imperative
will of a foreign power. 3. In the
service of God there is a good deal
that does not seem for ourselves.
4. There is a principle of false humility—what
signifies the little I can do?
5. The complaint of deficient co-operation.
6. In the cause of God the
object and effect of well-doing are
much less palpable than in some other
provinces of action. 7. Yet the duty
expressly prescribed is an absolute
thing, independently of what men can
foresee of its results. 8. There is the
consciousness and pleasure of pleasing
God. 9. What relief has man gained
by yielding to the weariness? 10. Our
grave accountableness is for making a
diligent, patient, persevering use of the
means God has actually given us.—J. Foster.
Apathy one of our Trials.—1. Because,
as in everything else, so in our
spiritual growth, we are inevitably disappointed
in much of our expectations.
2. The temptation to weariness is no
sign at all that the man so tempted is
not a true servant of God, though this
very often is the first thought that
enters the mind. It is no sin to feel
weary; the sin is to be weary—that is,
to let the feeling have its way and rule
our conduct. 3. We expect a kind of
fulness of satisfaction in God’s service
which we do not get nearly so soon as
we fancy that we shall. 4. You are
quite mistaken to your belief that
former prayers and former resolutions
have been in vain and have produced
no fruit because no fruit is visible.
5. In due season we shall find that it
has been worth while to persevere in
trying to serve Christ.—Dr. Temple.
Well-doing.
I. Contrasted with fruitless profession.—It
is possible to have a clear
notion of Christian truth and to talk
well, and yet be idle and useless.
II. Contrasted with mistaken standards.—It
is easy to do as others are
doing; but are they doing well?
Practice must be guided by holy precepts.
III. Contrasted with wrong motives.—Many
are careful to do what is
literally the right thing, but they do
it with base motives. The correct
motives are—love (2 Cor. v. 14),
gratitude (Ps. cxvi. 12), compassion
(2 Cor. v. 11), desire to imitate
Christ. All well-doing is humble and
self-renouncing.—The Lay Preacher.
“Reap if we faint not.”—The image
is agricultural.
I. Points of resemblance.—1. The
material harvest is of two kinds—weeds
and golden grain. 2. The
spiritual harvest is of two kinds—corruption
and everlasting life. 3. A
combination of agencies. (1) For the
material harvest seed, soil, and elements
work with the efforts of the
farmer. (2) For the spiritual harvest
the seed of the Word and the power of
God must co-operate with man’s agency.
4. As to difficulties. (1) The season
may be too wet, too dry, or too hot,
or an army of insects may attack
the growing grain. (2) The foes of
the spiritual harvest are the world,
the flesh, and the devil.
II. Points of contrast.—1. The
material harvest is annual, the spiritual
eternal. 2. There are seasons so unfavourable
that all the efforts of the
farmer prove in vain; the spiritual
harvest will never fail. 3. The drouth
of one year may be made good by next
year’s abundance, but eternity cannot
compensate for what was lost in time.
III. Encouragements.—1. “Our
labour is not in vain in the Lord.”
2. “In due season we shall reap, if
we faint not.” 3. The harvest will
be glorious and eternal.—Homiletic
Monthly.
Ver. 10. On doing Good.
I. It is our duty to do good.—This
duty is enforced both by the words and
example of Christ. Christianity not
only requires its adherents to abstain
from evil, but it demands their active
service.
II. In doing good man attains to
true nobility of character.—The characters
in history that exert the greatest
fascination over us are not those of
eminent statesmen or scientists, but
those who have been distinguished for
their philanthropy. We see in them a
moral dignity that is unique. What
reversals in human estimates of character
will take place when the Divine
standard of greatness is appealed to!
III. In doing good we find true
happiness.—God has so constituted us
that the exercise of our malevolent
passions is productive of inward dissatisfaction,
while the exercise of
benevolent affections is attended with
the greatest joy. There is real luxury
in doing good.—Preacher’s Magazine.
The Opportunity of Beneficence.
I. What a precious thing is opportunity.—People
talk about making
time for this or that purpose. The
time is really made for us, only we are
too idle or too careless to use it for the
proper end. Opportunities of usefulness
are of frequent occurrence; they
are wont to come and go with rapidity.
They must be seized as you would lay
hold of a passing friend in the street.
II. The whole of life is an opportunity.—There
is such a thing as a
useful life, a true life, a noble life,
though all lives must needs contain a
multitude of neglected opportunities.
As a series of opportunities its
record is woefully imperfect. As
one opportunity it is not utterly unworthy
of the example of Christ. Let
us have a thread of right intention
running through life. Let us have an
active purpose of benevolence—a constant
design of love. The continuous
opportunity of life must be utilised, if
the particular opportunities of life are
to be turned to the best account.
III. The field of beneficence is very
wide.—Wherever men are found it is
possible for us to do them good. We
touch only a few persons, but each of
these is in contact with others. To do
great things with great powers is easy
enough; but things so done may be
undone so. The glory of Christianity
has always been that it does great
things with small powers, or powers
that men think small; and the results
of its work remain. Good work done
by many hands is better than the
extended philanthropy of an individual;
for what is this but the effort
of one man to make amends for the
neglect of a thousand?
IV. Though all men have a claim
on our Christian benevolence some are
entitled to a special share.—A man
does not become a better citizen when
he spurns his own family and neglects
his duties at home. On the contrary,
the noblest philanthropist is the most
affectionate of fathers and husbands,
and he who loves most widely in the
world loves most intensely in his own
house. So it will be with us in our
Christian charity. We shall begin
with those who are called by the
common name and worship the common
Lord, and from these we shall go
on, with our energy not exhausted but
rather refreshed, to the great mass of
mankind.—Edward C. Lefroy.
Doing Good.
I. We must do good with that only
which is our own.—We may not cut
a large and liberal shive off another
man’s loaf; we may not steal from
one to give to another, or deal unjustly
with some that we may be merciful to
others.
II. We must do good with cheerfulness
and alacrity.—What more free
than gift; therefore we may not play
the hucksters in doing good, for that
blemishes the excellency of the gift.
III. We must so do good as that
we do not disable ourselves for ever
doing good.—So begin to do good as
that we may continue.
IV. We must do all the good we
can within the compass of our calling
and hinder all the evil.
V. We must do good to all.—1. From
the grounds of love and beneficence.
2. God is good and bountiful
to all. 3. Do good to others as we
would they should do to us. 4. Our
profession and the reward we look for
require us to do this.
VI. There is no possibility of doing
good to others after this life.—Perkins.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 11–13.
Apostolic Exposure of False Teachers.
I. The apostle gives special emphasis to his warning by concluding his
epistle in his own handwriting.—“Ye see how large a letter I have written
unto you with mine own hand” (ver. 11). The apostle usually dictated his
epistle to an amanuensis, except the concluding salutation, which he wrote
himself by way of authentication. At this point of the epistle to the Galatians
he appears to have taken the pen from the hand of the amanuensis, and with
his own hand written the concluding sentences in clear, bold characters, thus
giving the utmost possible emphasis and solemnity to his words. They are a
postscript, or epilogue, to the epistle, rehearsing with incisive brevity the burden
of all that it was in the apostle’s heart to say to these troubled and shaken
Galatians. He wishes to reimpress upon his emotional readers the warnings he
had already expressed against the false teachers, to assure them of his intense
regard for their welfare, and to lay additional stress upon the peril of their
hesitating attitude. The more apparent and imminent the danger, the louder
and more earnest is the warning expressed.
II. It is shown that the policy of the false teachers was to avoid the suffering
connected with the ignominy of the cross of Christ.—“They constrain you to be
circumcised, only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ.”
(ver. 12). The false teachers were really cowards, though this accusation they
would be the first indignantly to resent. They wanted to mix up the old faith
with the new, to entangle the new Christian converts with Mosaic observances.
If they succeeded in persuading the Gentile Christians to be circumcised, they
would propitiate the anger of their Israelite kindred, and dispose them to regard
the new doctrine more favourably. They would, with heartless recklessness, rob
the believer of all his privileges in Christ in order to make a shield for themselves
against the enmity of their kinsmen. Cowards at heart, they were more afraid
of persecution than eager to know and propagate the truth. If a man will be a
Christian, he cannot avoid the cross; and to attempt to avoid it will not release
from suffering. It is a craven fear indeed that refuses to espouse the truth
because it may bring pain. “No servant of Christ,” says Augustine, “is without
affliction. If you expect to be free from persecution, you have not yet so much
as begun to be a Christian.”
III. The insincerity of the false teachers was apparent in their not keeping
the law themselves, but in boasting of the number of their converts to its
external observance.—“For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep
the law; but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh”
(ver. 13). The Judaists were not only cowardly, but insincere. It was not the
glory of the law they were concerned about, but their own success. If they
had tried to convert the heathen, however imperfect might be their creed, they
would have merited some respect; but, like some religious troublers to-day, they
selected for their prey those who were already converted. They practised their
wiles on the inexperience of young believers, as they expected to gather from that
class the greater number of proselytes of whom to make their boast. “Their
policy was dishonourable both in spirit and in aim. They were false to Christ
in whom they professed to believe, and to the law which they pretended to
keep. They were facing both ways, studying the safest not the truest course,
anxious in truth to be friends at once with the world and Christ. Their
conduct has found many imitators, in men who make godliness a way of gain,
whose religious course is dictated by considerations of worldly self-interest.
Business patronage, professional advancement, a tempting family alliance, the
entrée into some select and envied circle—such are the things for which creeds
are bartered, for which men put their souls and the souls of their children
knowingly in peril.”
Lessons.—1. The false teacher may be the occasion of much mischief and spiritual
loss. 2. He succumbs in the presence of suffering. 3. He is more anxious for
public success than for the spread of the truth.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Ver. 12. The Odium of the Cross of
Christ.
I. The history of the cross.—It is a
history of sin on our part, and of suffering
on the part of Christ. What a
change has been produced in the moral
aspect of the universe by the preaching
of the cross!
II. The odium connected with the
cross.—There is odium and suffering
connected with the cross still; in some
shape we shall suffer persecution for it.
If we will lead a holy life, then suffering,
persecution, reproach, hatred and
ill-will, sarcasm, wit, ridicule, and
obloquy will be cast upon us. It was
said by one, when several were expelled
from one of our universities, that “if
some are expelled for having too much
religion, it is high time to begin to
inquire whether there are not some
who have too little.” If we speak of
the reproach of the cross, what should
that reproach be? Not that you have
too much religion, but that you have too
little, and that many of you have none
at all.
III. As to those who suffer persecution
for the cross, it is the greatest
possible honour to be laughed at, mocked,
and insulted for the sake of the Saviour.
If the spirit of the martyrs influenced
us, there would be no shunning of persecution
on account of the cross, but
suffering would be welcomed with joy.—The Pulpit.
Christianity and Persecution.
- We should suspect ourselves that
our hearts are not sound, nor our
practice sincere, when all men speak
well of us.
- We must not be discouraged
though there be never so many that
make opposition, or so mighty that
raise persecution against us.
- That we think it not strange
when we find affliction or meet with
persecution. The Gospel and persecution
go hand in hand, or follow one
another inseparably.—Perkins.
Ver. 13. Empty Boasting—
- When professed teachers do not
practise the virtues they enforce on
others.
- When zeal for the observance of
outward rites disguises the lack of
personal godliness.
- When success is sought simply
to be able to boast of success.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 14, 15.
Glorying in the Cross—
I. Because of the great truths it reveals.—“But God forbid that I should
glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (ver. 14). “The cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ” is a comprehensive phrase signifying the whole redeeming
work of Christ—the salvation effected for the race by His crucifixion and death
upon the cross. The problem how God can forgive sin without any breach in
His moral government, or dimming the lustre of His perfections, is solved in the
cross. God is great in Sinai. The thunders precede Him, the lightnings attend
Him, the earth trembles, the mountains fall in fragments. But there is a
greater God than this. On Calvary, nailed to a cross, wounded, thirsting, dying,
He cries, “Father, forgive them; they know not what they do!” Great is the
religion of power, but greater is the religion of love. Great is the religion of
implacable justice, but greater is the religion of pardoning mercy. The cross
was the master-theme of the apostle’s preaching and the chief and exclusive
subject of his glorying.
II. Because of its contrast to effete ceremonialism.—“For in Christ Jesus
neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision” (ver. 15). To the
Jew circumcision was everything. By the cross Judaism, as a means of
salvation, is utterly abolished. Uncircumcision includes all Gentile heathenism.
Before the cross all heathen religions must perish. The Gentile cultus was never
intended to supplant Jewish customs; both are excluded as unavailing in
human salvation. The devotees of form and ceremony are apt to develop into
bigotry and pride; the foes of ritualism are in danger of making a religion of
their opposition; and both parties indulge in recriminations that are foreign to
the spirit of Christianity. “Thus, I trample on the pride of Plato,” said the
cynic, as he trod on the philosopher’s sumptuous carpets; and Plato justly
retorted, “You do it with greater pride.” Ceremonialism is effete, and is not
worth contending about. It is nothing; Christ is everything, and the cross the
only subject worthy of the Christian’s boast.
III. Because of the moral change it effects.—“But a new creature”—a new
creation (ver. 15). In the place of a dead ceremonialism the Gospel plants a
new moral creation. It creates a new type of character. The faith of the cross
claims to have produced not a new style of ritual, not a new system of government,
but new men. The Christian is the “new creature” which it begets. The cross
has originated a new civilisation, and is a conspicuous symbol in the finest works
of art. Ruskin, describing the artistic glories of the Church of St. Mark in
Venice, says: “Here are all the successions of crowded imagery showing the
passions and pleasures of human life symbolised together, and the mystery of its
redemption: for the maze of interwoven lines and changeful pictures lead
always at last to the cross, lifted and carved in every place and upon every
stone, sometimes with the serpent of eternity wrapped round it, sometimes with
doves beneath its arms and sweet herbage growing forth from its feet; but conspicuous
most of all on the great rood that crosses the church before the altar,
raised in bright blazonry against the shadow of the apse. It is the cross that is
first seen and always burning in the centre of the temple, and every dome and
hollow of its roof has the figure of Christ in the utmost height of it, raised in
power, or returning in judgment.” The true power of the cross is not artistic
or literary or political, but moral. It is a spiritually transforming force that
penetrates and guides every form of human progress.
IV. Because of personal identification with its triumph over the world.—“By
whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world” (ver. 14).
As the world of feverish pleasure, of legal ordinances, was conquered by the
cross, so the faith of the apostle in the crucified One gave him the victory over
the world, so that it lost all power to charm or intimidate. The world of evil is
doomed, and the power of the cross is working out its ultimate defeat. I have
seen a curious photograph of what purports to be a portrait of the Saviour in the
days of His flesh, and which by a subtle manipulation of the artist has a double
representation. When you first look upon the picture you see the closed eyes of
the Sufferer, and the face wears a pained and wearied expression; but as you
gaze intently the closed eyes seem to gently open and beam upon you with the
light of loving recognition. So, as you gaze upon the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ it seems to you the symbol of suffering and defeat, but as you keep your
eyes steadily fixed upon it the cross gradually assumes the glory of a glittering
crown, incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away (1 Pet. i. 4).
Lessons.—1. The cross is the suggestive summary of saving truth. 2. The
cross is the potent instrument of the highest moral conquests. 3. The cross is the
loftiest theme of the believer’s glorying.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Ver. 14. Christ Crucified.
- By Christ crucified we have
reconciliation with God, remission of
sins, and acceptance to eternal life.
- We have the peace of God,
peace with men, with ourselves, with
the creatures.
- We recover the right and title
which we had in creation to all the
creatures and blessings of God.
- All afflictions cease to be
curses and punishments and become
either trials or corrections.
- Those who can truly glory in the
cross are dead to the world and the
world to them.
- We are taught to carry ourselves
in the world as crucified and
dead men, not to love, but to renounce
and forsake it.—Perkins.
Glorying in the Cross of Christ.
I. We glory in the doctrine of the
cross—the justification of guilty men
through a propitiatory sacrifice—because
of its antiquity.—It was taught
by patriarchs and prophets, the law of
sacrifice was its grand hieroglyphical
record, the first sacrifices were its types,
the first awakened sinner with his
load of guilt fell upon this rock and
was supported, and by the sacrifice of
Christ shall the last sinner saved be
raised to glory.
II. Because it forms an important
part of the revelation of the New
Testament.
III. As affording the only sure
ground of confidence to a penitent
sinner.
IV. Because of its moral effects.—Not
only in the superstitions and
idolatries it has destroyed, the barbarous
nations it has civilised, the
cruel customs it has abrogated, and the
kindly influence it has shed upon the
laws and manners of nations; but in
its moral effect on individuals, producing
the most ardent love to God
and kindling benevolence towards all—Richard Watson.
The True Glory of the Christian.
I. The disposition of mind denoted
by the expressions—“The world is
crucified unto me; I am crucified to
the world.”—1. The nature of it—a
total rupture with the world. 2. The
gradations of which it admits. Deadness
to avarice and pride—in respect
to exertion and actual progress—in
respect of hope and fervour. 3. The
difficulty, the bitterness, of making a
sacrifice so painful.
II. In such a disposition true glory
consists.—Comparison between the
hero of this world and the Christian
hero. The hero derives his glory from
the greatness of the master he serves,
from the dignity of the persons who
have preceded him in the same honourable
career, from the brilliancy of his
achievements, from the acclamations
his exploits excite. How much more
the Christian hero!
III. The cross of Christ alone can
inspire us with these sentiments.—If
we consider it in relation to the
atrocious guilt of those who despise it,
in relation to the proofs there displayed
of Christ’s love, in the proofs it supplies
of the doctrine of Christ, and in relation
to the glory that shall follow.—Saurin.
The Cross a Burden or a Glory.
I. There is the constant ordinary
discipline of human life.—Life when
it is earnest contains more or less of
suffering. There is a battle of good
and evil, and these special miseries
are the bruises of the blows that fill
the air, sometimes seeming to fall at
random and perplexing our reason,
because we cannot rise to such height
of vision as to take in the whole field
at once.
II. There is the wretchedness of
feeling self-condemned.—Law alone is
a cross. Man needs another cross—not
Simon’s, but Paul’s. He took it up,
and it grew light in his hands. He
welcomed it, and it glowed with lustre,
as if it were framed of the sunbeams
of heaven.
III. The same spiritual contrast,
the same principle of difference between
compulsory and voluntary
service, opens to us two interpretations
of the suffering of the Saviour Himself.—Neither
the cross of Simon nor
the cross of Paul was both literally and
actually the cross of Christ. Its charm
was that it was chosen. Its power
was that it was free. The cross becomes
glorious when the Son of God
takes it up; there is goodness enough
in Him to exalt it. It was the symbol
of that sacrifice where self was for
ever crucified for love.—F. D. Huntington.
The Cross—
- The sinner’s refuge.
- The sinner’s remedy.
- The sinner’s life.
The Glory of the Cross.
- The cross was the emblem of
death.
- Christ was not only a dead
Saviour, but a condemned Saviour.
- A disgraced Saviour, because
the cross was a disgraceful kind of
punishment.
- Paul gloried in the cross because
it is an exhibition of the righteousness
of God.
- Because it proclaims His love.
- The contemplation of Christ’s
cross helps us to conquer the world.—Newman Hall.
Glorying in the Cross.
I. The subjects in which the apostle
gloried.—1. He might have gloried in
his distinguished ancestry. 2. In his
polished education. 3. In the morality
of his former life. 4. In his extraordinary
call to the apostleship. 5. In his
high ecclesiastical position. 6. He did
not glory in the literal cross. 7. Nor in
the metaphorical cross. 8. But in the
metonymical cross (1 Cor. i. 17;
Col. i. 20).
II. The characteristics of the
apostle’s glorying.—1. His glorying
was not merely verbal, but practical.
2. Not sectarian, but Christian and
catholic. 3. Not temporary, but permanent.
III. The reasons of the apostle’s
glorying.—1. Here he saw a grander
display of the Divine character and
perfections than elsewhere. 2. This
was the scene of the most glorious
victory ever witnessed. 3. It was the
centre of all God’s dispensations.
4. The cross was the most powerful
incentive to true morality. 5. Hence
flowed all the blessings of the Gospel
economy. 6. Here was made an
atonement equal to the needs of our
fallen world.
Lessons.—1. Let us here see the purity
of the moral law and the heinousness of
sin. 2. Let the sinner come to the cross
for pardon, purity, peace, and joy.—W. Antliff.
Glorying in the Cross.
I. Paul’s enthusiasm as expressed
in the exclamation of the text.
II. One main source of his zeal lay
in the subject of his enthusiasm.—1. The
cross is a fit subject for glory as
symbolising an infinite, boundless truth.
2. Because it is an eternal fact.
3. Because it is the ground of man’s
justification and the symbol of his redemption.
III. Look at the result—crucifixion
to the world.—The true solution of
the Christian’s relationship to the world
lies in the fact that it is a separation
not in space but in spirit.—J. Hutchinson,
in “Scottish Pulpit.”
Ver. 15. Scriptural View of True
Religion.
I. What true religion is not.—1. It
is not circumcision nor uncircumcision.
2. It is not an outward thing. (1) You
are not religious because you have been
baptised. (2) Because you are called
a Christian, and have been born of
Christian parents. (3) Because you
frequent the Church, attend the Lord’s
Supper, and are regular at your devotions.
II. What true religion is.—1. It is
not an outward but an inward thing.
It is not a new name, but a new nature.
A new creation describes a great change
in man. 2. The greatness of this
change shows also the power by which
it is wrought. Creation is a Divine
work. 3. The rite of circumcision
taught the necessity of the change.
Though it was a seal of the righteousness
of faith, it was also a sign of the
inward renewal and purification of the
heart. Baptism in the Christian
Church teaches the same truth. The
texts of Scripture which set forth the
evil nature of man set forth the
necessity of this great change.—Edward Cooper.
The New Creature.—The new creature
is the only thing acceptable to God.
It is the renovation of the whole man,
both in the spirit of our minds and in
the affections of our heart. Neither
the substance nor the faculties of the
soul are lost by the Fall, but only the
qualities of the faculties, as when an
instrument is out of tune the fault is
not in the substance of the instrument,
nor in the sound, but in the disproportion
or jar in the sound: therefore,
the qualities only are renewed by
grace. These qualities are either in
the understanding or the will and
affections. The quality in the understanding
is knowledge; in the will and
affections they are righteousness and
holiness, both which are in truth and
sincerity. Holiness performs all the
duties of piety, righteousness the duties
of humanity, truth seasoning both the
former with sincerity.—Ralph Culworth.
The Necessity of a New Nature.—The
raven perched on the rock where
she whets her bloody beak, and with
greedy eye watches the death-struggles
of an unhappy lamb, cannot tune her
croaking voice to the mellow music of
a thrush; and since it is out of the
abundance of the heart that the mouth
speaketh, how could a sinner take up
the strain and sing the song of saints?—Guthrie.
The New Birth begins our True Life.—A
stranger passing through a
churchyard saw these words written
on a tombstone: “Here lies an old
man seven years old.” He had been
a true Christian only for that length
of time.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 16–18.
A Dignified and Touching Farewell—
I. Supplicates the best blessing on the truly righteous.—“As many
as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the
Israel of God” (ver. 16). Jewish discipline and pagan culture are for ever
discredited by the new creation of moral virtue. The rule of the renewed
inward life supersedes the works of the condemned flesh. On all who seek
to regulate their lives according to this rule the apostle invokes the peace
and mercy of God. Peace is followed by the mercy which guards and
restores it. Mercy heals backslidings and multiplies pardons. She loves to
bind up a broken heart or a rent and distracted Church. For the betrayers of
the cross he has stern indignation and alarms of judgment. Towards his
children in the faith nothing but peace and mercy remains in his heart. As an
evening calm shuts in a tempestuous day, so this blessing concludes the epistle
so full of strife and agitation. We catch in it once more the chime of the old
benediction, which through all storm and peril ever rings in ears attuned to its
note: “Peace shall be upon Israel” (Ps. cxxv. 5).
II. Pleads the brand of suffering for loyalty to Christ as conclusive proof of
authority.—“From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body
the marks of the Lord Jesus” (ver. 17). The apostle has sufficiently vindicated
his authority by facts and arguments, and he would effectually silence all
quibbles on this subject by triumphantly pointing to the marks of suffering on
his own body received in his Master’s service. These marks he carried wherever
he went, like the standard-bearer of an army who proudly wears his scars. No
man would have suffered as Paul did unless he was convinced of the importance
of the truth he had received and of his supernatural call to declare the same.
Suffering is the test of devotion and fidelity. For a picture of the harassed,
battered, famished sufferer in the cause of Christ and His Gospel read 2 Cor.
iv. 8–10, xi. 23–28. Marks of suffering are more eloquent than words. The
highest eminence of moral perfection and influence cannot be reached without
much suffering. It is a callous nature indeed that is not touched with the sight
of suffering heroically endured. The calm bravery of the early Christians under
the most fiendish persecution won many a convert to the truth.
III. Concludes with an affectionate benediction.—“Brethren, the grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen” (ver. 18). Placing the
word “brethren” at the end of the sentence, as in the Greek, suggests that,
after much rebuke and admonition, the apostle bids his readers farewell with the
warm-hearted expression of brotherhood. Notwithstanding fickleness on their
part, his love towards them remains unchanged. He prays that the grace of
Christ, the distinctive and comprehensive blessing of the new covenant, may
continue to rest upon them and work its renewing and sanctifying power upon
their spirit, the place where alone it can accomplish its most signal triumphs.
Forgiveness for their defection and confidence in their restoration to the highest
Christian privileges and enjoyment, are the last thoughts of the anxious
apostle. Between them and moral bankruptcy is the prayerful solicitude of a
good man.
Lessons.—1. When argument is exhausted prayer is the last resource. 2. Prayer
links Divine blessing with human entreaty. 3. Last words have about them a
solemn and affecting efficacy.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Ver. 16. The True Israel of God—
- Are those who personally enjoy
the inward righteousness that comes
through faith.
- Who live consistently with their
spiritual profession and the truth they
have embraced.
- Enjoy the Divine benedictions
of mercy and peace.
Ver. 17. Marks of the Lord Jesus.
I. The word picture here presented.—1. The
figure—slave-brands, στἱγματα.
2. The facts—Paul’s historic experiences
(1 Cor. iv. 9–15; 2 Cor. xi. 23–30).
3. The challenge—“Let no man trouble
me.”
II. The suggestion the picture
makes.—1. He who follows the Lord
Jesus must expect some will try to
trouble him. 2. He whose marks are
most conspicuous will be troubled the
least. 3. He who has marks may take
comfort in knowing how much his
Master paid for him. 4. He who is
owned may remember that his Master
owns and recognises the marks also.
5. He that has no marks is either a
better or a poorer Christian than the
apostle Paul. 6. Satan outwits himself
when he gives a believer more
marks. 7. A sure day is coming when
the marks will be honourable, for the
body of humiliation will be like the
glorious body of Christ.—Homiletic
Monthly.
Marked Men.
I. Ill-marked men.—Think of the
marks left on men by sickness, intemperance,
impurity, crime, sin of
any kind. Evil will always leave its
mark.
II. Well-marked men.—1. Christian
marks—the marks of Christ. Paul
was the slave of Christ. Some of his
marks for Christ were literal, as the
weals caused by the rods of the Roman
Cæsars, the red lines caused by scourging
in Jewish synagogues, the scars
caused by repeated stonings. The marks
of the Christian are mainly spiritual—marked
by trustfulness, gentleness,
purity, unselfishness.
2. Distinct marks.—Marked that he
may be recognised. If you have the
marks of Jesus, confess and obey Him.
3. Deep marks.—Branded on the body,
not lines that can easily be removed,
but going down to the flesh. Our
Christian life is often feeble because
it is not deep.
4. Personal marks.—The marks of
Jesus of no avail unless you possess
them. No man can really trouble you
if you bear branded on your body the
marks of Jesus.—Local Preacher’s
Treasury.
Suffering for Jesus.
I. The scars of the saints for the
maintenance of the truth are the
sufferings, wounds, and marks of
Christ Himself, seeing they are the
wounds of the members of that body
whereof He is Head.
II. They convince the persecutors
that they are the servants of Christ
who suffer thus for righteousness’
sake.
III. If men be constant in their
profession—in faith and obedience—the
marks of their suffering are
banners of victory.—No man ought to
be ashamed of them, no more than
soldiers of their wounds and scars, but
rather in a holy manner to glory of
them. Constantine the Great kissed
the holes of the eyes of certain bishops
who had them put out for their constant
profession of the faith of Christ,
reverencing the virtue of the Holy
Ghost which shined in them. 1. By
suffering bodily afflictions we are made
conformable to Christ. 2. They teach
us to have sympathy with the miseries
of our brethren. 3. Our patient enduring
of affliction is an example to
others and a means of confirming them
in the truth. 4. They serve to scour
us from the rust of sin.—Perkins.
Ver. 18. Concluding Benediction.
I. The apostle invokes the grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ.—1. Because He
is the fountain of it. 2. Because He
is the conduit or pipe by which it is
conveyed to us.
II. Christ is called our Lord—1. By
right of creation. 2. Of inheritance.
3. Of redemption. 4. Of conquest.
5. Of contract and marriage.
III. Observe the emphasis with
which the apostle concludes the
epistle.—1. Opposing Christ, the Lord
of the house, to Moses, who was but
a servant. 2. The grace of Christ to
inherent justice and merit of works.
3. The spirit in which he would have
grace to be seated, to the flesh in which
the false teachers gloried so much.
4. Brotherly unity one with another—implied
in the word “brethren”—to
the proud and lordly carriage of the
false teachers.—Ibid.
- Page 1, Introduction, “Character” paragraph,
add comma to “time they”; remove comma from “numbers, and”;
apply Reverential Capitalisation (RC) to “the Gospel.”
- Page 2, same paragraph, change “v. 15” reference to
“ch. v. 15”; apply RC to “the Gospel.”
“Time of writing” paragraph, remove comma from “certainty, and.”
“Purpose and analysis” paragraph, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
- Pages 2 and 3, table, change each reference to prefix “ch.”
- Page 5, Notes for chapter i., verse 1, apply RC to “Divine source” and
“the Gospel.” Verse 6, change “cf.” to “cf. ch.”
Verses 8 and 9, apply RC to “his Gospel.”
Verse 12, apply RC to “the Gospel” and “his Gospel.”
Verse 16, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Lesson “Apostolic Credentials,” point I, apply RC to “Divine authority.”
- Page 6, same lesson, point I, apply RC to “Divine character”;
remove comma from “God, and”; apply RC to “Divine stamp,”
“Divine element,” and “Divine authority.”
Point II, apply RC to “Divine source” and “the Gospel.”
Point III, apply RC to “are Divine” and “Divine love”;
remove comma from “race, and”; add comma to “Oh, the.”
Point IV, apply RC to “Gospel salvation”; add comma to “words we”;
apply RC to “the whole Gospel” and “the Gospel”;
remove comma from “nutshell, and”; apply RC to “Divinely provided”
and “the Gospel.”
- Page 7, same lesson, point IV, apply RC to “Divinely revealed.”
Application (“Lessons”), apply RC to “the Gospel.”
“The Power” note, remove comma from “them, and.”
“Grace and Peace” note, point I, remove comma from “man, but.”
- Page 8, “Unselfishness” note, apply RC to “Divine character.”
“Christ our Sacrifice” note, point II, add comma to “Therefore all.”
- Page 9, lesson “The One Gospel,” point I, apply RC to “one true Gospel,”
“one Gospel,” and “the Gospel”; remove comma from “methods, and.”
Point II, apply RC to “one Gospel.”
Point II. 1, apply RC to “true Gospel,” “one Gospel,” “true Gospel,”
and “the Gospel.” Application (“Lessons”), apply RC to “infallible Gospel.”
“Remonstrance” note, point II, remove comma from “part, and.”
Point III, remove comma from “wax, and”; apply RC to “the Gospel” (twice).
- Page 10, same note, same paragraph, apply RC to “the Word.” Point IV, apply RC to
“the Gospel” and “one Gospel.” Point V, apply RC to “the Gospel” (four times);
remove comma from “word, and.”
“Perversion” note, point I, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Point II, apply RC to “Divine purpose.”
“Disappointed Hopes” note, apply RC to “the Gospel”; add comma to “sweetened and.”
“Inviolable Unity” note, apply RC to “one Gospel.”
- Page 11, same note, apply RC to “the Gospel” (twice). “Inviolability of
Christianity” note, point I, apply RC to “the Gospel” (thrice); remove comma from “eye, but”;
and apply RC to “that Word.”
Point II, apply RC to “Divine origin” and “Divine benediction.”
Point IV, apply RC to “Divine truth.”
- Page 12, same note, point V, apply RC to “the Gospel.” “Best Authority” note,
add a missing sentence-ending period after “St. Peter”; add double quotes around the response
“No.”
- Page 13, “True Gospel” note, point IV, apply RC to “the Gospel” (twice).
Lesson “Superhuman Origin,” point I, apply RC to “the Gospel” (thrice).
Point II, apply RC to “the Gospel” (twice), “a Gospel,” and
“Divine Master.”
Point III, apply RC to “the Gospel” (twice) and “Divine message”
(across page break).
- Page 14, same lesson, same point, apply RC to “the Gospel” (twice)
and “Divine origin.” Application (“Lessons”), apply RC to
“the Gospel,” “saving Gospel,” “the Gospel,”
and “Divine gift.”
“Fidelity” note, point I, add sentence-ending period after “they utter.”
Point II, apply RC to “the Word.” Point III, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
“Servant of Christ” note, point I, apply RC to “the Gospel”;
remove comma from “dishonourable, unless” apply RC to “the Gospel” (twice).
- The break between pages 14 and 15 is in the word “compelled”: com|pelled. In this and
every subsequent case, the Transcriber moved the whole word to the earlier page.
- Page 15, same lesson, point III, remove comma from “us, but”; apply RC to “He saved us”
and “of His Word.”
- The break between pages 15 and 16 is in the word “maintenance”: mainte|nance.
- Page 16, “The Gospel and the Call,” point I, apply RC to “the Gospel” and
“the Word” (thrice). Point II, apply RC to “the Gospel.” Point III, apply RC to
“the Gospel,” “Divine authority,” and “the Word.”
“Apostolic Assurance” note, apply RC to “the Word.”
- Page 17, same note, apply RC to “the Gospel” (thrice).
- Page 18, lesson “Zealous Ritualist,” point III, remove comma from “heart, and”;
apply RC to “the Word” and “God’s Word.” “Review of a Misspent Life,”
apply RC to “the Word.”
- Page 19, “True and False Zeal,” point III, apply RC to “the Word,”
“the Gospel” (twice), “His Word,” and “the Word.”
Lesson “Imperative Claims,” point I, apply RC to “Divinely destined”
and remove comma from “future, or.”
Poem, apply RC to “Divinity.”
After poem, apply RC to “Divine element.”
Point II, apply RC to “Divine revelation”; remove comma from “change, and”;
apply RC to “universal Gospel” and “Divine commission.”
- Page 20, same lesson, point IV, apply RC to “the Gospel”; remove commas from
“response, and” and “hearer, and.” Point V, apply RC to
“first Gospel pioneers.” “Conversion” note, point II, apply RC to
“the Gospel.”
- Page 21, same note, point IV, apply RC to “God’s Word.” “Conversion as
Illustrated” note, point I 2, apply RC to “Divine grace” and
“the Gospel” (twice). “Qualification”
note, point II, apply RC to “the Gospel.” “Divine Call” note, remove comma
from “doubt, and.”
- Page 22, same note, change the scripture reference after “Jeremiah”
from “i. 19” to “Jer. i. 19” to avoid any confusion.
“Divine call” note, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Lesson “God Glorified,” point I, apply RC to “the Gospel” (twice).
- Page 23, same lesson, point III, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Point IV, apply RC to “Divine call” and “Divine work.”
Application (“Lessons”), apply RC to “the Gospel.”
“Self-conscious Truth” note, apply RC to “the Word.”
- Page 24, “Self-evidencing Proof” note, apply RC to “Divinely commissioned.”
“God Glorified” note, apply RC to “if He continues.”
- Page 25, Notes for chapter ii., verse 2, apply RC to “the Gospel”
and “Divine confirmation.”
Verse 9, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Verse 13, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Verse 14, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
- Page 26, lesson “Confirmatory Proofs,” point I, apply RC to “Divinely directed”
and “Divine call”; remove comma from “apostles, and”;
apply RC to “the Gospel” (twice).
Point II, apply RC to “the Gospel” (five times) and “Divine commission.”
Point III, apply RC to “Divine authority” and “the Gospel” (twice).
- Page 27, same lesson, point IV, apply RC to “Divine commission” and remove comma from
“past, and.” Application (“Lessons”) apply RC to “Divine call.”
“Truth its Own Evidence” note, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
- Page 28, same lesson, “False Brethren” note, point IV, remove comma from “bondage, and.”
Point V, apply RC to “the Gospel.” Point VII, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
“A spy” note, remove comma from “borrowed, and.”
“Fidelity” note, apply RC to “the Gospel” (twice).
“Truth” note, remove comma from “sword, and.”
“Recognition” note, point II, apply RC to “distinctly Divine.”
- The break between pages 28 and 29 is in the word “admitting”: ad|mitting.
- Page 29, same lesson, “Divine Blessing” note, apply RC to “the Word.”
“Efficacy” note, point I, apply RC to “the Word.” Point II, apply RC to
“the Word.” Point III, apply RC to “the Word.” Point IV, remove comma from
“apostle, because.” Lesson “Christianity and Poverty,” point I 1, remove
comma from “Christianity, but.”
- Page 30, same lesson, point II, apply RC to “Spirit of the Gospel.”
“Remember the Poor” note, point I, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Point II, apply RC to “the Word.”
- Page 31, lesson “Fearless Defence,” point I, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
- Page 32, same lesson, same point, apply RC to “the Gospel.” Point II, remove
commas from “it, and” and “sin, but.” Point III, apply RC to
“Divine character” and “Divine order” and change
“brganic life” to “organic life.” “Astute Defender” note,
point I, change “His power” to “his power,” referring to Paul.
- Page 33, same lesson, “Power of Example,” remove comma from “men, and.”
“Erring Apostle” note, point I 1, remove comma from “law, but.”
Point I 5, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Point III 1, apply RC to “the Word.”
- Page 34, same lesson, “Justification” note, point III, add comma to “Therefore it.”
Point IV, final sentence, the Transcriber inserted a colon after “place.”
- Page 35, “Christian Dead to the Law” note, point III, apply RC to
“the Gospel” (five times).
- Page 36, “Dead to the Law by the Law” note, point II, add sentence-ending period after
“law of Moses.” Point III 1, remove comma from “God, and.”
“Religious Life” note, point IV, apply RC to “the Divine.”
- Page 37, “Love of the Son” note, point I, apply RC to “the Divine.”
Point II, add the hyphen to “self-denial.”
“Life of Faith” note, point I 2, remove comma from “salvation, but.”
- Page 38, “Life of Faith” note, point I 6, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
“Self-abolished” note, remove comma from “this, and.”
- Page 39, Notes for chapter iii., verse 3, apply RC to “Divine order.”
Verse 8, apply RC to “the Gospel” (thrice).
Verse 17, apply RC to “Divine covenant.”
- The break between pages 39 and 40 is within an element that style indicates should not be broken,
“transgressions.|—To.” In this and every subsequent case, the Transcriber moved the entire
element to the earlier page.
- Page 40, lesson “Deceptive Glamour,” point I, remove comma from “colours, and”;
add commas to “error their” and “diverted and.”
- Page 41, same lesson, point II 2, apply RC to “Divine order.”
Point III, apply RC to “Divine method.”
“Faithful Reproof” note, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
- Page 42, “Folly” note, point II, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Point III, apply RC to “the Word” (thrice). “Attractiveness” note, apply RC to
“His Word”; add “John xii. 32” reference.
- Page 43, same lesson, “Uses of Suffering” note, remove comma from “adoption, and.”
“Miracles” note, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Lesson “Abrahamic Gospel,” in point I, apply RC to and remove comma from “the Gospel, and”
and apply RC to “only Gospel.” Point III, remove comma from “blessing, but.”
- Page 44, same lesson, application (“Lessons”), apply RC to “the Gospel.”
“Righteousness through Faith” note, point I, apply RC to “Divine method”;
point III, apply RC to “unchanging Gospel.”
“Imitators of Abraham’s Faith” note, point III, apply RC to “the Word.”
“All Nations” note, apply RC to “the Gospel” (thrice).
- Page 45, lesson “The Conflict,” point I, remove comma from “imperfection, and.”
Point II, apply RC to “the Gospel” (twice); remove comma from “law, and.”
At the end of the paragraph, add double quotes around “No.”
- Page 46, same lesson, “The Inexorability” note, point I, remove comma from
“requirements, but.” “Justified” note, add “Gen. i. 3” reference.
“The Difference” note, point I, apply RC to “the Gospel” (twice).
Each of points II and III, apply RC to “the Gospel.” Point IV, apply RC to “the Gospel” and
“His work.”
- Page 47, same lesson, same note, point V, apply RC to “the Gospel.” Point VI, apply RC to
“the Gospel” (four times). Lesson “Divine Covenant,”
point I, remove comma from “binding, and”; apply RC to “Divine covenant”
(thrice); apply RC to “the Divine Word” and
“Divine character.”
- Page 48, same lesson, application (“Lessons”), point 2, apply RC to “Divine covenant.”
“Promise a Covenant” note, point I, apply RC to “the Gospel” (twice).
- Page 49, same lesson, same note, point II, apply RC to “His bare Word.”
Point III, add comma to “therefore it.”
“Divine and Human Covenants” note, each of points II and III, apply RC to
“Divine covenant.”
“Law and Promise” note, remove comma from “justification, and.”
- Page 50, lesson “Inferiority of the Law,” point III, apply RC to “the Gospel”;
remove comma from “man, and.” Point IV, apply RC to “Divine image.”
- Page 51, same lesson, “No Trust” note, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
“Use of the Law” note, each of points I and II, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
“Unity” note, point 3, remove comma from “one, and.”
- Page 52, lesson “True Use of the Law,” point I, apply RC to “Divine method” (twice).
Point IV, remove comma from “Christ, and.”
- On page 53, same lesson, “Great Prison” note, change “sabbathless” to
“Sabbath-less”; remove comma from “fast, and”; add comma to “So when.”
- On page 54, same lesson, “Shut up unto the faith” note, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Point II, remove comma from “is, and” and apply RC to “the Gospel” (twice).
Point III, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
- Page 55, same lesson, “Law our Schoolmaster” note, in point III 3, apply RC to
“the Gospel” (twice).
- Page 56, same lesson, “Law preparing” note, point I, capitalize “Day of Atonement.”
Each of points II and III, capitalize “Ten Commandments.”
Point III, apply RC to “Divine plan” and “Divine life.”
- Page 57, same lesson, “Law a Schoolmaster” note, application (“Lessons”),
apply RC to “Christ’s Gospel.” Lesson “Dignity of Sonship,” point I,
remove comma from “training, and”; point III, apply RC to “the Gospel”;
remove comma from “provisions, and.”
- Page 58, same lesson, point IV, add comma to “Surely he.”
“Baptism” note, point III 2, apply RC to “Divine life.”
- Page 59, same lesson, “God’s Children” note, point VI,
apply RC to “Word of God.” “Profession” note, remove comma from “doing, or”;
add comma to “Nevertheless we.”
- Page 60, same lesson, “Promise of Grace” note, apply RC to “whole Gospel”
and “the Word”; add comma to “therefore, the”; apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Notes for chapter iv., correct “V r. 1” to “Ver. 1.”
Verse 6, tag “Abba’ as Chaldee (Hebrew) and set it in Italic; change “iii. 28” to
“ch. iii. 28”; apply RC to “the Gospel”;
and add the sentence-ending period to the second sentence.
- Page 61, each of the notes for verses 17 and 30, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Lesson “Nonage,” point I 2, remove comma from “blessings, and.”
Point II 1, apply RC to “Divinely provided.”
- Page 62, same lesson, point II, apply RC to “Divine Son.”
Point II 2, apply RC to “Divine law.” Point III 1,
apply RC to “Divine glow” and remove comma from “God, and.”
Point III 2, apply RC to “Divine adoption.”
Application (“Lessons”), apply RC to “the Gospel.”
“Christ’s Mission” note, point I, apply RC to “Divine power.”
- Page 63, same lesson, same note, same point, remove comma from “trial, and.”
- Page 64, same lesson, “Adoption” note, point I, remove comma from “name, and.”
Point II 1, change “iv. 6” to “ch. iv. 6.”
- Page 65, same lesson, “Evidences of Sonship” note, point II 1, apply RC to
“the Word of God.” Point II 3, apply RC to “Divine manner.”
“God’s Offspring” note, point 2, remove comma from “Father, and.”
- Page 66, lesson “Legalism a Relapse,” point II, remove comma from “religion, and.”
Point III, remove comma from “nature, but.”
- Page 67, same lesson, “Dilemma” note, point I 2 (3),
make “his god” and “thy god” lowercase, because the focus has been taken from God.
“Ignorance” note, each of points 2 and 3, apply RC to “Divine worship.”
- Page 68, lesson “Pleadings,” point I 2, apply RC to “the Gospel” (twice).
Point II 2, remove comma from “intellect, but.”
- Page 69, same lesson, “Christian Brotherhood” note, point I, remove comma from “men, or.”
Point II 1, remove comma from “wilfully, and.”
- Page 71, same lesson, “Objects” note, point II, apply RC to “the Gospel” (twice).
“Godly Zeal” note, point I 2, remove comma from “excitement, and.”
- Page 72, same lesson, same note, point I 5, remove comma from “man, but.”
Point III 2, apply RC to “Divine designs.” “True” note,
point I 1, apply RC to “Divine.” Point II 5, apply RC to “Divine approval.”
“Christmas” note, apply RC to “Divine Agent.”
- Page 73, same lesson, “Doubt” note, point I 2, remove comma from “knowledge, and”;
point I 4, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Lesson “History,” point I 2, apply RC to “the Gospel” and “Divine freedom.”
In point II, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
- Page 74, same lesson, point III, apply RC to “the Gospel” (thrice) and add
“1 Pet. i. 4” reference.
Application (“Lessons”), apply RC to “the Gospel” (twice).
“Jerusalem Above” note, point III 2, remove comma from “salvation, and.”
- Page 75, same lesson, “Jerusalem a Type” note, point III,
correct “Messias” to “Messiah” and apply RC to “the Word.”
“Believers” note, point II 4, add comma to “So believers” and “so it.”
Point III 1, apply RC to “Divine love.”
- Page 76, same lesson, “Fate” note, point I, remove comma from “mocking, and.”
Notes for chapter v., verse 2, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
- Page 77, lesson “Christian Liberty,” point I, correct “where.|with” to
“wherewith.”
- Page 78, same lesson, in point II, capitalize “Negro” (twice). Point III,
remove comma from “good, but.”
- Page 79, same lesson, “Bondage and Liberty” note, point V, remove comma from “adoption, and.”
Point VI, remove comma from “memory, but.”
Lesson “Christianity Superior,” point II, apply RC to “the Gospel”;
remove comma from “aspect, and.”
- Page 80, same lesson, same point, apply RC to “the Gospel.” “Righteousness attained” note,
apply RC to “Divine worship” and “the Word.”
- Page 81, same lesson, “Religion is Faith working” note, point II, apply RC to “the Word.”
Lesson “Disturber,” point I, remove comma from “result, and.”
Point II, apply RC to “Divine method” and “Divine calling.”
Point III, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Point IV 1, apply RC to “Divine judgment” and remove commas from
“truth, but” and “himself, but.”
- Page 82, same lesson, point IV 2, add double quotes around “Would that the Judaising troubles
would mutilate themselves”; remove comma from “exhausted, and.” “Like a Race”
note, point I 4, remove commas from “on, and” and “them, but.”
- Page 83, same lesson, “Bad Companions” note, add comma to “course it.”
“Disintegrating Force” note, point 1, remove comma from “God, and” and apply RC to
“the Word.”
- Page 84, same lesson, “Perversion” note, point II, add comma to “known and.”
- Page 85, same lesson, “Judgment” note, remove comma from “certainty, because.”
Lesson “Love,” point I, remove comma from “win, and.”
- Page 86, same lesson, point III, remove comma from “quarrels, but.” Point IV, remove comma
from “sphere, and” add double quotes around “Be a man . . . as you can”;
remove comma from “can, but.” “Abuse” note, point I, add comma to “Thus all.”
- Page 87, same lesson, “Right Use” note, point II 1, apply RC to “the Word.”
- Page 88, same lesson, “Positiveness” note, point III, add comma to “suppression but”
apply RC to “the Gospel.”
- Page 89, same lesson, “Walking in the Spirit” note, point I, apply RC to “Divine nature.”
Each of points I 5 (1) and II 1 (2), apply RC to “the Word.”
“The Strife” note, point I, change “imprison Him”
to “imprison him” referring to sin. Point II, apply RC to “in Him.”
- Page 90, same lesson, “Leading of the Spirit” note, apply RC to “the Word.”
- Page 91, lesson “Works,” point II 1, apply Italic formatting to
“fornication” in the second sentence for consistency. Point II 2, apply Italic formatting to
“idolatry” for consistency; remove comma from “lust, and”; apply RC to “the Divine.”
Point III, add “and rises again” because man religious leaders have died, only One has
risen again. Use lowercase for “him whose own career it describes” as referring to a saved person.
- Page 92, same lesson, “Biblical Account” note, remove comma from “Testament, and”;
capitalize “Adam’s Fall”; remove comma from “Testament, and.”
Lesson “Fruit,” point I 1, add comma to “place love”
and apply RC to “Diviner meaning.”
- Page 93, same lesson, point I 3, remove commas from “activity, and” and
“discipline, and.”
- Page 94, same lesson, “Fruit” note, point I 1 (2), apply RC to “the Word.”
- The break between pages 94 and 95 is in the word “according”: accord|ing.
- Page 95, “Powers” note, add comma to “Christianity we.” Point I, remove comma
from “miserable, and.” Point IV, apply RC to “Divine love” and “the Divine.”
- Page 96, “Power of Meekness” note, remove comma from “peace, and.”
“Grace of Gentleness” note, point I, apply RC to “the Divine.”
- Page 97, same lesson, same note, point III, apply RC to “Divine greatness.”
“Life and Walk” note, point II 2, remove comma from
“life, and.” Point III, apply RC to “the Word.”
“Walking in the Spirit” note, each of points I and III, apply RC to “the Word.”
- Page 98, notes for chapter vi., verse 7, remove comma from “men, but.”
- Page 100, lesson “Mutual Sympathy,” point II, add double quotes around
“If ye will . . . law of love.” In point III. 2, remove comma
from “theirs, but” add double quotes around
“What do others fail to do” and “What am I . . . expects from me.”
- Page 101, same lesson, point IV, remove comma from “you, and.”
- Page 103, same lesson, “Bear One Another’s Burdens” note, in point 4,
remove comma from “turned, and”; apply RC to “dim Gospel.”
- Page 104, same lesson, “Bearing One Another” note, add comma to “so in.”
- Page 106, same lesson, “Every Man” note, point I, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Lesson “Moral Sowing,” point I, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Point II, apply RC to “Divine law.”
- Page 107, same lesson, point III, remove comma from “disappointment, and.”
“Pastors and People” note, point VI, apply RC to “the Gospel” (twice).
- Page 108, same lesson, same note, same point, apply RC to “the Gospel” (two additional times).
“Ministerial Maintenance” note, point 3, remove comma from “preach, and” and
apply RC to “the Word.”
- Page 109, same lesson, “Double Harvest” note, point II 1, apply RC to
“the Gospel.” Point II 2, apply RC to “Divine appointment” and
add comma to “end they.” Change second point “II” to point “III.”
- Page 110, “Sowing and Reaping” note, point II 3, apply RC to
“Divine approval.”
- Page 111, same note, point III 3, apply RC to “Divine plaudit.”
- Page 112, same lesson, “Reap if we faint not” note, point I 3 (2), apply RC to
“the Word.”
- Page 113, same lesson, “Doing Good” note, point II, apply RC to “Divine stanbard.”
Point IV, remove comma from “calling, and.”
- Page 115, lesson “Apostolic Exposure,” “Christianity and Persecution” note,
point III, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
- Page 116, lesson “Glorying,” point II, add comma to “Thus I.”
Point III, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
The original third sentence is “The faith of the cross claims to have produced not a new style of ritual,
a new system of government, but new men.” The Transcriber inserted the word “not”
after the first comma for clarity.
- Page 117, same lesson, point IV, add comma to “So as” and add
“1 Pet. i. 4” reference. “Christ Crucified” note, point IV,
remove comma from “punishments, and.”
- Page 118, same lesson, “Glorying in the Cross” note, point III 1, apply RC to
“Divine character.” Point III 5, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
- Page 119, same lesson, “True Religion” note, point II 2, apply RC to “Divine work.”
“New Creature” note, add comma to “therefore the.”
Lesson “Dignified,” point I, the Transcriber
removed an opening double quotes from “Peace is followed by mercy” because there was neither a closing
quotation mark nor an obvious indication where a quotation ended.
- Page 120, same lesson, point II, apply RC to “His Gospel.” Application (“Lessons”),
point 2, apply RC to “Divine blessing.” “True Israel” note, point III,
apply RC to “Divine benedictions.”
Readers to whom the epistle was sent.—In the two most ancient copies of the
Scriptures which we possess—dating from the fourth century of our era—the
words in our A.V. (ch. i. 1), “at Ephesus,” are missing; and Basil the Great, who
lived in the fourth century, says he had seen copies which, “ancient” even at that
early date, spoke of the readers as “those who are, and the faithful in Christ
Jesus.” When it is observed, however, that Basil still says in that passage the
apostle is “writing to the Ephesians,” in all honesty we must admit another
interpretation of his words to be possible.
Add to these early witnesses that Ephesus is not named in the text the
further fact that, though St. Paul had lived and laboured between two and three
years in Ephesus, there is absolutely no mention of any name of those with
whom he had been associated, and what on the assumption of the Ephesian
destination of the epistle is stranger still, no reference to the work, unless we
may be allowed to regard the “sealing with the Holy Spirit of promise” as a
reminiscence of Acts xix. 1–7.
We must not make too much, however, of this absence of personal greetings.
Tychicus can do, vivâ voce, all that needs to be done in that way. St. Paul had
been “received as an angel of God, or even as Christ Jesus,” by Galatians, not
one of whom is mentioned in the letter sent to the Galatians.
Certain expressions in the body of the letter are strange if the Ephesian
Christians were the first readers of it. In ch. i. 15 the apostle says, “After I heard
of your faith in the Lord Jesus.” One asks, “Did not the faith which ‘cometh
by hearing’ result from Paul’s preaching in Ephesus? Then how can he speak
of hearing of it?” It may be answered, “Does not Paul say to Philemon, ‘Thou
owest unto me thine own self’ (ver. 19), and yet says (ver. 5) that, hearing of his
love and faith, he thanks God?” Moreover, has any one quite demonstrated the
impossibility of this faith being the continuity of that which began with the
abjuration of magic in a costly offering of fifty thousand pieces of silver?
(Acts xix. 17–20). “Faith” may take the form of fidelity as easily as of
credence.
Again, in ch. iii. 2 Paul, at the word “Gentiles,” enters into a digression about
his specific commission as their apostle. Just as to the Galatian Church he
expatiates on the special grace bestowed by God and recognised by the “pillars”
of the Church, so here he magnifies his office, and his words here no more prove
that he had never seen his readers than the section of Galatians (Gal. ii. 6–9) proves
that he did not know the Galatians. Even supposing they did, it surely would
not be an astonishing thing that in the ever-shifting population of a seaport
many may have joined the Church since St. Paul was in Ephesus. That this was
the place to which St. Paul sent his messenger with the letter before us cannot
be demonstratively shown; but we feel something like conviction by considering:
(a) that the preponderant evidence of the MSS. says “Ephesus”; (b) that the
versions are unanimous as an echo of the MSS.; (c) that the entire ancient
Church has spoken of the epistle as “to the Ephesians,” Marcion’s voice being
the only exception; (d) the improbability of St. Paul writing “to the saints
which are” without adding the name of some place; (e) “Ephesus” more easily
meets internal difficulties than any other place. This, in substance, is Bishop
Ellicott’s view. Still, we cannot regard it as impossible that “Ephesus” may
comprise many Churches in the vicinity, and therefore regard the letter as really
encyclical, even though it were proved that St. Paul wrote “to the saints at
Ephesus.”
Analysis of the Epistle.
| i. | 1, 2. | Salutation. Joy and well-being to those in Christ. |
| | 3–14. | Hymn of praise to the Father, who worked out in Christ His
pre-temporal designs of beneficence, and gave pledge of the
yet more glorious consummation of His Divine will in the
bestowal of the Holy Ghost. |
| | 15–23. | Thanksgiving of the apostle over their fidelity, and his prayer
for their complete illumination in the incorporation of the
Gentiles in the mystical body of Christ, “the Head.” |
| ii. | 1–10. | The power that delivered Christ from bodily corruption in the
tomb saved His members out of the corruption of fleshly
lusts, thus silencing every human boast and magnifying the
Divine grace. |
| | 11–22. | Wholesome reminder of their former distance from Christ as
contrasted with present union with Him, and union with the
Jews in Him, being led to the Father with them. |
| iii. | 1–13. | Paul’s familiar statement of the origin of his apostolate as
specially commissioned—“ambassador extraordinary” to the
Gentiles. |
| | 14–19. | Prayer that by “power and faith and love” they may grasp
“the mystery,” and become brimful of love Divine. |
| | 20, 21. | Doxology to the doctrinal half of the epistle. |
| iv. | 1–16. | Exhortation to a practical observation of this doctrinal unity by
the thought that every member of Christ is necessary in its
full development to the perfection of the body of which Christ
is the Head. |
| | 17–24. | Casting off the old and putting on the new man. |
| 25—v. 21. | Exhortation to conduct in harmony with the new nature. |
| v. 22—vi. 9. | Relative duties of wives and husbands, children and parents,
servants and masters. |
| vi. | 10–18. | The Christian panoply. |
| | 19, 20. | Apostle’s request for prayers. |
| | 21, 22. | Personalia. |
| | 23, 24. | A twin doxology, reversing the order of the salutation—“Peace
and grace.” |
Genuineness of the epistle.—Dr. Ellicott sums up the matter briefly by saying,
“There is no just ground on which to dispute the genuineness.” Arguments
based on certain expressions in the body of the letter have been speciously
urged against its genuineness by De Wette and others; and Holzmann has
“learnedly maintained that the epistle is only the expansion of a short letter to
the Colossians by some writer about the close of the first century” (Godet).
“We have, on the other hand, subjective arguments, not unmixed with arrogance,
but devoid of sound historical basis; on the other hand, unusually
convincing counter-investigations and the unvarying testimony of the ancient
Church.” Adverse arguments have been answered so satisfactorily and sometimes
so crushingly as to leave no room for doubt. Those who cannot read the epistle
without being moved by the peculiar loftiness, by the grandeur of conception,
by the profound insight, by the eucharistic inspiration they recognise in it, will
require strong evidence to persuade them that it was written by some other
man who wished it to pass as St. Paul’s.
The practical design of the epistle.—The object is to set forth the ground,
course, aim, and end of the Church of the faithful in Christ. The Ephesians
are a sample of the Church universal. The key to the epistle may be found in
the opening sentence (ver. 3). Fixing his eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ, the
apostle opens his mind to the blessings which radiate forth from Him, and from
the Father through Him, upon the whole world. The mind of God towards men
unveiled in Christ, the relation of men towards God exhibited in Christ, the
present spiritual connection of men with Christ, the hopes of which Christ is the
ground and assurance, the laws imposed by the life of Christ upon human life—these
are the blessings for which he gives thanks. Christ embracing humanity
in Himself is the subject of the epistle. St. Paul tells with strict faithfulness
what he has read and seen in Christ; Christ fills the whole sphere of his mind.
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.
Ver. 1. To the saints.—Dismiss the commonly accepted meaning. Not men who by hard
and rigorous methods have reached the heights where but few abide, but those who, as the
elect of God, are separated from everything unholy and kept for God’s peculiar possession
(1 Pet. ii. 9). And faithful.—Sometimes the word may mean “believers,” sometimes “trustworthy.”
“The use of the adjective for the Christian brotherhood cannot be assigned rigidly
either to the one meaning or the other. Its very comprehensiveness was in itself a valuable
lesson” (Lightfoot).
Ver. 2. Grace . . . and peace.—The light-hearted Greek salutation was, “Rejoice”; the
more sober Hebrew—our Lord’s own—was, “Peace be to you.” Here both unite.
Ver. 3. Blessed be the God and Father.—The Hebrew form for “hallowing the Name” was,
“The Holy One, blessed be He.” The Prayer Book version of Psalm c. gives, “Speak good of
His name.” Who blessed us.—When old Isaac pronounces the blessing uttered on Jacob
unwittingly to be irreversible, he depends on God for the carrying out of his dying blessing:
the Divine blessing makes whilst pronouncing blest. In the heavenly places.—Lit. “in the
heavenlies”—so, as A.V. margin says, either places or things. Perhaps the local signification
is best; “relating to heaven and meant to draw us thither” (Blomfield).
Ver. 4. Even as He chose us in Him.—Whatever be the manifestation of the Divine
goodness, it is “in Christ” that it is made. “This sentence traces back the state of grace
and Christian piety to the eternal and independent electing love of God” (Cremer). There
is always the connotation of some not chosen. Before the foundation of the world.—St. Paul,
like Esaias, “is very bold.” His Master had only said “from,” not “before,” the foundation
(Matt. xxv. 34), reserving the “before” for the dim eternity in which He was the sharer,
with the eternal Spirit, of the Father’s love (John xvii. 24). Without blemish (R.V.), or,
in one word, “immaculate.” A sacrificial term generally; used by St. Peter (1 Pet. i. 19) to
describe that “Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world.” This word serves to
guard “holy,” just before it; a separated (holy) people must also be a spotless people.
Ver. 5. Having predestinated us.—By pointing as the R.V. margin does, we get Love
Divine as the basis on which our foreordination rests. “There is no respect of persons with
God,” and so arrière pensée in the invitation, “All that labour and are heavy laden.” Unto
adoption as sons.—The end, as regards man. Perhaps St. John’s word goes more deeply into
the heart of the mystery, “That we should be called the children of God”—“born of God.”
Through Jesus Christ.—Mediator of this and every implied blessing. According to the good
pleasure of His will.—The word for “good pleasure” characterises the will as one whose
intent is something good; the unhampered working of the will lies in the expression too.
The measure of human privilege in the adoption is according to the Divine Graciousness.
Ver. 6. To the praise of the glory of His grace.—The ultimate end, “that God may be all
in all.” Wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved.—The change in the R.V.,
considerable as it seems, turns on the rendering of one word, the meaning in the New
Testament being “to bestow favour.” Compare Luke i. 28 and the A.V. marginal alternative
“much-graced.” Chrysostom’s beautiful interpretation must not be lightly rejected, “to
make love-worthy”—just as if one were to make a sick or famished man into a beautiful
youth, so has God made our soul beautiful and love-worthy for the angels and all saints and
for Himself.
Ver. 7. In whom we have redemption.—Release in consideration of a ransom paid—“deliverance
effected through the death of Christ from the retributive wrath of a holy God
and the merited penalty of sin” (Grimm). Through His blood.—St. Paul quite agrees with
the author of Hebrews (Heb. ix. 22) that apart from the pouring out of blood, the putting away of
sin cannot be brought about. The forgiveness of our trespasses.—Another way of stating in
what the redemption consists. Notice the “forgiveness” as compared with the “passing
over” (Rom. iii. 25, R.V.). The one is the remission of punishment; the other the omission
to punish sin that has been observed, “leaving it open in the future either entirely to remit
or else adequately to punish them as may seem good to Him” (Trench).
Ver. 8. In all wisdom and prudence.—“Wisdom embraces the collective activity of the
mind as directed to Divine aims to be achieved by moral means. Prudence is the insight of
practical reason regulating the dispositions” (Meyer).
Ver. 9. The mystery of His will.—“Mystery” is here to be taken not so much as a thing
which baffles the intellect as the slow utterance of a long-kept secret, which “the fulness of
time” brings to birth.
Ver. 10. The fulness of times.—The word for “times” denotes “time as brings forth its
several births.” It is the “flood” in the “tide of affairs.” To sum up all things.—“To
bring together again for Himself all things and all beings (hitherto disunited by sin) into
one combined state of fellowship in Christ, the universal bond” (Grimm). “It is the
mystery of God’s will to gather all together for Himself in Christ, to bring all to a unity, to
put an end to the world’s discord wrought by sin, and to re-establish the original state of
mutual dependence in fellowship with God” (Cremer). The things which are in heaven
and which are on earth.
“The blood that did for us atone
Conferred on them some gift unknown.”
Ver. 11. In whom also we have obtained an inheritance.—R.V. “were made a heritage.”
“The Lord’s portion is His people, Jacob is the lot of His inheritance,” sang dying Moses (Deut. xxxiii. 9).
The verbal paradox between A.V. and R.V. is reconciled in fact. “All are yours, and ye are
Christ’s” (1 Cor. iii. 22, 23). “Before the Parousia an ideal possession, therefore a real
one“ (Meyer). After the counsel of His own will.—“The ‘counsel’ preceding the resolve,
the ‘will’ urging on to action” (Cremer).
Ver. 12. That we should be to the praise.—R.V. “to the end that we should be.” “Causa
finalis of the predestination to the Messianic lot” (Meyer). “We” in antithesis to “you”
in ver. 13—We Jewish—you Gentile Christians.
Ver. 13. In whom ye also, etc.—The word “trusted,” supplied by A.V., is dropped by
R.V. It seems best to regard the words after “ye also” as one of the frequent breaks
in the flow of the apostle’s language, the second “ye” taking up the first. “In whom ye
were sealed.” “The order of conversion was: hearing, faith, baptism, reception of the
Spirit” (Meyer). Ye were sealed.—“This sealing is the indubitable guarantee of the future
Messianic salvation received in one’s own consciousness” (Meyer).
Ver. 14. Who is the earnest.—The guarantee. The word represented by “earnest” was
derived from the Phœnician merchants, and meant money which in purchases is given as a
pledge that the full amount will be subsequently paid (Grimm). The word is found in the
Hebrew of Gen. xxxviii. 17, 18, and means “pledge.” F. W. Robertson makes a distinction
between “pledge” and “earnest”—the grapes of Eshcol were an “earnest” of Canaan. He
who receives the Holy Spirit partakes the powers of the age to come (Heb. vi. 4, 5). Until
the redemption.—The final consummation of the redemption effected by the atonement
of Christ. The “until” is faulty, the “earnest” being “something towards” the redemption.
Of the purchased possession.—R.V. “of God’s own possession.” “The whole body of Christians,
the true people of God acquired by God as His property by means of the redeeming work
of Christ” (Meyer).
Vers. 15, 16.—St. Paul is always ready to give a prompt acknowledgment of all that is
best in his readers and to pray for something better. Cease not to give thanks.—My thanksgiving
knows no end.
Ver. 17. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ.—The connection or unity of the Father
and the Son is the basis of the plea for those who are in the Son. Christ said, “I ascend
unto My Father and your Father, to My God and your God” (John xx. 17). The Father
of glory.—Compare the phrases, “the Father of mercies” (2 Cor. i. 3), “the Father of lights”
(Jas. i. 17), “our Lord Jesus Christ, the glory” (Jas. ii. 1). The spirit of wisdom and
revelation.—The wisdom which is from above is the heritage of all the redeemed in Christ
(1 John iv. 20); but this day-spring, which gladdens the eyes of the heart, grows to mid-day
splendour by successive apocalypses. In the knowledge.—The word means a complete
knowledge. It is a word characteristic of the four epistles of the first Roman captivity.
Vers. 18, 19. The eyes of your understanding being enlightened . . . to us-ward who
believe.—Three pictures for heaven-illumined eyes: 1. The hope of His calling.—Meyer
says “the hope” is not here (nor anywhere) the res sperata, “the object on which hope
fastens, but the great and glorious hope which God gives”—a statement too sweeping for
other scholars, though here they agree that it is the faculty of hope “which encourages and
animates.” 2. The riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.—“What a copious
and grand accumulation, mirroring, as it were, the weightiness of the thing itself!” (Meyer).
“Riches of the glory” must not be watered down into “glorious riches.” 3. The exceeding
greatness of His power to us-ward.—The amazing and wholly unexpected working of
the same Hand that wrought our first deliverance: the Power that smites the oppressor with
dismay opens the path through the sea (see Isa. xl. 10, 11). According to the working of
His mighty power.—This may be regarded as a specimen of the Divine power, the norm or
standard by which we may gain an idea of the “exceeding greatness” of it—that from the
tomb of His humiliation Christ was raised by that power to an unrivalled dignity in God’s
throne. The R.V. gives “working of the strength of His might”: “working”—“the active
exertion of power” (Meyer); “strength”—might expressing itself in overcoming resistance,
ruling, etc.; “might”—strength in itself as inward power.
Ver. 20. Set Him at His own right hand.—“Dexter Dei ubique est.” We cannot dogmatise
about the relations to space which a glorified body holds. The transcendent glory of God in
that body links God to man, the humanity in the glory gives man his claim in God. “The
true commentary on the phrase is Mark xvi. 19, ‘He was received up into heaven, and sat
on the right hand of God’ ” (Meyer).
Ver. 21. Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion.—R.V., “Rule,
and authority, and power, and dominion.” “To be understood of the good angels, since the
apostle is not speaking of the victory of Christ over opposing powers, but of His exaltation
above the existing powers of heaven” (Meyer). “Powers and dominions, deities of
heaven,” as Milton calls them, ranged here, perhaps, in a descending order. And every
name that is named.—“God hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above
every name.” “Let any name be uttered, whatever it is, Christ is above it, is more exalted
than that which the name affirms” (Meyer). Not only in this world.—“This age.” “No other
name under heaven given among men.” But also in that which is to come.—There
Zechariah’s word will have its fullest application. “The Lord shall be King over all the
earth; there shall be one Lord, and His name one.”
Ver. 22. And hath put all things under His feet.—Compare 1 Cor. xv. 27.
“Strong Son of God, immortal Love, . . .
Thou madest Death; and lo Thy foot
Is on the skull which Thou hast made.”—In Memoriam.
Ver. 23. The fulness of Him that filleth all in all.—“The Church, viz., is the Christ-filled,
i.e. that which is filled by Him in so far as Christ penetrates the whole body and produces
Christian life” (Meyer). “The brimmed receptacle of Him who filleth all things with all
things” (Farrar). “Among the Gnostics the supersensible world is called the Pleroma,
the fulness or filled, in opposition to ‘the empty,’ the world of the senses” (Meyer).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 1, 2.
Apostolic Salutation.
I. He declares the Divine source of his authority.—“Paul, an apostle of Jesus
Christ by the will of God” (ver. 1). The faithful ambassador scans his commission
with the utmost care and is solicitous to clearly understand the will of his
Sovereign. If he examines his own fitness for the office, it is only to be humbled
under a sense of unworthiness, and to express surprise that he should be chosen
to such a dignity and be entrusted with such powers. His supreme ambition is
to sink his own personal predilections in the earnest discharge of his duty. Paul
does not dilate on his own mental capabilities or spiritual endowments. He
accepts his appointment to the apostleship as coming directly from the hand of
God and recognises the Divine will as the source of righteousness and of all power
to do good. This lofty conception of his call gave him unfaltering confidence in
the truth he had to declare, inspired him with an ever-glowing zeal, rendered
him immovable in the midst of defection and opposition, and willing to obliterate
himself, so that the Gospel committed to him might be triumphant. The true
minister, in the onerous task of dealing with human doubt and sin, feels the need
of all the strength and prestige conferred by the conscious possession of Divine
authority. He seeks not to advance his own interests or impose his own
theories, but to interpret the mind of God to man and persuade to submission
and obedience. The power that makes for righteousness has its root in the
Divine will.
II. He designates the sacred character of those he salutes.—“To the saints
which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus” (ver. 1). The
Ephesian saints were made so by their faith in Christ Jesus. They were not
saints because Paul called them so. Sanctity is not the result of human volition,
nor can it be created by a college of cardinals. “Many saints have been
canonised who ought to have been cannonaded.” Sanctity is the gift of God
and is bestowed on those who believe in Christ Jesus and maintain their
allegiance by continued faith in Him. They are holy so long as they are faithful.
The saints of God! “Think,” says Farrar, “of the long line of heroes of faith
in the olden times: of the patriarchs—Enoch the blameless, Noah the faithful,
Abraham the friend of God; of the sweet and meditative Isaac, the afflicted and
wrestling Jacob; of Moses, the meekest of men; of brave judges, glorious
prophets, patriotic warriors, toiling apostles; of the many martyrs who would
rather die than lie; of the hermits who fled from the guilt and turmoil of life
into the solitude of the wilderness; of the missionaries—St. Paul, Columban,
Benedict, Boniface, Francis Xavier, Schwartz, Eliot, Henry Martyn, Coleridge,
Patteson; of the reformers who cleared the world of lies, like Savonarola, Huss,
Luther, Zwingli, Wesley, Whitefield; of wise rulers, like Alfred, Louis, Washington,
and Garfield; of the writers of holy books, like Thomas-à-Kempis, Baxter,
Bunyan, Samuel Rutherford, Jeremy Taylor; of the slayers of monstrous abuses,
like Howard and Wilberforce; of good bishops, like Hugo of Avalon, Fénélon,
and Berkeley; of good pastors, like Oberlin, Fletcher of Madeley, Adolphe
Monod, and Felix Neff; of all true poets, whether sweet and holy, like George
Herbert, Cowper, Keble, and Longfellow, or grand and mighty, like Dante and
Milton. These are but few of the many who have reflected the glory of their
Master Christ, and who walk with Him in white robes, for they are worthy.”
III. He supplicates the bestowal of the highest blessings.—“Grace be to you,
and peace” (ver. 3). Grace and peace have a Divine source. Grace is the rich
outflow of God’s goodness, made available for man through the redeeming work
of Christ. There is sometimes the thought that grace implies God’s passing by
sin. But no, quite the contrary; grace supposes sin to be so horribly bad a thing
that God cannot tolerate it. Were it in the power of man, after being unrighteous
and evil, to patch up his ways and mend himself so as to stand before
God, there would then be no need of grace. The very fact of the Lord’s being
gracious shows sin to be so evil a thing that man, being a sinner, is utterly
ruined and hopeless, and nothing but free grace can meet his case. This grace
God is continually supplying. Grace, like manna, will rot if kept overnight.
“Wind up thy soul,” says George Herbert, “as thou dost thy watch at night.”
Leave no arrears from day to day. Give us this day’s food; forgive us this day’s
sins. Peace is first peace with God, with whom the soul was at enmity; then
peace of conscience, troubled on account of repeated sins, and peace with all men.
All our best wishes for the welfare of others are included in the all-comprehensive
blessings of grace and peace.
Lessons.—1. The will of God is the highest authority for Christian service.
2. The saintly character is the outgrowth of a practical faith. 3. Grace and peace
describe the rich heritage of the believer.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 1, 2. Paul’s Introduction to
the Epistle.—The design of this epistle
is more fully to instruct the Ephesians
in the nature of that Gospel they had
received, to guard them against certain
errors to which they were exposed
from the influence and example of
unbelieving Jews and Gentiles, and to
inculcate upon them the importance of
a conversation becoming their faith
and profession. It contains the substance
of the Gospel.
I. Paul here calls himself an
apostle of Jesus Christ.—The word
“apostle” signifies a messenger sent on
some particular business. Jesus Christ
is called an Apostle because He was
sent of God to instruct and redeem
mankind. Paul and others are
called apostles because they were sent
of Christ to teach the doctrines they
had received from Him. To confirm
this commission, as well as to give their
ministry success, Christ, according to
His promise, wrought with them and
established their words with signs
following.
1. Paul was an apostle by the will
of God.—He received not his call or
commission from man; nor was he, as
Matthias was, chosen to his apostleship
by men; but he was called by Jesus
Christ, who in person appeared to him
for this end that He might send him
among the Gentiles, and by God the
Father, who revealed His Son in him,
and chose him that he should know
His will and be a witness of the truth
unto all men.
2. He was called of God by revelation.—It
was not a secret revelation known
only to himself, like the revelation on
which enthusiasts and impostors ground
their pretensions, but a revelation made
in the most open and public manner,
attended with a voice from heaven and
a light which outshone the sun at
noonday, and exhibited in the midst of
a number of people to whom he could
appeal as witnesses of the extraordinary
scene. The great business of
Paul and the other apostles was to
diffuse the knowledge of the Gospel
and plant Churches in various parts of
the world.
II. Paul directs this epistle to the
saints and faithful.—The phrases
denote they had been called out of the
world and separated from others that
they might be a peculiar people unto
God. The religion we profess contains
the highest motives to purity of heart
and life. If, content with a verbal
profession of and external compliance
with this religion, we regard iniquity
in our hearts, we are guilty of the
vilest prevarication, and our religion,
instead of saving us, will but plunge
us the deeper into infamy and misery.
That which is the visible ought to be
the real character of Christians.
III. The apostle expresses his fervent
desire that these Ephesians may
receive the glorious blessings offered
in the Gospel.—1. Grace. Pardon is
grace, for it is the remission of a
deserved punishment. Eternal life is
grace, for it is a happiness of which we
are utterly unworthy. The influences
of the Divine Spirit are grace, for they
are first granted without any good
disposition on our part to invite them,
they are continued even after repeated
oppositions, they prepare us for that
world of glory for which we never
should qualify ourselves.
2. Peace.—By this we understand
that peace of mind which arises from
a persuasion of our interest in the
favour of God. Our peace with God is
immediately connected with our faith
in Christ. Our peace of mind is connected
with our knowledge of the
sincerity of our faith. “If our heart
condemn us not, we have confidence
toward God.” The way to enjoy peace
is to increase in all holy dispositions
and to abound in every good work. If
the apostle wished grace and peace to
Christians, surely they should feel
some solicitude to enjoy them.—J. Lathrop, D.D.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 3–14.
Praise for the Work of the Trinity in the Gospel of Grace.
These verses are an outburst of descriptive eloquence that even the ample
resources of the Greek language seem too meagre to adequately express. The
grandeur and variety of ideas, and the necessary vagueness of the phrases by
which those ideas are conveyed in this paragraph, create a difficulty in putting
the subject into a practical homiletic form. It may help us if we regard the
passage as an outpouring of praise for the work of the Trinity in the Gospel
of grace, the part of each person in the Trinity being distinctly recognised as
contributing to the unity of the whole.
I. The Gospel of grace originated in the love of the Father.—1. He hath
chosen us to holiness. “Blessed be the God and Father . . . who hath chosen us . . .
that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love” (vers. 3, 4).
The love of God the Father gave Christ to the world, and in Him the human
race is dowered with “all spiritual blessings in heavenly places.” The blessings
from heaven link us to heaven, and will by-and-by bring us to heaven, where
those blessings will be enjoyed in unrestricted fulness. Before time began, in
the free play of His infinite love, God the Father, foreseeing the sin and misery
that would come to pass, resolved to save man, and to save him in His own
way and for His own purpose. Man was to be saved in Christ, and by believingly
receiving Christ; and his salvation was not to free him from moral obligation,
but to plant in him principles of holiness by which he could live a blameless
life before God. He chose for Himself that we might love Him and find
our satisfaction in the perpetual discovery of His great love to us. The true
progression of the Christian life is a growth of the ever-widening knowledge of
the love of God. Love is the essence and the crown of holiness.
2. He hath ordained us to sonship.—“Having predestinated us unto the
adoption of children by Christ Jesus Himself” (ver. 5). The sonship is not by
natural right of inheritance, but by adoption. It is an act of Divine grace,
undeserved and unexpected. It is said that, after the battle of Austerlitz,
Napoleon adopted the children of the soldiers who had fallen. They were
supported and educated by the State, and, as belonging to the family of the
emperor, were allowed to attach the name of Napoleon to their own. This was
not the adoption of love, but as a recognition of service rendered by their fathers.
None can adopt into the family of God but God Himself, and it is an act on His
part of pure, unmerited love. He raises us to the highest dignity, and endows
us with unspeakable privileges, when He makes us His children; and our lives
should be in harmony with so distinguished a relationship.
3. He hath accepted us in Christ.—“Wherein He hath made us accepted
in the Beloved” (ver. 6). Christ, the beloved One, is the special object of
the Father’s love, and all who are united to Christ by faith become sharers in
the love with which the Divine Father regards His Son. It is only in and
through Christ that we are admitted into the Divine family. God loves us in
Christ, and the more so because we love Christ. We are accepted to a life of
holiness and a service of love. Christ is the pattern of our sonship and the
means of our adoption. The love of God to the race finds an outlet through the
person and gracious intervention of His Son.
II. The Gospel of grace was wrought out by the sufferings of the Son.—1. In
Him we have forgiveness of sins. “In whom we have redemption through
His blood, the forgiveness of sins” (ver. 7). How little do we realise the
greatness and blessedness of the pardon of sin! It may seem difficult to explain
how the forgiveness of sins is connected with the sufferings and death of Christ;
but there is no fact in the New Testament writings more clearly revealed or
more emphatically repeated than this. “The death of Christ was an act of
submission on behalf of mankind to the justice of the penalties of violating the
eternal law of righteousness—an act in which our own submission not only
received a transcendent expression, but was really and vitally included; it was
an act which secured the destruction of sin in all who, through faith, are
restored to union with Christ; it was an act in which there was a revelation
of the righteousness of God which must otherwise have been revealed in the
infliction of the penalty of sin on the human race. Instead of inflicting suffering
God has elected to endure it, that those who repent of sin may receive forgiveness,
and may inherit eternal glory. It was greater to endure suffering than to
inflict it” (Dale). The forgiveness is free, full, and complete.
2. In Him we have the revelation of the mystery of the Divine will.—“Wherein
He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; having made known
to us the mystery of His will” (vers. 8, 9). The will of God is to advance the
ultimate glorious destiny of the whole creation. This sublime purpose was for
ages an unrevealed mystery, unknown to the prophets, psalmists, and saints
of earlier times. In the depths of the Divine counsels this purpose was to be
carried out by Christ, and it is revealed only through and in Him. The
believer in Christ discovers in Him, not only his own blessedness, but also the
ultimate glory of all who are savingly united to the great Redeemer. The
abounding grace of God bestows wisdom to apprehend a larger knowledge of
the ways and will of God, and prudence to practically apply that knowledge
in the conduct of life.
3. In Him we enjoy the unity and grandeur of the heavenly inheritance.—“That
in the dispensation of the fulness of times He might gather together in
one all things in Christ, . . . in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, . . .
that we should be to the praise of His glory” (vers. 10–12). The fulness of times
must refer to the Gospel age and the glorious ages to follow, in which the
accomplishment of the Divine purpose will become more apparent. That purpose
is to heal up the estrangement of man from God, and to restore moral harmony
to the universe, which has been disordered by the introduction of sin. The great
agent in the unifying and harmonising of all things is Christ, who is the centre
and circumference of all. The angels who never sinned, and the saints who are
made such by redeeming mercy, will share together the inheritance of bliss
provided by the suffering and triumphant Christ. “One final glory will consist,
not in the restoration of the solitary soul to solitary communion with God, but
in the fellowship of all the blessed with the blessedness of the universe as well as
with the blessedness of God.”
III. The Gospel of grace is confirmed and realised by the operation of the
Holy Spirit.—1. By Him we hear and understand the Word of truth. “In whom
ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation”
(ver. 13). The Gospel is emphatically the Word of truth; it is reliable history,
not romance—a revelation of truths essential to salvation. It is the function
of the Holy Spirit to illuminate the mind by the instrumentality of the truth,
to apply the Word to the conscience, and to regenerate the heart. He takes of
the things of Christ and shows them unto us, and the vision leads on to a spiritual
transformation.
2. By Him we are sealed as an earnest of possessing the full inheritance of
blessing.—“Ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the
earnest of our inheritance” (vers. 13, 14). The work of the Spirit broke down
all class distinctions. The Jewish Christians discovered that the exclusive
privileges of their race had passed away. All believers in Christ Jesus, whether
Jew or Gentile, received the assurance of the Spirit that all the prerogatives and
blessings of God’s eternal kingdom were theirs. The seal of the Spirit is the
Divine attestation to the believing soul of its admission into the favour of God,
and the guarantee of ultimately entering into the full possession and enjoyment
of the heavenly inheritance.
Lessons.—1. The Gospel of grace is the harmonious work of the blessed Trinity.
2. The grace of the Gospel is realized by faith. 3. Praise for the gift of the Gospel
should be continually offered to the Triune God.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 3–6. The Doctrine of Predestination.—Neither
Calvinism nor Arminianism
has solved the problem presented
in this chapter. Like difficulties meet
us in God’s providential dealings—ay,
in the workings of His natural laws;
for, as a brilliant author has said,
“Nature is a terrible Calvinist.”—Lange.
Election.—It is above logic and
philosophy and even technical theology,
even as on many, and these, the most
important subjects, the heart is a better
teacher than the head. In these matters
I am so fearful that I dare not speak
further—yea, almost none otherwise
than the text does, as it were, lead me
by the hand.—Ridley.
Mystery of election.—Those who are
willing are always the elect; those who
will not are not elected. Many men
are wrapped up in the doctrines of
election and predestination; but that
is the height of impertinence. They
are truths belonging to God alone; and
if you are perplexed by them, it is only
because you trouble yourself about
things which do not concern you. You
only need to know that God sustains
you with all His might in the winning
of your salvation if you will only
rightly use His help. Whoever doubts
this is like a crew of a boat working
with all their might against the tide
and yet going back hour after hour;
then they notice that the tide turns,
while at the same time the wind
springs up and fills their sails. The
coxswain cries, “Pull away, boys!
wind and tide favour you!” But they
answer, “What can we do with the
oars? don’t the wind and tide take away
our free agency?”—H. W. Beecher.
Ver. 3. Spiritual Blessings.
I. They are accommodated to our
spiritual wants and desires, they come
down from heaven, prepare us for
heaven, and will be completed in our
admission to heaven.—The influences
of the Spirit are heavenly gifts, the
renovation of the heart by a Divine
operation is wisdom from above, the
renewed Christian is born from above
and becomes a spiritual man, the state
of immortality Christ has purchased
for believers is an inheritance reserved
for them in heaven, in the resurrection
they will be clothed with a house from
heaven, with spiritual and heavenly
bodies, and they will sit together in
heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
II. The blessings granted to the
Ephesians are tendered to us.—He
offers us the honours and felicities of
adoption and the remission of all our
sins through the atonement of His
Son. He has proposed for our acceptance
an inheritance incorruptible in the
heavens. We have happier advantages
to become acquainted with the doctrines
and precepts of the Gospel than the
primitive Christians could enjoy. If
they were bound to give thanks for
their privileges, how criminal must be
ingratitude under ours! We must one
day answer before God for all the
spiritual blessings He has sent us.—Lathrop.
Vers. 4–6. The Nature, Source, and
Purposes of Spiritual Blessings.
I. God chose and predestinated these
Ephesian Christians before the foundation
of the world.—We must not so
conceive of God’s election and the influence
of His grace as to set aside our
free agency and final accountableness;
nor must we so explain away God’s
sovereignty and grace as to exalt man
to a state of independence. Now, so
far as the grace of God in the salvation
of sinners is absolute and unconditional,
election or predestination is so, and no
farther. If we consider election as it
respects the final bestowment of salvation,
it is plainly conditional. To
imagine that God chooses some to
eternal life without regard to their
faith and holiness is to suppose that
some are saved without these qualifications
or saved contrary to His purpose.
God hath chosen us to salvation through
sanctification of the Spirit and belief
of the truth.
II. Consider the spiritual qualifications
to which the Ephesians were
chosen.—“To be holy and without blame
before Him in love” (ver. 4). Holiness
consists in the conformity of the soul
to the Divine nature and will and is
opposed to all moral evil. Love is a
most essential part of the character of the
saint. Charity out of a pure heart
is the end of the commandment. Without
charity all our pretensions to Gospel
holiness are vain.
III. Consider the adoption to which
believers are predestinated (ver. 5).—Our
sonship is not our native right,
but the effect of God’s gracious adoption.
1. It implies a state of freedom in
opposition to bondage. Believers are
free as being delivered from the bondage
of sin, and as having near access
to God and intimate communion with
Him. Children are usually admitted
to that familiar intercourse which is
denied to servants. 2. Adoption brings
us under the peculiar care of God’s providence.
3. Includes a title to a glorious
resurrection from the dead and to an
eternal inheritance in the heavens. If
believers are the children of God, then
their temper must be a childlike temper,
a temper corresponding to their relation,
condition, and character.
IV. That all spiritual blessings are
derived to us through Christ (vers.
5, 6).
V. The reason of God’s choosing believers
in Christ and predestinating
them to adoption is the good pleasure
of His will (ver. 5).—If we admit we
are sinful, fallen creatures, unworthy
of God’s favour and insufficient for our
own redemption, then our salvation
must ultimately be resolved into God’s
good pleasure. There is no other
source from which it can be derived.
If death is our desert, our deliverance
must be by grace.
VI. The great purpose for which
God has chosen and called us is the
praise of the glory of His grace
(ver. 6).—God has made this display
of His grace that unworthy creatures
might apply to Him for salvation.
We are to praise the glory of God’s
grace by a cheerful compliance with
the precepts and thankful acceptance
of the blessings of the Gospel, by a holy
life, and by encouraging others to
accept that grace. Believers will, in a
more perfect manner, show forth the
praise of God’s glorious grace in the
future world.—Lathrop.
Vers. 5, 6. The Glory of Divine
Grace—
- Is the sublime outcome of the
Divine will.—“According to His will”
(ver. 5).
- Is a signal display of joyous
benevolence.—“According to the good
pleasure of His will” (ver. 5).
- Demands profound and grateful
recognition.—“To the praise of the
glory of His grace” (ver. 6).
Ver. 5. The Adoption of Children by
Jesus Christ.—Explain the nature of
the privilege.
I. Its greatness.—1. From the Being
by whom it is conferred. 2. From the
price at which it was procured.
3. From the inheritance which it conveys.
4. From the manner in which
it is bestowed. The new birth.
II. Its benefits.—1. The spirit of
adoption. 2. Divine care and protection.
3. Divine pity and compassion.
4. Overruling all trials for spiritual
good.
III. The evidences of its possession.—1. The
image of God. 2. The love
of God. 3. The love of the brethren.
IV. Its appropriate duties.—The
children of God ought—1. To walk
worthy of their high vocation. 2. To
be subject to their Father’s will both in
doing and in suffering. 3. To be mindful
of what they owe to their spiritual
kindred. 4. To long for their heavenly
home.—G. Brooks.
Ver. 6. The Adopting Love of God.
I. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the
Beloved of the Father.—From eternity
during the preparatory dispensation
in the days of His flesh; now; for
ever. An ineffable love.
II. The Father’s love of believers is
on account of the Lord Jesus Christ.—He
accepts them for the sake of Christ
as united to Christ. Acceptance distinct
from pardon.
III. The Father’s acceptance of
believers is an act of sovereign grace.—Irrespective
of their merit. Neither
the necessity of the atonement nor the
obligation of faith is inconsistent with
acceptance by grace.
IV. The Father’s acceptance of believers
for the sake of Christ promotes
His own glory.—His glory is the end
of all things. Implore all to seek acceptance
with God through Christ.—G. Brooks.
Vers. 7, 8. Redemption through
Christ.
I. The subjects of this redemption.—Redemption,
though offered without
distinction to all who hear the Gospel,
is actually bestowed only on those who
repent of their sins and believe on the
Saviour.
II. The nature of this redemption.—There
is a twofold redemption—the
redemption of the soul from the guilt
of sin by pardon, and the redemption
of the body from the power of the grave
by the resurrection. The former
of these is intended. But these two
privileges are connected. The remission
of sin, which is a release from our
obligation to punishment, is accompanied
with a title to eternal life.
III. The way and manner in which
believers become partakers of this
privilege.—Through the blood of Christ.
The death of Christ is the ground of
our hope. Jesus Christ, through whose
blood we obtain forgiveness, is the
Beloved. This character of Christ
shows the excellence of His sacrifice
and displays the grace of God in giving
Him for us.
IV. Observe the foundation from
which our redemption flows.—“The
riches of His grace.” Every blessing
bestowed on sinners is by grace; but
the blessing of forgiveness is according
to the riches, the exceeding, the unsearchable
riches of grace.
V. In this dispensation of mercy
God has abounded to us in all wisdom
and prudence.—The most glorious display
of God’s wisdom is in the work of
our redemption. Here the perfections
of God appear in the brightest lustre
and most beautiful harmony. In this
dispensation there is a door of hope
opened to the most unworthy, believers
have the greatest possible security, and
it holds forth the most awful terrors
against sin and the most powerful
motives to obedience.—Lathrop.
Ver. 7. Pardon an Act of Sovereign
Grace.—This free and gracious pleasure
of God or purpose of His will to act
towards sinners according to His own
abundant goodness is another thing
that influences forgiveness. Pardon
flows immediately from a sovereign act
of free grace. This free purpose of
God’s will and grace for the pardoning
of sinners is that which is principally
intended when we say, “There is
forgiveness with Him”; that is, He is
pleased to forgive, and so to do is agreeable
to His nature. Now the mystery
of this grace is deep; it is eternal, and
therefore incomprehensible. Few there
are whose hearts are raised to a contemplation
of it. Men rest and content
themselves in a general notion
of mercy which will not be advantageous
to their souls. Freed they would be
from punishment; but what it is to be
forgiven they inquire not. So what
they know of it they come easily by, but
will find in the issue it will stand them
in little stead. But these fountains of
God’s actings are revealed that they
may be the fountains of our comforts.—John Owen.
Ver. 8. The Harmony of Christianity
in its Personal Influence.
I. The wisdom and prudence of the
Gospel are manifested by showing with
equal distinctness the Divine justice
and mercy.—Justice does not arrest
the hand of mercy; mercy does not
restrain the hand of justice. They
speak with a united voice, they command
with a united authority, they
shine with a united glory. Neither
excels. The one does not overbear the
other. Their common splendour is like
the neutral tint, the effulgent colourlessness
of the undecomposed ray.
II. By exhibiting the incarnate
Son as alike the object of love and
adoration.
III. By insisting most uniformly
on Divine grace and human responsibility.
IV. By the proposal of the freest
terms of acceptance and the enforcement
of the most universal practice of
obedience.
V. By inspiring the most elevated
joy in connection with the deepest
self-abhorrence.
VI. By displaying the different conduct
pursued by the Deity towards
sin and the sinner.
VII. By combining the genuine
humility of the Gospel with our dignity
as creatures and our conscientiousness
as saints.
VIII. By causing all supernatural
influence to operate through our
rational powers and by intelligent
means.
IX. By resting our evidence of
safety and spiritual welfare upon
personal virtues.
X. By supplying the absence of
enslaving fear with salutary caution.
XI. The actual existence of our depraved
nature and the work of sanctification
in us pressing forward to its
maturity tend to that regulated temperament
of mind which we urge.
XII. Certain views of personal conduct
are so coupled in the Gospel with
the noblest views of grace that any
improper warping of our minds is
counteracted.
XIII. While the distinctive blessings
and honours of the Christian
might tend to elate him, he is affected
by the most opposite motives.
XIV. God abounds in this wisdom
and prudence towards us by most
strongly abstracting us from the
things of earth and yet giving us the
deepest interest in its relations and
engagements.—All the truths of revelation
are only parts of one system, but
their effects upon the believing mind
are common and interchangeable.
There is no extraneous, no irreconcilable,
no confusing element in Christianity.
It is of One; it is one. And if we be
Christians, our experience will be the
counterpart of it. As it works out
from apparent shocks and collisions its
perfect unity, so shall our experience
be wrought in the same way. In obeying
from our hearts its form, whatever
of its influence may seem to interfere
with each other, they will all be found
to establish our heart; as the opposing
currents often swell the tide and more
proudly waft the noble bark it carries,
as the counterbalancing forces of the
firmament bear the star onward in its
unquivering poise and undeviating
revolution.—R. W. Hamilton.
Vers. 9–12. The Mystery of the Gospel.
I. The sovereign grace of God in
making known to us the mystery
of His will.—1. The Gospel is called
the mystery of God’s will, the mystery
which from the beginning was hid
in God, and the unsearchable riches
of Christ. Not that these phrases
represent the Gospel as obscure and
unintelligible, but that the Gospel
scheme was undiscoverable by the
efforts and researches of human reason
and could be made known to men
only by the light of Divine revelation.
There are many things in the
Gospel which are and will remain incomprehensible
to human reason; but
though we cannot fully comprehend
them, we may sufficiently understand
them.
2. God has made known to us His will
“according to the good pleasure which He
purposed in Himself.”—Though the
reason of His administration is not
made known to us, yet all His purposes
are directed by consummate
wisdom. He is Sovereign in the distribution
of His favours; His goodness to
us is no wrong to the heathen.
II. The purpose of God in making
known to us the mystery of His will
(ver. 10).—1. The Gospel is called “the
dispensation of the fulness of times.” It
was introduced at the time exactly
ordained in the purpose, and expressly
predicted in the Word of God, and in
this sense may be called “the dispensation
of the fulness of times.”
2. One end of this dispensation was
that God “might gather together in one
all things in Christ” (ver. 10).—To form
one body in Christ, to collect one
Church, one great kingdom under Him.
3. The Gospel is intended to unite in
Christ all things both which are in heaven
and which are in earth.—The Church of
Christ consists of the whole family in
heaven and earth. Here is a powerful
argument for Christian love and for
Christian candour.
III. In Him we have obtained an
inheritance that we should be to the
praise of His glory who first trusted
in Christ.—The believing Jews were
the first who trusted in Christ. They,
with the believing Gentiles, were made
heirs of God, not only to the privileges
of His Church on earth, but to an inheritance
also in the heavens. As
they had first obtained an inheritance
and first trusted in Christ, so they
should be first to the praise of God’s
glory.—Lathrop.
Ver. 10. Christ and Creation.—If the
Divine purpose of salvation was regulative
for the creation of the world, then
must salvation as well as creation be
grounded on the original Mediator.
But that all creation should be thus
grounded in Him includes a twofold
idea—that not only were all things
created by Him, but also for Him, who
is to bring to completion both the
saving purpose of God as also the
whole development of the world which
tends towards the realisation of the
purpose of God. And because the
world has not yet reached this goal,
then all things have progressively their
existence in Him; and it cannot fail,
because the goal of the world established
in Him must be realised. But
how this goal of the world is conceived
of, this verse shows, when it is mentioned
as the final goal of the institution
of God’s grace that all things may
be gathered in Christ as in a centre.
He has been appointed to be this
central point of the universe, as the
universe was created in Him; but here
it is pointed out that He must again
become so, because a dislocation in the
original constitution of the world has
taken place by sin, whose removal
again the dispensation of grace must
have in view. The goal of the world
is no longer regarded as the perfected
kingdom of God, in which the absolute,
universal Lordship of God is realised,
in contrast to the earthly, mediatorial
Lordship of Christ, which the latter
gives back to the Father, and that the
exaltation of Christ is extended over
everything which has a name both in
this world and in the future. One
cannot think of the goal of the world
without Him in whom even creation
has its root.—Weiss.
Vers. 11, 12. Christ the Inheritance of
the Saints.—1. Christ the Mediator is
that person in whom believers have
this heavenly inheritance, as they have
all their other spiritual blessings leading
to heaven in Him. Every believer
hath already obtained this glorious
inheritance, though not in complete
personal possession. 2. As God is an
absolute worker, sovereign Lord of all
His actions, His will being His only
rule, so His will is always joined with
and founded upon the light of counsel
and wisdom, and therefore He can will
nothing but what is equitable and just.
3. It is no small privilege for any to
be trusters in Christ before others.
It is a matter of their commendation;
it glorifies God in so far as their
example and experience may prove an
encouraging motive to others. It
carries several advantages; the sooner
a man closes with Christ, the work will
be done more easily, he is the sooner
freed from sin, the sooner capacitated
to do more service to God, and his concernments
are the sooner out of hazard.—Fergusson.
Ver. 13. The Gospel of your Salvation.
I. The import of the salvation proclaimed
in the Gospel.—It is deliverance
from all the evils that have been
brought on us by the Fall. 1. From
ignorance, not of science, but of God.
2. From guilt, or the penalty which the
law inflicts. 3. From the power of sin,
of which we are slaves. 4. From the
sorrows and calamities of life, which
it does not remove, but alleviate and
transform. 5. From the power and
fear of death. 6. From everlasting
perdition.
II. The persons to whom this view
of the Gospel is specially applicable.—1. To
the unconverted. It teaches
them what they are. 2. To the
awakened. It teaches them what
they need. 3. To believers. It
awakens their gratitude, it reproves
their lukewarmness, it stimulates their
charity.
III. The reflections to which this
view of the Gospel gives rise.—How
precious in our estimation should be—1. the
Gospel, 2. the Saviour, 3. the
Saviour’s work, 4. the Saviour’s ordinances,
5. the Saviour’s servants
and people, 6. the Saviour’s second
coming.—G. Brooks.
The Truth and Divinity of the
Christian Religion.
I. It is reasonable to suppose that
God should at some time or season
fully and clearly reveal unto men the
truth concerning Himself and concerning
them as He and they stand related
to each other, concerning His nature
and will, and concerning our state and
duty.—Argued from 1. His goodness,
2. His wisdom, 3. His justice, 4. His
Divine majesty.
II. That no other revelation of that
kind and importance has been made,
which can with good probability pretend
to have thus proceeded from God,
so as by Him to have been designed
for a general, perpetual, complete
instruction and obligation of mankind.—1. Paganism
did not proceed from
Divine revelation, but from human
invention or diabolical suggestion.
All the pagan religions vanished, together
with the countenance of secular
authority and power sustaining them.
2. Mohammedanism an imposture.
3. Judaism was defective. (1) This
revelation was not general—not
directed, nor intended to instruct and
oblige mankind. (2) As this revelation
was particular, so was it also partial—as
God did not by it speak His mind to
all, so did He not therein speak out all
His mind. (3) It was not designed for
perpetual obligation and use.
Conclusion.—No other religion,
except Christianity, which has been
or is in being, can reasonably pretend
to have proceeded from God as a
universal, complete, and final declaration
of His mind and will to mankind.—Barrow.
Vers. 13, 14. The Assurance of the
Christian Inheritance.—By the first act
of faith the whole tendencies of man’s
life are reversed. Until then the
present has been his world and the
earth his place of rest; then, by the
inspiration of the cross, a spiritual
world draws upon his view, that everlasting
region becomes his home, and
life assumes the character of a pilgrimage.
We need to have the deep
assurance of the immortal kingdom in
order to live an earnest life in a world
like this.
I. The nature of the assurance.—The
voices of promises in the Christian’s
soul—the longings, aspirations, hopes,
rising from the Spirit of God within us—are
more than promises; they are
earnests, i.e. most certain assurances
of the inheritance to come. This inheritance
of spiritual life consists of
three great elements—love, power,
blessedness.
II. The necessity of the assurance.—The
inheritance is given, but not
reached. Between the gift and its
attainment there lies a long path of
conflict in which the old struggle
between the flesh and the Spirit reveals
itself in three forms: 1. Sense against
the soul; 2. The present against the
future; 3. Steadfast work against
the roving propensities of the heart.—E. L. Hull.
The Holy Spirit and the Earnest of the
Inheritance.
I. The character of the inheritance.—The
teaching of the passage is that
heaven is likest the selectest moments
of devotion that a Christian has on
earth. Heaven is the perfecting of the
life of the Spirit begun here, and the
loftiest attainments of that life here
are but the beginnings and infantile
movements of immature beings.
II. The grounds of certainty that
we shall ultimately possess the fulness
of the inheritance.—The true ground
of certainty lies in this, that you have
the Spirit in your heart, operating His
own likeness and moulding you, sealing
you, after His own stamp and image.
1. The very fact of such a relation
between man and God is itself the great
assurance of immortality and everlasting
life. 2. The characteristics that
are produced by this Holy Spirit’s indwelling,
both in the perfectness and
imperfection, are the great guarantee
of the inheritance being ours. 3. The
Holy Spirit in a man’s heart makes
him desire and believe in the inheritance.—A. Maclaren.
The Faith of the Early Christians.
I. The object of their faith.—The
Word of truth and the Gospel of salvation.
It is the Word of truth. It
contains all that truth which concerns
our present duty and our future glory.
It comes attended with demonstrations
of its own Divinity. It is the Gospel of
our salvation. It discovers to us our
ruined, helpless condition, the mercy of
God to give us salvation, the way in
which it is procured for us, the terms
on which we may become interested in
it, the evidences by which our title to
it must be ascertained, and the glory
and happiness it comprehends.
II. The forwardness and yet the
reasonableness of their faith.—They
trusted in Christ after they heard the
Word. They acted as honest and
rational men: they did not trust before
they heard it, nor refused to trust after
they heard it. They did not take the
Gospel on the credit of other men without
examination; nor did they reject
it when they had an opportunity to
examine it for themselves. Their faith
stood not in the wisdom of men, but in
the power of God.
III. The happy consequence of
their faith.—They were “sealed with
the Spirit of promise, which is the
earnest of our inheritance.” They
became partakers of such a Divine
influence as sanctified them to a meetness
for heaven, and thus evidenced
their title to it.
1. The sealing of the Spirit.—Sealing
literally signifies the impression of the
image or likeness of one thing upon
another. A seal impressed on wax
leaves there its own image. Instruction
is said to be sealed when it is so
impressed on the heart as to have an
abiding influence. So, the sealing of
believers is their receiving on their
hearts the Divine image and character
by the sanctifying power of the Holy
Spirit. The Word of truth is here
considered as the seal, the believing
heart as the subject, the Holy Spirit
as the agent or sealer, and the effect
produced as a Divine likeness. By
a like metaphor Christians are represented
as cast in the mould of the
Gospel. The same idea is conveyed by
the metaphor of writing the Word on
the heart.
2. The earnest of the Spirit.—The
Spirit, having sealed believers or
sanctified them after God’s image, becomes
an earnest of their inheritance.
The firstfruits were pledges of the
ensuing harvest; earnest-money in a
contract is a pledge of the fulfilment
of it. So, the graces and comforts of
religion are to Christians the anticipations
and foretastes of the happiness
which awaits them in heaven. (1) The
virtues of the Christian temper, which
are the fruits of the Spirit, are to
believers an earnest of their inheritance
because they are in part a fulfilment
of the promise which conveys the
inheritance. (2) They are an earnest
as they are preparatives for it. (3) The
sealing and sanctifying influence of the
Spirit is especially called an earnest of
the inheritance because it is a part of
the inheritance given beforehand. It
is the earnest till the redemption of
the purchased possession. When we
actually possess the inheritance the
earnest will be no longer needed.
Lessons.—1. All the operations of the
Spirit on the minds of men are of a
holy nature and tendency. 2. We are
strongly encouraged to apply to God for
the needful influences of His grace.
3. We can have no conclusive evidence of
a title to heaven without the experience
of a holy temper. 4. Christians are
under indispensable obligations to universal
holiness.—Lathrop.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 15–18.
Prayer for Higher Spiritual Knowledge—
I. Thankfully acknowledges the grace already possessed (vers. 15, 16).—The
possession of some grace prompts the prayer for more. The apostle recognises
the faith of the Ephesians in the person and work of Christ and the love they
displayed towards the saints. Knowing the source of that grace and that the
supply was unlimited, he thanks God and is encouraged to pray for its increase.
How slow we are to see the good in others and to thank God for any good found
in ourselves! Ingratitude dulls our sensibilities and chills the breath of prayer.
If we were more thankful, we should be more prayerful. The way to excite
gratitude is to interest ourselves in the highest welfare of others.
II. Invokes the impartation of additional spiritual insight (vers. 17, 18).—The
apostle prays, not for temporal good or for prosperity in outward things, or
even for the cessation of trouble or persecution, but for an accession of mental
and spiritual blessings. He prays for the opening of the eye of the mind that
the vision of spiritual realities may be more clear and reliable, and that the soul
may be possessed with a fuller knowledge of Christ. The highest wisdom is
gained by a more accurate conception of Him “in whom are hid all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge.” Sin enters the heart through the avenue of the senses
and passions, grace through a spiritually enlightened understanding. Pride,
prejudice, and error are expelled from the mind not so much by the repression of
evil tendencies as by the entrance and maintenance of superior moral truths.
The revelation of the Spirit in the Word will not suffice unless the light of the
same Spirit shines through every faculty and power of the inquiring soul.
“Man’s knowledge is not perfect within the domain of creation, still less can he
know the things of the invisible world. Only by living in a sphere does he gather
knowledge of what is found there: knowledge comes from experience of occurrences.
Without a disposition of the heart the sense of the understanding is not enlarged
and sharpened. Sensible, mental, spiritual knowledge refers to life spheres in
which he who knows must move. Only the believing, loving, longing one knows
and grows in knowledge unto knowledge.” We need, therefore, continually to
pray for the Spirit of wisdom—a keener spiritual insight.
III. Unveils the grandeur of the Divine inheritance in believers.—“That ye
may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of
His inheritance in the saints” (ver. 18). The increase of spiritual knowledge is
an ever-widening revelation of the value and splendour of Divine blessings already
possessed and in prospect of possession. Faith enjoys the inheritance now, and
hope anticipates an ampler revelation and richer experience of its unspeakable
blessedness. The phrase “the riches of the glory of His inheritance” indicates
how utterly inadequate human language is to describe its boundless spiritual
wealth. It is an inheritance implying union to Him who only hath immortality
and is eternal. Rust cannot corrupt it, nor decay consume, nor death destroy.
We have not only an inheritance in Christ, but He has also an inheritance in us.
He finds more in us than we find ourselves, and we should never know it was there
but for the revelation of Himself within us.
Lessons.—1. Prayer and thanksgiving go together. 2. The soul needs a daily
revelation of truth. 3. The highest spiritual truths are made known to the soul that
prays.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 15–18. Clearer Discernment in
Divine Things desired.
I. The things for which the apostle
commends the Ephesians.—Their faith
in Jesus and love to the saints (ver. 15).
1. Faith is such a sensible, realising
belief of the Gospel in its general truth
and in its particular doctrines and
precepts as gives it a practical influence
on the heart and life; it looks up to
God through Christ; it is made perfect
by works. 2. Faith is accompanied
with love. Viewing and applying the
examples and doctrines of the Gospel,
it purifies the soul unto unfeigned love
of the brethren. The Gospel requires
us to love all men, sinners as well as
saints, enemies as well as friends. If
we love God for His moral perfections,
we shall love the saints as far as they
appear to have these Divine qualities
wrought into their temper. Our love
is not to be confined to a party, to
those who live in the same city and
worship in the same sanctuary but
embraces all.
II. Paul expresses his great thankfulness
to God for the success of the
Gospel.—“I cease not to give thanks”
(ver. 16). He rejoiced in the honour
which redounded to the crucified Jesus.
He rejoiced to think how many were
rescued from the power of Satan, and
in the consequences which might ensue
to others. If the prevalence of religion
is matter of thankfulness, we should
spare no pains to give it success.
III. He prays for the future success
of the Gospel (ver. 16).—The best
Christians have need to make continual
improvement. Paul was no less
constant in his prayers than in his
labours for the spiritual interest of
mankind. He knew that the success
of all his labours depended on God’s
blessing; he therefore added to them
his fervent prayers. When ministers
and people strive together in their
prayers, there is reason to hope for
God’s blessing on both.
IV. He prayed for spiritual enlightenment
(vers. 17, 18).—That they
may seek wisdom from God to understand
the revelation He has given,
and such an illumination of mind as
to discern the nature and excellence of
the things contained in this revelation.
Christians must not content themselves
with their present knowledge but
aspire to all riches of the full assurance
of understanding.
V. He prayed for power to appreciate
Christian privileges (ver. 18).—To
know the hope of the Divine
calling, the possibility and assurance of
attaining the heavenly kingdom. To
know what a rich and glorious inheritance
God has prepared for and
promised to the saints. Though we
cannot comprehend its dimensions nor
compute its value, yet when we consider
the grace of the Being who
conveys it, the riches of the price
which bought it, and the Divine
preparation by which the heirs are
formed to enjoy it, we must conceive it
to be unspeakably glorious.—Lathrop.
The Apprehension of Spiritual Blessings.
I. Further spiritual blessings are to
be apprehended by the saints, therefore
their condition is a relative one.—The
Ephesians had already received
spiritual blessings (vers. 11–15). How
much more is here. The possessed
bears some proportion to what is to be
received. Without this relative view
the estimate is vague and erroneous.
The further gifts consist specially in
the clearer sight and more certain
and enlarged experience of what they
already saw and possessed. “Him,”
“His calling,” “His inheritance,”
“His mighty power”—these were to
be theirs in a degree of exceeding
greatness and glory.
II. Unless saints apprehend blessings
now attainable, they live below
their privilege.—“If thou knewest
the gift of God, thou wouldst have
asked of Him” (1 John iv. 10). Without some knowledge
there is neither faith nor desire.
With these unveilings the heart is
deeply moved with the sense of obligation
to possess, it is attracted and filled
with desire and animation. Otherwise,
with an ignorant satisfaction, the
condition must remain relatively lean
and impoverished.
III. The spiritual apprehension of
these blessings is the gift of God.—This
is needed because of their Divine
nature. As we cannot properly see
what the sun has called into life and
beauty without his light, so these
blessings are truly seen only in the
light of the Sun of Righteousness.
Through the Redeemer the Spirit is
given. He gives the Spirit to enlighten
both the object and the eye, to
“testify,” to “show,” to “glorify,” to
reveal, “that we might know the
things that are freely given to us of
God.” Thus, these blessings are seen,
not distantly and dimly, but in their
nearness and unveiled glory, whilst He
creates in the heart corresponding
sympathy, desire, and assurance.
Nothing can compensate for this gift—no
mere intelligence, no reflection upon
past experience, no mere help from
others.
IV. This gift is bestowed in answer
to prayer.—This particular bestowment
comes under the promise of the Spirit
to believing prayer. This is a gift.
Gifts are asked for, not made ours in
any other way. This gift is awaiting
and challenging prayer, importunate
prayer. That an ever-deepening desire
for these spiritual gifts may be ours, let
us often ask—What truths are given to
me, which, if the eyes of my understanding
were enlightened, would not
exert the most positive influence over
me, lifting me into the clearer light of
God’s relations, thus empowering me
to live above the standard of natural
strength, and so to fulfil His present
designs? Think of the alternative.—J. Holmes.
Vers. 15, 16. True Religion self-revealing—
- In its moral results.—“Faith and
love” (ver. 15).
- Is evident to others.—“I heard
of your faith” (ver. 15).
- Is the occasion of constant
thanksgiving.—“Cease not to give
thanks for you” (ver. 16).
- Calls forth a spirit of prayer.—“Making
mention of you in my
prayers” (ver. 16).
Vers. 17, 18. Spiritual Enlightenment.—1. The
wisdom which Christians are
to seek is not that carnal wisdom which
is enmity to God, nor natural wisdom
or knowledge of the hidden mysteries
of nature, nor the wisdom of Divine
mysteries, which is only a gift and
floweth from a common influence of
the Spirit, but that whereof the Spirit
of God by His special operation and
influence is author and worker, and is
more than a gift, even the grace of
wisdom, which is not acquired by our
own industry, but cometh from above.
2. It is not sufficient for attaining this
grace of wisdom that the truths be
plainly revealed by the Spirit in
Scripture. There must be the removal
of natural darkness from our understandings,
that we may be enabled to
take up that which is revealed, as in
beholding colours by the outward sense
there must be not only an outward
light to make the object conspicuous,
but also the faculty of seeing in the
eye. A blind man cannot see at noonday,
nor the sharpest-sighted at midnight.
3. Though those excellent
things which are not yet possessed, but
only hoped for, are known in part, yet
so excellent are they in themselves,
and remote from our knowledge, and
so much are we taken up with trifles
and childish toys, that even believers
who have their thoughts most exercised
about them are in a great part
ignorant of them. 4. As the things
hoped for and really to be enjoyed in
the other life are of the nature of an
inheritance not purchased by us but
freely bestowed upon us, so they are
properly Christ’s inheritance, who has
proper right to it as the natural Son
of God and by virtue of His own
purchase; but the right we have is
communicated to us through Him, in
whom we have received the adoption of
children and are made heirs and co-heirs
with Christ. 5. It is a glorious
inheritance, there being nothing there
but what is glorious. The sight shall
be glorious, for we shall see God as
we are seen, the place glorious, the
company glorious, our souls and bodies
shall be glorious, and our exercise
glorious, giving glory to God for ever
and ever.—Fergusson.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 19–23.
The Church Complete in Christ.
I. The Church is the creation of Divine power (ver. 19).—The Church does
not consist in massive architecture or ornate decorations, nor in ecclesiastical
organisations and councils. It is not the offspring of the most elaborately constructed
creed. It is not confined within the limits of the most expansive
ecclesiastical epithet. It is a Divine, spiritual creation. It consists of souls
redeemed by the sacrifice of Jesus, clinging to Him for pardon, peace, and
righteousness, and created in Him, by “the working of the mighty power” of the
Divine Spirit, for good works, and therefore continually striving to disseminate
the good they have themselves received. The apostolic idea of the Church was
coloured by the leading characteristic of the man. To St. Peter it was the
Church as influenced by law—the confessing Church; to St. Paul it was the
Church influenced by the freedom of faith—the witnessing Church; to St. John
it was the Church as filled with the ideality of faith—working and keeping joyful
holiday, the adorned Bride (Rev. xix. 7, 8). The Church is a constant revelation
of “the exceeding greatness of His power” who first originated it and
sustains its ever-widening growth.
II. The Divine power that creates the Church installs Christ as the supreme
authority.—1. This power raised Christ from the deepest humiliation to the highest
dignity (vers. 20, 21). It raised Him from the cross to the throne, from the
domain of the dead to the life and everlasting glory of the heavenly world.
“God ascended with jubilation, and the Lord with the sound of the trumpet.
Certainly, if when He brought His only begotten Son into the world He said,
‘Let all the angels worship Him’ (Heb. i. 6); much more, now that He ascends on high and
hath led captivity captive, hath He given Him a name above all names, that at
the name of Jesus all knees should bow. And if the holy angels did so carol at
His birth in the very entrance into that estate of humiliation and infirmity,
with what triumph they receive Him now returning from the perfect achievement
of man’s redemption! And if, when His type had vanquished Goliath and
carried the head into Jerusalem, the damsels came forth to meet him with dances
and timbrels, how shall we think those angelic spirits triumph in meeting the
great Conqueror of hell and death! How did they sing, ‘Lift up your heads,
O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall
come in’!” (Ps. xxiv. 7–10).
2. This power invests Christ with supreme rule and authority (ver. 22). On
the night when Christ was born what a difference was there in all outward
marks of distinction between the child of the Hebrew mother as He lay in His
lowly cradle, and the Augustus Cæsar, whose edict brought Mary to Bethlehem,
as he reposed in his imperial palace. And throughout the lifetime of the two
there was but little to lessen that distinction. The name of the one was known
and honoured over the whole civilised globe, the name of the Other scarce heard
of beyond the narrow bounds of Judea. How stands it now? The throne of
the Cæsars, the throne of mere human authority and power, has perished. But
the empire of Jesus, the empire of pure, undying, self-sacrificing love, will never
perish; its sway over the consciences and hearts of men, as the world grows
older, becomes ever wider and stronger (Hanna). The rule of Christ will last
till all enemies are subdued, and obedience to Him becomes a reverential and
joyous experience.
Transcriber’s Note: Please search the Internet for videos
that explore the properties of elemental mercury (“quicksilver”)
rather than performing the experiments yourself.
III. The Church is complete as it is endowed with the Divine fulness of Christ
(ver. 23).—The Church to-day seems broken into fragments, torn by divisions
and strife; but by-and-by it will blend in a glorious unity. Take a mass of
quicksilver, let it fall on the floor, and it will split into a vast number of distinct
globules; gather them up, and put them together again, and they will coalesce
into one body as before. Thus, God’s people below are sometimes divided into
various parties, though they are all in fact members of one and the same mystic
body. But when taken up from the world and put together in heaven they will
constitute one glorious, undivided Church for ever and ever. The completeness
of the Church is not the aggregation of all the virtues of the saints blended in
beauteous and harmonious unity, but the glory of the Divine fulness that
pervades every part.
Lessons.—1. The Church as a Divine creation is a revelation of Christ. 2. The
Church is composed of those who are created anew in Christ Jesus. 3. Christ is
everything to His Church.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 19–23. The Dignity and
Dominion of Christ.
I. The first step in Christ’s exaltation
was the resurrection from the
dead.—This miracle is an incontestable
evidence of the truth of the Christian
religion, and an evidence of the great
doctrine of the resurrection of the
body and a future life, and of the
efficacy of Christ’s blood to expiate
the guilt of our sins. If we believe
that Jesus died and rose again, we
must believe that the same mighty
power which wrought in Him can also
work in us to raise us from the dead.
II. The next step is His ascension
to heaven and session at God’s right
hand (ver. 20). The right hand is the
place of honour and respect and denotes
superior dignity. Christ sitting
at God’s right hand signifies He has
ceased from His labours and sufferings
and entered into a state of repose and
joy, and imports authority and power.
He is exalted not only as Ruler, but also
as Intercessor.
III. The exaltation of Christ is
supreme.—His kingdom extends to all
creatures in heaven, earth, and under
the earth. The government of the
natural world is in His hands, as well
as the government of the Church. He
has dominion over devils. His last
and most glorious act is the judgment
of the world.
IV. The end for which Christ exercises
His high and extensive dominion
(vers. 22, 23).—All His government is
managed in reference to the good of
the Church. See how criminal and
dangerous it is to oppose the interest
of the Church. If the Church is
Christ’s body, let us honour it, study to
preserve unity in it, labour for its
edification and comfort. Let us honour
and reverence our Head, and never
presumptuously lift up ourselves against
the Church.—Lathrop.
Ver. 19. The Power of God in Conversion.—1. The
power God exercises
in converting and carrying on the
work of grace to glory is not only
great, but exceeds all power that might
impede that work, so that there is no
power in the devil, the world, sin, or
death which this power does not overcome
nor any impotency in believers
which this greatness of power will not
help and strengthen. There is no
more pregnant proof of God’s omnipotent
power than in converting sinners
from sin to holiness. 2. This mighty
power of God extends to all times. It
works in the first conversion of believers,
preserves them in a state of
grace, actuating their graces that they
may grow, and continues till their
graces are perfected. 3. The experimental
knowledge of God’s way of
working is to be carefully sought after,
to make us thankful for His gracious
working in us, in order that our knowledge
of God may be increased and our
faith and hope in Him strengthened.—Fergusson.
Ver. 20. The Future Life.
I. Our virtuous friends at death go
to Jesus Christ.—Here is one great fact
in regard to futurity. The good on
leaving us here meet their Saviour,
and this view alone assures us of their
unutterable happiness. The joys of
centuries will be crowded into that
meeting. This is not fiction. It is
truth founded on the essential laws of
the mind. Their intercourse with Jesus
Christ will be of the most affectionate
and ennobling character. They are
brought to a new comprehension of
His mind and to a new reception of His
Spirit. They will become joint workers—active,
efficient ministers—in accomplishing
His great work of spreading
virtue and happiness. They retain
the deepest interest in this world.
They love human nature as never
before, and human friends are prized
as above all price.
II. Our virtuous friends go not to
Jesus only, but to the great and blessed
society which is gathered round Him.—The
redeemed from all regions of
earth. They meet peculiar congratulations
from friends who had gone before
them to that better world, and especially
from all who had in any way
given aids to their virtue. If we have
ever known the enjoyments of friendship,
of entire confidence, of co-operation
in honourable and successful labours
with those we love, we can comprehend
something of the felicity of a world
where souls, refined from selfishness,
open as the day, thirsting for new
truth and virtue, endowed with new
power of enjoying the beauty and
grandeur of the universe, allied in the
noblest works of benevolence, and continually
discovering new mysteries of
the Creator’s power and goodness,
communicate themselves to one another
with the freedom of perfect love.
They enter on a state of action, life,
and effort. Still more, they go to God.
They see Him with a new light in all
His works. They see Him face to
face, by immediate communion. These
new relations of the ascended spirit to
the universal Father, how near, how
tender, how strong, how exalting!
Heaven is a glorious reality. Its
attraction should be felt perpetually.
They who are safely gathered there
say to us, “Come and join us in our
everlasting blessedness!”—Channing.
Vers. 21, 22. The Supremacy of
Jesus—
- Acquired by His resurrection
power.
- Places Him above the highest
created intelligences and potentates.
- Is expressed in a name that
surpasses in dignity and greatness
that which has ever been or can be
celebrated in earth or heaven.
- Gives Him absolute control over
all worlds.—“And hath put all things
under His feet” (ver. 22).
Vers. 22, 23. Christ the Head of the
Church.
- The Church depends on Him for
life, guidance, activity, and development.—“Which
is His body” (ver. 23).
-
He governs all things in the
interest of His Church.—“And gave
Him to be the Head over all things to
the Church” (ver. 22).
- The Church is a revelation of
the greatness and glory of Christ.—“The
fulness of Him that filleth all in
all” (ver. 23).
Ver. 22. The Headship of Christ.
- The extent of His headship.—1. Over
all worlds. 2. Over the whole
human race. 3. Over the Church.
- The subserviency of its administration
to the interests of His Church.—1. For
the edification of His
Church. 2. For its defence. 3. For
its increase.
- Its grounds.—1. His merit.
2. His qualifications. Whom do ye
serve?—G. Brooks.
The Headship of Christ.—The verse
consists of two statements:—
I. That Christ is Head over all
things.—The Father hath given Christ
to be Head over all things. 1. Originally
involved in a covenant or
agreement between the Father and
the Son. 2. Now a matter of history.
3. The path of Christ to the mediatorial
throne capable of being traced.
4. He there laid deep the foundations.
5. The whole universe is under His
sway—heaven, earth, hell, all worlds,
all elements. 6. He is qualified for
such dominion—Divine attributes,
angelic spirits, believers, the devil and
wicked men, the Holy Spirit.
II. That Christ is Head over all
things, to the Church.—Christ sits
upon the throne in the same character
in which He trod the earth and hung
upon the cross. 1. It is as Mediator.
2. The same ends which He contemplated.
It was for the Church He
clothed Himself in human form.
3. He gives a peculiar character to
the entire Divine government. He
Christianises it. 4. He employs all
His attributes, resources, creatures.
Lessons.—1. Redemption is a wide
and extended plan, not so easily accomplished,
not so limited. 2. All creatures
and dominions should do Christ homage.
3. The Church is secure from real danger.
4. Believers may well glory in Christ as
their Head.—Stewart.
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.
Ver. 1. And you did He quicken.—The italics in A.V. and R.V. show a broken construction
of St. Paul’s meaning, the verb being supplied from ver. 5, where the broken thread
is taken up again. Dead in trespasses and sins.—“Dead through,” etc. (R.V.). “What
did they die of?” it might be asked; and the apostle answers, “Of trespasses and sins”
(so Alford). “The word for trespasses is one of a mournfully numerous group of words”
(Trench). It has sometimes the milder meaning of “faults,” “mitigating circumstances”
being considered. It makes special reference “to the subjective passivity and suffering of
him who misses or falls short of the enjoined command” (Cremer). Meyer denies any “real
distinction between the words for ‘trespasses’ and ‘sins.’ They denote the same thing as a
‘fall’ and a ‘missing.’ ”
Ver. 2. “Shadows,” says Meyer, “before the light which arises in ver. 4.” Wherein in
time past ye walked.—It is a sombre picture—men walking about “to find themselves dishonourable
graves” in the “valley of the shadow of death,” knowing not whither they
go because the darkness—the gloom of spiritual death—“hath blinded their eyes”
(1 John ii. 11). According to the course of this world.—Well translated by our modern
“zeit-geist,” or “spirit of the age.” The prince of the power of the air.—However contemptuous
St. Paul may be of the creations of the Gnostic fancy, he never dreams of saying
there is nothing existent unless it can be seen and felt. The dark realm and its ruler are
not myths to the apostle.
Ver. 3. Among whom also we all had our conversation.—St. Paul does not glorify
himself at the expense of his readers’ past life. True his had not been a life swayed by
animal delights (Acts xxvi. 5), but it had been marked by implacable enmity to the Son of
God. And were by nature children of wrath.—“For the wrath of God is revealed from
heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, . . . whether it be Jewish or
Gentile.”
Ver. 4. But God, who is rich in mercy.—“Unto all that call upon Him” (Rom. x. 12).
“He hath shut all up into disobedience, that He might have mercy upon all” (Rom. xi. 32),
For His great love wherewith He loved us.—“A combination only used when the notion
of the verb is to be extended” (Winer).
Ver. 5. Even when we were dead in sins.—The phrase which closes ver. 3, difficult as it
is, must receive an interpretation in harmony with this statement. It is the very marrow of
the Gospel that, “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly.” That the wrath
of God is real we know, but “God is love.” By grace ye are saved.—“Grace” is as truly
characteristic of St. Paul’s writing as his autograph signature; it, too, is the token (“sign-manual”)
in every epistle (2 Thess. iii. 17, 18).
Ver. 6. In heavenly places.—As in ch. i. 3.
Ver. 7. The exceeding riches of His grace.—The wealth of mercy mentioned in ver. 4
more fully stated. Grace is condescension to an inferior or kindness to the undeserving.
In kindness toward us.—“Kindness” here represents in the original “a beautiful word,
as it is the expression of a beautiful grace” (Trench). It is that “fruit of the Spirit”
(Gal. v. 22) called “gentleness” in the A.V., but which would be better named “benignity.”
Ver. 8. For by grace are ye saved, through faith.—“ ‘By grace’ expresses the motive,
‘through faith’ the subjective means” (Winer). The emphasis is on “by grace.”
Ver. 9. Not of works, lest any man should boast.—The more beautiful the works
achieved the more natural it is for a man to feel his works to be meritorious. One can
understand that a man jealous for the honour of God, like Calvin, should speak of the
excellencies of those out of Christ as “splendid vices,” even though we prefer another
explanation of them.
Ver. 10. For we are His workmanship.—We get our word “poem” from that which we
here translate workmanship, lit., “something made.” Every Christian belongs to those of
whom God says, “This people have I formed for Myself, that they should show forth My
praise” (Isa. xliii. 21). The archetype of all our goodness lies in the Divine thought, as the
slow uprising of a stately cathedral is the embodiment of the conception of the architect’s
brain.
Ver. 11. Wherefore remember, that ye, etc.—All that follows in the verse serves to
define the “ye,” the verb following in ver. 12 after the repeated “ye”—“ye were without
Christ.” “Called Uncircumcision . . . called the Circumcision.” As much rancour lies in
these words as generally is carried by terms of arrogance on the part of those only nominally
religious, and the scornful epithets flung in return. They can be matched by our modern
use of “The world” and “Other-worldliness.”
Ver. 12. Without Christ.—Not so much “not in possession of Christ” as “outside
Christ,” or, as in R.V., “separate from Christ.” The true commentary is John xv. 4, 5. The
branch “severed from” the trunk by knife or storm bears no fruit thenceforth; disciples
“apart from Christ can do nothing.” Being aliens from the commonwealth.—What
memories might start at this word! Did St. Paul think of the separation from the Jewish
synagogue in Ephesus or of the fanatical outburst created in Jerusalem when “the Jews
from Asia” saw Trophimus the Ephesian in company with the apostle? To such Jews the
Gentiles were nothing but massa perditionis. Like vers. 2, 3, this is a reminder of the dark
past, the misery of which did not consist in a Jewish taunt so much as in a life of heathenish
vices. Having no hope, and without God in the world.—To be godless—not sure that
there is any God—this is to take the “master-light of all our seeing” from us; to live
regardless of Him, or wishing there were no God—“that way madness lies.” To be “God-forsaken”
with a house full of idols—that is the irony of idolatrous heathenism.
Ver. 13. Ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh.—The Gentile may sing his hymn
in Jewish words: “Doubtless Thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us,
and Israel acknowledge us not: Thou, O Lord, art our Father, our Redeemer; from everlasting
is Thy name.” “Lo-ammi” (“not My people”) is no longer their name (Hos. ii. 23;
Rom. ix. 24, 25).
Ver. 14. For He is our peace, who hath made both one.—“Not the Peacemaker merely,
for indeed at His own great cost He procured peace, and is Himself the bond of union of
both” (Jew and Gentile). The middle wall of partition.—M. Ganneau, the discoverer of
the Moabite Stone, found built into the wall of a ruined Moslem convent a stone, believed
to be from the Temple, with this inscription: “No stranger-born (non-Jew) may enter
within the circuit of the barrier and enclosure that is around the sacred court; and whoever
shall be caught [intruding] there, upon himself be the blame of the death that will consequently
follow.” Josephus describes this fence and its warning inscription (Wars of the
Jews, Bk. V., ch. v., § 2). It is rather the spirit of exclusiveness which Christ threw down.
The stone wall Titus threw down and made all a common field, afterwards.
Ver. 15. Having abolished in His flesh the enmity.—The enmity of Jew and Gentile; the
abolition of their enmity to God is mentioned later. “First be reconciled to thy brother,
and then come and offer thy gift,” for reconciliation to God. The law of commandments
contained in ordinances.—The slave whose duty it was to take the child to his teacher
might say, “Don’t do that.” St. Paul does not regard the function of the law as more than
that (Gal. iii. 23–25). One new man.—Trench, in an admirable section, distinguishes
between the new in time (recens) and the new in quality (novum). The word here means
new in quality, “as set over against that which has seen service, the outworn.” “It is not
an amalgam of Jew and Gentile” (Meyer).
Ver. 16. That He might reconcile both unto God.—The word “reconcile” implies “a
restitution to a state from which they had fallen, or which was potentially theirs, or for
which they were destined” (Lightfoot, Col. i. 20). The cross having slain the enmity.—Gentile
authority and Jewish malevolence met in the sentence to that painful death; and
both Gentile and Jew, acknowledging the Son of God, shall cease their strife, and love as
brethren.
Ver. 17. Came and preached peace.—By means of His messengers, as St. Paul tells the
Galatians that Christ was “evidently set forth crucified amongst them.” To you afar off,
and to them that were nigh.—Isaiah’s phrase (Isa. lvii. 19). The Christ uplifted “out of the
earth” draws all men to Him.
Ver. 18. For through Him we both have access.—St. Paul’s way of proclaiming His
Master’s saying, “I am the door; by Me if any man enter in he shall be saved”; including
the other equally precious, “I am the way: no man cometh unto the Father but by Me.”
“Access” here means “introduction.”
Ver. 19. So then.—Inference of vers. 14–18. Strangers and foreigners.—By the latter
word is meant those who temporarily abide in a place, but are without the privileges of
it. There is a verb “to parish” in certain parts of England which shows how a word can
entirely reverse its original meaning. It not only means “to adjoin,” but “to belong to.”
Fellow-citizens with the saints.—Enjoying all civic liberties, and able to say, “This is
my own, my native land,” when he finds “Mount Zion and the city of the living God”
(cf. Heb. xi. 13, 14). And of the household of God.—The association grows more intimate.
The words might possibly mean “domestics of God” (Rev. xxii. 3, 4); but when we think of
the “Father’s house” we must interpret “of the family circle of God.”
Ver. 20. Being built upon the foundation.—From the future of a household St. Paul
passes easily to the structure, based on “the Church’s One Foundation.” The chief corner-stone.—“The
historic Christ, to whom all Christian belief and life have reference, as necessarily
conditions through Himself the existence and endurance of each Christian commonwealth,
as the existence and steadiness of a building are dependent on the indispensable cornerstone,
which upholds the whole structure” (Meyer). The difference between our passage
and 1 Cor. iii. 11 is one of figure only.
Ver. 21. All the building.—R.V. “each several building.” Fitly-framed-together.—One
word in the original, found again only in ch. iv. 16 in this form.
Ver. 22. For a habitation.—The word so translated is found again only in Rev. xviii. 2,
a sharp contrast to this verse.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 1–3.
The Children of Wrath—
I. Are spiritually dead.—“Who were dead in trespasses and sins” (ver. 1).
The only life of which they are conscious, and in which all their activities are
displayed, is a life of sin. They have no conception of a higher life. They are
capable of a higher life and know it not. The spiritual, the higher form of life,
is entombed and buried under a mass of sin. It is inert, dead, in process of
corruption. Dante refers to such as, “These wretched ones who never were
alive; I ne’er forsooth could have believed it true, that death had slain such
myriads of mankind.” Sin first benumbs, then paralyses, and finally slays our
spiritual sensibilities. The soul dead to God shall not be insensible to the reality
of the Divine wrath.
II. Are under the spell of an unseen evil power (ver. 2).—“The children of
disobedience” are those who are withholding their allegiance from the Lord
Jesus Christ, all those who are unconverted; not mere gross sinners and open
profligates, but such persons as are strangers to the spiritual life, although they
may have many excellencies of nature and disposition. The apostle plainly
asserts that before he was brought to the knowledge of Christ he was under the
influence of the “prince of the power of the air.” This is a startling statement.
It is more startling still if we consider what sort of man Paul was before his
conversion—how excellent, how earnest, how devoted to the external duties of a
religious life. But startling as it is, it is the apostle who makes it of himself;
and the inference is unavoidable, that all that mass of persons who are out of
Christ and who are not partakers of His resurrection life, who have given their
hearts to the world and not to the Saviour, are just the captives of Satan,
and, without knowing it, are doing his lusts and accomplishing his will. The
disease is not less deadly because it eats out the life without inflicting pain.
The pestilence is not the less awful because it comes without giving notice of
its presence, borne on the balmy breezes of the bright, cloudless, summer eve.
The vampire does not do its work the less effectually because it fans its victim
with its perfumed wings into an unconscious slumber whilst it drains away his
life-blood and leaves him a corpse. And Satan is not the less real or the less
destructive because he works his fatal work upon our souls without our even
being conscious of his approach.
III. Are prompted to sin by the instincts of a depraved nature (ver. 3).—There
is the twofold province of a man’s being, by the lower of which he is allied
to the brute creation, and by the higher to the angels, both being under the
dominion of sin. There is the corrupt body of flesh, and in a higher sense there
is the fleshly mind. Every unregenerate person lives more or less in one or the
other of these provinces—either in the sphere of fleshly lusts or in the sphere of
the fleshly mind. Either he lives simply an animal life, and is in consequence a
fleshly man, whose life consists only in fulfilling the desires of his lower nature;
or he lives in the higher province of the mind, but it is nevertheless the mind in
darkness, in uncertainty, in doubt—mind and heart alike alienated from God
through the unbelief which is in them. It would not do to argue from this that
our passions are our sins. Sin is not in appetite but lies in the insubordination
of appetite. There is need of a curbing and governing will, and our discipline
consists in subjugating the lower to the higher. A due balance between the two
regions must be preserved, and it is when passion becomes master and the lower
invades the province of the higher, when the subordinate becomes insubordinate,
that appetite and passion become sin. The flesh is the great rival of the Spirit,
for it asserts that dominion over a man which the Holy Spirit alone ought to
occupy, and these two are constantly opposed to each other. The depravity
within, working in the thoughts of the mind and the passions of the flesh, prompts
to a course of disobedience and sin.
IV. Are exposed to condemnation.—“And were by nature the children of
wrath, even as others.” “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all
unrighteousness and ungodliness of men.” The apostle shows that even the Jews,
who boasted of their birth from Abraham, were by natural birth equally children
of wrath, as the Gentiles whom the Jews despised on account of their birth from
idolaters. The phrase “children of wrath” is a Hebraism, meaning we are
objects of God’s wrath from childhood, in our natural state, as being born in sin,
which God hates. Wrath abides on all who disobey the Gospel in faith and
practice.
Lessons.—1. Sin when it is finished bringeth forth death. 2. Your adversary
the devil walketh about seeking whom he may devour. 3. Because there is wrath,
beware!
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Ver. 1. A State of Sin a State of
Death.
I. There are some respects in which
the death of the soul does not resemble
the death of the body.—1. It does not
involve the extinction of faculties and
affections. The dead body moves not,
nor feels, nor acts. The dead soul still
thinks and feels and wills. 2. It does
not exempt from responsibility. The
dead soul is commanded to repent and
believe and obey. 3. It is not incapable
of restoration on earth. The
spiritually dead may become spiritually
alive here.
II. There are some respects in which
the death of the soul does resemble
the death of the body.—1. In its cause.
Sin. 2. In its extent. All men without
exception. 3. In its consequences.
The dead are utterly insensible, they
fulfil none of the functions or duties of
the living, they can be reanimated only
by Divine power. Address: (1) Those
who are spiritually dead. (2) Those
who have reason to believe that they
are spiritually alive.—G. Brooks.
Vers. 1–3. The State of Men without
the Gospel.
I. The moral state of wicked men
resembles a state of natural death
(ver. 1).—From the metaphor used in
the text we are not to conclude that all
sinners are alike, for though all are in
a sense dead some are under a greater
death than others. The metaphor is
usually applied to sinners of the most
vicious character. When we speak of
human nature as totally depraved we
mean only a total destitution of real
holiness, not the highest possible degree
of vitiosity. In order to denominate
one a sinner it is not necessary that he
should be as bad as possible. Though
natural death does not, yet spiritual
death does, admit of degrees. Evil men
wax worse and worse, add sin to sin, and
treasure up wrath against the day of
wrath.
1. Sinners may be said to be dead in
respect of their stupidity.—We read of
some who are past feeling, whose conscience
is seared, who have eyes which
see not, ears which hear not, and a
heart which is waxed gross. Their
hearts are like a mortified limb which
feels no pain under the scarifying
knife.
2. They are represented as wanting
spiritual senses.—They savour the
things of the world, not the things
which are of God. They indeed love
the effects of God’s goodness to them,
but they delight not in His character
as a holy, just, and faithful Being.
They may feel a natural pleasure in
certain mechanical emotions of the
passions excited by objects presented to
the sight, or by sounds which strike
the ear, as the artificial tears from the
image of the Virgin Mary will melt
down an assembly of Catholics, or as
a concert of musical instruments will
rapture the hearers; but they relish
not the Word and ordinances of God,
considered as means of holiness and as
designed to convince them of their sins
and bring them to repentance. If the
Word dispensed comes home to their
conscience, they are offended. They
lose the music of the pleasant song and
talk against it by the walls and in the
doors of their houses.
3. They resemble the dead in the want
of vital warmth.—If they have any
fervour in religion, it is about the forms
and externals of it, or about some
favourite sentiments which they find
adapted to soothe their consciences, not
about those things in which the power
of religion consists. As death deforms
the body, so sin destroys the beauty of
the soul. It darkens the reason, perverts
the judgment, and disorders the
affections. To be carnally-minded is
death.
4. They may be denominated dead as
they are worthy of and exposed to punishment.—This
is called death because it
is the separation of the soul from God
and heaven, from happiness and hope,
from all good and unto all evil. This
is a death which awaits the impenitent.
II. There is in ungodly men a
general disposition to follow the way
of the world.—“According to the
course of this world” (ver. 2). They,
like dead carcases, swam down the
stream of common custom, and were
carried away with the general current
of vice and corruption.
1. Most men have a general idea that
religion is of some importance.—Few
can wholly suppress it, or reason themselves
out of it. But what religion is
and wherein it consists they seldom
inquire, and never examine with any
degree of attention. Such opinions as
flatter their ungodly lusts, or pacify
their guilty consciences, they warmly
embrace. That scheme of doctrine
which will make converts without
exacting reformation, and give assurance
without putting them to much
trouble, they highly approve. The
path which will lead men to heaven
with little self-denial they readily
pursue.
2. There are many who blindly follow
the examples of the world.—Whether
such a practice is right or wrong they
take little pains to examine. It is
enough that they see many who adopt
it. They would rather incur the
censure of their own minds and the
displeasure of their God than stand
distinguished by a singularity in virtue.
III. They are under the influence of
evil spirits.—“According to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that
worketh in the children of disobedience”
(ver. 2). The number of evil spirits is
very great, but there is one distinguished
from the rest, and called the devil,
Satan, the prince of the power of the
air. The manner in which he works
in the minds of men is by gaining
access to their passions and lusts, which
he inflames by suggesting evil thoughts
or by painting images on the fancy.
It was by the avarice of Judas and
Ananias that he entered into them and
filled their hearts.
IV. The wickedness of men consists
not merely in their evil works, but in
the corrupt dispositions which prompt
them to those works.—“The lusts of
our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the
flesh and of the mind” (ver. 3). The
lusts of the flesh are the vices of
sensuality, as intemperance, uncleanness,
debauchery, and excess of riot.
The desires of the fleshly mind are the
lusts which arise from the corruption of
the mind in its connection with flesh,
as pride, malice, envy, wrath, hatred,
ambition, and covetousness. Though no
man indulges every vice, yet every unregenerate
man obeys the carnal mind.
V. The indulgence of carnal lusts
and passions brings on men the wrath
of God.—“The children of wrath”
(ver. 3). A mind sunk in carnality
is incapable of rational felicity; it is
miserable in itself and from its own
corruption and perverseness. If man
subjects his nature to the lusts and
passions, the order of nature is inverted,
the law of creation violated, and the
Creator dishonoured and offended.
Lessons.—1. If you have not abandoned
yourselves to the grossest forms of
vice, it is because you have been placed
under superior light and enjoyed a
happier education than the heathen.
2. Though you may not have indulged
all the lusts and vices which others have
done, yet if you are children of disobedience
you can no more be saved
without renovation of heart and repentance
of sin than they can.—Lathrop.
Ver. 3. The State of Nature.
I. If by human nature you mean
nature as seen in this man or that, then
unquestionably nature is evil—individual
nature, personal nature, is contrary
to God’s will. But if by human nature
you mean nature as God made it, as it
has been once in one man of our species
and only one, and as by God’s grace it
shall be again; if you mean nature as it
is according to the idea of the Creator
as shown in Jesus Christ, as it is in the
eyes of God imputed not as it is but as
it shall be,—then that nature is a noble
thing, a thing Divine; for the life of the
Redeemer Himself, what was it but
the one true exhibition of our human
nature?
II. Paul says that by nature we
fulfil the desires of the flesh and of the
mind.—I pray you to observe that it is
the second and not in the first sense
that he here speaks of nature. The
desires of the flesh mean the appetites;
those of the mind mean the passions:
to fulfil the desires of the flesh is to
live the life of the swine; to fulfil those
of the mind is to live the life of the
devil. But this is the partiality, not
the entireness, of human nature.
Where is the conscience, where the
Spirit with which we have communion
with God? To live to the flesh and to
the mind is not to live to the nature
that God gave us. We can no more
call that living to our nature than we
can say that a watch going by the
mere force of the main-spring without
a regulator is fulfilling the nature of a
watch. To fulfil the desires of the
flesh and of the mind is no more to
fulfil the nature which God has given
us than the soil fulfils its nature
when it brings forth thorns and briars.
St. Paul, in the epistle to the Romans,
draws a distinction between himself
and his false nature: “It is not I, but
sin that dwelleth in me.” Sin is the
dominion of a false nature; it is a
usurped dominion.
III. The next thing that Paul tells
us is that by nature we are children of
wrath.—In the state of nature we are
in the way to bear the wrath of God.
Yet God is not wrath; He is infinite
love. The eternal severity of His nature
does not feel our passions, He remains
for ever calm; yet such is our nature
that we must think of Him as wrath
as well as love: to us love itself becomes
wrath when we are in a state of sin.
God must hate sin and be forever sin’s
enemy. If we sin He must be against
us: in sinning we identify ourselves
with evil, therefore we must endure the
consuming fire. So long as there is
evil, so long will there be penalty.
Sin, live according to the lusts of the
flesh, and you will become the children
of God’s wrath; live after the Spirit,
the higher nature that is in you, and
then the law hath hold on you no
longer.—F. W. Robertson.
The Worst of Evils.
I. By nature all are the children
of wrath.—1. Because we want
that original righteousness in which
we were created, and which is required
to the purity and perfection
of our nature. 2. Because all
the parts and powers of our soul
and body are depraved with original
corruption. Our understandings are
so bad that they understand not their
own badness, our wills which are the
queens of our souls become the vassals
of sin, our memories like jet good only
to draw straws and treasure up trifles
of no moment, our consciences through
errors in our understandings sometimes
accusing us when we are innocent,
sometimes acquitting us when we are
guilty, our affections all disaffected and
out of order. 3. Some may expect
that as the master of the feast said to
him that wanted the wedding garment,
“Friend, how camest thou in hither?” so
I should demand of original sin, “Foe,
and worst of foes, how camest thou in
hither, and by what invisible leaks didst
thou soak into our souls?” But I
desire, if it be possible, to present you
this day a rose without prickles, to
declare plain and positive doctrine
without thorny disputes or curious
speculations, lest, as Abraham’s ram
was caught in the thicket, so I embroil
you and myself in difficult controversies.
Let us not busy our brains so
much to know how original sin came
into us, as labour in our heart to know
how it should be got out of us. But
the worst is, most men are sick of the
rickets in the soul, their heads swell to
a vast proportion, puffed up with the
emptiness of airy speculations, whilst
their legs and lower parts do waste
and consume, their practical parts
decay, none more lazy to serve God in
their lives and conversations.
Transcriber’s Note: Baptism is not a sacrament that confers salvation.
It is an ordinance that serves as a public statement that salvation
has already taken place. Parents are to raise their children
in the “nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Eph. vi. 4).
II. Ye parents to children, see how,
though against your wills, ye have
propagated this wrath-deserving on
your children unto your children; you
are bound, both in honour and honesty,
civility and Christianity, to pluck them
out of this pit. 1. This you may do
by embracing the speediest opportunity
to fasten the sacrament of baptism
upon them. 2. Let them not want
good prayers, which if steeped in tears
will grow the better, good precepts,
good precedents, and show thy child in
thyself what he should follow, in others
what he should shun and avoid. 3. In
the low countries, where their houses
lie buried in the ground, the laying of
the foundation is counted as much as
the rest of the foundation; so half our
badness lies secret and unseen, consisting
in original corruption, whereof
too few take notice. Witches, they
say, say the Lord’s Prayer backward;
but concupiscence, this witch in our
soul, says all the commandments backward,
and makes us cross in our practice
what God commands in His
precepts. Thus every day we sin, and
sorrow after our sin, and sin after our
sorrow. The wind of God’s Spirit
bloweth us one way, and the tide of
our corruption hurrieth us another.
These things he that seeth not in
himself is sottish, blind; he that seeth
and confesseth not is damnably proud;
he that confesseth and bewaileth not
is desperately profane; he that bewaileth
and fighteth not against it is
unprofitably pensive; but he that in
some weak manner doeth all these is
a saint in reversion here, and shall
be one in possession hereafter.—T. Fuller.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 4–9.
Salvation an Act of Divine Grace.
I. Springing from the benevolence of God (vers. 4, 7).—A good old saint once
said, “There is nothing that affects me more profoundly, or more quickly melts my
heart, than to reflect on the goodness of God. It is so vast, so deep, so amazing,
so unlike and beyond the most perfect human disposition, that my soul is overwhelmed.”
The apostle seems to have been similarly affected as he contemplated
the Divine beneficence, as the phrases he here employs indicate. He calls it “the
great love wherewith He loved us.” God is “rich in mercy”—in irrepressible,
unmerited compassion (ver. 4). Language is too poor to express all he sees and
feels, and he takes refuge in the ambiguous yet suggestive expression, “The
exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Jesus Christ”
(ver. 7)—hinting at the sublime benignity of the Divine nature longing to express
itself through the noblest medium possible. By his rebellion and deliberate sin
man had forfeited all claim to the Divine favour, and his restoration to that
favour, impossible of attainment by any efforts of his own, was an act of sheer
Divine goodness. Its spontaneity breaks in as a sweet surprise upon the sinning
race. The most vicious and abandoned are included in its gracious provisions,
and all men are taught that their salvation, if accomplished at all, must be as an
act of free and undeserved grace.
II. Salvation has its life and fellowship in Christ (vers. 5, 6).—God has given
us as unquestioned a resurrection from the death of sin as the body of Christ had
from the grave, and the same Divine power achieved both the one and the other.
The spiritual life of both Jew and Gentile has its origin in Christ, and the axe is
thus laid to the very root of spiritual pride and all glorying in ourselves. We
are raised by His resurrection power to sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
This we do already by our spiritual fellowship with Him, and by anticipation we
share the blessedness which we shall more fully enjoy by our union with Him in
the heavenly world. The spiritual resurrection of the soul must precede and
will be the inviolable guarantee of the future glorious resurrection of the body.
As the great Head of the Church is already in the heavenlies, so ultimately all
the members that make up the body shall be gathered there. We are already
seated there in Him as our Head, which is the ground of our hope; and we shall
be hereafter seated there by Him, as the conferring cause, when hope shall be
swallowed up in fruition. Our life and fellowship in Christ are susceptible of
indefinite expansion and enjoyment in the progressive evolutions of the future.
III. Faith, the instrument of salvation, is the gift of Divine grace (ver. 8).—The
question whether faith or salvation is the gift of God is decided by the
majority of critics in favour of the former. This agrees with the obvious argument
of the apostle, that salvation is so absolutely an act of Divine grace that
the power to realise it individually is also a free gift. Grace, without any respect
to human worthiness, confers the glorious gift. Faith, with an empty hand and
without any pretence to personal desert, receives the heavenly blessing. Without
the grace or power to believe, no man ever did or can believe; but with that
power the act of faith is a man’s own. God never believes for any man, no more
than He repents for him. The penitent, through this grace enabling him,
believes for himself; nor does he believe necessarily or impulsively when he has
that power. The power to believe may be present long before it is exercised,
else why the solemn warnings which we meet everywhere in the Word of God and
threatenings against those who do not believe? This is the true state of the case:
God gives the power, man uses the power thus given, and brings glory to God.
Without the power no man can believe; with it any man may.
IV. Salvation, being unmeritorious, excludes all human boasting.—“Not of
works, lest any man should boast” (ver. 9). Neither salvation nor the faith
that brings it is the result of human ingenuity and effort. The grand moral
results brought about by saving faith are so extraordinary, and so high above the
plane of the loftiest and most gigantic human endeavours, that if man could
produce them by his own unaided powers he would have cause indeed for the most
extravagant boasting, and he would be in danger of generating a pride which in
its uncontrollable excess would work for his irretrievable ruin. The least shadow of
a ground for pride is however excluded. God protects both Himself and man by
the freeness and simplicity of the offer of salvation. It is the complaint of
intellectual pride that the reception of the Gospel is impossible because it
demands a humiliation and self-emptying that degrade and shackle intellectual
freedom. Such an objection is a libel on the Gospel. It humbles in order to
exalt; it binds its claims upon us to lift us to a higher freedom. So completely
is salvation a Divine act, that the man who refuses to accept it on God’s terms
must perish. There is no other way.
V. The glory of Divine grace in salvation will be increasingly demonstrated
in the future.—“That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches
of his grace” (ver. 7). The most valuable function of history is not that which
deals with the rise and fall of empires, the brutal ravages of war, the biographies
of kings, statesmen, and philosophers, but that which treats upon the social and
moral condition of the people and the influence of religion in the development
of individual and national character. The true history of the world is the history
of God’s dealings with it. The ages of the past have been a revelation of God;
the ages to come will be an enlargement of that revelation, and its most conspicuous
feature will be an ever-new development of the riches of Divine grace in
the redemption of the human race. In all successive ages of the world we are
authorised to declare that sinners shall be saved only as they repent of their sins
and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Lessons.—Salvation—1. Is a revelation of what God does for man. 2. Is
absolutely necessary for each. 3. Should be earnestly sought by all.
GERM NOTES OF THE VERSES.
Vers. 4–7. The Great Change effected
in Man by the Gospel.
I. The happy change which the
Gospel made in the Ephesians.—A
change not peculiar to them, but
common to all sincere believers.
1. God hath quickened us.—Made us
alive with Christ. (1) True Christians
are alive; they have spiritual senses
and appetites. (2) Spiritual motions.
(3) Spiritual pleasures. (4) Spiritual
powers. The spiritual life comes
through Christ and is conformed to
Him.
2. God hath raised us up together
with Christ (ver. 6).—His resurrection
is a proof and pattern of that of
believers.
3. God hath made us to sit together in
heavenly places in Christ.—His entrance
into heaven is a proof of the final
salvation of believers. He sits there
for them, to take care of their interests,
and in due time will bring them to sit
where He is.
II. Contemplate the mercy of God
in this great change.—“God, who is
rich in mercy” (ver. 4). The mercies
of God are rich in extent, in number,
in respect of constancy, in variety, in
value. “The great love wherewith
He loved us.” He first loved us. His
love shines brighter when we consider
what a being He is. He is infinitely
above us. He is self-sufficient. The
Gospel gives us the most exalted conceptions
of God’s character.
III. The general purpose of God’s
particular mercy to the Ephesians
(ver. 7).—God’s mercy in reclaiming
one transgressor may operate to the
salvation of thousands in ages to come.
The Gospel dispensation was intended
to serve some useful purposes among
other intelligences. Not only God’s
gracious dispensation to fallen men,
but also His righteous severity toward
irreclaimable offenders, is designed for
extensive beneficial influence.—Lathrop.
Vers. 4, 5. The State of Grace.
1. Salvation originates in the love of
God.
2. That it consists in emancipation
from evil.—“Quickened us together
with Christ;” that is, gave life. The
love and mercy of God were shown in
this—not that He saved from penalty,
but from sin. What we want is life,
more life, spiritual life, to know in all
things the truth of God, and to speak
it, to feel in all things the will of God
and do it.
3. The next word to explain is grace.—It
stands opposed to nature and to
law. Whenever nature means the
dominion of our lower appetites, then
nature stands opposed to grace. Grace
stands opposed to law. All that law
can do is to manifest sin, just as the
dam thrown across the river shows its
strength; law can arrest sometimes
the commission of sin, but never the
inward principle. Therefore, God has
provided another remedy, “Sin shall
not have dominion over you,” because
ye are under grace.
4. Paul states salvation here as a fact.—“By
grace ye are saved.” There are
two systems. The one begins with
nature, the other with grace: the one
treats all Christians as if they were
the children of the devil, and tells them
that they may perhaps become the
children of God; the other declares
that the incarnation of Christ is a fact,
a universal fact, proclaiming that all
the world are called to be the children
of the Most High. Let us believe in
grace instead of beginning with nature.—F. W. Robertson.
Vers. 4–6. The Believer exalted together
with Jesus Christ.
I. The believer is assured he is
raised up with Christ by the proofs
which assure him of the exaltation of
Christ.—These proofs, irresistible as
they are, do not produce impressions
so lively as they ought. 1. From the
abuse of a distinction between mathematical
evidence and moral evidence.
2. Because the mind is under the influence
of a prejudice, unworthy of a
real philosopher, that moral evidence
changes its nature according to the
nature of the things to which it is
applied. 3. Because the necessary discrimination
has not been employed in
the selection of those proofs on which
some have pretended to establish it.
4. Because we are too deeply affected
by our inability to resolve certain
questions which the enemies of religion
are accustomed to put on some circumstances
relative to that event.
5. Because we suffer ourselves to be
intimidated more than we ought by
the comparison instituted between them
and certain popular rumours which have
no better support than the caprice of
the persons who propagate them.
6. Because they are not sufficiently
known.
II. The means supplied to satisfy
the believer that he is fulfilling the
conditions under which he may
promise himself that he shall become
a partaker of Christ’s exaltation.—Though
this knowledge be difficult, it
is by no means impossible of attainment.
He employs two methods
principally to arrive at it: 1. He
studies his own heart; 2. He shrinks
not from the inspection of the eyes of
others.
III. The believer is raised up with
Christ by the foretastes which he
enjoys on earth of his participation in
the exaltation of Christ.—This experience
is realised by the believer.
1. When shutting the door of his closet
and excluding the world from his heart,
he is admitted to communion and
fellowship with Deity in retirement
and silence. 2. When Providence
calls him to undergo some severe trial.
3. When he has been enabled to make
some noble and generous sacrifice.
4. When celebrating the sacred mysteries
of redeeming love. 5. Finally,
in the hour of conflict with the king of
terrors.—Saurin.
Ver. 5. Justification by Faith.
I. We hold that we are justified by
faith, that is, by believing, and that
unless we are justified we cannot be
saved. Of all men whoever believed
this, those who gave us the Church
catechism believed it most strongly.
Believing really what they taught, they
believed that children were justified.
For if a child is not justified in being a
member of Christ, a child of God, and
an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven,
what is he justified in being? They
knew that the children could only keep
in this just, right, and proper state by
trusting in God and looking up to Him
daily in faith and love and obedience.
II. These old reformers were
practical men and took the practical
way.—They knew the old proverb,
“A man need not be a builder to live
in a house.” At least they acted on
it; and instead of trying to make the
children understand what faith was
made up of, they tried to make them
live in faith itself. Instead of puzzling
and fretting the children’s minds with
any of the controversies then going on
between Papists and Protestants, or
afterwards between Calvinists and
Arminians, they taught the children
simply about God, who He was, and
what He had done for them and all
mankind, that so they might learn to
love Him, look up to Him in faith, and
trust utterly to Him, and so remain
justified and right, saved and safe for
ever. By doing which they showed
that they knew more about faith and
about God than if they had written
books on books of doctrinal arguments.
III. The Church catechism, where
it is really and honestly taught, gives
the children an honest, frank, sober,
English temper of mind which no
other training I have seen gives.—I
warn you frankly that if you expect to
make the average of English children
good children on any other ground
than the Church catechism takes, you
will fail. If it be not enough for your
children to know all the articles of the
Apostles’ Creed, and on the strength
thereof to trust God utterly and so be
justified and saved, then they must go
elsewhere, for I have nothing more to
offer them, and trust in God that I
never shall have.—C. Kingsley.
Ver. 8. Salvation by Faith.
I. What faith it is through which
we are saved.—1. It is not barely the
faith of a heathen. 2. Nor is it the
faith of a devil, though this goes much
further than that of a heathen. 3. It
is not barely that the apostles had
while Christ was yet upon earth. 4. In
general it is faith in Christ: Christ
and God through Christ are the proper
objects of it. 5. It is not only an
assent to the whole Gospel of Christ,
but also a full reliance on the blood of
Christ, a trust in the merits of His
life, death, and resurrection, a recumbency
upon Him as our atonement
and our life, as given for us and living
in us, and in consequence hereof, a
closing with Him and cleaving to Him
as our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption, or, in one
word, our salvation.
II. What is the salvation which is
through faith?—1. It is a present
salvation. 2. A salvation from sin.
3. From the guilt of all past sin.
4. From fear. 5. From the power of
sin. 6. A salvation often expressed
in the word “justification,” which taken
in the largest sense implies a deliverance
from guilt and punishment by the
atonement of Christ actually applied
to the soul of the sinner now believing
on Him, and a deliverance from the
power of sin, through Christ formed in
his heart.
III. The importance of the doctrine.—Never
was the maintaining this
doctrine more seasonable than it is at
this day. Nothing but this can effectually
prevent the increase of the Romish
delusion among us. It is endless to
attack one by one all the errors of that
Church. But salvation by faith strikes
at the root, and all fall at once where
this is established.—Wesley.
Vers. 8, 9. Our Salvation is of
Grace.
I. Consider how we are saved
through faith.—1. Without faith we
cannot be saved. 2. All who have faith
will be saved.
II. What place and influence works
have in our salvation.—1. In what
sense our salvation is not of works.
(1) We are not saved by works considered
as a fulfilment of the original
law of nature. (2) We are not saved
by virtue of any works done before
faith in Christ, for none of these
are properly good. 2. There is a sense in
which good works are of absolute
necessity to salvation. (1) They are
necessary as being radically included
in that faith by which we are saved.
(2) A temper disposing us to good
works is a necessary qualification for
heaven. (3) Works are necessary as
evidences of our faith in Christ and of
our title to heaven. (4) Good works
essentially belong to religion. (5) Works
are necessary to adorn our professions
and honour our religion before men.
(6) By them we are to be judged in
the great day of the Lord.
III. The necessity of works does not
diminish the grace of God in our
salvation nor afford us any pretence
for boasting.—1. Humility essentially
belongs to the Christian temper. 2. The
mighty preparation God has made for
our recovery teaches that the human
race is of great importance in the scale
of rational beings and in the scheme
of God’s universal government. 3. It
infinitely concerns us to comply with
the proposals of the Gospel. 4. Let no
man flatter himself that he is in a state
of salvation as long as he lives in the
neglect of good works. 5. Let us be
careful that we mistake not the nature
of good works.—Lathrop.
Ver. 8. True Justifying Faith is not
of Ourselves.—It is through grace that
we believe in the grace of God. God’s
grace and love, the source; faith, the
instrument; both His gift. The origin
of our coming to Christ is of God.
Justifying faith, not human assent,
but a powerful, vivifying thing which
immediately works a change in the
man and makes him a new creature
and leads him to an entirely new and
altered mode of life and conduct.
Hence justifying faith is a Divine
work.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verse 10.
The Christian Life a Divine Creation.
I. The true Christian a specimen of the Divine handiwork.—“We are His
workmanship.” So far is man from being the author of his own salvation, or
from procuring salvation for the sake of any works of his own, that not only was
his first creation as a man the work of God, but his new spiritual creation is
wholly the result of Divine power. Man, in the marvellous mechanism of his
body, and in his unique mental and spiritual endowments, is the noblest work
of God. He is the lord and high priest of nature and has such dominion over
it as to be able to combine and utilise its forces. But the creation of the new
spiritual man in Christ Jesus is a far grander work, and a more perfect and
exalted specimen of the Divine handiwork. It is a nearer approach to a more
perfect image of the Divine character and perfections. As the best work of
the most gifted genius is a reflection of his loftiest powers, so the new spiritual
creation is a fuller revelation of the infinite resources of the Divine Worker.
II. The Christian life is eminently practical.—“Created in Christ Jesus for
good works” (R.V.). The apostle never calls the works of the law good works.
We are not saved by, but created unto, good works. Works do not justify, but
the justified man works, and thus demonstrates the reality of his new creation.
“I should have thought mowers very idle people,” said John Newton, “but they
work while they whet the scythe. Now devotedness to God, whether it mows
or whets the scythe, still goes on with the work. A Christian should never
plead spirituality for being a sloven; if he be but a shoe-cleaner, he should be
the best in the parish.”
III. The opportunities and motives for Christian usefulness are Divinely provided.—“Which
God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”
Every man has his daily work of body or mind appointed him. There is not
a moment without a duty. Each one has a vineyard; let him see that he till
it, and not say, “No man hath hired us.” “The situation,” says Carlyle,
“that has not its duty, its ideal, was never yet occupied by man. Yes, here in
this poor, miserable, hampered, despicable Actual wherein thou even now
standest, here or nowhere is thy ideal. Work it out therefrom, and working,
believe, live, and be free.” There is no romance in a minister’s proposing and
hoping to forward a great moral revolution on the earth, for the religion he is
appointed to preach was intended and is adapted to work deeply and widely and
to change the face of society. Christianity was not ushered into the world with
such a stupendous preparation, it was not foreshown through so many ages by
enraptured prophets, it was not proclaimed so joyfully through the songs of
angels, it was not preached by such holy lips and sealed by such precious blood,
to be only a pageant, a form, a sound, a show. Oh no! It has come from
heaven, with heaven’s life and power—come to make all things new, to make
the wilderness glad, and the desert blossom as the rose, to break the stony
heart, to set free the guilt-burdened and earth-bound spirit, and to present it
faultless before God’s glory with exceeding joy.
Lessons.—1. Christianity is not a creed, but a life. 2. The Christian life has a
manifest Divine origin. 3. The Christian life must be practically developed in
harmony with the Divine mind.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSE.
Ver. 10. Interruptions in our Work,
and the Way to deal with Them.—In
proportion to the seriousness with
which a Christian does his work will
be his sensitiveness to interruptions,
and this sensitiveness is apt to disturb
his peace. The remedy is a closer study
of the mind that was in Christ, as
that mind transpires in His recorded
conduct. The point in the life of our
Lord is the apparent want of what
may be called method or plan. His
good works were not in pursuance of
some scheme laid down by Himself,
but such as entered into God’s scheme
for Him, such as the Father had
prepared for Him to walk in.
I. Notice His discourses both in
their occasions and their contexture.—1. His
discourses often take their
rise from some object which is thrown
across His path in nature, from some
occurrence which takes place under His
eyes, or from some question which is
put to Him. 2. The contexture of
His discourses are not systematic in
the usual sense of the word. There is
the intellectual method, and the method
of a full mind and loving heart. The
only plan observable in our Lord’s discourses
is that of a loving heart pouring
itself out as occasion serves for the
edification of mankind.
II. Study the life of Christ.—The
absence of mere human plan, or rather
strict faithfulness to the plan of God
as hourly developed by the movements
of His providence, characterises the
life of our Lord even more than His discourses.
Illustrated from Matthew ix.
God has a plan of life for each one of
us, and occasions of doing or receiving
good are mapped out for each in His
eternal counsels. Little incidents, as
well as great crises of life, are under
the control of God’s providence. Events
have a voice for us if we will listen to it.
Let us view our interruptions as part
of God’s plan for us. We may receive
good, even when we cannot do good.
It is self-will which weds us to our
own plans and makes us resent interference
with them. In the providence
of God there seems to be entanglements,
perplexities, interruptions, confusions,
contradictions, without end; but you
may be sure there is one ruling thought,
one master-design, to which all these
are subordinate. Be not clamorous for
another or more dignified character
than that which is allotted to you. Be
it your sole aim to conspire with the
Author, and to subserve His grand and
wise conception. Thus shall you find
peace in submitting yourself to the
wisdom which is of God.—E. M. Goulburn.
The New Spiritual Creation.—God
has kindled in us a new spiritual life by
baptism and the influence of the Holy
Spirit connected therewith. He has
laid the foundation of recreating us
into His image. He has made us
other men in a far more essential sense
than it was once said to Saul—“Thou
shalt be turned into another man.”
What is the principal fruit and end of
this new creation? A living hope.
Its object is not only our future resurrection,
but the whole plenitude of the
salvation still to be revealed by Jesus
Christ, even until the new heavens
and the new earth shall appear. Birth
implies life; so is it with the hope of
believers, which is the very opposite of
the vain, lost, and powerless hope of the
worldly-minded. It is powerful, and
quickens the heart by comforting,
strengthening, and encouraging it, by
making it joyous and cheerful in God.
Its quickening influence enters even
into our physical life. Hope is not
only the fulfilment of the new life
created in regeneration, but also the
innermost kernel of the same.—Weiss.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 11, 12.
The Forlorn State of the Gentile World.
I. Outcast.—“Gentiles, . . . called Uncircumcision by that which is called the
Circumcision” (ver. 11). The circumcised Jew regarded himself as a special
favourite of Heaven, and superior to all other men. He hardly felt himself a
member of the human family. He was accustomed to speak of himself as chosen
of God, and as holy and clean; whilst the Gentiles were treated as sinners, dogs,
polluted, unclean, outcast, and God-abandoned. Between Jew and Gentile there
was constant hatred and antagonism, as there is now between the Church and
the world. On the one hand, the old religion, with its time-honoured teachings,
its ancient traditions, the Church of the Fathers, the guardian of revelation,
the depositary of the faith, the staunchness that tends to degenerate into
bigotry—here is the Jew. On the other hand, the intellectual searchings, the
political aspirations and mechanical contrivings—science, art, literature, commerce,
sociology, the liberty which threatens to luxuriate into licence—here is the
Gentile. Ever and again the old feud breaks out. Ever and again there is a
crack and a rent. The gulf widens, and disruption is threatened. The majority
is outside the circle of the Church.
II. Christless.—“That at that time ye were without Christ.” The promises
of a coming Deliverer were made to the Jews, and they were slow to see that
any other people had any right to the blessings of the Messiah, or that it was
their duty to instruct the world concerning Him. They drew a hard line between
the sons of Abraham and the dogs of Greeks. They erected a middle wall of
partition, thrusting out the Gentile into the outer court. Christ has broken
down the barrier. On the area thus cleared He has erected a larger, loftier,
holier temple, a universal brotherhood which acknowledges no preferences and
knows no distinctions. In Christ Jesus now there is neither Jew nor Greek, but
Christ is all and in all—a vivid contrast to the Christlessness of a former age.
III. Hopeless.—“Being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers
from the covenants of promise, having no hope” (ver. 12). Where there is no
promise there is no hope. Cut off from any knowledge of the promises revealed
to the Jews, the Gentiles were sinking into despair.
IV. Godless.—“Without God in the world.” With numberless deities the
Gentiles had no God. They had everything else, but this one thing they lacked—knowledge
of God their Father; and without this all their magnificent gifts
could not satisfy, could not save, them. Culture and civilisation, arts and
commerce, institutions and laws, no nation can afford to undervalue these; but
not only do all these things soon fade, but the people themselves fall into
corruption and decay, if the Breath of Life is wanting. As with nations, so is it
with individuals. Man cannot with impunity ignore or deny the Father of earth
and heaven.
Lessons.—1. Man left to himself inevitably degenerates. 2. When man
abandons God his case is desperate. 3. The rescue of man from utter ruin is an
act of Divine mercy.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 11, 12. The Condition of the
Ephesians before their Conversion descriptive
of the State of Sinners under
the Gospel.
I. They were in time past Gentiles
in the flesh.—He admonishes them
not to forget the dismal state of
heathenism out of which they had
been called, and often to reflect upon
it, that they might ever maintain a
sense of their unworthiness and awaken
thankful and admiring apprehensions
of that grace which had wrought in
them so glorious a change.
II. Reminds them of the contempt
with which they had been treated
by the Jews.—The Jews, instead of
improving the distinction of their circumcision
to gratitude and obedience,
perverted it to pride, self-confidence, and
contempt of mankind. They not only
excluded other nations from the benefit
of religious communion, but even denied
them the common offices of humanity.
One of their greatest objections to the
Gospel was that it offered salvation to
the Gentiles.
III. They were without Christ.—To
the Jews were chiefly confined the
discoveries which God made of a
Saviour to come. From them in their
captivities and dispersions the Gentiles
obtained the knowledge they had of
this glorious Person. This knowledge
was imperfect, mixed with error and
uncertainty, and at best extended
only to a few. The Gentiles, contemplating
the Messiah as a temporal
prince, regarded His appearing as a
calamity rather than a blessing.
IV. They were aliens from the
commonwealth of Israel.—To the forms
of worship instituted in the Mosaic law
none was admitted but Jews and
such as were proselyted to the Jewish
religion. All uncircumcised heathens
were excluded as aliens.
V. They were strangers from the
covenants of promise.—The discovery
of the covenants of promise until the
Saviour came was almost wholly confined
to the Jews. How unhappy was
the condition of the Gentile world in
the dark, benighted ages which preceded
the Gospel!
VI. They had no clear hope of
a future existence.—Many of them
scarcely believed or thought of a life
beyond this. They had no apprehension,
hardly the idea of a restoration
of the body. Those who believed
in a future state had but obscure and
some of them very absurd conceptions
of it. Still more ignorant were they
of the qualifications necessary for
happiness after death.
VII. They were atheists in a world
in which God was manifest.—The
heathens generally had some apprehension
of a Deity; but they were
without a knowledge of the one true
God and without a just idea of His
character. There are more atheists
in the world than profess themselves
such. Many who profess to know God
in works deny Him.—Lathrop.
Ver. 12. Hopeless and Godless.—The
soul that has no God has no hope.
The character of the God we love and
worship will determine the character
of our hope. 1. The heathen religion
was the seeking religion. Their search
arose out of a deeply felt want. They
felt the need of something they did
not possess; and the finest intellects
the world has ever known bravely and
anxiously devoted all their colossal
powers to the task of fathoming the
mysteries of life. The hope of discovery
buoyed them up and urged
them onwards; but their united endeavours
brought them only to the
borderland of the unseen and the
unknown, where they caught but
glimmerings of a truth that ever receded
into the great beyond. “The
world by wisdom knew not God,”
and therefore had no hope. 2. The
Hebrew religion was the hoping religion.
Favoured with a revelation
of the only true God, their hope
expanded with every advancing step
of the progressive revelation. Their
hope was based on faith, as all true
hope must be—faith in the promises
of God. They had the promise of a
Deliverer whose wisdom should excel
that of Moses and Solomon, and whose
power should surpass that of Joshua
and of his heroic successors in the
most brilliant period of their military
career; and, through the centuries of
prosperity and decline, of scattering
and captivity, and amid unparalleled
sufferings which would have extinguished
any other nation, hope fastened
and fed upon the promises till the true
Messiah came, whom St. Paul justly
described as “the Hope of Israel, the
Hope of the promise made of God unto
our fathers.” 3. The Christian religion
is the complement and perfection of all
previously existing systems; it is the
grand realisation of what the heathen
sought, and the Hebrew hoped for. It
is in Jesus we have the clearest, fullest,
and most authoritative revelation of
God, and it is in Him, and in Him
alone, that the loftiest hope of man
finds its restful and all-sufficient realisation.
The apostle Paul refers to
Jesus specifically as our Hope—“Our
Lord Jesus Christ, which is our Hope”
(1 Tim. i. 1). 4. In the light of
this great and indubitable truth the
words of our text may be clearly and
unmistakably interpreted, and they
assume a terrible significance. To be
without Christ is to be without God and
without hope. (1) Hope is not simply
expectation. We expect many things
we do not hope for. In the natural
course of things we expect difficulties,
we expect opposition and misrepresentation—“black
wounding calumny
the whitest virtue strikes”—we expect
infirmities and disabilities of age; but
we are none of us so fond of trouble
for trouble’s sake as to hope for any of
these things. (2) Hope is not simply
desire. Our desires are as thick and
plentiful as apple blossoms, few of
which ever ripen into the fruit they
promise. We desire uninterrupted
health, we desire wealth—the most
dangerous and disappointing of all
human wishes—we desire pleasure,
success in life, and the realisation of
the most ambitious dreams; but we
have no reasonable ground for hoping
that all our desires will ever be
attained. (3) Hope is the expectation
of the desirable, and it must have a
foundation on which the expectation
rests and an object to which the desire
can rise. The foundation of hope is
Christ, and the object of hope is to
live with Him in eternal glory. To
be without hope and without God does
not mean that hope and God do not
exist. The world is full of both; they
are among you, they surround you, the
very air vibrates with the ever-active
presence of these grand realities; but
they are as though they did not exist
for you unless you know and feel they
do exist within you. (4) Hope presupposes
faith; they cannot exist apart.
Faith discovers “the only foundation
which is laid, which is Christ Jesus,”
fastens the soul to and settles it on
this foundation, and faith and hope
rouse all the activities of the soul to
build on this foundation a superstructure
which shall grow in solidity, in
symmetry, and in beauty, until it
becomes a perfect marvel of moral
architecture, richly ornamented with
the most delicate tracery and shimmering
and flashing with the resplendent
glory of God. (5) Hope is the balloon
of the soul, soaring majestically into
the heavens, scanning scenes of beauty
and grandeur never beheld by our
earth-bound senses, and faithfully reporting
to the soul the state of affairs
in the skies; but it is a captive balloon,
and the connecting cords are firmly
held in the hand of faith. The loftiest
flights and the swing of what might
seem the most eccentric gyrations of
hope are held in check by the friendly,
the sympathetic, but unswerving grasp
of faith. “My dear Hope,” Faith
says, “it is very nice for you to be
up there, basking in the cloudless sunshine
and drinking in the melody of
the ascending lark as it ripples up the
heights; and I like you to be there.
I could never get there myself; and
you tell me of things I should never
otherwise know, and they do me good.
But, remember, I cannot let you go.
We are linked together in the sacred
bonds of a holy wedlock. We are
necessary to each other and cannot
do without each other. If you were
to break away from me, you would
vanish like vapour into space, and I
should be left forlorn and powerless.”
And Hope replies: “I know it, my
dear Faith. Divorce would be fatal
to us both, and our union is too
sweet and precious ever to dream of
separation. I live in these upper
regions purely for your sake. You
know I have cheered you up many
a time and will do so again. My joy
is to brighten your life of toil and
conflict down there. When the soul
has done with you it will have done
with me, and when my work is finished
I shall be content to die.” Thus, faith
and hope are essentially united, and
both are wedded together by the soul’s
living union with Christ. (6) A false
hope is really no hope. It rests on no
solid foundation; it is not justified by
sound reason. It is but the blue light
of a frantic conjecture generated amid
the restless tumults of a soul in the
last stages of despair. At the best a
false hope is but a beautiful dream
spun from the gossamer threads of a
busy and excited fancy, a dream of
what we wish might be, and, like all
other dreams having no substantial
basis, it dissolves into space under the
first touch of reality. A false hope
lures its victims on to destruction, as
the flickering lights of the marsh gases
seduce the belated traveller into the
dismal swamps from which there is no
release.
A State of Sin a State of Ungodliness.—1. Men
do not recognise the existence
of God. 2. They do not acknowledge
His moral government. 3. They do
not seek His favour as their chief
good. 4. They do not delight in His
communion. 5. They do not anticipate
their final reckoning with Him.
6. They do not accept His own disclosures
concerning the attributes of
His nature and the principles of His
administration.—G. Brooks.
Man without God.—He is like a ship
tossed about on a stormy sea without
chart or compass. The ship drifts as
the waves carry it. The night is dark.
The pilot knows not which way to
steer. He may be close to rocks and
quicksands. Perhaps a flash of lightning
falls on a rock, or he hears the
waves breaking over it. But how
shall he escape, or how prepare to
meet the danger? Shall he trust in
providence? What providence has he
to trust in? Poor man! He is without
God. Shall he throw out an anchor?
But he has no anchor. He wants the
best and only safe anchor, hope—the
anchor of the soul. Such is the state
of man when he is far off, without a
God to trust in, without hope to comfort
and support him. But give the
man a true and lively faith in Christ,
tell him of a merciful and loving Father
who careth for us and would have us
cast all our care upon Him, show him
that hope which is firm to the end,
and straightway you make a happy
man of him. You give him a course
to steer, a chart and compass to guide
him, an anchor which will enable him
to withstand the buffeting of every
storm. You insure him against shipwreck,
and you assure him of a blessed
haven where at length he will arrive
and be at rest.—A. W. Hare.
Practical Atheism.—If it had been
without friends, without shelter, without
food, that would have made a
gloomy sound; but without God!
That there should be men who can
survey the creation with a scientific
enlargement of intelligence and then
say there is no God is one of the
most hideous phenomena in the world.
I. The text is applicable to those
who have no solemn recognition of
God’s all-disposing government and
providence—who have no thought
of the course of things but just as
going on, going on some way or other,
just as it can be; to whom it appears
abandoned to a strife and competition
of various mortal powers, or surrendered
to something they call general
laws, and these blended with chance.
II. Is a description of all those
who are forming or pursuing their
scheme of life and happiness independent
of Him.—They do not consult
His counsel or will as to what that
scheme should be in its ends or means.
His favour, His blessing are not absolutely
indispensable. We can be happy
leaving Him out of the account.
III. Is a description of those who
have but a slight sense of universal
accountableness to God as the supreme
authority—who have not a conscience
constantly looking and listening to
Him and testifying for Him. This
insensibility of accountableness exists
almost entire—a stupefaction of conscience—in
very many minds. In
others there is a disturbed yet inefficacious
feeling. To be thus with
God is in the most emphatical sense to
be without Him—without Him as a
friend, approver, and patron. Each
thought of Him tells the soul who it
is that it is without, and who it is that
in a very fearful sense it never can be
without.
IV. The description belongs to that
state of mind in which there is no
communion with Him maintained or
even sought with cordial aspiration.
How lamentable to be thus without
God! Consider it in one single view
only, that of the loneliness of a human
soul in this destitution.
V. A description of the state of
mind in which there is no habitual
anticipation of the great event of
going at length into the presence of
God; in which there is an absence
of the thought of being with Him in
another world, of being with Him in
judgment, and whether to be with
Him for ever.
VI. A description of those who,
professing to retain God in their
thoughts, frame the religion in which
they are to acknowledge Him according
to their own speculation and fancy.—Will
the Almighty acknowledge your
feigned God for Himself, and admit
your religion as equivalent to that
which He has declared and defined?
If He should not, you are without God
in the world. Let us implore Him
not to permit our spirits to be detached
from Him, abandoned, exposed, and
lost; not to let them be trying to feed
their immortal fires on transitory sustenance,
but to attract them, exalt
them, and hold them in His communion
for ever.—John Foster.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 13–18.
Christ the Great Peacemaker.
I. His mission on earth was one of peace.—“And came and preached peace
to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh” (ver. 17). His advent
was heralded by the angelic song, “Peace on earth, and goodwill toward men.”
The world is racked with moral discord; He is constantly striving to introduce
the music of a heavenly harmony. It is distracted with war; He is propagating
principles that will by-and-by make war impossible. The work of the peacemaker
is Christ-like. Shenkyn, one of whose anomalies was that with all his
burning passions he was a notorious peacemaker, and had means of pouring oil
upon troubled waters, once upon a time was deputed to try his well-known
skill upon a Church whose strife of tongues had become quite notorious. He
reluctantly complied and attended a meeting which soon proved to his satisfaction
that the people were possessed by a demon that could not easily be expelled.
The peacemaker got up, staff in hand, paced the little chapel, and with his spirit
deeply moved, cried out, “Lord, is this Thy spouse?” Faster and faster he
walked, thumping his huge stick on the floor, and still crying out, “Lord, is this
Thy spouse? Slay her!” Then there came, as it were from another, a response,
“No, I will not.” “Sell her, then!” “No, I will not.” “Deny her, then!”
Still the answer came, “I will not.” Then he lifted up his voice, saying, “I have
bought her with My precious blood; how can I give her up? How can I forsake
her?” The strife had now ceased, and the people looked on with amazement,
crying out for pardon.
II. He made peace between man and man.—“For He is our peace, who hath
made both one; . . . to make in Himself of twain one new man, so making peace”
(vers. 14, 15). The hostility of Jew and Gentile was conquered; the new
spiritual nature created in both formed a bond of brotherhood and harmony.
The Jew no longer despised the Gentile; the Gentile no longer hated and persecuted
the Jew. Where the Christian spirit predominates personal quarrels are
speedily adjusted.
III. He made peace between man and God.—“That He might reconcile both
unto God in one body by the cross” (ver. 16). The enmity of man against God
is disarmed and conquered by the voluntary suffering of Jesus in man’s stead,
and by Him thus opening up the way of reconciliation of man with God. God
can now be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. The violated
law is now atoned for, and the violator may obtain forgiveness and regain the
forfeited favour of the offended God. There is peace only through forgiveness.
IV. His death removed the great barrier to peace.—This paragraph is very
rich and suggestive in the phrases used to explain this blessed result: “Ye are
made nigh by the blood of Christ” (ver. 13). “By the cross, having slain the
enmity thereby” (ver. 16). “Hath broken down the middle wall of partition,
having abolished in His flesh the enmity” (vers. 14, 15). It is not the calm,
silent, featureless, helpless, forceless, peace of death, but a living, active, aggressive,
ever-conquering peace. The death was the result of agonising struggle and
intense suffering, and the peace purchased is a powerfully operating influence in
the believing soul.
“A peace is of the nature of a conquest;
For then both parties nobly are subdued,
And neither party loser.”—Shakespeare.
V. True peace is realised only in Christ.—“But now in Christ Jesus ye who
sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ” (ver. 13). “For He
is our peace” (ver. 14). “For through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto
the Father” (ver. 18). “Christ takes us by the hand, and leads us to the
Father.” Men seek peace in the excitements of worldly pleasures, or in the
pursuit of ambitious aims, but in vain. They only stimulate the malady they
seek to cure. Christ is the restful centre of the universe, and the sin-tossed
soul gains peace only as it converges towards Him. The efforts of men to find
rest independent of Christ only reveal their need of Him, and it is a mercy when
this revelation and consciousness of need does not come too late.
Lessons.—1. Sin is the instigator of quarrels and strife. 2. Only as sin is
conquered does peace become possible. 3. Christ introduces peace by abolishing sin.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 13–18. Nearness to God.
- They were brought into the
Church of God and admitted to equal
privileges with His ancient people the
Jews.
- They were brought near to God
as they were admitted to enjoy the
Gospel, which is a dispensation of
grace and peace.
- They were brought near to God
by the renovation of their souls after
His image.
- This nearness to God implies a
state of peace with Him.
- Another circumstance of the
nearness is access to God in prayer.
- Another is the presence of His
Holy Spirit.—Let us be afraid of everything
that tends to draw us away from
God, and love everything which brings
us nearer to Him. Let us seek Him
with our whole heart, persevere daily
communion with Him, choose His
favour as our happiness, His service
as our employment, His Word as our
guide, His ordinances as our refreshment,
His house as the gate of heaven,
and heaven as our eternal home.—Lathrop.
Ver. 13. Our State by Nature and by
Grace.
I. Our state by nature.—The
distance from God here spoken of is
not a local distance, neither is it that
which separates us from Him as an
infinite Being. 1. It is legal. Banished
by a righteous sentence and by
a sense of guilt and unworthiness.
2. It is moral. Estrangement. Absence
of sympathy. Want of harmony.
3. In both these respects it is ever-widening.
4. It is miserable and
dangerous.
II. Our state by grace.—1. The
legal barriers are removed by the
blood of Christ shed on the cross.
2. The moral alienation is removed by
the blood of Christ as applied to the
believer by the Holy Spirit. 3. The
nearness to God thus effected is a
valuable privilege. It includes reconciliation,
friendship, communion.
Sinner, apply now to be made nigh.
Believer, remember thy obligations.—G. Brooks.
Vers. 14, 15. Death a Peacemaker.—The
struggle between the Northern
and Southern States of America closed
for ever at the funeral of General
Grant. The armies of rebellion
surrendered twenty years before;
but the solemn and memorable pageant
at the tomb of the great Union soldier,
where the leading generals of the
living Union and of the dead Confederacy
stood shoulder to shoulder
and mingled their tears in a common
grief—this historical event marked
the absolute conclusion of sectional
animosity in America.
Ver. 16. The Power of the Gospel to
dissolve the Enmity of the Human
Heart against God.—1. The goodness
of God destroys the enmity of the
human mind. When every other
argument fails, this, if perceived by
the eye of faith, finds its powerful and
persuasive way through every barrier
of resistance. Try to approach the
heart of man by the instruments of
terror and of authority, and it will
disdainfully repel you. There is not
one of you skilled in the management
of human nature who does not perceive
that, though this may be a way
of working on the other principles of
our constitution—of working on the
fears of man, or on his sense of
interest—this is not the way of gaining
by a single hair-breadth on the attachments
of his heart. Such a way may
force, or it may terrify, but it never,
never can endear; and after all the
threatening array of such an influence
as this is brought to bear upon man,
there is not one particle of service it
can extort from him but what is all
rendered in the spirit of a painful and
reluctant bondage. Now this is not
the service which prepares for heaven.
This is not the service which assimilates
men to angels. This is not the
obedience of those glorified spirits,
whose every affection harmonises with
their every performance, and the very
essence of whose piety consists of
delight in God and the love they bear
to Him. To bring up man to such an
obedience as this, his heart behoved
to be approached in a particular way;
and no such way is to be found but
within the limits of the Christian
revelation. There alone you see God,
without injury to His other attributes,
plying the heart of man with the
irresistible argument of kindness.
There alone do you see the great Lord
of heaven and of earth, setting Himself
forth to the most worthless and the
most wandering of His children—putting
forth His hand to the
work of healing the breach which sin
had made between them—telling them
that His Word could not be mocked,
and his justice could not be defied
and trampled on, and that it was
not possible for His perfections to
receive the slightest taint in the eyes
of the creation He had thrown around
them; but that all this was provided
for, and not a single creature within
the compass of the universe He
has formed could now say that forgiveness
to man was degrading to the
authority of God, and that by the very
act of atonement, which poured a
glory over all the high attributes of
His character, His mercy might now
burst forth without limit and without
control upon a guilty world, and the
broad flag of invitation be unfurled in
the sight of all its families. 2. Let
the sinner, then, look to God through
the medium of such a revelation, and
the sight which meets him there may
well tame the obstinacy of that heart
which had wrapped itself up in impenetrable
hardness against the force
of every other consideration. Now
that the storm of the Almighty’s
wrath has been discharged upon Him
who bore the burden of the world’s
atonement, He has turned His throne
of glory into a throne of grace and
cleared away from the pavilion of His
residence all the darkness which encompassed
it. The God who dwelleth
there is God in Christ; and the voice
He sends from it to this dark and
rebellious province of His mighty
empire is a voice of the most beseeching
tenderness. Goodwill to men is the
announcement with which His messengers
come fraught to a guilty world;
and, since the moment in which it
burst upon mortal ears from the
peaceful canopy of heaven, may the
ministers of salvation take it up, and
go round with it among all the tribes
and individuals of the species. Such
is the real aspect of God towards you.
He cannot bear that His alienated
children should be finally and everlastingly
away from Him. He feels
for you all the longing of a parent
bereaved of his offspring. To woo you
back again unto Himself He scatters
among you the largest and the most
liberal assurances, and with a tone of
imploring tenderness does He say to
one and all of you, “Turn ye, turn ye;
why will ye die?” (Ezek. xxxiii. 11). He has no pleasure
in your death. He does not wish to
glorify Himself by the destruction
of any one of you. “Look to Me, all ye
ends of the earth, and be saved” (Isa. xlv. 22), is
the wide and generous announcement
by which He would recall, from the
outermost limits of His sinful creation,
the most worthless and polluted of
those who have wandered away from
Him. 3. Now give us a man who
perceives, with the eye of his mind, the
reality of all this, and you give us a
man in possession of the principle of
faith. Give us a man in possession
of this faith; and his heart, shielded
as it were against the terrors of a
menacing Deity, is softened and subdued,
and resigns its every affection at
the moving spectacle of a beseeching
Deity; and thus it is, that faith
manifests the attribute which the
Bible assigns to it, of working by love.
Give us a man in possession of this
love; and, animated as he is with the
living principle of that obedience,
where the willing and delighted consent
of the inner man goes along with
the performance of the outer man, his
love manifests the attribute which the
Bible assigns to it when it says, “This
is the love of God, that ye keep His
commandments.” And thus it is,
amid the fruitfulness of every other
expedient, when power threatened to
crush the heart which it could not
soften—when authority lifted its
voice, and laid on man an enactment of
love which it could not carry—when
terror shot its arrows, and they dropped
ineffectual from that citadel of the
human affections, which stood proof
against the impression of every one of
them—when wrath mustered up its
appalling severities, and filled that
bosom with despair which it could not
fill with the warmth of a confiding
attachment—then the kindness of an
inviting God was brought to bear on
the heart of man, and got an opening
through all its mysterious avenues.
Goodness did what the nakedness of
power could not do. It found its way
through all intricacies of the human
constitution, and there, depositing the
right principle of repentance, did it
establish the alone effectual security
for the right purposes and the right
fruits of repentance.—Dr. T. Chalmers.
Ver. 18. The Privilege of Access to the
Father.—In the Temple service of the
Jews all did not enjoy equal privileges.
The court of the Gentiles was outside
that of the Jews and separated from
it by “a marble screen or enclosure
three cubits in height, beautifully
ornamented with carving, but bearing
inscriptions, in Greek and Roman
characters, forbidding any Gentile to
pass within its boundary.” Such
restricted access to God the new dispensation
was designed to abolish.
The middle wall of partition is now
broken down, and through Christ we,
both Jews and Gentiles—all mankind—have
equal access by one Spirit unto
the Father. Observe:—
I. The privilege of access unto the
Father.—That God is the proper object
of worship is implied in our text, and
more explicitly declared in other portions
of the sacred writings. According
to the nature of the blessings
desired, prayer may be addressed to
any of the three Persons in the Godhead;
but the Bible teaches that prayer
generally is to be presented to the
Father through Christ and by the Holy
Spirit. And so appropriate are the
offices of the Persons in the Trinity
that we cannot speak otherwise. We
cannot say that through the Spirit and
by the Father we have access to Christ,
or through the Father and by Christ
we have access to the Spirit. We
must observe the apostle’s order—through
Christ and by the Spirit we
have access to the Father. Access
unto the Father implies:—
1. His sympathy with us.—God is our
Creator and Sovereign, but His authority
is not harsh or arbitrary. He
does not even deal with us according to
the stern dictates of untempered justice.
On the contrary, in love and sympathy
He has for our benefit made His throne
accessible. He will listen to our
penitential confessions, our vows of
obedience, our statements of want.
He has sympathy with us.
2. His ability to help us.—That access
is permitted to us, taken in connection
with God’s perfections, prove this. He
raises no hope to disappoint, does not
encourage that He may repel, but permits
access that He may help and bless.
3. His permission to speak freely.—There
is nothing contracted in God’s
method of blessing. We are introduced
to His presence not to stand
dumb before Him, nor to speak under
the influence of slavish fear. We
have such liberty as those enjoy who
are introduced to the presence of a
prince by a distinguished favourite,
or such freedom as children have in
addressing a father. We are brought
into the presence of our King by His
Own Son; to our heavenly Father by
Christ, our elder Brother. The results
of this access to ourselves: 1. It
teaches dependence; 2. Excites gratitude;
3. Produces comfort; 4. Promotes
growth in grace.
II. The medium of access.—Under
the law the high priest was the
mediator through whom the people
drew near to God. He went into the
“holiest of all, once every year, not
without blood, which he offered for
himself, and for the errors of the
people” (Heb. ix. 7). Under the new
covenant “boldness to enter into the
holiest” is “by the blood of Jesus”
(Heb. x. 19). But as the mediation of
the Jewish high priest, though “done
away in Christ,” was typical, it may
serve to teach us how we are to come
to God. He sprinkled the blood of the
sin-offering on the mercy-seat and
burnt incense within the veil (Lev.
xvi.), thus symbolising the sacrifice
and intercession of Christ.
1. We, then, have access to God through
Christ as a sacrifice.—“Without shedding
of blood is no remission” (Heb.
ix. 22). But, “that, while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us,” we could
never, as suppliants, have found acceptance
with God.
2. Through Christ as an intercessor.—“But
this man,” etc. (Heb. x. 12). A
disciple in temptation cries for deliverance
from evil, and Christ prays,
“Holy Father, keep through Thine own
name those whom Thou hast given Me”
(John xvii. 11). A dying saint asks for
“an entrance into the heavenly kingdom,”
and Christ pleads, “Father, I will
that they also, whom Thou hast given
Me, be with Me where I am” (John
xvii. 24). None need deem himself too
unworthy to call on God who comes
to Him through Christ’s sacrifice and
intercession.
III. The assistance afforded by the
Holy Spirit.—As we have access unto
the Father through Christ pleading for
us, so we have access unto the Father
by the Spirit pleading in us.
1. The Spirit kindles holy desire.—It
is the work of the Spirit to draw off
the hearts of men from the world and
raise them to God in prayer. As in
playing on a musical instrument no
string sounds untouched, so without
this influence of the Spirit man would
never look heavenward, or his heart
fill with desire toward God.
2. Prompts to immediate application.—Blessings
are often desired but feebly.
The Spirit rebukes this hesitancy, and
urges on to immediate application.
3. Aids in that application.—“Without
the Spirit we know not what we
should pray for” (Rom. viii. 26). Our
thoughts wander, our affections chill, the
fervour of our importunity flags, unless
the Spirit “helpeth our infirmities.”
Reflections.—1. Those who do not
enjoy this privilege are highly culpable.
2. Those who do enjoy this privilege
are indeed happy.—The Lay Preacher.
Access to God, revealing the Trinity
in Unity.
I. The end of human salvation is
access to the Father.—That is the first
truth of our religion—that the source
of all is meant to be the end of all,
that as we all come forth from a
Divine Creator, so it is into Divinity
that we are to return and to find our
final rest and satisfaction, not in ourselves,
not in one another, but in the
omnipotence, the omniscience, the perfectness,
and the love of God. Now
we are very apt to take it for granted
that, however we may differ in our
definitions and our belief of the deity
of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, we
are all at once, there can be and there
is no hesitation, about the deity of the
Father. God is Divine. God is God.
And no doubt we do all assent in
words to such a belief; but when we
think what we mean by that word
“God”; when we remember what we
mean by “Father,” namely, the first
source and the final satisfaction of a
dependent nature; and then when we
look around and see such multitudes
of people living as if there were no
higher source for their being than
accident and no higher satisfaction for
their being than selfishness, do we
not feel that there is need of a continual
and most earnest preaching by
Word and act, from every pulpit of
influence to which we can mount, of
the Divinity of the Father. The
Divinity of the Father needs assertion
first of all. Let men once feel it, and
then nature and their own hearts will
come in with their sweet and solemn
confirmations of it. But nature and
the human heart do not teach it of
themselves. The truest teaching of it
must come from souls that are always
going in and out before the Divine
Fatherhood themselves. By the sight
of such souls, others must come to seek
the satisfaction that comes only from a
Divine end of life—must come to crave
access to the Father. So we believe,
and so we tempt other men to believe,
in God the Father.
II. And now pass to the Divinity of
the method.—“Through Jesus Christ.”
Man is separated from God. That
fact, testified to by broken associations,
by alienated affections, by conflicting
wills, stands written in the whole
history of our race. And equally clear
is it to him who reads the Gospels, and
enters into sympathy with their wonderful
Person, that in Him, in Jesus
of Nazareth, appeared the Mediator
by whom was to be the Atonement.
His was the life and nature which,
standing between the Godhood and the
manhood, was to bridge the gulf and
make the firm, bright road over which
blessing and prayer might pass and
repass with confident, golden feet for
ever. And then the question is—and
when we ask it thus it becomes so
much more than a dry problem of
theology; it is a question for live,
anxious men to ask with faces full of
eagerness—Out of which nature came
that Mediator? Out of which side of
the chasm sprang the bridge leaping
forth toward the other? Evidently on
both sides that bridge is bedded deep
and clings with a tenacity which shows
how it belongs there. He is both
human and Divine. But from which
side did the bridge spring? It is the
most precious part of our belief that it
was with God that the activity began.
It is the very soul of the Gospel, as I
read it, that the Father’s heart, sitting
above us in His holiness, yearned for
us as we lay down here in our sin.
And when there was no man to make
an intercession, He sent His Son to
tell us of His love, to live with us, to
die for us, to lay His life like a strong
bridge out from the Divine side of
existence, over which we might walk
fearfully but safely, but into the
Divinity where we belonged. Through
Him we have access to the Father.
As the end was Divine, so the method is
Divine. As it is to God that we come,
so it is God who brings us there. I
can think nothing else without dishonouring
the tireless, quenchless love
of God.
III. The power of the act of man’s
salvation is the Holy Spirit.—“Through
Christ Jesus we both have
access by one Spirit unto the Father.”
What do we mean by the Holy Spirit
being the power of salvation? I think
we are often deluded and misled by
carrying out too far some of the figurative
forms in which the Bible and the
religious experience of men express the
saving of the soul. For instance,
salvation is described as the lifting
of the soul out of a pit and putting
it upon a pinnacle, or on a safe high
platform of grace. The figure is strong
and clear. Nothing can overstate the
utter dependence of the soul on God
for its deliverance; but if we let the
figure leave in our minds an impression
of the human soul as a dead, passive
thing, to be lifted from one place to the
other like a torpid log that makes no
effort of its own either for co-operation
or resistance, then the figure has misled
us. The soul is a live thing. Everything
that is done with it must be
done and through its own essential
life, If a soul is saved, it must be
by the salvation, the sanctification, of
its essential life; if a soul is lost, it
must be by perdition of its life, by the
degradation of its affections and desires
and hopes. Let there be nothing
merely mechanical in the conception of
the way God treats these souls of ours.
He works upon them in the vitality of
thought, passion, and will that He put
into them. And so, when a soul comes
to the Father through the Saviour, its
whole essential vitality moves in the
act. When this experience is reached,
then see what Godhood the soul has
come to recognise in the world. First,
there is the creative Deity from which
it sprang, and to which it is struggling
to return—“the Divine End, God the
Father.” Then there is the incarnate
Deity, which makes that return possible
by the exhibition of God’s love—the
Divine Power of salvation, God the
Holy Spirit. To the Father, through
the Son, by the Spirit. This appears
to be the truth of the Deity as it
relates to us. I say again, “as it
relates to us.” What it may be in
itself; how Father, Son, and Spirit
meet in the perfect Godhood; what
infinite truth more there may, there
must, be in that Godhood, no man can
dare to guess. But, to us, God is the
end, the method, and the power of salvation;
so He is Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. It is in the perfect harmony
of these sacred personalities that the
precious unity of the Deity consists. I
look at the theologies, and so often it
seems as if the harmony of the Father,
Son, and Spirit has been lost, both by
those that own and those that
disown the Trinity. One theology
makes the Father hard and cruel,
longing as it were for man’s punishment,
extorting from the Son the last
drops of life-blood which man’s sin had
incurred as penalty. Another theology
makes the Son merely one of the
multitude of sinning men, with somewhat
bolder aspirations laying hold on
a forgiveness which God might give
but which no mortal might assume.
Still another theology can find no God
in the human heart at all; merely a
fermentation of human nature is this
desire after goodness, this reaching out
towards Divinity. The end is not
worthy of the method. I do not want
to come to such a Father as some of
the theologians have painted. Or the
method is not worthy of the end. No
man could come to the perfect God
through such a Jesus as some men
have described. Or the power is too
weak for both; and all that Christ has
done lies useless, and all the Father’s
welcome waits in vain for the soul that
has in it no Holy Ghost. But let each
be real and each be worthy of the
others, and salvation is complete.
But each cannot be worthy of the
others unless each is perfect. But
each cannot be perfect unless each is
Divine; that is, our faith is in the
Trinity—three Persons and one God.—Philips Brooks.
The Christian Law of Prayer—
I. To the Father.—1. How honourable!
Right of entry to an earthly
sovereign. 2. How delightful! Our
pleasures may be graduated according
to the part of our nature in which
they have their rise. The pleasures
of devotion are the highest taste for
devotion. 3. How profitable! God is
able to bestow all temporal and
spiritual blessings. 4. How solemn!
The intercourse of our spirit with the
Father of our spirits. Heart to
heart.
II. Through the Son.—1. Through
His atonement. Legal barriers to our
access must be removed. Have been
removed by the death of Christ as a
satisfaction to Divine Justice. He has
demolished the wall, He has constructed
a bridge across the chasm, He has laid
down His own body as the medium of
approach. 2. Through His intercession.
It perpetuates His sacrifice. The
Jewish high priest entering the holy of
holies on the Great Day of Atonement.
Amyntas, mother of Coriolanus;
Philippa after the siege of Calais.
III. By the Spirit.—1. He teaches
us what are our wants. For the
most part we are likely to be aware
of our temporal wants. In spiritual
things the greater our need the less
our sense of need. 2. He makes us
willing to ask the supply of our wants.
Aversion to beg. Aversion to lay bare
the symptoms of humiliating disease.
3. He gives us power to spread our
wants before God. One person employed
to write a letter or a petition
for another. 4. He inspires us with
confidence to plead with importunity
and faith. Confidence in the Father,
in the Son, in the power of prayer.—G. Brooks.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 19–22.
The Church the Temple of God.
I. Enjoying special privileges.—1. A saintly citizenship. “No more strangers
and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints” (ver. 19). The apostle has
spoken of the separation and enmity existing between Jew and Gentile. The
Jew, trained to believe in the one invisible and only true God, who could not be
imagined by any material form, learned to look with hatred and contempt on the
outcast, lawless Gentile, with his idol deities in every valley and on every hill;
and the intellectual Gentile looked with philosophic pride on the stern land of
the Hebrew and in philosophic scorn on his strange, exclusive loneliness. They
were not only at enmity with each other, but both were at enmity with God.
Now the writer is showing that by the provisions of the Gospel both Greek and
Jew are united as citizens of one Divine kingdom. They enjoy the same
privileges and are in actual fellowship with prophets and apostles and all holy
souls in all ages and are sanctified subjects of a kingdom that can never be
moved.
2. A family life.—“And of the household of God” (ver. 19). The Church is
a family having one Father in God, one Brother in Christ, one life in the Spirit,
and one home in Heaven. As in earthly families, there are diversities of
character, tastes, gifts, tendencies, and manifestations, but all the members of the
heavenly household are bound together by the one common bond of love to God
and to each other.
II. Resting on a sure foundation (ver. 20).—The materials composing the
foundation of the Church are living stones—teachers and confessors of the truth,
“apostles and prophets”; but Christ, as the one foundation, is the “chief corner-stone.”
The foundation of the Church is not so much in the witnesses of the
truth as in the truth itself, and in propagating which truth the first teachers
and confessors sacrificed their all. The truth which produced and sustained the
martyrs is itself immovable. The apostles and prophets—teachers in the
apostolic times—laid the first course in the foundation of the Church and were
careful to recognise and build only one foundation, united and held together by
the one corner-stone—Christ Jesus. They fixed the pattern and standard of
Christian doctrine and practice. The Christian Church is sure because the
foundation is deep and broad and can never be removed and replaced by any
human structure.
III. Ever rising to a higher perfection (ver. 21).—The image is that of an
extensive pile of buildings, such as the ancient temples commonly were, in process
of construction at different points over a wide area. The builders work in
concert upon a common plan. The several parts of the work are adjusted to
each other, and the various operations in process are so harmonised that the
entire construction preserves the unity of the architect’s design. Such an edifice
was the apostolic Church—one but of many parts—in the diverse gifts and
multiplied activities animated by one Spirit and directed towards one Divine
purpose (Findlay). Since the Day of Pentecost, when three thousand living
stones were laid on the foundation, the Church has been growing in symmetry,
beauty, and vastness, and it is constantly advancing towards perfection. The
building, though apparently disjoined and working in separate parts, is growing
into a final unity.
IV. Made by the Spirit His glorious dwelling-place (ver. 22).—The Holy
Spirit is the supreme Builder as He is the supreme Witness to Jesus Christ
(John xv. 26, 27). The words “in the Spirit” denote not the mode of God’s
habitation—that is self-evident—but the agency engaged in building this new
house of God. With one chief corner-stone to rest upon, and one Spirit to
inspire and control them, the apostles and prophets laid their foundation, and the
Church was builded together for a habitation of God. Hence its unity. But for
this sovereign influence the primitive founders of Christianity, the later Church
leaders, would have fallen into fatal discord (Findlay). The Church is a spiritual
organisation, pervaded and made vital and progressive by the presence and operation
of the Spirit of God. An organ is composed of several instruments—the
choir, the swell, the pedal, the great; and many stops—the diapason, the flute,
the trumpet; and yet it is one. And the Church of God is one. One Spirit—one
breath of wind turned on by one living Hand—makes all the organ vocal.
Lessons.—1. The Church is the depositary of great religious privileges. 2. God
dwells in the Church by dwelling in the heart of every member of it. 3. The Church
provides every facility for worship and service.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 19–22. The Church of God a
Spiritual Building.
I. The apostle represents the
Church of God under the figure of a
city and a household.—1. A Church
must resemble a family or city in
respect of order and government; for
without these a religious society can
no more subsist than a civil community
or a household. 2. In a city or
household all the members have a mutual
relation and partake in the common
privileges; and though they are placed
in different stations and conditions,
they must all contribute to the
general happiness. 3. In a city and
also in a family there is a common
interest. 4. In a well-ordered city or
household there will be peace and unity;
so there ought to be in a Christian
Church.
II. The manner in which the Church
is founded.—The mediation of Christ
is the foundation of our faith and hope.
The apostles and prophets are a foundation
only as they describe and
exhibit to use the doctrines and works,
the atonement and intercession, of the
Redeemer. In Him all the doctrines
of the apostles and prophets meet and
unite, as the stones in the foundation
are fixed and bound together by the
corner-stone.
III. The Church must be united
with and framed into the foundation.—Thus
it may stand secure. Christ is
the chief corner-stone in which all the
building is framed. That only is true
faith in Christ which regards Him as
the foundation of our present hope and
final acceptance.
IV. As the Church must rest on the
foundation, so the several parts of it
must be framed and inserted into each other.—As
it is faith which fixes the
saints on Christ the foundation, so it is
love which binds them together among
themselves. If we would preserve the
beauty, strength, and dignity of the
spiritual house, we must be watchful to
repair breaches as soon as they appear,
and to remove those materials which
are become too corrupt to be repaired,
lest they communicate their own corruption
to sounder parts.
V. The Church is to grow into a
holy temple for God through the Spirit.—We
must not content ourselves with
having built on the true foundation,
but must bring the structure to a more
finished and beautiful condition. The
Church may grow and make increase
both by the progress of its present
members in knowledge and holiness
and by the addition of new members
who become fellow-workers in the
spiritual building. God dwells in His
Church, not only by His Word and
ordinances, but also by the influence of
His Spirit which He affords to assist
His people in the duties of His worship
and to open their hearts for the reception
of His Word.—Lathrop.
Ver. 19. Christian Prayer a Witness
of Christian Citizenship.
I. The foundation of the citizenship
of the Christian.—In access to the
Father—in the power of approaching
Him in full, free, trustful prayer.
1. Christian prayer is the approach
of the individual soul to God as its
Father.—Until a man utterly believers
in Christ he can never pray aright.
There are veils around the unbelieving
spirit which hinder this free, confiding
approach. The touch of God startles
memories, rouses ghosts of the past
in the soul’s secret chambers; they
flutter fearfully in the strange Divine
light, and the man shudders and dare
not pray. A man bathed in the life
of God in prayer feels he is no more
a stranger and a foreigner, but has
entered into God’s kingdom, for God is
his Father.
2. That prayer of the individual soul
must lead to the united worship of God’s
Church.—We cannot always pray alone.
The men who stand most aloof from
social worship are not the men who
manifest the highest spiritual life.
Our highest prayers are our most
universal. I do not say we don’t feel
their individuality, we do—but in and
through their universality.
II. The nature of Christian citizenship.—1. Prayer
a witness to our fellowship
with the Church of all time. Realising
the Fatherhood of God in the holy
converse of prayer, we are nearer men.
Our selfishness, our narrow, isolating
peculiarities begin to fade. In our
highest prayers we realise common
wants.
2. Prayer a witness to our fellowship
with the Church of eternity.—All
emotions of eternity catch the tone of
prayer. Sometimes in the evening,
when the sounds of the world are still,
and the sense of eternity breaks in
upon us, is not that feeling a prayer?
We know that we are right, that in
worship we have taken no earthly
posture, but an attitude from higher
regions.
Lessons.—1. Live as members of
the kingdom. 2. Expect the signs of
citizenship—the crown of thorns, the
cross. 3. Live in hope of the final ingathering.—E. L. Hull.
The Communion of Saints.
I. Society becomes possible only
through religion.—Men might be
gregarious without it, but not social.
Instinct which unites them in detail
prevents their wider combination.
Intellect affords light to show the
elements of union, but no heat to give
them crystalline form. Self-will is
prevailingly a repulsive power, and often
disintegrates the most solid of human
masses. Some sense of a Divine
Presence, some consciousness of a higher
law, some pressure of a solemn necessity,
will be found to have preceded
the organization of every human community,
and to have gone out and
perished before its death.
II. Worship exhibits its uniting
principle under the simplest form, in
the sympathies it diffuses among the
members of the same religious
assembly.—There is, however, no
necessary fellowship, as of saints, in
the mere assembling of ourselves
together; but only in the true and
simple spirit of worship. Where a
pure devotion really exists, the fellowship
it produces spreads far beyond
the separate circle of each Christian
assembly. Surely it is a glorious
thing to call up, while we worship, the
wide image of Christendom this day.
Could we be lifted up above this sphere
and look down as it rolls beneath this
day’s sun, and catch its murmurs as
they rise, should we not behold land
after land turned into a Christian
shrine? In how many tongues, by
what various voices, with what measureless
intensity of love, is the name
of Christ breathed forth to-day!
III. But our worship here brings us
into yet nobler connections.—It unites
us by a chain of closest sympathy
with past generations. In our helps
to faith and devotion we avail ourselves
of the thought and piety of many
extinct ages. Do not we, the living,
take up in adoration and prayer the
thoughts of the dead and find them
Divinely true? What an impressive
testimony is this to the sameness of our
nature through every age and the
immortal perseverance of its holier
affections!
IV. And soon we too shall drop the
note of earthly aspiration and join
that upper anthem of Diviner love.—The
communion of saints brings us to
their conflict first, their blessings afterwards.
Those who will not with much
patience strive with the evil can have
no dear fellowship with the good; we
must weep their tears ere we can
win their peace.—Martineau.
Characteristics of Believers.
I. Believers are here described as
having been strangers and foreigners.—1. There
are relative expressions,
meaning that natural men are
strangers to the household of God and
foreigners as respects the city of Zion.
2. Consider the natural man with
reference to the city of Zion, and the
truth of this representation will appear.
(1) He is a stranger and foreigner—(a) By
a sentence of exile (Gen. iii.).
(b) By birth (Gen. v. 3; John iii. 6).
(2) He is proved to be a stranger and
foreigner—(a) By features (Gal. v. 19–21).
(b) By manners (1 Pet. iv. 3).
(c) By language. As such he is
under another ruler (Eph. ii. 2), he
is at war (Gal. iv. 29). 3. Though
“strangers and foreigners” in relation
to Zion, yet men are naturalised in
another country. 4. This does not
imply living beyond the pale of the
visible Church. The Parable of the
Tares. An alien to the saints and a
stranger to God may be in the visible
Church. 5. That there are “strangers
and foreigners” in the Church seems
a calamity. (1) They are thereby deceived.
(2) They injure Christians.
(3) They betray Christ.
II. Believers are described as being
fellow-citizens with the saints.—1. They
are citizens. (1) Their sentence
of exile is cancelled (ver. 13).
(2) They are naturalised by birth
(John iii. 5). (3) They are reconciled
to God and believers. (4) They are
under Zion’s government. 2. They
are “fellow-citizens with the saints.”
(1) They have intercourse—holy.
(2) They are united by mutual love.
(3) They have reciprocal duties.
(4) They have common rights and
privileges. (5) They have common
honour and reputation. (6) They
have common prosperity and adversity.
(7) They have common enemies.
(8) They have common defence and
safety. (9) They have a common
history. 3. As a congregation we are
professedly a section of this peculiar
and spiritual community. (1) Do we
seek each other’s welfare? (2) Is our
intercourse the communion of saints?
(3) Are we careful of each other’s
reputation? 4. Are we as a congregation
isolating ourselves from each
other? Are we “fellow-citizens with
the saints”? 5. The city is above.
III. Believers are here described
as belonging to the household of God.—1. Believers
as citizens are God’s
subjects. 2. As belonging to God’s
household they are His children.
3. As in God’s household—(1) They
are like Him. (2) They are near to
Him. (3) They see His face. (4) They
enjoy His fellowship. (5) They are
provided for by Him. (6) They are
under His protection. (7) They serve
Him. (8) They worship Him—His
house is a temple. 4. These are very
tangible privileges and belong to this
present life. 5. Many may suppose
that they are “fellow-citizens with the
saints” whose experience does not
prove that they are “of the household
of God.” 6. For this “household”
God has “a house not made with
hands, eternal in the heavens.”—Stewart.
Vers. 20, 21. The Church a Divine
Edifice.—1. Though God Himself be
the principal Author and Builder of this
spiritual edifice, yet He employs His
called ministers and servants as instruments,
among whom He made
special use of the prophets and apostles
for laying the foundation in so far as
they first did reveal and preach Jesus
Christ, and commit to writings such
truths concerning Him as are necessary
for salvation, while other ministers
are employed in preaching Christ
to build up the elect on the foundation
laid by them. 2. There is a sweet harmony
and full agreement between the
doctrines and writings of the prophets
and apostles in holding forth Christ for
a foundation and rock of salvation, the
latter having taught and written
nothing but what was prefigured in
types and foretold in prophecies by the
former. 3. As growth in grace is a privilege
which appertains to all parts of
this spiritual building who are yet on
earth, so this growth of theirs flows
from their union and communion with
Christ; and the more their union is
improved by daily extracting renewed
influence from Him, they cannot choose
but thrive the better in spiritual
growth.—Fergusson.
Ver. 22. The Church the Habitation
of God.—1. Jesus Christ differs from the
foundation of other buildings in this,
that every particular believer is not
only laid upon Him and supported by
Him as in material buildings, but they
are also indented in Him, and hid, as
it were, in the clefts of the rock by saving
faith. 2. As all believers, however
far soever removed by distance, are yet
more strictly tied and joined together,
so by taking band with Christ the
foundation, they are fastened one to
another as the stones of a building.
3. So inseparable is the union among
the persons of the Trinity that the
presence and indwelling of One is
sufficient to prove the indwelling of all;
for believers are a habitation to God
the Father and Son, because the Spirit
dwells in and sanctifies them.—Ibid.
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.
Ver. 1. The prisoner of Jesus Christ may be regarded as “the prisoner whom the Lord has
bound” (so Winer and Meyer), or as “a prisoner belonging to Christ,” or again as “the
prisoner for Christ’s sake.” The indignity of an ambassador being “thrown into irons” is
lost in the feeling of being, even though bound, the representative of such a Lord.
Ver. 2. If ye have heard.—We have the same form of expression at ch. iv. 21—“assuming
that is, that ye heard” (cf. Col. i. 23). Of the grace.—The favour which God conferred
on me in appointing me your apostle. The Divine “Taskmaster” (to use Milton’s expression)
confers honour upon us when He sets us to work. “He is not served by men’s hands as
though He needed anything” (Acts xvii. 25).
Ver. 3. How that by revelation.—The familiar disavowal of any other source than the
will of God (cf. Gal. i. 12).
Ver. 4. Ye may understand my knowledge.—You may, as the public reader proceeds to
read my letter, discern my insights of the mystery.
Ver. 5. Which in other ages.—R.V. “other generations.” Might possibly refer to those
dim ages of the past national history when the Gentiles were thought of only as left to
“unconvenanted mercies.” We must note the word for “other”—it means a “different kind.”
Was not made known . . . as it is now revealed.—If any distinction is to be observed, we
may say the “revelation” is one of the ways of “making known” (see ver. 3) the intuitional.
Unto His holy apostles and prophets.—“If all saints were holy à fortiori the apostles”
(Bishop Alexander).
Ver. 6. Fellow-heirs . . . the same body . . . partakers.—“The A.V. loses a point of
similarity in the three Gentile privileges by not expressing the force of the Greek compounds
by the same English word. Lit. ‘heirs together,’ ‘incorporated together,’ ‘sharers
together,’ not heirs after, but together with, the Jews; not attached to the Hebrew body,
but incorporated into it together with the element that previously constituted it; not
receivers of the promise after others had been satisfied, but partakers of it together with
them” (Bishop Alexander). “Co-heirs, and concorporate, and comparticipant. The strange
English words may perhaps correspond to the strange Greek words which St. Paul invented
to express this newly revealed mystery in the strongest form, as though no words could be
too strong to express his conception of the reunion in Christ of those who apart from Him
are separate and divided” (Farrar).
Ver. 7. Whereof I was made a minister.—A deacon, a runner of errands. A lowly word,
which reminds us of his own self-estimate—“not worthy to be called an apostle”—and prepares
us for the strange expression in ver. 8.
Ver. 8. Less than the least of all saints.—“As though he said ‘leaster than all Christians’ ”
(Bishop Alexander). “The greatest sinner, the greatest saint, are equidistant
from the goal where the mind rests in satisfaction with itself. With the growth in goodness
grows the sense of sin. One law fulfilled shows a thousand neglected” (Mozley, quoted by
Farrar). The unsearchable riches.—“The untrackable wealth” (Farrar), inexplicable by
creaturely intelligences, unspeakable therefore by human tongues.
Ver. 9. And to make all men see.—He says to the Galatians (Gal. iii. 1), “Christ was placarded
before you”—so here he wants men to see for themselves.
Ver. 10. To the intent that now . . . might be known by the Church the manifold
wisdom of God.—The Church as it expands from a “little flock” to a “multitude which no
man can number” is to declare the multiform wisdom of God, ever fertile in new modes of
operation. “Manifold” represents a word used to describe a floral wreath as consisting of
“variegated” flowers.
Ver. 12. In whom we have boldness.—Originally meaning as regards speech. In Christ
the reconciled child of God has the right of speaking to God without reserve. The same
word is translated “confidence” in 1 John v. 14, A.V.: “It is the free, joyful mood of those
reconciled to God” (Meyer). And access.—As in ch. ii. 13. With confidence.—Hardly as equal
to assurance—certainly never self-assurance, but in quiet leaning on the arm of Christ.
Ver. 13. I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations.—Compare 2 Cor. iv. 1–16, where
the same word is used. As an agonised sufferer, heroically suppressing every sign of pain,
begs those who wait on him not to give way to grief; as Socrates, having quaffed the poison,
rallies his friends, who have broken out into uncontrollable weeping, with the words, “What
are you doing my friends? What! such fine men as you are! Oh, where is virtue?”; so
(with a possible reminiscence of Acts xx. 36–38) St. Paul begs his readers not to lose heart.
Ver. 15. The whole family.—R.V. “every family.” The word for “family” is only found in
the New Testament in St. Luke ii. 4 and Acts iii. 25; in one translated “lineage,” in the other
“kindreds” in A.V.; consistently as “family” by R.V. Chrysostom, and others who followed
him, have surely a special claim to be heard. They translate it “races.” Bishop Alexander
contends for the A.V. translation, “the whole.” He says, “A special force and signification
in the expression make this translation necessary” (cf. ch. ii. 19).
Ver. 16. The riches of His glory.—“The whole glorious perfection of God.” To be
strengthened with might.—There may be a verbal connection with the “fainting” of ver. 13,
but the thought goes far out beyond that. In the inner man.—We are reminded again of
the text quoted above (2 Cor. iv. 16). A mode of expression derived from the Platonic school,
not necessarily presupposing any acquaintance with that system of philosophy.
Ver. 17. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.—The condition of this, declared
by Christ Himself, is that a man should keep the word of Christ. Being rooted and
grounded.—A double metaphor—of a tree that has struck its roots deep into the crevices of
the rock, and of a building with a foundation of bed-rock. “Every one that loveth is born
of God and knoweth God” (1 John iv. 7). Love conditions knowledge of things Divine
(see ver. 18).
Ver. 18. May be able.—Perfectly able. With all saints.—The highest and most precious
knowledge Paul can desire only as a common possession of all Christians. What is the
breadth, and length, and depth, and height.—“The deeply affected mind with its poetico-imaginative
intuition looks upon the metaphysical magnitude as a physical, mathematical
one. Every special attempt at interpretation is unpsychological, and only gives scope to
that caprice which profanes by dissecting the outpouring of enthusiasm” (Meyer).
Ver. 19. And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge.—“An adequate
knowledge of the love of Christ transcends human capacity, but the relative knowledge of the
same opens up in a higher degree the more the heart is filled with the Spirit of Christ,
and thereby is strengthened in loving. This knowledge is not discursive, but based in the
consciousness of experience” (Meyer).
Ver. 20. Now unto Him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly.—After his prayer
proper is ended the full heart of the apostle swells out into a solemn doxology. The frequent
and bold compound expressions of St. Paul (Farrar says twenty of the New Testament
twenty-eight with ὑπέρ are St. Paul’s) spring from the endeavours adequately to
express his energetic thought. According to the pour that worketh in us.—“The measure
of a man” or “of an angel” is insufficient here. Things are not achieved by creaturely
mensuration where God works (cf. ch. i. 19–23).
Ver. 21. To Him be the glory.—“The honour due to His name.” By Christ Jesus.—He
that “climbeth up some other way” with his offering courts his own destruction.
Throughout all ages, world without end.—R.V. “Unto all generations, for ever and ever.”
A good specimen of the “exceeding abundantly above all that we . . . understand” as
regarded under the aspect of time. It carries our thoughts along the vista of the future, till
time melts into eternity.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 1–6.
An Enlarged Gospel—
I. Declaring the admission of the Gentiles on the same footing as the Jews to
its highest privileges (ver. 6).—It came as a surprise to the world of the
apostle’s day that the Gospel he preached offered its blessings on equal terms to
Jew and Gentile. The Jew, accustomed to be the sole repository of Divine revelation,
was staggered at the discovery that heaven extended its favours to the
outcast, heathenish Gentile; and the Gentile, proudly trusting to his own
intellectual activity in the search after truth, greeted with wonder the ampler
and loftier revelations of the new evangel. It seemed too good to be true. A
new era was dawning, and men were dazzled and bewildered with the splendour
of the vision. It is now authoritatively declared that, on the simple conditions
of penitence and faith, the Gentile world is incorporated into the body of Christ.
So far from being excluded from the Divine favour, the believing Gentiles are
reckoned as “fellow-heirs, and of the same body and partakers of the promise in
Christ by the gospel”; and the marvel is increased by the discovery that this
astounding privilege is no new thought in the Divine mind, but was an essential
part of the purpose concerning the race that had been developing in the slow
march of the ages. The Hebrew Scriptures with their records of extraordinary
theophanies, the saintly characters of Old Testament times, the Messianic
revelations and the wealth of spiritual blessing which the isolated Jew had
selfishly appropriated to himself, are the heaven-given privileges of universal
man.
II. Was wrapped in mystery for ages.—“Which in other ages was not made
known unto the sons of men” (ver. 5). The mystery all centres in Christ. The
revelation of Messiah as the hope and salvation of the race was dimly and slowly
unveiled in progressive stages. “It is the glory of God to conceal a thing.”
Some of His grandest movements are veiled in mystery till the right moment
comes, when the obscurity vanishes and the vastness and beauty of the completed
work elicit our admiration and praise. We are familiar with this process in
the natural world and in the progress of human history. The fruits of the earth
do not reach maturity at a bound. Slowly and in secret the bud is rounded,
then comes the delicately tinted blossom, and afterwards the tempting, mellow
fruit. The same may be said of the growth of human character. It reaches
the higher grades of mental and moral excellence by slow and silent stages, and
advances in the ratio of the fidelity and energy with which the man carries out
the great plan of his life-career. So the revelation of the Gospel mystery has
been gradual and progressive. The purpose itself is incapable of progress—it
has been fixed from eternity; but it has been made known to the world in
portions suited to each succeeding period of its history. The law shadowed forth
that purpose with more fulness than any previous dispensation, and the prophets
went beyond the law, occupying a middle place between it and the Gospel, while
the Gospel in its fuller revelation has gone as far beyond the prophets as they
went beyond the law. Thus we see that God “who appears deliberate in all His
operations” has unfolded His great purpose to save the race by slow and successive
stages. The mystery of yesterday is the sunlit epiphany of to-day.
III. Was specially revealed by the Spirit.—“How that by revelation He
made known unto me the mystery” (ver. 3). “As it is now revealed unto His holy
apostles and prophets by the Spirit” (ver. 5). Notwithstanding the gradual
disclosure of the mystery of the Gospel, its full significance could not have been
caught without supernatural help. Mere flux of time adds nothing to our
knowledge; nor can the most active intelligence decipher the spiritual meaning
of truth. The Spirit of God, operating on the alert and awakened mind of the
apostle, revealed to him the glory and power of Christ—the hidden mystery of
ages—and opened to him the far-reaching provisions of the enlarged Gospel of which
Christ is the inexhaustible theme. There is still much mystery in the Gospel
that remains to be fathomed—the problem of the atonement, the origin of sin,
the future destiny and eternal state of human souls, and the revelation of Christ
and His Church to present-day social and economic questions in their bearing on
human development and the future prosperity of the kingdom of God on earth.
We are in daily need of the light and teaching of the Holy Spirit.
IV. Was entrusted to man as a stewardship of Divine grace.—“The dispensation
of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward” (ver. 2). The
mystery of the Gospel was revealed to Paul that he might dispense its benefits to
others. Former generations had received light from heaven; but not sufficiently
appreciating it, or wishing to keep it within too narrow a sphere, it grew dim
and went out. Where it fell on prepared hearts it was used for the illumination
and blessing of others. Paul was Divinely prepared for the revelation; he
received it in trust for others; he saw the boundless provisions of the Gospel, and
became a powerful advocate for its universal claims. Every minister is a steward
of the mysteries of the kingdom of God, and it is his joy to minister to others
whatever of insight into truth and grace of experience the Divine Spirit may
entrust to him. The Gospel is an ever-enlarging Gospel to the soul lit up and
informed by the revealing Spirit.
Lessons.—1. The Gospel is an advance on all previous revelations. 2. It is the
grandest revelation of saving truth. 3. It can be known and enjoyed only by the
Spirit.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 1–21. Riches of Christ.—Many
make Christianity something local,
temporary, and thus degrade it. Christ
is inexhaustible for mind and heart;
we find all in Him. Let us never
make of this rich Christ a poor one.
What Christ has instituted must be
something transcendent, and not so
common that every intellect can discover
it.—Heubner.
Vers. 1–6. The Calling of the Gentiles.
I. Paul calls himself a prisoner of
Christ for the Gentiles.—The liberality
of his sentiments towards them and
the boldness with which he asserted
their title to equal privileges with Jews
were the principal reasons why the
latter persecuted him with such violence,
and caused him to be sent a
prisoner to Rome. The spring of this
bitter enmity in the Jews was their
spiritual pride and worldly affection.
Liberality of sentiment essentially belongs
to true religion. Bigotry, hatred,
and envy among Christians debase
their character and scandalise their
profession. We should entertain exalted
thoughts of the Divine Goodness.
Such thoughts enlarge the mind and
liberalise the feelings.
II. The Gospel is called a dispensation
of the grace of God.—It is a discovery
of that method which the wisdom
of God has chosen for dispensing His
grace and mercy toward fallen men.
It is called the Gospel of God as it
originated in His pleasure; and the
Gospel of Christ as He is the immediate
author of it, and His doctrines and
works, His life and death, His resurrection
and ascension, and the blessings
procured by Him are the subjects on
which it principally treats. The grace
which the Gospel offers is pardon and
glory. Under such a dispensation how
inexcusable are the impenitent, and
how amazing will be the punishment
of those who finally perish in their
guilt!
III. This dispensation was committed
to the apostle for the benefit
of mankind.—It was a trust committed
to him by the will of God, not a power
arrogated by his own presumption.
He did not rely on a secret, internal
call as what alone would warrant him
to commence as a preacher. He carefully
conformed to the order which
Christ has instituted in His Church.
He instructed Timothy and Titus to do
likewise. Ministers are not to found
their warrant to preach on any immediate
revelation. If they should pretend
to this, it would be no warrant
for them to assume it, unless they can
by miracles prove to the world the
reality of the pretended revelation.
IV. The knowledge of the Gospel
was communicated to Paul by revelation.—God
did not, at the expense of
inspiration, teach the apostles those
things which they knew or might know
by other means. But where actual
knowledge and the means of obtaining
it were wanting, there inspiration
supplied the defect. It is not necessary
for us to know the nature of this
inspiration, or the manner in which
the apostles were assured of its divinity.
If we believe there is an infinite and
all-perfect Spirit, who pervades universal
nature, we must believe He can
reveal His will to men by such an
immediate influence as shall carry its
own evidence and leave no possible
doubt of its reality. If we deny the
possibility of a certain inspiration from
God, we deny that power to Him which
we ourselves possess, for we can speak
to men in such a manner that they
shall certainly know we speak to them
and perfectly understand our meaning.—Lathrop.
Vers. 4, 6. The Knowledge of Christ
intended for All.—It is significant
that the inscription on the cross was
written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin.
1. Hebrew, the language of religion, of
the revelation concerning the one true
God. 2. Greek, the language of literature,
of arts and culture, the best
medium in which to transmit the
literature of the New Testament, as
Hebrew was for that of the Old. It
might be designated as the human
language. 3. Latin, the language of
the conquerors and masters of the
world—also of the Roman Empire, as
that kingdom of worldly aggrandisement
and power, falsehood and wrong,
in opposition to the kingdom of God
destined to uproot and replace it. The
Roman soldiers stationed throughout
Europe became useful factors in the
spread of the Gospel. Note also the
synoptic gospels of 1. Matthew—Hebrew
in thought and diction, written to
convince Jews. 2. Mark—Latin in
thought, and written for the Roman
mind. 3. Luke—Greek in thought
and style, written for Gentiles.
Vers. 4, 5. God known in Christ.—After
the death of Pascal there was
found in the lining of his coat a parchment
which he never parted from, in
order to keep in his memory a certain
epoch in his life. It contained these
words: “Certainty—joy—the God of
Jesus Christ, not of the philosophers
and savants. O that I may never
be separated from Him!” The explanation
of this is, that on one memorable
night, during a holy watching, he
had met, not merely the Machinist of
the universe, the God who is but the
substance or the law of the world, but
the God who wills and creates the
happiness of His children.
Vers. 5, 6. The Comprehensiveness of
the Gospel.—1. God’s purpose to call
the Gentiles was not altogether unknown
to the ancient Church; but it
was not so clearly revealed under the
Old Testament as under the New.
2. Though God might easily communicate
the knowledge of Himself
unto all immediately and without the
help of second means, yet He hath
chosen so to communicate His mind to
some few only who have, at His appointment,
set down in sacred writ what
they immediately received, by which
means the knowledge of God may, in
an ordinary way, be conveyed to others.
3. It is a great and glorious privilege
to be a part of that mystical body
of which Christ is Head, because of the
strict union such have with Christ and
with all believers in Christ, and because
of their interest in all the privileges of
that body and in the gifts and graces
of every member of it.—Fergusson.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 7–9.
An Exalted Ministerial Commission—
I. To distribute the unbounded wealth of the Gospel.—“Unto me . . . is this
grace given, that I should preach the unsearchable riches of Christ” (ver. 8).
In calling the Gospel “the unsearchable riches of Christ” the apostle signifies
that Christ, the whole truth about Him and centred in Him, is the theme of his
preaching, and that in Christ he finds a mine of inexhaustible wealth, a treasure
of truth which cannot be told. He speaks as one who has searched—searched
so long, so far, as to have produced on his mind the impression of unsearchableness.
His whole style of writing in this chapter is that of a man overwhelmed
with a sense of the infinite grace of God revealed in Christ. The expression “unsearchable
riches,” while conveying the impression of infinitude as the words
“breadth,” “length,” “height,” “depth,” suggests a different idea—that of a mine
of precious metal, rather than that of a vast continent of great length and breadth
with high mountains and deep valleys spread over its surface. Paul speaks as
a man digging in a recently discovered gold-field, who finds particles of the
precious metal in such abundance that he cannot refrain from exclaiming ever
and anon, “What an inexhaustible supply of gold is here!” He speaks further
as one who feels it his special business to let all the world know of this gold-field,
and invite all to come and get a share of its wealth (A. B. Bruce).
II. To reveal to men the secret mind of God.—1. The Gospel was for long hidden
alone in God. “Which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God”
(ver. 9). It was a mystery hid in God, not from God. The idea of the
universality of the Gospel, though veiled for ages by the limitations of the
Divine dealings with the Jewish people, was never absent from the mind of
God. Down through the rolling years one eternal purpose runs, and now and
then the most gifted of the Hebrew seers caught a glimpse of its ever-widening
range. This great secret of the ages was revealed to Paul in such clearness
and fulness that he regarded it as the one purpose of his life—his heaven-sent
commission—to make it known to his fellow-men, of whatever nationality.
2. The purpose of the creation of all things by Christ was also a part of the Divine
mystery.—“Who created all things by Jesus Christ” (ver. 9). The statement
of this fact—thrown in by way of parenthesis—links the whole created things
with the development of the Divine purpose, and asserts the absolute sovereignty
of Jesus over all worlds. In some way yet to be more fully explained as the
Divine purpose ripens all created beings are to be advantaged by the sublime
redemptive work unfolded in the Gospel. “For He hath created all things, and
by Him all things consist.”
3. The mystery was revealed to one for the benefit of all.—“And to make all
men see what is the fellowship [the stewardship] of the mystery” (ver. 9). It
was well for us and the race that the revelation and commission were committed
to one who by training and gifts was so well qualified to explain and propagate
the grand Divine idea. The barriers of Jewish prejudice in Paul were swept
away by the vastness and universality of the message. He saw it included his
Hebrew brethren—and to them the Gospel was first preached—but he saw also
it included all in its comprehensive sweep. Paul was not alone among the
apostles in comprehending the breadth of the Gospel; but he was foremost and
most resolute and unbending in battling for the right of the Gentiles to be
admitted to all its blessed privileges. He thought out the Gospel for himself,
and he became the fearless and astute champion of the sinning race. What
is accepted as a commonplace to-day was not won without argument, suffering,
and struggle.
III. Bestowed as an act of Divine grace.—1. As an act of Divine grace it
was confirmed by the conscious possession of Divine power. “Given unto me by
the effectual working of His power” (ver. 7). Paul himself experienced the
transforming power of the Gospel. He was deeply convinced of its truth, he
believed and embraced its provisions, he accepted Christ as the living core
of the Gospel, and he was thrilled with the Divine power that wrought in him
a great moral change. He spoke not only with the force and authority of
clearly apprehended truth, but with the unfaltering certitude of personal
experience. He was henceforth the willing agent of the Divine power working
within him.
2. As an act of Divine grace his commission overwhelmed him with a sense of
personal unworthiness.—“Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this
grace given” (ver. 8). The immense favour humbles him to the dust. That Saul,
the Pharisee and the persecutor, the most unworthy and unlikely of men, should
be the chosen vessel to bear Christ’s riches to the Gentile world, how shall he
sufficiently give thanks for this! how express his wonder at the unfathomable
wisdom and goodness that the choice displays in the mind of God! But we can
see that this choice was precisely the fittest. A Hebrew of the Hebrews,
steeped in Jewish traditions and glorying in his sacred ancestry, none knew
better than the apostle Paul how rich were the treasures stored in the house
of Abraham that he had to make over to the Gentiles. A true son of that
house, he was the fittest to lead in the aliens, to show them its precious things,
and make them at home within its walls (Findlay).
Lessons.—1. The minster of the Gospel has a solemn responsibility. 2. Should
be faithful and earnest in his work. 3. Should guard against temptations to pride.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Ver. 7. A God-made Minister.—1. It
is not sufficient warrant for any
to meddle with the ministerial office
that he hath competent gifts, except
he have also ministerial power and
authority conveyed to him, either
immediately by God, as it was in the
calling of the apostles, or mediately
according to that order which God
has established in His Church, as
in the calling of ordinary ministers.
2. As it is required to make a man
a minister that he be endued with
competent abilities and gifts for that
employment, so it is no less requisite
that God concur with him. God
giveth not to all one and the same
gift, or in the same measure, but to
some a greater, to others a less, as He
hath more or less to do with them.
3. So great and many are the
difficulties of ministers before they
attain to freedom and boldness in
exercising their ministerial gift that
no less is required than the power of
God, working effectually with a kind
of pith and energy. A minister will
be always ready to acknowledge his
gifts as from God and His powerful
working in him, and not to his own
dignity, diligence, or parts.—Fergusson.
Vers. 8, 9. The Apostle’s View of his
Ministry.
I. Consider what a humble opinion
the apostle had of himself.—“Who
am less than the least of all saints.”
In his abilities and gifts he was not a
whit behind the chiefest apostles, and
in sufferings he was more frequent and
in labours more abundant than they
all. But in respect to worthiness he
esteemed them his superiors; for they
had not, like him, persecuted the
Church, and they were in Christ and
became apostles before him. Good
Christians in honour prefer one another.
True religion will produce self-abasing
thoughts. The true convert forgets not
his former character. He reflects
often on his past guilty life, that he may
be more humble in himself, more thankful,
more watchful, more diligent.
II. The apostle expresses his admiring
apprehensions of God’s grace
in calling him to the ministry.—To
the same grace which had called him
he ascribes all his furniture for the
ministry and all his success. However
contemptible some render themselves
in the Gospel ministry, the office itself
is honourable.
III. The apostle’s elevated sentiments
concerning the Gospel.—He calls
it “the unsearchable riches of Christ.”
The blessings of the Gospel, being
purchased by the blood of Christ, are
called His riches. They are called
riches on account of their excellency,
fulness, and variety. They are undiscoverable
by human reason, and made
known only by revelation. They were
but imperfectly made known in the
prophetic revelation. They are of
inestimable value.
IV. Consider the grand and
enlarged conceptions the apostle
entertained of the design and importance
of his ministry (ver. 9).—It
was to open to mankind that mighty
scheme which the wisdom of God had
formed, and which His goodness had
for ages been carrying into execution,
for the redemption of our fallen race.
His ministry was designed for the
benefit, not of men only, but of angels
too (ver. 10).—Lathrop.
Ver. 8. Christian Humility illustrated
in the Character of Paul.
I. The apostle remembered his past
sins.—Wherever there is a quickened
conscience, it will prompt the possessor
to think of his past sins, and this even
when he has reason to believe that
they have been forgiven. The apostle
continued to remember the natural and
deeply seated pride and self-righteousness
which he had so long cherished.
Allusion is made in every one of his
public apologies and in a number of his
epistles to the circumstance of his once
having been an enemy of the cross of
Christ and a persecutor. It is for the
benefit of the believer to remember his
past sinfulness. The recollection of
his infirmities may enable him to guard
against their recurrence. Our sins,
even when past and forgiven, are apt
to leave a prejudicial influence behind.
Our sins are like wounds, which even
when cured and closed are apt to leave
a scar behind. It is most meet and
becoming, and in every respect for his
own profit and the advantage of the
Church and world, that the sinner, and
more particularly the man whose former
life has been known, should walk humbly
before God and his fellow-men all the
days of his life. Nor let it be forgotten
that the remembrance of past sin is
one of the motives impelling the Christian
to be “zealously affected in every
good thing.” The remembrance of the
injury he had done to the Church
stimulated him to make greater endeavours
to benefit it. The persecution
which he had inflicted on others made
him more steadfast in bearing the
sufferings to which he was now exposed.
According to the account handed down
from the early Church, the apostle had
to suffer a violent death in the reign
of Nero, when Christians were covered
with pitch and burned as torches, or
clothed with the skins of wild beasts
and dogs let loose upon them. We can
conceive that as he saw the terrible
preparations for putting him to death,
his memory would go back thirty years,
and he would remember how he himself
had stood by and consented to the
death of the holy martyr Stephen, and
he would feel himself thereby the more
strengthened to endure what the Lord
was now pleased to lay upon him.
II. The apostle mourned over the
sin yet cleaving to him.—He had not
only a recollection of past sin, he had
a sense of present sin. This sense of
indwelling sin is one of the elements
that conduce to the onward progress of
the believer. Why is it that so many
professing Christians, ay, and too
many true Christians, are not advancing
in the spiritual life; are the same
this week as they were the previous
week; the same this year as they were
the last year; and to all appearance,
and unless God arouse them, will be
the same the next week or next year
as they are this? It is because they
are contented with themselves and with
their condition, they have reached a
state of self-complacency, they have
“settled upon their lees,” and they do
not wish to be disturbed by so much as
an allusion to their sin. Very different
was the temper of the apostle.
Conscious of the sin that still adhered
to him, he longed to have it completely
exterminated, and sought the heavenly
aid which might enable him to reach
that after which he was always
striving—“unto a perfect man, unto
the measure of the stature of the
fulness of Christ.”
III. The apostle acknowledged God
to be the Author of all the gifts and
graces possessed by him.—Paul on
more than one occasion found it necessary
to speak of his gifts. And when he
follows this train of reflection, he arrests
himself to explain that his faults are
his own, and to ascribe the glory of his
gifts to God. There may be circumstances
requiring us to speak of our
attainments in the spiritual life; but
there can be no excuse for our thinking
of them or alluding to them in a spirit
of complacency. Of all pride, spiritual
pride is the most hateful, and the most
lamentably inconsistent. How often
does it happen that, when persons are
suddenly elevated to places of honour,
they see nothing but their own merits,
their own talent, their own skill or
good management? Elevation of rank
thus leads in too many cases to an
increase of pride and vanity. This is
painfully illustrated in the history of
Saul, the son of Kish. Setting out in
search of his father’s asses, he received
before he returned a kingdom for the
discharge of the offices of which he had
many qualifications. But his rise seems
to have fostered the morbid vanity of
his mind; and when this was not fed
by constant incense, when the Israelites
cried: “Saul hath slain his thousands,
and David his tens of thousands,” it
led to envy and revenge, which goaded
him on to deeds of utter infatuation.
How different with Saul of Tarsus!
At every step of his elevation in the
Church he saw the finger of God, and
was the more impressed with his own
unworthiness.
IV. The apostle took a high standard
of excellence: he took as his model the
law of God and the character of Jesus.—All
actual excellence, whether
earthly or spiritual, has been attained
by the mind keeping before it and
dwelling upon the ideas of the great,
the good, the beautiful, the grand, the
perfect. The tradesman and mechanic
reach the highest eminence by never
allowing themselves to rest till they
can produce the most finished specimens
of their particular craft. The painter
and sculptor travel to distant lands
that they may see and as it were fill
their eye and mind with the sight of
the most beautiful models of their arts.
Poets have had their yet undiscovered
genius awakened into life as they contemplated
some of the grandest of
nature’s scenes; or as they listened to
the strains of other poets the spirit of
inspiration has descended upon them,
as the spirit of inspiration descended
on Elisha while the minstrel played
before him. The soldier’s spirit has
been aroused even more by the stirring
sound of the war-trumpet than by the
record of the courage and heroism of
other warriors. The fervour of one
patriot has been created as he listened
to the burning words of another patriot;
and many a martyr’s zeal has been
kindled at the funeral pile of other
martyrs. In this way fathers have
handed down their virtues to their
children, and those who could leave
their offspring no other have in their
example left them the very richest
legacy; and the deeds of those who
perform great achievements have lived
far longer than those who do them, and
have gone down from one generation
to another. Now the believer has such
a model set before him in the character
of Jesus, which as it were embodies the
law and exhibits in it the most attractive
and encouraging light. We may
copy others in some things; we should
copy Christ in all.—Dr. J. McCosh.
Ver. 8. Paul’s Humility.
I. In what it consisted.—1. In the unreserved
submission of his reason to the
authority of revelation. He was a great
thinker, and he was a great scholar.
2. In the unwavering reliance of his
heart on Christ for the salvation of his
soul. Self-righteous by constitution
and education. 3. In ascribing to God
alone the glory of all that he was and
of all that he did. He could not but
be conscious how far he stood above
the ordinary in point of Christian
excellence and supernatural gifts and
ministerial usefulness. He never took
any part of the praise to himself:
“Yet not I, but the grace of God which
was in me.” 4. In cherishing a sense
of his unworthiness and guilt: “Sinners,
of whom I am chief.” 5. In forming
a lowly estimate of his own comparative
standing: “Less than the least of
all saints.”
II. How it was cultivated.—1. By
frequent meditation on the
holiness of God. 2. By looking
away from self to Christ. 3. By
gratitude to God and to Christ
for an interest in the blessings of
redemption. 4. By a due appreciation
of the importance of humility.
It is ornamental, but it is also useful.
It lies at the very root of all the graces
of the Christian character.—G. Brooks.
Humility a Growth.—The progress
which St. Paul made in humility has
often been given by comparing three
expressions in his epistles with the
supposed dates when they were written:
“Not meet to be called an apostle”
(1 Cor. xv. 9: a.d. 59); “Less than
the least of all saints” (Eph. iii. 8:
a.d. 64); “Sinners, of whom I am
chief” (1 Tim. i. 15: a.d. 65).
The Unsearchable Riches of Christ.—The
riches of Christ’s Divinity are unsearchable,
the riches of His condescension
are unsearchable, the riches of His
tenderness are unsearchable, the riches
of His redeeming love are unsearchable,
the riches of his intersession are
unsearchable, the riches of his faithfulness
are unsearchable, and the
riches of his supporting grace are
unsearchable. These riches will never
be expressed, even to all eternity.
No! not by the noble army of martyrs,
nor the glorious company of the
apostles, nor the goodly fellowship of
the prophets, nor the general assembly
and Church of the first-born, nor the
innumerable company of angels, nor
the spirits of just men made perfect,
nor by all the ransomed throng of
heaven. It will form their most
ecstatic employment in heaven. Join,
all ye happy throng—join, holy Abel
and Enoch, upright Job, perfect Noah,
souls of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
grand souls of Moses, Samuel, and
Elijah, pardoned David and Manasseh,
soul of Isaiah the prophet. Join, all
ye whose souls are under the altar cry,
“How long, O Lord, wilt Thou not
avenge our blood upon the earth?”
Join, holy Stephen and Polycarp, holy
Latimer, Ridley, Hooper, Rowland
Taylor, and Anne Askew. Join, brave
Wicklif, gallant Luther, stern John
Knox, sweet John Bunyan, and praying
George Fox. Join, pious Doddridge and
tuneful Watts, noble George Whitefield,
holy Fletcher, exhaustless John
Wesley, dauntless Rowland Hill, and
grand though lowly Robert Hall. Ye
sweetest trebles of the eternal choir,
ye million million babes who died without
actual sin, join all your notes of
praise! Pull out every stop of the
grand organ of heaven, from the deep
swell diapason to the lofty flute and
cornet! Gabriel, strike the loftiest
note of thy harp of gold. And let all
the host of heaven, angels and men,
begin the grand anthem, “Worthy is
the Lamb.” And let the eternal Amen
peal and roll and reverberate through
all the arches of heaven! But never
through all eternity shall the gathered
host be able fully to express the unsearchable
riches of Christ.—Thomas
Cooper.
Ver. 9. The Fellowship of the Mystery.
I. It is a mystery it should be so
long hid; a mystery, because when it
was plainly revealed it was not understood
by those to whom it was manifested;
a mystery, for God was pleased
to raise up a special apostle to explain
and reveal, to make an epiphany of
this great truth—the will of God that
all men should be saved, that His
Gospel should be universally known,
should be open to all for acceptance.
II. Our share and fellowship in the
work of the Gospel is to make all men
see their interest in it, to make them
understand its true catholicity, to make
all men see that it is from the first the
will of God that the Gentiles should be
fellow-heirs. By the Church is to be
made known the manifold wisdom of
God. Every member of the Church is
to have his or her part in doing this
work. We are all to take part in
it by our lives, our conversation, our
example, our good works and words.
By availing ourselves of opportunities
we are to help to make known this
manifold wisdom of God.
III. Think for a moment what is the
state of those men who do not know
what is their fellowship with this
mystery.—I am not speaking of the
entirely ignorant. Even religious people
do not half understand or appreciate
the deep meaning of such words as
these. Christianity means expansion,
comprehension; it embraces all, and
all men must see in it what is the
fellowship of the mystery that we have
received and that has been made known
to us. We must be a light that cannot
be hid.—Bishop Claughton.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 10–13.
The Manifold Wisdom of God—
I. Seen in the development of a long-cherished plan.—1. This plan was
carried out by Christ. “According to the eternal purpose which He purposed
in Christ” (ver. 11). The plan is here called the “eternal purpose,” and that
purpose was the redemption of man, and the personage selected for its accomplishment
was the Lord Jesus Christ. This was the unchanging theme of “the
Gospel of which the apostle was made a minister,” this the Divinely freighted
argosy of “the unsearchable riches of Christ,” the veiled and sacred repository
of all heavenly mysteries. The plan is significantly called the “manifold
wisdom of God”—as manifold as mysterious, for there is variety in the mystery
and mystery in every part of the variety. The wisdom is seen, not so much in
one act as in the masterly combination of a multitude of acts, all marshalled
and disposed with consummate skill to the attainment of one grand end; just as
the light that fills and irradiates the valley, penetrating every nook and crevice
and clothing every object with beauty, is produced, not by a solitary ray, but by
manifold rays poured from the central sun, and all uniting in one harmonious
illumination. The crowning wisdom of the plan was in God appointing His
only Son as the agent in carrying it out. He, the sinless One, must suffer for
sin; the Innocent die for the guilty, and by dying conquer sin. Only thus
could the righteous claims of the violated law be fully satisfied, the offence of the
sinning one condoned, the authority of the Divine government maintained, and
the character of the Holy One vindicated to the whole universe.
2. That the plan has been accomplished is evident from the attitude assumed
towards man and towards God by believers (ver. 13).—As regards the attitude
of the believer towards man, he has now “boldness” in declaring the whole truth,
and towards God he has “access with confidence by the faith of Him”—he has
confidential fellowship with God. Both these experiences are the result of the
redeeming plan, and would have been impossible without it.
II. Seen in the indifference to suffering its revelations inspire.—“I desire
that ye faint not [do not lose heart] at my tribulations for you, which is your
glory” (ver. 13). Paul had no anxiety for himself. He almost playfully alludes
to his imprisoned state: “The prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles” (ver. 1).
His soul was too full of heavenly visions and of the practical bearing of the
Gospel on the destiny of the race to be harassed about his personal suffering.
When he thought about it at all it was to rejoice in the honour of being allowed
to suffer for such a cause, and in the opportunities afforded of spreading the
Gospel in quarters that might otherwise have been closed to him. But the
Church feared for their champion’s life, and was troubled about his prolonged
sufferings and imprisonment. The apostle assures his friends there was more
reason for joyous boasting than for pity and dread. The sufferings and misfortunes
of the Church have been overruled in promoting her enlargement.
The flames of the martyrs have illumined the truth, and the captivity of its
professors has prepared the throne of its universal empire. Personal religion has
grown stronger by opposition and suffering, and the Church has multiplied by
the very means which were intended to destroy her.
III. Seen in making the Church of the redeemed the means of instructing
the heavenly intelligences (ver. 10).—These lofty beings, with their vast knowledge
and gigantic powers, learn something from the Divine treatment of sinful,
rebellious men. They gain new light, fresher and more expansive views, regarding
the character and perfections of God; and perhaps the chief point on which
their angelic knowledge will be increased is in the glorious revelations the Gospel
unfolds of the infinite love of God. The Church on earth, with all its contradictions
and imperfections, presents a magnificent picture of self-denial, devotion,
and praise; but this is only a faint representation of the splendour of the
Church above in its more completed state. The Church above is a society
organised; the church below is a society organising. The heavenly intelligences
are watching both processes, and their wondering adoration is being continually
excited as they observe the building up and ever-advancing completion of the
redeemed community. If there is one thing more than another that amazes
“the principalities and powers”—amazes them more than the manifold wisdom
of God unfolded to them by the Church—it must surely be the apathy and
indifference of men on earth to their redemptive blessings!—that so much has
been done to make man wise, and he remains willingly and contentedly ignorant;
that God has been so prodigal of His wealth, and man is so slow to appreciate
and seize the proffered enrichment; that God offers the abundant bread of
eternal life, and man prefers to starve in lean and comfortless poverty, and
grumbles against heaven that he is so poor; that salvation is pressed on his
acceptance, and man persists in perishing; that “heaven lies about him in his
infancy,” and the celestial gate opens before him in every subsequent stage of
life, and yet man resists the alluring glory, and stumbles at last into the
bottomless chasm of eternal darkness.
Lessons.—1. The wisdom of God is continually presenting new illustrations of
its manifoldness. 2. The most signal display of Divine wisdom is seen in the
redemption of the race. 3. The future history of the Church will reveal new
features in the manifold wisdom of God.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Ver. 10. The Manifold Wisdom of
God—
I. Seen in the gradual unfolding of
His great purpose to save the human
race.—1. This process suited the revelation
to men’s nature and condition as
finite and sinful beings. Had the revelation
been more rapid and brilliant it
could not have been so readily appreciated,
nor could men have dared to
hope they had any share in it. It was
adapted to the infantile state of the
Church and the world when the mind
is most powerfully affected by sensible
objects. 2. This method was a training
for appreciating the fuller discoveries
of the Divine will. It has been an
education and discipline, has provoked
inquiry, and encouraged full submission
to the will of God and faith in His
wisdom and power.
II. Seen in the means He employed
to carry out His saving purpose.—1. By
the gift of His Son. 2. As a
subsidiary means, by the institution of
preaching, and by selecting men, and
not angels, as instruments in spreading
the knowledge of Gospel redemption.
III. Seen in using the Church of
the redeemed as an object-lesson in
teaching the heavenly intelligences.—The
Church teaches the angels: 1. By
its composition. 2. By its marvellous
history. 3. By its glorious completion.
Learn.—1. The dignity and glory
of the Church. 2. Let it be your all-important
concern to become a member
of this spiritual community.
Vers. 11–13. Access to God.
I. We have access.—The word signifies
an approach to some object.
Here it intends a near approach to
God in worship, or such a state of
peace with God as allows a freedom of
intercourse. It is a familiar expression
suited to convey the idea of great
condescension on God’s part and high
privilege on ours.
II. We have boldness of access. The
word signifies a freedom of speaking
in opposition to that restraint
which we feel when in the presence of
one we dread and in whose goodness
we can place no confidence. It expresses
the fulness of that liberty which
under the Gospel all Christians enjoy
of drawing near to God, and that
freedom of spirit with which we should
come to God. The disposition of our
hearts should correspond with the
liberal and gracious dispensation under
which we are placed. We should come
to God with a spirit of love, in opposition
to servile fear. This boldness
imports frequency in our approaches
to God. Slaves, under fear, stand at
a distance. Children, invited by the
goodness of a father, come often into
his presence.
III. We have access with confidence. This
confidence is elsewhere called a
better hope and the full assurance of
faith. It is opposed to doubting and
distrust. Confidence in prayer is a
full reliance on God; but this may be
accompanied with a humble diffidence
of ourselves.
IV. All our hope of success in prayer
must rest upon the mediation of Christ
(ver. 12).—In His name we are to
come before God; and in the virtue of
His atonement and intercession we may
hope for acceptance.
V. Access to God a refuge in trouble
(ver. 13).—Fearing lest his sufferings
in the cause of the Gospel should dishearten
his converts, the apostle sets
before them a view of their security
under the protection of Divine grace.
Dangers were before them; but what
had they to fear who had boldness of
access to God? It was one of the
glories of their religion that he who
preached it was not ashamed to suffer
for it.
Lessons.—1. In the apostle Paul we
have a noble example of benevolence.
2. New converts should be assisted and
encouraged. 3. Our best support under
trouble is boldness of access to God.
4. Let the grace and condescension of
God encourage us to come often into His
presence.—Lathrop.
Ver. 12. Access to God in Prayer.—Prayer
is to be exercised with the
greatest caution and exactness, being
the most solemn intercourse earth can
have with heaven. The distance
between God and us, so great by
nature and yet greater by sin, makes
it fearful to address Him; but Christ
has smoothed a way, and we are
commanded to come with a good heart,
not only in respect of innocence, but
also of confidence.
I. There is a certain boldness and
confidence very well becoming our
humblest addresses to God.—It is the
very language of prayer to treat God
as our Father. The nature of this
confidence is not so easily set forth by
positive description as by the opposition
it bears to its extremes. It is opposed:
1. To desperation and horror of
conscience. 2. To doubtings and
groundless scrupulosities. 3. To rashness
and precipitation. 4. To impudence.
II. The foundation of this confidence
is laid in the mediation of Christ.
III. The reason why Christ’s mediation
ought to minister such confidence
to us.—His incomparable fitness for
the performance of that work. Considering
Him: 1. In respect to God,
with whom He has to mediate. God
sustains a double capacity of Father
and Judge. Christ appears not only
as an Advocate, but as a Surety, paying
down the utmost justice can exact.
2. In reference to men for whom He
mediates. He is a friend, brother,
surety, lord or master. 3. In respect
to Himself. (1) He is perfectly
acquainted with all our wants and
necessities. (2) He is heartily sensible
of and concerned about them. (3) He
is best able to express and set them
before the Father.
IV. Whether there is any other
ground that may rationally embolden
us in our addresses to Him.—If there
is, it must be either: 1. Something
within us as the merit of our good
actions. But this cannot be—(1) because
none can merit but by doing
something absolutely by his own power
for the advantage of him from whom
he merits; (2) because to merit is to
do something over and above what is
due. 2. Something without us. This
must be the help and intercession either
of angels or saints. Angels cannot
mediate for us—(1) because it is impossible
for them to know and perfectly
discern the thoughts; (2) because no
angel can know at once all the prayers
that are even uttered in words throughout
the world. These arguments are
still more forcible against the intercession
of saints. The invocation of
saints supposed to arise: 1. From the
solemn meetings used by the primitive
Christians at the saints’ sepulchres, and
there celebrating the memory of their
martyrdom. 2. From those seeds of
the Platonic philosophy that so much
leavened many of the primitive
Christians. 3. From the people being
bred in idolatry. But the primitive
fathers held no such thing; and the
Council of Trent, that pretended to
determine the case, put the world off
with an ambiguity. Christ is the only
true way.—R. South.
Ver. 13. Courage under Suffering.—1. Affliction
and tribulation for the
Gospel is a trial not only to those
under it, but to others who look on,
and are in no less hazard to be thereby
brangled (made to disagree) in their
confidence, blunted in their zeal, and
rendered remiss in their forwardness,
than the person himself who suffers.
2. A faithful minister suffering for
truth will not be so solicitous for his
own outward estate as for the Church
and people of God, lest they be turned
aside, or made to faint by reason of
his sufferings. This may guard from
discouragement when we consider the
excellent worth of truth, and how those
who suffer for it have not cast themselves
without necessity upon their
sufferings, but were necessitated to
meet them in the way of their calling.
3. So honourable is it to suffer for
Christ and truth that not only the
persons who suffer are honoured, but
also all such as have interest in them,
who should not faint, but rather glory
in them and take encouragement from
them.—Fergusson.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 14–21.
A Sublime and Comprehensive Prayer—
I. For spiritual strengthening (ver. 16).—The first necessity of the new
convert is strength. The change from the former life is so new and strange.
The spiritual faculties are but recently called into exercise; and though they are
thrilled with the vigour of youth, they possess the inherent weakness and are
exposed to the temptations of youth. Their newly acquired strength is at once
their glory and their danger—their glory in giving them the capacity and impulse
for the highest kind of work; their danger because they are tempted to rely
upon their own conscious power rather than upon the grace of God within them,
which is the source of their best strength. If that strength is once undermined
or eaten away, it can never be replaced. The strength of youth, physical or
spiritual, belongs only in the period of youth; if lost in youth, it can never be
regained in maturer life. Whatever strength we may gain in after-years will
never be what it might have been if ye had never lost the strength of our first
love. The apostle here prays that his converts may be invigorated with a manful
courage, the moral strength to meet dangers and to battle with difficulties without
quailing.
Transcriber’s Note: The Transcriber is unsure what the author
means by “faith . . . must be constantly exercised to keep Him there”
in this next paragraph. Please remember Christ’s words in Hebrews xiii. 5:
“I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.”
1. This spiritual strengthening is achieved by the indwelling Christ welcomed and
retained in the heart by faith.—“That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith”
(ver. 17). The source of this strength is not in us; we cannot evoke it by any
voluntary effort of our own. It is a Divine power working in us (ver. 20). It
is the Christ within us making Himself felt in our otherwise enfeebled powers.
We are invested with the strength of Christ by our faith in Christ; and increase
of strength comes with increase of faith. The faith that receives Christ into the
heart must be constantly exercised to keep Him there, and to derive inspiration
and help from Him in attaining spiritual growth and in doing useful work.
2. This spiritual strengthening is cherished by an accession of Christian love.—“That
ye, being rooted and grounded in love” (ver. 17). The double metaphor
gives emphasis to the idea—“rooted,” a tree; “grounded” a building. When
Christ is planted and settled in our hearts, love is shed abroad there, and becomes
the genial soil in which our graces grow, and the basis of all our thought and
action. Love is strength, the most reliable, sustaining, and victorious kind of
strength.
II. For a clearer comprehension of the immeasurable love of Christ (vers. 18, 19).—Here
the prayer rises in sublimity and comprehensiveness. The apostle prays
that we may know the unknowable—“know the love of Christ, which passeth
knowledge.” There is nothing so fascinating as the love of Christ, ever leading
us on by fresh revelations, and ever leaving the impression that there are
unfathomable depths and inaccessible heights yet to be discovered. “Oh that
Christ would,” exclaimed the saintly Rutherford, “arrest and comprise my love
and my heart for all. I am a bankrupt who have no more free goods in the
world for Christ, save that it is both the whole heritage I have, and all my moveables
besides. Lord, give the thirsty man a drink. Oh to be over ears in the
well! Oh to be swimming over head and ears in Christ’s love! I would not
have Christ’s love entering in me, but I would enter into it, and be swallowed up
of that love. But I see not myself here, for I fear I make more of His love than
of Himself, whereas He Himself is far beyond and much better than His love.
Oh, if I had my sinful arms filled with that lovely one Christ! Blessed be my
rich Lord Jesus, who sendeth not away beggars from His house with an empty
dish. He filleth the vessel of such as will come and seek. We might beg
ourselves rich, if we were wise, if we would but hold out our withered hands to
Christ, and learn to seek, ask, and knock.” The highest conceptions of the love
of Christ are realised by the soul that prays.
III. For the attainment of the most complete endowment of the Divine
fulness.—“That you might be filled with all the fulness of God” (ver. 19). The
prayer asks that man may gain the sum-total of God’s gifts, be filled in every
capacity of his nature with the whole plenitude (the πλήρωμα) of God. To reach
this glorious result, we need, indeed, special spiritual strengthening. New wine
bursts old bottles; and a large and sudden inflow of Divine grace would be
disastrous to the soul unprepared to receive it. What is wanted is strength—strength
of the highest and purest kind. Muscular strength—a magnificent
healthy physique—is a great gift; but it is one of our lowest endowments, and
its abuse sinks us to a worse than brutish sensuality. Intellectual strength is a
still higher gift, and if rightly used will lift us into a loftier world of wonders, of
beauty, of purity and joy; but if abused will drag us down to the base level of
the vapouring, scoffing sceptic, whose attempts to glorify error are instigated by
a savage but utterly powerless hatred of truth. Spiritual strength is the highest
gift of all. It is the motive-power that gives movement and direction to thought
and action. Without it man is the plaything and victim of unrestrained passions.
A short time ago I inspected one of the finest ocean-going steamships, a
marvellous combination of strength and elegance. Everything seemed as
perfect as engineering science could make it. But there was something wanting;
it was a fatal defect. The giant shaft and powerful screw, the triple expansion
cylinders, the cranks, pistons, and wheels were all there, but the noble vessel was
useless, heaving helplessly on the rolling tide. The fires were out, and the active
driving-power was lacking. What steam is to that great floating mass of complicated
mechanism, giving it life, movement, direction, purpose—that spiritual
strength is to our mental and physical organism. To receive the fulness of
indwelling Deity the soul must be strengthened with spiritual strength. We
cannot pray too earnestly for this.
IV. Uttered with a reverential recognition of the great Giver of all blessing.—1. Beginning
with the submissive awe of a humble suppliant. “For this cause
I bow my knees unto the Father,” etc. (vers. 14, 15). The apostle is overwhelmed
with the contemplation of the rich blessings stored up for man in Christ Jesus,
and prostrates himself with lowly homage in the conscious presence of the great
Donor of all spiritual good. Nothing humbles us more than a sight of the
blessings possible of attainment by the greatest sinner.
2. Ending with an outburst of triumphant praise (vers. 20, 21).—Praise soars
higher than prayer. Man’s desires will never overtake God’s bounty. When
the apostle desires that God’s praise may resound in the Church “throughout all
ages,” he no longer supposes that the mystery of God may be finished speedily as
men count years. The history of mankind stretches before his gaze into its dim
futurity. The successive generations gather themselves into that consummate age
of the kingdom of God, the grand cycle in which all the ages are contained.
With its completion time itself is no more. Its swelling current, laden with the
tribute of all the worlds and all their histories, reaches the eternal ocean. The
end comes; God is all in all. At this furthest horizon of thought, Christ and
His own are seen together rendering to God unceasing glory (Findlay).
Lessons.—1. Prayer is the cry of conscious need. 2. Increases in importunity
as it is strengthened by faith. 3. Finds its sublimest themes in the culture of the
spiritual life.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 14, 15. The Christian Church
a Family.
I. The definition here given of the
Christian Church.—1. A society founded
upon natural affinities—“a family.” A
family is built on affinities which are
natural, not artificial; it is not a combination,
but a society. In ancient
times an association of interest combined
men in one guild or corporation
for protecting the common persons in
that corporation from oppression. In
modern times identity of political creed
or opinion has bound men together in
one league in order to establish those
political principles which appeared to
them of importance. Similarity of
taste has united men together in what
is called an association, or a society, in
order by this means to attain more
completely the ends of that science to
which they had devoted themselves.
But, as these have been raised artificially,
so their end is, inevitably,
dissolution. Society passes on, and
guilds and corporations die; principles
are established, and leagues become
dissolved; tastes change, and then the
association or society breaks up and
comes to nothing. It is upon another
principle altogether that that which
we call a family, or true society, is
formed. It is not built upon similarity
of taste nor identity of opinion, but
upon affinities of nature. You do not
choose who shall be your brother; you
cannot exclude your mother or your
sister; it does not depend upon choice
or arbitrary opinion at all, but is
founded upon the eternal nature of
things. And precisely in the same way
is the Christian Church formed—upon
natural affinity, and not upon artificial
combination.
2. The Church of Christ is a whole
made up of manifold diversities.—We
are told here it is “the whole family,”
taking into it the great and good of
ages past now in heaven, and also the
struggling, the humble, and the weak
now existing upon earth. Here, again,
the analogy holds good between the
Church and the family. Never more
than in the family is the true entirety
of our nature seen. Observe how all
the diversities of human condition and
character manifest themselves in the
family. First of all, there are the
two opposite pales of masculine and
feminine, which contain within them
the entire of our humanity; which
together, not separately, make up the
whole of man. Then there are the
diversities in the degrees and kinds
of affection. For, when we speak of
family affection, we must remember
that it is made up of many diversities.
There is nothing more different than
the love which the sister bears towards
the brother, compared with that
which the brother bears towards the
sister. The affection which a man
bears towards his father is quite distinct
from that which he feels towards his
mother; it is something quite different
towards his sister; totally diverse,
again, towards his brother. And then
there are diversities of character. First,
the mature wisdom and stern integrity
of the father, then the exuberant tenderness
of the mother. And then
one is brave and enthusiastic, another
thoughtful, and another tender. One
is remarkable for being full of rich
humour; another is sad, mournful, even
melancholy. Again, besides these,
there are diversities of condition in
life. First, there is the heir, sustaining
the name and honour of the family;
then perchance the soldier, in whose
career all the anxiety and solicitude of
the family is centred; then the man
of business, to whom they look up,
trusting his advice, expecting his
counsel; lastly, perhaps, there is the
invalid, from the very cradle trembling
between life and death, drawing out
all the sympathies and anxieties of
each member of the family, and so
uniting them all more closely, from
their having one common point of
sympathy and solicitude. Now, you
will observe that these are not accidental,
but absolutely essential to the
idea of a family; for so far as any one
of them is lost, so far the family is
incomplete. And precisely in the
same way all these diversities of character
and condition are necessary to
constitute and complete the idea of a
Christian Church.
3. The Church of Christ is a society
which is for ever shifting its locality and
altering its forms.—It is the whole
Church, “the whole family in heaven
and earth.” So, then, those who were
on earth and now in heaven are
members of the same family still. Those
who had their home here, now have it
there. The Church of Christ is a society
ever altering and changing its external
forms. “The whole family”—the
Church of the patriarchs and of ages
before them; and yet the same family.
Remember, I pray you, the diversities
of form through which, in so many
ages and generations, this Church has
passed. Consider the difference there
was between the patriarchal Church of
the time of Abraham and Isaac and
its condition under David; or the
difference between the Church so existing
and its state in the days of the
apostles and the marvellous difference
between that and the same Church
four of five centuries later; or, once
again, the difference between that,
externally one, and the Church as it
exists in the present day, broken into
so many fragments. Yet, diversified
as these states may be, they are not
more so than the various stages of a
family.
II. Consider the name by which
this Church is named.—“Our Lord
Jesus Christ,” the apostle says, of
whom “the whole family in heaven
and earth is named.”
1. First, the recognition of a common
Father.—That is the sacred truth proclaimed
by the Epiphany. God revealed
in Christ—not the Father of the Jew
only, but also of the Gentile. The Father
of a whole family. Not the partial
Father, loving one alone—the elder—but
the younger son besides, the outcast
prodigal who had spent his living with
harlots and sinners, but the child still,
and the child of a Father’s love.
2. The recognition of a common
humanity.—He from whom the Church
is named took upon Him not the nature
merely of the noble, of kings, or of
the intellectual philosopher, but of the
beggar, the slave, the outcast, the
infidel, the sinner, and the nature of
every one struggling in various ways.
3. The Church of Christ proceeds out
of and rests upon the belief in a
common Sacrifice.—F. W. Robertson.
The Family in Heaven and Earth.—With
the boldness of a true and inspired
nature the apostle Paul speaks
with incidental ease of one family distributed
between heaven and earth.
There is, it seems, domesticity that
cannot be absorbed by the interval
between two spheres of being—a love
that cannot be lost amidst the immensity,
but finds the surest track
across the void—a home affinity that
penetrates the skies, and enters as the
morning or evening guest. And it is
Jesus of Nazareth who has effected
this; has entered under the same
household name, and formed into the
same class, the dwellers above and
those beneath. Spirits there, and
spirits here, are gathered by Him into
one group; and where before was
saddest exile, He has made a blest
fraternity.
I. Members of the same home cannot
dwell together, without either the
memory or the expectation or some
mutual and mortal farewell.—All we
who dwell in this visible scene can
think of kindred souls that have
vanished from us into the invisible.
These, in the first place, does Jesus
keep dwelling near our hearts; making
still one family of those in heaven and
those on earth. This He would do, if
by no other means, by the prospect He
has opened, of actual restoration. And
since the grave can bury no affection
now, but only the mortal and familiar
shape of their object, death has changed
its whole aspect and relation to us;
and we may regard it, not with passionate
hate, but with quiet reverence.
It is a Divine message from above, not
an invasion from the abyss beneath;
not the fiendish hand of darkness
thrust up to clutch our gladness
enviously away, but a rainbow gleam
that descends through Jesus, without
which we should not know the various
beauties that are woven into the pure
light of life. Once let the Christian
promise be taken to the heart, and as
we walk through the solemn forest of
our existence, every leaf of love that
falls, while it proclaims the winter
near, lets in another patch of God’s
sunshine to paint the glade beneath
our feet and give a glory to the
grass. Tell me that I shall stand face
to face with the sainted dead; and,
whenever it may be, shall I not desire
to be ready, and to meet them with
clear eye and spirit unabashed? Such
and so much encouragement would
Christianity give to the faithful conversation
of all true affections, if it
only assured us of some distant and
undefinable restoration. But it appears
to me to assure us of much more than
this; to discountenance the idea of
any, even the most temporary, extinction
of life in the grave; and to sanction
our faith in the absolute immortality
of the mind. Rightly understood, it
teaches not only that the departed will
live, but that they do live, and indeed
have never died, but simply vanished
and passed away.
II. But it is not merely the members
of the same literal home that Christ
unites in one, whether in earth or
heaven. He makes the good of every
age into a glorious family of the
children of God; and inspires them
with a fellow-feeling, whatever the
department of service which they fill.
Keeping us ever in the mental presence
of the Divinest wisdom and in veneration
of a perfect goodness, it accustoms
us to the aspect of every grace that
can adorn and consecrate our nature;
trains our perceptions instantly to
recognise its influence or to feel its
want. It looks with an eye of full
and clear affection over the wide circle
of human excellence. Such hope tends
to give us a prompt and large congeniality
with them; to cherish the
healthful affections which are domestic
in every place and obsolete in no time;
to prepare us for entering any new
scene, and joining any new society
where goodness, truth, and beauty
dwell.—Martineau.
The Christian Brotherhood of Man.—The
brotherhood of man has been
the dream of old philosophers, and its
attainment the endeavour of modern
reformers. Man can only reach his
highest life when he forms part of a
society bound together by common
sympathies and common aims, for by
a great law of our nature it is true
that he who lives utterly apart from
his fellows must lose all true nobleness
in selfish degradation. There is no real
progress for the individual but through
social sympathy. There is no strong
and enduring aspiration but in the
fellowship of aspiring souls. That
conviction which men have so strongly
felt and so vainly endeavoured to
realise is perpetually asserted in the
Book of God.
I. The brotherhood of man in Christ.—1. The
Christian brotherhood is a
unity of spirit under a diversity of
form. Thus with the Church of the
first century. At first it was one band
of brotherhood; but as it grew and
individual thought expanded and experience
deepened there arose infinite
diversities. The more men think and
the more they grow, the more will they
differ.
2. There are spiritual ties in action
which in Christ bind man to man.—Paul’s
words imply a threefold unity.
1. The fellowship of devotion to a
common Father. 2. The fellowship
with Christ our common Brother.
3. That fellowship is unbroken by the
change of worlds.
II. Results of realising this fact of
brotherhood.—1. Earnestness of life.
2. Power and grandeur of hope.—Some
complain that their ideas of
heaven are vague and ineffective.
Only realise the brotherhood of man,
and then the hope of the future will
become a power in life.—E. L. Hull.
The One Family.—1. Believers on
earth and saints and angels in heaven
spring from the same common parent.
2. Are governed by the same general
laws. 3. Share in the same pleasures
and enjoyments. 4. Have the same
general temper, the same distinguishing
complexion. 5. Have one common
interest. 6. Look to, rely upon, and
are guided by the same Head. 7. Are
all objects of God’s love. 8. At the
last day will meet in God’s presence,
be openly acknowledged as His children,
and admitted to dwell in His house for
ever.
Lessons.—1. If we estimate the
dignity of men from the families with
which they are connected, how honourable
is the believer! 2. We see our
obligations to mutual condescension,
peaceableness, and love. 3. Let those
who are not of this family be solicitous
to obtain a place in it.—Lathrop.
Vers. 16–19. Paul’s Prayer for the
Ephesians.
I. For spiritual strength.—It was
not bodily strength, civil power, or
worldly distinction; it was the grace
of fortitude and patience.
II. For an indwelling Christ.—As
we become united to Christ by faith,
so by faith He dwells in our hearts.
III. For establishment in love.—True
love is rooted in the heart. It
is a spiritual affection towards Christ.
Its fruits are love to men, imitation
of Christ’s example, obedience to His
commands, zeal for His honour, and
diligence in His service.
IV. For increase of knowledge in
the love of Christ.—The love of Christ
passeth all known examples of love.
This love passeth our comprehension in
respect of its breadth or extent, its
length, its depth, as the benefits it has
procured exceed all human estimate.
Though the love of Christ passeth
knowledge, there is a sense in which it
is known to the saints. They have an
experimental knowledge, an influential
knowledge, an assimilating knowledge
of the love of Christ.
V. For the fulness of God.—That
they may have such a supply of Divine
influence as would cause them to
abound in knowledge, faith, love, and
all virtues and good works.—Lathrop.
Ver. 19. The Love of Christ.
I. The love of Christ passeth knowledge.—1. He
Himself furnishes an
illustrative instance when Paul says,
“For scarcely for a righteous man
will one die”—a merely just and
righteous man would be admired; but
he would not so take hold of the heart
of another to produce a willingness to
die for him;—“yet peradventure,” in
some rare case, “for a good man,”
a man of benevolence, adorned with
the softer virtues and abounding in
the distribution of his favours—for
such a one “some might even dare
to die”; some one, overcoming even
the love of life in the fulness of his
gratitude, might venture to give his
own life to preserve that of such a
one. But we were neither just nor
good; we were sinners, and “God
commendeth His love toward us, in
that while we were yet sinners Christ
died for us.” Passes it not, then, all
knowledge, all reasonable conception
and probability, that this fallen nature
should be so sympathised with that
these flagrant rebellions should excite,
not an inexorable anger, but pity and
love? And such love that our Saviour—looking
not so much on man as
offending, but as His creature, and as
His creature still capable of restoration—should
melt in compassion and
die to effect his redemption; this is
indeed love “that passeth knowledge.”
2. The manner in which this love is
manifested carries the principle beyond
all conception and expression.—It was
love to the death. It was death for
sinners, death in their stead; death,
that the penal claims of law, and that
law the unchangeable, unrelaxable law
of God, might be fully satisfied. The
redemption price was fixed by a spotless
justice, and the love of Christ to the
sinner was to be tested by the vastness
of the claims to be made upon Him.
But the wages of sin is death; and
His love shrank not from the full and
awful satisfaction required. It was
death in our stead. Then it must be
attended with anxious forebodings. Of
what mysteries have I suggested the
recollection to you? Can you comprehend
them? That feeling with which
He spoke of the baptism of blood?
That last mysterious agony? That
complaint of being forsaken of God?
You feel you cannot. They transcend
all your thought; and the love which
made Him stoop to them is therefore
love “which passeth knowledge.”
3. The love of Christ passeth knowledge
if we consider it as illustrated by
that care for us which signalises His
administration.
4. The subject is further illustrated
by the nature of the blessings which
result to men from the love of Christ.—We
usually estimate the strength of
love by the blessings it conveys or, at
any rate, would convey. And if the
benefits be beyond all estimate, neither
can we measure the love.
5. The love of Christ passeth knowledge
because it is the love of an
infinite nature. Love rises with the
other qualities and perfections of the
being in whom it is found. Among
animals the social attachments are
slight, and the instinctive affection
dies away when its purposes are
answered. In man love arises with
his intellect. In him it is often only
limited by his nature, and when
rightly directed shall be eternal. Many
that love on earth shall doubtless love
for ever. Were Christ merely a man His
love could not pass knowledge. What
man has felt man can conceive. Love
can be measured by the nature which
exercises it. But this love passeth all
knowledge but that of the Divine nature,
because itself is Divine. Christ is God,
and he who would fully know His love
must be able to span immensity and to
grasp the Infinite Himself.
II. But while it is true that the
love of Christ passeth all knowledge,
it is equally true that it is to be
known by us.—To know the love of
Christ is: 1. To recognise it in its
various forms and expressions in our
constant meditations. And where shall
we turn and not be met by this, to us,
most important subject? How delightful
an occupation, to track all the
streams of mercy up to their source.
We are surrounded by the proof of
the love of Christ. Let us see to it
that the blinding veil be not on our
heart, that our eyes be not holden
that we should not know Him. We
are called to know the love of Christ.
Let us accustom ourselves to reflect
upon it, to see it in its various forms
and results; and then shall our meditation
of Him be sweet. 2. To know
the love of Christ is to perceive it in
its adaptation to our own personal
condition. 3. To know the love of
Christ is to experience it in its practical
results. He offers you pardon,
and the offer is a proof and manifestation
of His love; but properly to know
it pardon itself must be accepted and
embraced. This is to know his love.
Seek it, and you must find it. Rest
without it, and you are but “as
sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal.”
4. To know the love of Christ we must
put forth those efforts through which
that love is appointed to express itself
in our daily experience.
Lessons.—1. The rejection of love,
especially of redeeming love, involves the
deepest guilt. 2. Remember that the
grace is common to you all.—R. Watson.
The Unknown and Known Love of
Christ.
I. There are some respects in which
the love of Christ passeth our knowledge.—1. In
its objects; so unworthy
and degraded. 2. In its sufferings;
love to the death. 3. In its care. 4. In
its blessings. 5. In its degree. It is
the love of an infinite nature.
II. There are some respects in
which the love of Christ may be
known.—1. Our views of it may be
clearer and more consistent. 2. Our
views of it may be more confidential
and appropriating. 3. Our views of
it may be more impressive and more
influential.—G. Brooks.
The Transcendent Love of Christ.
I. This representation must be
confirmed.—1. This love is Divine.
2. Consider the objects it embraced.
3. The means by which it manifested
itself. 4. The blessings it secured.
II. The perception the Christian
may acquire of this love, notwithstanding
its Divine infinitude.—1. It
is the great interpreting principle
which he applies to all the tremendous
facts of redemption. 2. The sacred
element and incentive of all piety—the
theme of contemplation, the ground
of confidence, the motive of obedience.
3. The impulse and model of all benevolence
and zeal.
III. Conclusions from a review of
the subject.—1. It is only natural
to expect a transcendent character in
Christianity. 2. No better test exists
of what is genuine Christianity than
the level of the views which it exhibits
concerning the person and work of
Christ and the tone of the affections
which it encourages towards Him.
3. There is much of implicit as well
as declarative evidence in support of
the Saviour’s supreme Divinity. 4. How
necessary is it that we should live
habitually under the influence of this
transcendent love.—R. W. Hamilton.
Vers. 20, 21. A Devout Doxology.
I. The acknowledgment the apostle
makes of God’s all-sufficiency.—1. God
often does for men those favours which
they never thought of asking for themselves.
2. God answers prayers in
ways we think not of. 3. The mercies
God is pleased to grant often produce
consequences far beyond what we asked
or thought. 4. The worth of the
blessings we ask and God bestows
infinitely exceeds all our thought.
II. The ascription of glory the
apostle makes to this all-sufficient
God.—1. God is glorified by the increase
of his Church. 2. God is
glorified in the Church when a devout
regard is paid to the ordinances He
has instituted. 3. By the observance of
good order in the Church, and by the
decent attendance of the members on
their respective duties. 4. That God
may be glorified there must be peace
and unity in the Church.—Lathrop.
God’s Infinite Liberality.
I. The object of this doxology.—The
God of all grace. Whatever we
think we ask. No limit to our asking
but our thinking. God gives beyond our
thinking. Here, take all this! Ah,
poor thing, that transcends thine asking
and even thy thinking, but take it.
If it transcend all communicated power
of mind, I say, “I thank Thee, my
God, for it. I know it is exceeding
good, but I cannot understand it.
Keep it among Thy treasures. My
blessedness rests not in my intellect,
but in Thy favour. Remember Thou
hast given it me. It may come I
shall be able to understand it better
and appreciate it more.” I shall never
have asked too much, I shall never
have thought too much, till I have
asked beyond God’s ability, till I have
thought beyond God’s ability. That
ability is not a bare abstraction of the
omnipotence of God, but it is the
omnipotence of God as working in
the Church and in the people of God.
He is not omnipotent in heaven, and
impotent in thee, or partially powerful
in thee.
II. The doxology itself (ver. 21).—All
should glorify God, but all will
not. In the Church alone will God
get glory. It is as the name of Christ
is glorified in us that we are glorified
in Him. It is when the glory that
God reflects on the creature is by the
creature ascribed as due only to God
when He is glorified as the Author
of it, transcendently and infinitely
glorious, it is then that the glory
rests. When it is appropriated it is
lost, but it is possessed when it is
tossed back and fro between God and
the creature. When the creature
gives it to God, God of His rich grace
sends it back in greater measure; but
the humble creature, emulous of God’s
glory, sends it all back again to Him,
and as it reciprocates so it increases.
God gives not to end by enriching us—that
is an immediate end; but the
ultimate end is that He may be glorified.
Be ashamed to get little—get all
things. Get out of your poverty, not
by fancying you are rich, but by coming
and getting. The more you get always
give glory, and come and ask and
receive.—Dr. John Duncan.
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.
Ver. 1. Walk worthy of the vocation.—They had been called to life in the Spirit, and they
must also “walk in the Spirit.”
Ver. 2. With all lowliness.—The Christian—“born from above”—is to exhibit a trait of
character with the “high-born” Greek despised, and which Heine in modern times called
“a hound’s virtue.” “The pride that apes humility” steals in under Chrysostom’s
description of this “lowliness.” He says, “It is a making of ourselves small when we are
great.” And meekness.—“A grace in advance of ‘lowliness,’ not as more precious than it,
but as presupposing it, and as being unable to exist without it” (Trench). With longsuffering.—The
exact opposite of our “short-tempered”—e.g. “Is the Spirit of the Lord
straitened?” means “Has the Lord become irritable?” (Mic. ii. 7). The word suggests to
men by nature irascible that “slowness to wrath” recommended by St. James. Forbearing
one another in love.—The brother who is tempted to anger is not to look down from the
height of a lofty pride on those who try his patience, but in compassionate love, remembering
his own frailty, must “suffer long and be kind.”
Ver. 3. Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Sprit in the bond of peace.—It is no easy-going
indifference that is inculcated; they will have to “exert themselves,” “give diligence”
(R.V.), before that peace obtains which is the harmonious and frictionless working of each
part of the machine.
Vers. 4–6. One body . . . and in you all.—“Seven elements of unity St. Paul enumerates. . . .
They form a chain stretching from the Church on earth to the throne and being of
the universal Father in heaven” (Findlay).
Ver. 7. But unto every one of us is given grace.—The distributing Spirit (1 Cor. xii. 11)
leaves no humblest member of the body of Christ without His endowment.
Ver. 8. Wherefore He saith.—What follows is a quotation of Ps. lxviii. 18 “with free
alteration” (Meyer), adapting the return of the hero-king to his own city to that most
magnificent of all triumphs—over Hades and Death—achieved by Him “who was dead and
is alive for evermore.” “Being by the right hand of God exalted He hath poured forth this”
abundance, as a conqueror scatters his largesse.
Vers. 9, 10. Now that He ascended . . . that He might fill all things.—The exaltation,
in His case, presupposed the humiliation. From the throne of the universe—“the glory
which He had with the Father”—to the profoundest depths where any poor lost piece of
humanity that is redeemable can be found, and thence again to the throne He relinquished.
The same also.—Exalted, to be confidingly and adoringly loved; humbled, to be worshipped
no less as “the Son of man who is in heaven.”
Ver. 11. And He gave some to be, etc.—“Christ gave the persons, and the community
gave to them the service” (Meyer). Apostles . . . prophets . . . evangelists.—We cannot
accept the order as significant of rank. It would grace an angel to be the “evangelist”
of such a salvation. As apostles they went forth “sent” by their Master to men
in their need; as prophets they “spoke out” what He had taught them; as evangelists
they were the messengers of good tidings. They were apostles that they might be evangelists
(Matt x. 5–7), “going about heralding” the kingdom and gathering men into it.
Pastors and teachers.—Shepherds and instructors of those gathered together by men of
another order. These are the true “bishops,” whatever “other name” they bear
(1 Pet. v. 1–4).
Ver. 12. For the perfecting of the saints.—“Saints,” whilst a title of the highest honour,
is often expressive of the ideal rather than the real life of those who bear it; the
“perfecting” is the rendering into actual life of what is implied in the term of honour.
For the work of the ministry.—R.V. “into the work.” If the end of all Christ’s gifts so far
as “the saints” are concerned is their perfect equipment, so far as His messengers are
concerned they go forth unto service first, honour afterwards. For the edifying of the body
of Christ.—Practically the same as the foregoing, but with an ultimate reference to Christ.
The double figure of a building and of a body is familiar to our own speech, as when we
speak of “building up a strong frame.”
Ver. 13. Till we all come.—Suggestive of standing opposite to something towards which
we have been toiling. Can one think without a tremor of joy, of the moment when he will
find himself in perfect correspondence with the Divine Archetype? In the unity of the
faith.—The world has seen many attempts to bring about uniformity of creed, after the
manner of Procrustes, by stretching or chopping. “The unity of the faith” is a very
different thing, and much to be desired. The knowledge of the Son of God.—Lit. the
complete knowledge. Unto a full-grown man.—As above intimated, a child does not become
a man by means of the rack. The significance of the word “man” here is as great as when
we bid some one who has lost his self-respect to “be a man.”
Ver. 14. That we henceforth be no more children.—In what respects his readers are not to
be children the apostle makes plain, viz. in helplessness and credulity. Tossed to and fro.—With
no more power of resistance than a cork on the waves. By the sleight of men and cunning
craftiness.—As some poor simpleton, who thinks himself capable, falls a victim to card-sharpers,
so unstable souls fall victims to those who say with Falstaff, “If the young dace be
a bite for the old pike, I see no reason in the law of nature but I may snap at him.”
Ver. 15. But speaking the truth in love.—If it be possible to make the medicine
palatable without destroying its efficacy—to capsule the bitter pill—its chances are so much
the greater of doing good. The A.V. margin gives “being sincere,” and the R.V. “dealing
truly,” the different renderings indicating the difficulty of finding an English equivalent.
Ver. 16. Fitly joined together and compacted.—R.V. “fitly framed and knit together.”
Bengel suggests that the first expression means the fitting together, and the second the
fastening together. Meyer, denying this, says the distinction is that the former corresponds
to the figure, the latter to the thing represented. The grammar, like the physiology, of this
verse is difficult. Are we to read, “The whole body . . . maketh increase of the body”?
Apparently we must, for the body “builds itself up in love.”
Ver. 17. That ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk.—In this and the two
following verses we have again the lurid picture of ch. ii. 2, 3: “in the vanity of their mind.”
“The creature is their sole delight,
Their happiness the things of earth.”
Ver. 18. Having the understanding darkened.—Remembering our Lord’s saying about the
single eye and the fully illuminated body we might say, “If the understanding—by which
all light should come—be darkened ‘how great is that darkness’!” Because of the
blindness.—R.V. “hardness.” The word describes the hard skin formed by constant
rubbing, as the horny hand of a blacksmith.
Ver. 19. Who being past feeling.—Having lost the “ache” which should always attend a
violation of law. An ancient commentator uses the now familiar word “anæsthetes” to
explain the phrase. Having given themselves over.—“Given” represents a word which
often connotes an act of treason—and “themselves” is emphatic—“the most tremendous
sacrifice ever laid on the altar of sin” (Beet). To lasciviousness.—“St. Paul stamps upon it
the burning word ἀσέλγεια
like a brand on the harlot’s brow” (Findlay). To work all
uncleanness with greediness.—R.V. margin, “to make a trade of all uncleanness with
covetousness.” Their “sins not accidental, but a trade”; and a trade at which they work
with a “desire of having more.”
Ver. 20. No not so.—As differently as possible. The same mode of speech which led St. Paul
to say to the Galatians, “Shall I praise you? . . . I praise you not.”—i.e. “I blame you
highly.”
Ver. 21. If so be that ye have heard Him.—The emphasis is on “Him”—“assuming,
that is, that it is He, and no other.”
Ver. 22. That ye put off concerning the former conversation.—It is no “philosophy of
clothes” inculcated here. It is a deliverance from “the body of death,” like stripping
oneself of his very integument. Conversation.—R.V. “manner of life.” Which is
corrupt.—R.V. much more strikingly—“waxeth corrupt.” St. Paul’s figure elsewhere is
appropriate—“like a gangrene eating into the flesh.”
Vers. 23, 24. The stripping off being complete, and the innermost core of the man being
renewed, the investiture may begin. The “habit” laid aside is never to be resumed, and the
new robes, “ever white,” are not to be soiled. Righteousness and true holiness.—R.V.
“Righteousness and holiness of truth.” See the “dealing truly” of ver. 15, R.V. margin.
Ver. 25. Putting away lying.—Findlay holds to it that “the lie, the falsehood, is
objective and concrete; not lying, or falsehood as a subjective act, habit, or quality.”
Members one of another.—Let there be “no schism in the body.”
Ver. 26. Let not the sun go down on your wrath.—The word for “wrath” is not the
usual one. It almost seems as if the compound form had reference to the matter “alongside
which” wrath was evoked. If “curfew” could ring out the fires of wrath at sundown, we
might welcome the knell. Meyer quotes the Pythagorean custom of making up a quarrel by
the parties “shaking hands” before sunset.
Ver. 28. Let him that stole steal no more.—Though we have not here the word for
“brigand,” we may think that the thieving had not always been without violence. That he
may have to give.—Not the profits of wickedness, but “the good” results of his own labour,
and may give it to the needy “with cheerfulness” (Rom. xii. 8), with a “hilarity” beyond
that of “those who divide the spoil” (Isa. ix. 3).
Ver. 29. Let no corrupt communication.—R.V. “speech.” Putrid speech can never come
forth from any but a bad person, “for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth
speaketh.” But that which is good to the use of edifying.—The word in season “fitly
spoken” has an æsthetic charm (Prov. xxv. 11), but it was more necessary to teach these
loquacious Asiatics the utilitarian end of having a human tongue. “It is the mere talk,
whether frivolous or pompous—spoken from the pulpit or the easy-chair—the incontinence
of tongue, the flux of senseless, graceless, unprofitable utterance that St. Paul desires to
arrest” (Findlay).
Ver. 30. Grieve not.—“Do not make Him sorrow.” A strong figure like that which says
that God was sorry that He had made man (Gen. vi. 6). Whereby ye are sealed.—Cf. ch. i. 13.
“In whom ye were sealed” (R.V.)
Ver. 31. Let all bitterness.—i.e. “of speech.” “Sarcasm I now see to be, in general, the
language of the devil,” said one liberally endowed with it. The satirist Hipponax—a native
of Ephesus—was called “the bitter.” Such a man as “speaks poniards,” and whose “every
word stabs,” may be brilliant and a formidable opponent; he will never be loved. Wrath
and anger.—The former is the fuming anger, “the intoxication of the soul,” as St. Basil calls
it; the latter is the state after the paroxysm is over, cherishing hatred and planning revenge.
Clamour and railing.—“Clamour” is the loud outcry so familiar in an Eastern concourse of
excited people (Acts xxiii. 9), like that hubbub in Ephesus when for two hours the populace
yelled, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians” (Acts xix. 28). “Railing,” blasphemy—speech that
is calculated to do injury. Malice.—“Badness.” “This last term is separated from the others
as generic and inclusive” (Beet).
Ver. 32. Be ye kind.—The word is found in Christ’s invitation to the weary—“My yoke is
easy.” It is characteristic of the Father that “He is kind to the unthankful.” The man
who drinks wine that is new and harsh says, “The old is good” (mellow). Tenderhearted.—Soon
touched by the weakness of others. Forgiving . . . as God . . . forgave you.—The
motive and measure of our forgiveness of injuries is the Divine forgiveness shown to
“all that debt” of our wrong-doing (Matt. xviii. 32).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 1–3.
The Dignity of the Christian Life—
I. Imposes the obligation to act in harmony with its lofty aims.—“Walk
worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called” (ver. 1). There is the practical,
stimulative influence of a high ideal. The Spirit within us has not only changed
our nature and cleansed our spiritual vision, but He has lifted our horizon,
formed within us distinct outlines of the Christian ideal after which we are to
labour, and furnished us with the moral forces with which we are to attain the
beauty and unity of a perfect spiritual character. We who are created in God’s
image and restored in Christ and made partakers of the Divine nature in Him,
are bound by condition of our creation and redemption to endeavour to be
like Him here that we may have the fruition of His glorious Godhead hereafter.
The true Christian cannot stoop to any meanness either in thought or action.
He is dignified without being proud.
II. Involves the practice of self-suppression.—1. In a just estimate
of ourselves. “With all lowliness and meekness.” In endeavouring to balance
the value and use of our powers and faculties, and in measuring the degree and
volume of our influence, we must observe humility—not a cringing cowardly
spirit which would deter us from the right for fear of doing wrong, but an
elevated sense of right with courage to perform it, and with humility to acknowledge
and confess when we are in the wrong. It does not mean the craven
surrender of our honest convictions and carefully formed judgment. We may
efface ourselves, but not the truth within us. An Italian bishop being asked the
secret of his habitual humility and patience replied, “It consists in nothing
more than in making good use of my eyes. In whatever state I am, I first of
all look up to heaven and remember that my principal business here is to get
there. I then look back down to earth and call to mind the space I shall shortly
occupy in it. I then look abroad into the world and observe what multitudes
there are who in all respects have more cause to be unhappy than myself. Thus
I learn where true happiness is placed, where all our cares must end, and how
very little reason I have to repine or complain.”
2. In a loving forbearance towards each other.—“With longsuffering, forbearing
one another in love” (ver. 2). The meek man may be severe with himself, and
his constant habit of self-suppression may render him somewhat impatient with
the unreasonable outbreaks of temper in others. Meekness must be balanced
and moderated with patience, and both virtues exercised in the all-pervading
element of love. Love softens every harshness, tones down asperity, and welds
together the Christian character in a firm but not too rigid a unity. “Bind
thyself to thy brother,” said Chrysostom. “Those who are bound together in
love bear all burdens lightly. Bind thyself to him and him to thee. Both are
in thy power; for whomsoever I will, I may easily make my friend.”
III. Demands an earnest striving after a peaceful spiritual unity.—“Endeavouring
to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (ver. 3).
Peace—“a silken cord binding into one the members of the Church; the
encompassing element of the unity of the Spirit” (Beet). The apostle repeatedly
and solemnly inculcates unity and peace on all the Churches, warns
them against contentions and divisions, and kindles into righteous indignation
against all those insidious and false teachers who, under the pretence of advocating
a higher piety really disturb and rend the Church of Christ. On what
an enormous scale are preparations made for war! We should not be less
diligent and elaborate in taking every precaution in promoting and maintaining
peace.
Lessons.—1. True humility is always dignified. 2. Personal happiness is not
the highest aim of the Christian life. 3. The noblest virtues of the Christian
character are not attained without earnest endeavour.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 1–3. True Church Life.—1. The
word “walk” is a very extensive
signification. It includes all our
inward and outward motions, all our
thoughts, words, and actions. It takes
in, not only everything we do, but
everything we either speak or think.
2. We are called to walk, first, “with
all lowliness,” to have the mind in us
which was also in Christ Jesus; not to
think of ourselves more highly than
we ought to think; to be little, and
poor, and mean, and vile in our own
eyes; to know ourselves as also we are
known by Him to whom all hearts are
opened; to be deeply sensible of our
own unworthiness. Who can be duly
sensible how much remains in him of
his natural enmity to God, or how far
he is still alienated from God by the
ignorance that is in him? 3. Yea,
suppose God has now thoroughly
cleaned our heart, and scattered the
last remains of sin; yet how can we be
sensible enough of our own helplessness,
our utter inability to all good,
unless we are every hour, yea, every
moment, endued with power from on
high? 4. When our inmost soul is
thoroughly tinctured therewith, it
remains that we “be clothed with
humility.” The word used by St. Peter
seems to imply that we be covered
with it as with a surtout; that we be
all humility, both within and without;
tincturing all we think, speak, and
do. Let all our actions spring from
this fountain; let all our words
breathe this spirit; that all men may
know we have been with Jesus, and
have learned of Him to be lowly in
heart. 5. And being taught of Him
who teacheth as never man taught, to
be meek as well as lowly in heart.
This implies not only a power over
anger, but over all violent, turbulent
passions. It implies the having all
our passions in due proportion; none
of them either too strong or too weak,
but all duly balanced with each other,
all subordinate to reason, and reason
directed by the Spirit of God. 6. Walk
with all “longsuffering.” This is nearly
related to meekness, but implies something
more. It carries on the victory
already gained over all your turbulent
passions, notwithstanding all the
powers of darkness, all the assaults of
evil men or evil spirits. It is patiently
triumphant over all opposition, and
unmoved though all the waves and
storms thereof go over you. 7. The
“forbearing one another in love”
seems to mean, not only the not resenting
anything, and the not avenging
yourselves; not only the not injuring,
hurting, or grieving each other, either
by word or deed, but also the bearing
one another’s burdens, yea, and lessening
them by every means in our power.
It implies the sympathising with them
in their sorrows, afflictions, and infirmities;
the bearing them up when,
without our help, they would be liable
to sink under their burdens. 8. Lastly,
the true members of the Church of
Christ “endeavour,” with all possible
diligence, with all care and pains, with
unwearied patience, to “keep the unity
of the Spirit in the bond of peace,” to
preserve inviolate the same spirit of
lowliness and meekness, of longsuffering,
mutual forbearance, and love;
and all these cemented and knit
together by that sacred tie—the peace
of God filling the heart. Thus only
can we be and continue living members
of that Church which is the body of
Christ. 9. Does it not clearly appear
from this whole account why, in the
ancient creed commonly called the
Apostles’, we term it the universal or
catholic Church, “the holy catholic
Church”? The Church is called holy,
because it is holy, because every member
thereof is holy, though in different
degrees, as He that called them is
holy. How clear this is! If the
Church, as to the very essence of it, is
a body of believers, no man that is not
a Christian believer can be a member
of it. If this whole body be animated
by one Spirit, and endued with one
faith, and one hope of their calling, then
he who has not that Spirit and faith
and hope is no member of this body.
It follows, that not only no common
swearer, no Sabbath-breaker, no drunkard,
no whoremonger, no thief, no liar,
none that lives in any outward sin, but
none that is under the power of anger
or pride, no lover of the world—in a
word, none that is dead to God—can be
a member of His Church.—Wesley.
Brotherly Love in Action.
I. Walk in lowliness.—Humble
thoughts of ourselves, of our own
knowledge, goodness, and importance
are necessary to Christian peace and
union. We shall not despise our
brethren for their want of the internal
gifts or external advantages we enjoy.
We shall not lean to our own understanding;
but, conscious of our liability
to err, we shall be attentive to instruction
and reproof, open to conviction,
ready to retrace our errors and
confess our faults.
II. Walk in meekness—in a prudent
restraint and government of the
passions. We shall not be easily provoked,
our resentments will not be
sudden, without cause or without
bounds. If a variance happens, we
shall stand ready to be reconciled. We
shall be cautious not to give, and slow
to take offence. In matters of religion
our zeal will be tempered with
charity.
III. To our meekness we must add
longsuffering and forbearance.—These
terms express the patient and exalted
exercise of meekness rather than
virtues distinct from it. We are not
only to be meek, but longsuffering in
our meekness; not only to restrain
anger under ordinary offences, but to
suppress malice and forbear revenge
under the most provoking injuries.
IV. We must endeavour to keep
the unity of the Spirit in the bond of
peace.—Not unity of opinion—this is
not possible, nor reasonable to be expected,
in the present state of mankind;
but unity of spirit, of heart and
affection, disposing us to preserve the
bond of peace and maintain all the
duties of Christian fellowship, whatever
differences of sentiment take
place. To the same purpose are the
apostle’s exhortations to all the
Churches, and especially to those in
which diversity of opinion concerning
ceremonial usages threatened their
external peace.—Lathrop.
Ver. 3. Peace the Bond of Unity.
I. There is a union of the visible
Church and the members thereof
among themselves, and this is twofold:
the one necessary to the being of a
Church and being of a Church member,
so that a Church cannot be a Church
nor a man a member without it, the
tie of which is God’s covenant with
the visible Church, and the Church’s
laying hold of it; the other necessary
to the well-being of the Church, which
is entertained by unity in judgment, in
heart and affection, by concurrences
in purposes and actings.
II. Neither fair pretences for peace
and union in the Church, nor seconded
but contradicted by practice, nor yet
careless endeavours easily broken by
difficulties, will God accept as the
duty required for preserving or restoring
unity.—There is no less called
for than the utmost of our serious
endeavours for that end, so that we
not only eschew what may give cause
of rending, but also be not easily provoked
when it is given by others, and
when a rent is made spare no pains
for having it removed, and weary not
under small appearances of success.
III. Whatever differences may fall
out among the members of the Church
they are not to break the bond of
peaceable walking one with another by
factious sidings, but ought to study
unanimous and joint practice in those
things wherein there is agreement;
and where this peaceable deportment
is, it tends to preserve what remains of
spiritual unity and to regain what is
already lost.—Fergusson.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 4–6.
The Sevenfold Unity of the Church reflected in the Trinity of Divine Persons.
I. One Spirit (ver. 4), the animating Principle of the one body (ver. 4)—the
Church; the Source of its life and ever-watchful Guardian of the Church’s unity;
the Inspirer of the one hope, “Even as ye are called in one hope of your
calling” (ver. 4). Where the Spirit of Christ dwells as a vitalising, formative
principle, He finds or makes for Himself a body. Let no man say, “I have
the spirit of religion, I can dispense with forms, I need no fellowship with men, I
prefer to walk with God.” God will not walk with men who do not care to walk
with His people. The oneness of communion amongst the people of Christ is
governed by a unity of aim. The old pagan world fell to pieces because it was
without hope; the golden age was in the past. No society can endure that
lives upon its memories, or that contents itself with cherishing its privileges.
Nothing holds men together like work and hope. Christianity holds out a
splendid crown of life. It promises our complete restoration to the image
of God, the redemption of the body with the spirit from death, and our entrance
upon an eternal fellowship with Christ in heaven. The Christian hope
supplies to men more truly and constantly than Nature in her most exalted
forms--
“The anchor of their purest thoughts, the nurse,
The guide, the guardian of their heart, and soul
Of all their moral being.”
The hope of our calling is a hope for mankind, nay, for the entire universe. We
labour for the regeneration of humanity. We look for the actual ingathering into
one in Christ of all things in all worlds, as they are already gathered in God’s
eternal plan. If it were merely a personal salvation that we had to seek,
Christian communion might appear to be an optional thing and the Church
no more than a society for mutual spiritual benefit. But seen in this larger
light, Church membership is of the essence of our calling (Findlay).
II. One Lord (ver. 5), or Master, whom we are called to serve. A consentaneous
and harmonious obedience to His mandates blends His servants into
one compact unity. One faith (ver. 5), one body of inviolable truth, one code of
Divine commands, one Gospel of promise, presenting one object of faith. One
baptism (ver. 5), one gateway of entrance into the company of believers forming
the one Church, one initiatory rite common to all. Christians may differ as to
the mode of baptism and the age at which it should be administered, but
all agree it is an institution of Christ, a sign of spiritual renewal, and a pledge
of the righteousness that comes by faith. Wherever the sacraments are duly
observed, there the supremacy of Christ’s rule is recognised, and this rule is the
basis on which future unity must be built.
III. One God, the supreme and final unity, who is “the Father of all,”
who is above all, and through all, and in you all (ver. 6). Above all—He
reigns supreme over all His people (Rom. ix. 5). Through all—informing,
inspiring, stimulating, and using them as instruments to work out His
purpose (Rom. xi. 36). In all—dwelling in and filling their hearts and the
ever-widening circle of their experience. “The absolute sovereignty of the
Divine Mind over the universe,” said Channing, “is the only foundation of hope
for the triumph of the human mind over matter, over physical influences, over
imperfection and death.” With what a grand simplicity the Christian conception
of the one God and Father rose above the vulgar pantheon, the swarm of
motley deities—some gay and wanton, some dark and cruel, some of supposed
beneficence, all infected with human passion and baseness—which filled the
imagination of the Græco-Asiatic pagans. What rest there was for the mind,
what peace and freedom for the spirit, in turning from such deities to the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! This was the very God whom the logic
of Greek thought and the practical instincts of Roman law and empire blindly
sought. Through ages He had revealed Himself to the people of Israel, who
were now dispersed amongst the nations to bear His light. At last He
declared His full name and purpose to the world through Jesus Christ. So the gods
many and lords many have had their day. By His manifestation the idols are
utterly abolished. The proclamation of one God and Father signifies the gathering
of men into one family of God. The one religion supplies the basis for one
life in all the world. God is over all, gathering all worlds and beings under the
shadow of His beneficent dominion. He is through all and in all; an omnipresence
of love, righteousness, and wisdom, actuating the powers of nature and
of grace, inhabiting the Church and the heart of men (Findlay).
Lessons.—1. In the moral as in the material world there is diversity in unity
and unity in diversity. 2. All phases of good find their consummation in an imperishable
unity. 3. To disturb the balance of unity is a great evil.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 4–6. The Unity of the Church.
I. There is one body.—The Church
is a body of which Christ is the Head,
and believers are the members. Though
Christians are formed into distinct
societies, they constitute but one body.
They are united to the Head by faith
and to their fellow-members by love.
II. There is one Spirit.—As all
members of the natural body are
animated by one soul, so all the
members of Christ’s body are sanctified,
strengthened, and led by the same
Spirit. Since there is one Spirit which
dwells in all Christians, all contention,
bitterness, and envy, all animosity,
division, and separation in the Church
are offences against the Holy Spirit.
III. There is one hope of our calling.—We
are all called by the same Word,
our hope is grounded on the same
promises, the object of our hope is the
same immortal life.
IV. There is one Lord.—Christ is
Lord of all by the same right. He has
bought us with a high price, redeemed
us by His own blood. There is no
respect of persons with him. We are
called to the same service, are under
the same laws, and must appear at the
same judgment.
V. There is one faith.—The same
Gospel is the rule of our faith, and this
all Christians profess to receive. The
faith of all true Christians is essentially
the same. The object of it is the Word
of God, the nature of it is receiving the
love of the truth, the effect of it is to
purify the heart.
VI. There is one baptism.—We are
all baptised in the name of Christ, and
He is not divided. May differ as to the
age at which persons become the subjects
of baptism and the manner of
administration, but regarding the design
of it we are one. Baptism intended
not to divide, but unite the whole
Christian world.
VII. There is one God and Father.—The
Father of the whole creation,
but in a more eminent sense the Father
of Christians. He is above all. He
reigns supreme. He is through all.
His essence pervades our frame, His
eyes search and try our souls, His influence
preserves our spirits. He is in all.
In all true Christians by His Spirit.
They are the temple of God, and His
Spirit dwelleth in them.—Lathrop.
Ver. 4. The Oneness of the Church.—1. All
the members of the Church
being one body is a strong argument
enforcing the duty of keeping peace
and unity; it being no less absurd for
Christians to bite and devour one
another than if the members of the
selfsame natural body should tear and
destroy one another. 2. As those in
nature are in a hopeless state, having
no right to heaven and happiness, so
the Gospel doth open to the person called
a large door of well-grounded hope,
that, whatever be his misery here, he
shall be perfectly blessed in the full
enjoyment of God for ever hereafter.
3. The joint aiming of the saints at
one mark should make them of one
mind and heart, seeing there is that in
glory which will suffice all. Their seeking
of one thing need be no occasion of
strife and emulation, but rather of
unity, for why should they strive
together who not only are brethren
but also heirs together of the grace of
life and shall one day reign together
in glory?—Fergusson.
One Body and One Spirit.
I. The unity or oneness of the Church
as set forth by the unity or oneness of
the body.—One life animates the whole.
The parts mutually subserve one
another, while the head thinks and
the heart beats for all. There is a
certain harmony existing between all
the members; they constitute a symmetry
among themselves, so that one
could not be taken away without destroying
the perfection of all the
others, more or less marring the grace
and beauty of the whole frame. So
the Church is one—one mystical body—having
one author, God; one Head,
which is Christ; and one informing
Spirit, the Holy Ghost; one country
towards which all its members are
travelling, heaven; one code of instructions
to guide them thither, the Word
of God; one and the same band of
enemies seeking to bar their passage,
the world, the flesh, and the devil.
Despite all miserable divisions, wherever
there is a man with true love to
God and man, any true affiance on
Christ, any true obedience to the Spirit
and His leadings, there exists a member
of this mystical body.
II. As in the human body there is
unity, so there is also variety, diversity,
multiplicity.—This is true of the
Church of Christ. Its different members
have different functions and offices,
and in performing these the Church
makes equable and harmonious growth.
Lessons.—1. As members of the same
body, let us not separate from brethren
in Christ. 2. If we are members one of
another, many are the debts as such we
owe the one to the other. (1) We owe one
another truth. (2) Love one to another.
(3) Honour one to another.—R. C. Trench.
Ver. 5. One Lord.
I. Christ is our Lord according to
every notion and acceptation of the
word “Lord.”—He is our Prince and
Governor, we are His subjects and
vassals; He is our Master, and we are
His servants; He is our Owner, or the
Possessor and Proprietary of us; He
is our Preceptor or Teacher; that is,
the Lord of our understanding, which
is subject to the belief of His dictates;
and the Lord of our practice, which is
to be directed by His precepts. He is
therefore also our Captain and Leader,
whose orders we must observe, whose
conduct we should follow, whose pattern
we are to regard and imitate in all
things.
II. Christ is also our Lord according
to every capacity or respect of nature
or office that we can consider appertaining
to Him.—1. He is our Lord
as by nature the Son of God, partaking
of the Divine essence and perfection.
2. He is our Lord as man, by the
voluntary appointment and free donation
of God His Father; in regard
to the excellency of His Person, and
to the merit of His performances.
3. He also, considered as God and man
united in one Person, is plainly our
Lord. 4. If we are to consider Him
as Jesus, our Saviour, that notion doth
involve acts of dominion, and thence
resulteth a title thereto. Nothing more
becomes a Lord than to protect and
save; none better deserves the right
and the name of a Lord than a Saviour.
5. Likewise, if He be considered as the
Christ, that especially implieth Him
anointed and consecrated to sovereign
dominion, as King of the Church.
III. Survey the several grounds
upon which dominion may be built,
and we shall see that upon all accounts
He is our Lord.—1. An uncontrollable
power and ability to govern is one
certain ground of dominion. 2. To
make, to preserve, to provide and
dispense maintenance, are also clear
grounds of dominion. 3. He hath acquired
us by free donation from God
His Father. 4. He hath acquired us
by just right of conquest, having subdued
those enemies unto whom (partly
by their fraud and violence, partly
from our own will and consent) we did
live enslaved and addicted. 5. He
hath also further acquired us to Himself
by purchase, having by a great
price bought us, ransomed us out of
sad captivity, and redeemed us from
grievous punishment due to us. 6. He
likewise acquired a lordship over us by
desert, and as a reward from God,
suitable to His performance of obedience
and patience, highly satisfactory
and acceptable to God. 7. He hath
acquired a good right and title to
dominion over us as our continual most
munificent benefactor. 8. Our Saviour
Jesus is not only our Lord by nature
and by acquisition in so many ways
(by various performances, deserts, and
obligations put on us), but He is also
so by our own deeds, by most free and
voluntary, most formal and solemn,
and therefore most obligatory acts of
ours. (1) If we are truly persuaded
that Christ is our Lord and Master,
we must then see ourselves obliged
humbly to submit unto and carefully
to observe His will, to attend unto and
to obey His law, with all readiness and
diligence. (2) If Christ be our Lord,
then are we not our own lords or our
own men; we are not at liberty, or
at our own disposal, as to our own
persons or our actions. (3) If Christ
be our Lord (absolutely and entirely
such), then can we have no other lords
whatever in opposition to Him, or in
competition with Him, or otherwise
any way than in subordination and
subserviency to Him. (4) If Christ be
our Lord, we are thereby disobliged,
yea, we are indeed prohibited, from
pleasing or humouring men, so as to
obey any command, to comply with
any desire, or to follow any custom of
theirs, which is repugnant to the will
or precept of Christ. (5) Finally, for
our satisfaction and encouragement,
we may consider that the service of
Christ is rather indeed a great freedom
than a service.—Barrow.
Ver. 6. God the Father.
I. God is the universal Father.—1. God
is the Father of all things, or
of us as creatures, as the efficient Cause
and Creator of them all. 2. The Father
of intellectual beings. He is styled
the Father of spirits; the angels, in
way of excellency, are called the sons
of God. 3. The Father in a more
especial manner to mankind. 4. The
Father of all good men, with a relation
being built upon higher grounds; for
as good they have another original
from Him, virtue springs in their
hearts from a heavenly seed, that
emendation and perfection of nature
is produced by His grace enlightening
and quickening them; they are
images of Him, resembling Him in
judgment and disposition of mind, in
will and purpose, in action and
behaviour, which resemblances argue
them to be sons of God and constitute
them such.
II. The uses of this truth.—1. It
may teach us what reverence, honour,
and observance are due from us to God,
in equity and justice, according to
ingenuity and gratitude. 2. This consideration
may instruct and admonish us
what we should be and how we should
behave ourselves, for if we be God’s
children it becometh us, and we are
obliged in our disposition and demeanour
to resemble, to imitate Him.
It is natural and proper for children to
resemble their parents in their complexion
and countenance, to imitate
them in their actions and carriage.
3. This consideration may raise us to
a just regard, esteem, and valuation of
ourselves; may inspire noble thoughts
and breed generous inclinations in us;
may withdraw us from mean, base,
and unworthy designs or practices;
may excite and encourage us to handsome,
brave, worthy resolutions and
undertakings suitable to the dignity
of our nature, the nobleness of our
descent, the eminence of so high a
relation, of so near an alliance to God.
4. This consideration is a motive to
humility, apt to depress vain conceit
and confidence in ourselves. If we are
God’s children, so as to have received
our beings, all our powers and abilities,
all our goods and wealth, both internal
and external, both natural and
spiritual, from His free disposal, so as
be continually preserved and maintained
by His providence to depend
for all our subsistence upon His care
and bounty, what reason can we have
to assume or ascribe anything to ourselves?
5. This consideration shows
us the reason we have to submit
entirely to the providence of God with
contentedness and acquiescence in every
condition. 6. Obligeth us to be patient
and cheerful in the sorest afflictions,
as deeming them to come from a
paternal hand, inflicted with great
affection and compassion, designed for
and tending to our good. 7. Shows
the reason we have to obey those precepts
which enjoin us to rely on God’s
providence. 8. Serves to breed and
cherish our faith, to raise our hope, to
quicken our devotion. For whom shall
we confide in if not in such a Father?
From whom can we expect good if not
from Him? To whom can we have
recourse so freely and cheerfully on
any occasion if not to Him? 9. Considering
this point will direct and
prompt us how to behave ourselves
towards all God’s creatures according to
their respective natures and capacities.
If God be the Father of all things,
they are all thence in some sort our
brethren, and so may claim from us
a fraternal affection and demeanour
answerable thereto.—Barrow.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 7–12.
The Gifts of Christ to His Church—
I. That each member of the Church possesses some gift from Christ.—“Unto
every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ”
(ver. 7). All are not alike talented, but each one has some gift of grace. Every
gift is not from earth, but from heaven; not from man, but from Christ. Look
not down, then, as swine to the acorns they find lying there, and never once up to
the tree they come from. Look up; the very frame of our body bears that way.
It is nature’s check to the body. “Graces are what a man is; but enumerate
his gifts and you will know what he has. He is loving, he has eloquence, or
medical skill, or legal knowledge, or the gift of acquiring languages, or that of
healing. You have only to cut out his tongue, or to impair his memory, and the
gift is gone. But you must destroy his very being, change him into another
man, obliterate his identity, before he ceases to be a loving man. Therefore you
may contemplate the gift separate from the man; you may admire it and despise
him. But you cannot contemplate the grace separate from the man” (F. W. Robertson).
“If facts allure thee, think how Bacon shined,
The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind.”—Pope.
The humblest member of the Church of Christ is not without his gift. The
grace of the Gospel elevates and sanctifies all his powers and opportunities, and
turns them into noblest uses.
II. That the gifts of Christ to His Church are distributed with the lavish
generosity of a conqueror returning from the field of victory (vers. 8–10).—We
have read of the profuse gifts of victorious warriors:—of Gonsalvo, the great
Spanish captain, whose unselfish prodigality was proverbial. “Never stint your
hand,” he was accustomed to say: “there is no way of enjoying one’s property like
giving it away”;—of Alexander the Great, who on one occasion gave a blank
draft to one of his generals with liberty to fill in any amount he chose. When
the treasurer, surprised at the enormous sum inserted, asked his imperial master
if there was not some mistake, he answered: “No; pay it, pay it; the man
honours me by assuming the inexhaustible resources of my empire”;—of
Belisarius, whose victories were always followed by liberal and extravagant
largesses. “By the union of liberality and justice,” writes Gibbon, “he acquired
the love of his soldiers, without alienating the affections of the people. The sick
and wounded were relieved with medicines and money, and still more efficaciously
by the healing visits and smiles of their commander. The loss of a weapon or
a horse was instantly repaired, and each deed of valour was rewarded by the rich
and honourable gifts of a bracelet or a collar, which were rendered more precious
by the judgment of Belisarius. He was endeared to the husbandmen by the
peace and plenty which they enjoyed under the shadow of his standard. Instead of
being injured, the country was enriched by the march of the Roman armies; and
such was the rigid discipline of their camp that not an apple was gathered from
the tree, not a path could be traced in the fields of corn. Victory by sea and
land attended his armies. He subdued Africa, Italy, and the adjacent islands, led
away captives the successors of Genseric and Theodoric, filled Constantinople
with the spoils of their palaces, and in the space of six years recovered half the
provinces of the Western empire”;—and of Aurelian, whose triumphant entry into
Rome after his victories in the East was the longest, most brilliant, and imposing
of any recorded in the annals of the empire, and was signalised by rich donations
to the army and the people; the Capitol and every other temple glittered with the
offerings of his ostentatious piety, and the temple of the sun alone received above
fifteen thousand pounds of gold. But who can measure the munificence of the
ascended Saviour, the Divine Conqueror, who, as the fruit of His unparalleled
victory, has scattered His gifts among men, to enrich them for ever? He gives
not grudgingly and sparingly, but after the measure of His own great nature.
He gives not for display but for blessing, and His smallest gift out-values the
most lavish donation of the richest earthly benefactor.
III. That the gifts of Christ qualify man for special work in His Church
(ver. 11).—The “apostles, prophets, evangelists” linked Church to Church and
served the entire body; the “pastors and teachers” had charge of local and
congregational affairs. The apostles, with the prophets, were the founders of the
Church. Their distinctive functions ceased when the foundation was laid and
the deposit of revealed truth was complete. The evangelistic and pastoral
callings remain; and out of them have sprung all the variety of Christian
ministries since exercised. Evangelists, with apostles or missionaries, bring
new souls to Christ and carry His message into new lands. Pastors and
teachers follow in their train, tending the ingathered sheep, and labouring
to make each flock that they shepherd, and every single man, perfect in
Christ Jesus.
IV. That the gifts of Christ furnish the full moral equipment of the members
of His Church (ver. 12).—Christ’s gifts of great and good men in every age have
been bestowed for a thoroughly practical purpose—“the perfecting of the saints,
the work of the ministry, the edifying of the body of Christ.” No one man has
all the gifts requisite for the full development of the Church; but it is the
privilege and honour of each worker to use his special gift for the general good.
The combination of gifts, faithfully and diligently employed, effects the desired
end. The Church must be built up, and this can be done only by the harmonious
use of the gifts of Christ, not by mere human expedients. “We may have
eloquent preaching, crowded churches, magnificent music, and all the superficial
appearance of a great religious movement, whilst the vaunted revival is only a
poor galvanised thing, a corpse twitching with a strange mimicry of life, but
possessed of none of its vital energy and power.” Gifts are dangerous without
the grace and wisdom to use them. Many a brilliant genius has gone down into
oblivion by the reckless abuse of his gifts. Christ endows His people with gifts
that they may use them for the increase and upbuilding of His Church, and
they must be exercised in harmony with the rules and purposes of the Divine
Architect. “Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that
build it.”
Lessons.—1. Christ’s estimate of His Church is seen in the spiritual riches He
has lavished upon it. 2. The gifts of each member of the Church are for the benefit
of all. 3. The gifts of Christ to His Church are the offerings of a boundless love.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Ver. 7. The Gospel according to Mark.—The
writers of the four Gospels completed
their work not for the sake of
making a literary reputation for themselves,
or of adding to the literary
masterpieces of the world, but for the
spiritual benefit of the Christian Church.
Christ our Lord sitting in the heavens,
seeing exactly what was wanted in the
apostolic Churches, and in the Church
of all time, seeing what was wanted in
the evangelists themselves if they were
to supply the Church’s wants, measured
out His gifts to the evangelists. Accordingly,
to each evangelist He gave
that special gift which was needed in
order to do his particular work. What
was the grace that was given to St.
Mark? It has been said that St.
Mark’s Gospel has no special character,
that it is the least original of the
four, that it is insipid, that it might
have been dispensed with without loss
to the harmony of the evangelical narrative.
Even St. Augustine has spoken
of it as an epitome of St. Matthew;
and his deservedly great authority has
obtained a currency of this opinion in
the Western Church. But in point of
fact, although St. Mark has more in
common with St. Matthew than with
any other evangelist, he is far from
being a mere epitomist of the first
Gospel. He narrates at least three independent
incidents which St. Matthew
does not notice. He has characteristics
which are altogether his own.
I. St. Mark is remarkable for his
great attention to subordinate details.—He
supplies many particulars which
evangelists who write more at length
altogether omit. From him, for instance,
we learn the name of Jairus,
the ruler of the synagogue, and of
Bartimæus, the blind man healed by
our Lord. From him we learn how
Simon of Cyrene was related to well-known
Christians of the next generation—Alexander
and Rufus. He it is
who tells us that the woman of Canaan
whose petition our Lord so indulgently
received was a Syrophenician, and that
our Lord was popularly spoken of as
the carpenter. He is careful to point
out more minutely than do others the
scenes in which our Lord took part on
four occasions. He describes particularly
our Lord’s look. He notes the
express affections of our Lord’s human
soul, His love for the rich young man,
His anger with the Pharisee, His
pity for the leper, His groaning in
spirit on two separate occasions. And
here we have something more than a
literary peculiarity—than a style of
writing which corresponds to those
pre-Raphaelite artists who render every
leaf and every blade of grass with
scrupulous accuracy. I say that we
are here face to face with a moral and
spiritual excellence which forms part
of the special grace given to St. Mark.
Close attention to details in any workman
means a recognition of the sacredness
of fact. Where details are lost
sight of, or blurred over, in the attempt
to produce a large, general, indistinct
effect, there is always a risk of indifference
to the realities of truth.
The very least fact is sacred, whatever
be its relative importance to other
facts. But in a life like that of our
Lord, everything is necessarily glowing
with interest, however trivial it might
appear to be in any other connection.
This care for details is thus the expression
of a great grace—reverence for
truth, reverence for every fragment of
truth that touched the human life of
the Son of God.
II. St. Mark is remarkable for the
absence of a clearly discernible purpose
in his Gospel, over and above
that of furnishing a narrative of our
Lord’s conflict with sin and evil during
His life as man upon the earth. The
three other evangelists have each of
them a manifest purpose in writing
of this kind. St. Matthew wishes to
show to the Jews that our Lord is the
Messiah of the Jewish prophecy. St.
Luke would teach the Gentile Churches
that He is the Redeemer whose saving
power may be claimed through faith
by the whole race of men. St. John
is, throughout, bent upon showing that
He speaks and acts while in the flesh
as the eternal Word or Son of God, who
has been made flesh and was dwelling
among us. And it has been said that
St. Mark’s narrative is an expansion of
those words of Peter—that Jesus of
Nazareth “went about doing good,
and healing all that were oppressed of
the devil, for God was with Him.”
Probably this is true; but then these
words describe not a purpose beyond
the narrative, but the substance of the
narrative itself. St. Mark simply
records a sacred life as he had learned
it from the lips of Peter, not for any
purpose beyond the narrative itself; but
whatever it might prove beyond itself, it
was to a believing Christian unspeakably
precious.
III. A few words in conclusion.—“Unto
every one of us is given grace
according to the measure of the gift
of Christ.” As no two human souls
exactly resemble each other, so no two
souls are endowed in an exactly similar
way. And for the difference of endowment
let us be sure there is always
a reason in the Divine Mind, for each
soul in every generation has its appointed
work to do, without itself as
within itself; and it is endowed with
exactly the grace, whether of mind or
heart, which will best enable it to do
that particular work. Some may think
that they have received little or nothing—some
gift so small as to be scarcely
appreciable. The probability is that
they have not yet considered what God
has done for them. They have spent
their time in thinking of what He has
withheld, instead of thinking of what
He has given; of what they might have
been, instead of what they are. Certainly
the grace which our Lord gave
to St. Paul when he wrote his great
epistle to the Romans was immensely
greater than that which He gave to
Tertius, the poor amanuensis, who took
it down from the apostle’s dictation,
and who inserts a greeting from himself
just at the end of the document.
And yet Tertius, too, had his part in
the work—a humble but a very real
part, according to the measure of the
gift of Christ. He did not say, “Because
I am not the eye I am not of
the body.” He made the most of the
grace which was certainly his. And
others may think, rightly or wrongly,
that unto them very great graces have
been given according to the gift of
Christ, that they are the hands or the
eyes of the holy body, the men who
do its work, or the men who discern
the truths which support its life. Well,
if it be so, this is a reason, not for confident
satisfaction, but for anxiety.
Such gifts as these are edge tools;
they may easily prove the ruin of their
possessors. For all such gifts an
account must one day most assuredly
be rendered; and if self has appropriated
that which belongs to God or
to His Church, it cannot but entail
misery on the possessor. If a man has
wealth, or ability, or station; much
more if he has cultivated intelligence
and generous impulses; most of all if
his heart has been fixed by the love
of God, and the unseen is to him a
serious reality, and he has hopes and
motives which really transcend the
frontiers of the world of sense, then,
assuredly, his safety lies in remembering
that he is a trustee who will one
day have to present his account at the
great audit, when the eminence of his
gifts will be the exact measure of his
responsibility. Eighteen centuries have
passed since St. Mark went to reign
somewhere beneath his Master’s throne
whose life he had described; but he has
left us the result of his choicest gift—he
has left us his Gospel. What has it—what
have the four Gospels—hitherto
done for each of us? It is recorded
that John Butler, an excellent Church
of England layman of the last generation,
stated on his death-bed that on
looking back on his life the one thing
he most regretted was that he had not
given more time to the careful study
of the life of our Lord in the four
evangelists. Probably he has not
been alone in that regret; and if the
truth were told, many of us would
have to confess that we spend much
more thought and time upon the daily
papers, which describe the follies and
errors of the world, than on the records
of that Life which was given for the
world’s redemption. The festival of an
evangelist ought to suggest a practical
resolution that, so far as we are concerned,
the grace which he received,
according to the measure of the gift of
Christ, shall not, please God, be lost.
Ten minutes a day seriously spent on
our knees, with the Gospel in our
hands, will do more to quicken faith,
love, reverence, spiritual and moral
insight and power, than we can easily
think.—H. P. Liddon.
Vers. 9, 10. The contrasted Humiliation
and Exaltation of Christ.
I. The circumstances of the Saviour’s
depression from His original state.—We
say that a person stoops, that he
bends, that he sinks. Moral correspondencies
to these actions are understood.
They are condescensions.
Immanuel is the name of our Saviour
when born into our world and dwelling
in it—God with us. A local
residence is thus described. And we
are informed of the degree which marks
His coming down from heaven, of the
manner in which He came into the
world—He descended into the lower
parts of the earth. What lowliness is
this! Similar terms are employed in
other portions of the inspired volume;
by collating them with those of the
text we shall most satisfactorily determine
its sense.
1. The incarnation of Christ may be
thus expressed.—To what did He not
submit? By what was He not
buffeted? What insult did not disfigure
His brow? What shade did not cloud
His countenance? What deep waters
did not go over His soul? His was
humanity in its severest pressures and
humblest forms.
2. This form of language may denote
the death of Christ.—It is the ordinary
phrase of the Old Testament; “They
shall go into the lower parts of the
earth: Thou hast laid me in the lowest
pit, in darkness, in the deeps.” Does
it not seem strange that His soul should
be commended hence who had often
bound death to His bidding and summoned
from the grave its prey? He
is brought low to the dust of death.
The erect figure is prostrated. The
instinctive life is arrested. That
mysterious frame—related to the infinite
and the Divine temple of all greatness,
shrine of all sanctity—that “Holy
Thing” sleeps in death.
3. This style may be intended to intimate
that burial to which He yielded.—“Lest
I become like them that go
down into the pit.” “So must the
Son of man be in the heart of the
earth.” He has made His grave with
the wicked, and with the rich in His
death! He is put away into darkness.
He is held of death in its gloomy
chambers. He is as a victim and a
prey. It is a prison-keep.
4. The separation of the Redeemer’s
body and spirit may be described in
these words.—We mark in this departure
of His soul the simple requirement
of death. It could not be retained.
It descended into the lower
parts of the earth. This is the reverse
of resurrection and heavenward flight.
It was humiliation. These are the
gradations of His descent. These are
the “lower parts of the earth” to
which He declined. This is His coming
forth from the Father! This is
His coming down from heaven! This
is His coming into the world! His
measureless surrender of claims! His
inconceivable renunciation of honours!
Stooping to inferior and still inferior
levels of ignominy! Plunging to deeper
and still deeper abysses of shame!
II. The glory of His subsequent
exaltation.—1. It is in itself an absolute
expression of love.
2. It justifies an expectation of surpassing
benefits.
3. The act regulates and secures its
own efficiency.
4. This act is to be regarded as of
incomparable worth and excellence.—The
mission of Christ contemplated the
highest principles which can direct the
Divine conduct. He came to vindicate
that character which to conceive aright
is the happiness of all creatures—to
uphold and avenge that law which
cannot be infringed without an utter
loss of good and overthrow of order—to
atone for sin whose slight and impunity
would have been the allowance of infinite
mischiefs and evils—to bring in
an everlasting righteousness adequate
to the justification of the most guilty,
and of the most multiplied objects who
needed it—leaving it for ever proved
that no rule nor sanction of God’s moral
government can be violated without
a necessary and meet resentment!
His ascension was a radiant triumph.
Scarcely is it more descried than His
resurrection. We catch but a few
notes of the resounding acclaim, we
mark but a few fleeces of the glory-cloud,
we recognise but a few attendants
of the angel-train. With that laconic
force which characterises holy writ, it
is simply recorded, “Who is gone into
heaven.”
III. The reciprocal influence of these
respective facts.—“The same” was
He who bowed Himself to these indignities
and who seized these rewards.
And this identity is of the greatest
value. Not only do we hail Him in
His reinstatement in original dignities,
but in the augmentation of His glories.
Deity was never so beheld before.
There is a combination and a form
of the Divine perfections entirely new.
We repine that He is not here. We
forget that it is expedient that He
should go away. Heaven alone provides
scope for His undertakings and
channel for His influences. There
must He abide until the restitution
of all things. But nothing of His
sympathy or His grace do we forego.—R. W. Hamilton.
Vers. 9, 10. The Ascension and its
Results.
I. With respect to the new heavens
and the new earth, what may we
not infer from the ascension of Christ
in full integrity of His nature above
all heavens with respect to the
conversion and transformation and ennobling
of this material?—The nature
and history of His person revealed the
relations clearly between heaven and
earth, between God and man, between
the material and the spiritual. We
cannot for a moment look upon the
transformation and exaltation of
Christ’s nature as an isolated fact
dissociated from the restitution and
exaltation of all things spoken of in
His Word. The nature with which
He rose from the dead and ascended
into heaven was the same nature in
which He was crucified, though glorified
and swallowed up of life. Must we
not say, then, that the body which
ascended in relation to the body which
was crucified and laid in the grave may
illustrate the relation of the present
heavens and the new earth? And, in
accordance with this idea, are there
not every way most wonderful changes
and transformations of which the
ascension of Christ’s body seems to be
the fulfilment and crown and also the
firstfruits? The flower from its imprisoned
bud, the insect from its grovelling
form, light out of darkness, electricity
from ponderable elements, the
strange affinities of matter striving to
break forth from their captivity, the
unerring instincts of animal life held,
as it were, in bondage—all seem to
point with prophetic finger to a future
deliverance and ennobled state and
condition whilst meekly waiting, but
with earnest expectation, with the
whole creation for the deliverance and
glorious liberty of the sons of God.
The Gospel therefore contains a Gospel
for nature as well as for man—the
prediction of the day when the strife of
elements shall cease, when the powers
of darkness shall be swallowed up of
life, when the lion shall lie down with
the lamb, when the tares shall no
longer grow with the wheat, when
creation, now so weary, shall lift up
her head and rejoice in the redemption
for which she now groans and travails.
II. If we cannot dissociate the
history of Jesus from the history of
the earth, much less can it be dissociated
from the history of mankind.—He
is humanity, root and crown.
Humanity exists nowhere else but in
Him. No aggregate of men make
humanity, nor can personality be
ascribed to humanity except in Him.
Individual men may have a personality,
but humanity is only an idea except
it exists in Him who is its root and
crown; and it is in this sense that He is
spoken of, and that He speaks of Himself
as, the Son of man. In His ascension,
therefore, which carries as a
necessary presupposition all the facts
of His history, mankind is delivered
from its curse and from bondage.
Identity of nature and reciprocity of
choice now constitute the most intimate
union and most blessed fellowship of
which we are conscious, and it is the
fair offshoot, the true type of that
which is to be the highest, to which He
is exalted above all heavens, from
which height He has promised to gather
together our common humanity. In
such and for such a relation He is
exalted to the throne of universal
dominion as the Bridegroom of mankind,
to be the Head over all things to
His Church, which is His body, the
fulness of Him which filleth all in all.
III. What may we not learn from
the fact of Christ’s ascension—not
merely with respect to the new heavens
and the new earth, not merely with
respect to mankind and its history, but
with respect to the government and
providence of earth? If all nature is
gathered up and represented in human
nature, and if all human nature is
gathered up and represented in the
Son of man, and if the Son of man
resteth and sitteth upon the throne
of universal dominion, then, my brethren,
the conclusion is as direct as it is clear,
that all things must be working
together in the interests of His kingdom
and of His Church, that all
things have but one purpose and one
end to which the whole creation moves.
We may say with Herbert:
"For us the winds do blow,
The earth does rest, heavens, move, and fountains flow;
Nothing we see but means our good—
'Tis our delight or has our treasure.
The whole is either cupboard of our food
Or cabinet of pleasure."
These lines contain as deep a philosophy
as they do good poetry. “All things
unto our flesh are kind in their descent
and being.” As they descend to us
they bless our lower nature, but as we
follow them in their ascent they bless
our minds. And in history are there
not changes similar to and commensurate
with those which we have seen
in nature, and all subordinated to one
end? Mighty nations and kingdoms
have arisen and passed away, and
passed away, we might add, in the
greatness of their might. What strange
development, as it has well been asked,
is it that the power of the world should
rise to a great height of glory, and, not
able to sustain it, pass away? Because
they knew not God—because they
were prejudicial to the interests of
man. The present state and prospects
of the world are but the results of
all its past history, of the action and
reaction, the strife and ceaseless conflict,
which have been going on from the
first—the strife and ceaseless conflict
between the spirit of man’s revolt
in all the forms of will-worship and
idolatrous power, and the returning
spirit of allegiance towards God and
His kingdom of life and love. On the
one hand, therefore, we have a series
of rapid and mighty developments of
the very power which destroyed them
when at the very height of their glory;
on the other hand, we have the continuous
and silent growth and expansion
of the same ideas—all-conquering
ideas and all-conquering beliefs personally
embodied from the first in men
confessing their allegiance to God.—Dr. Pulsford.
Ver. 10. The Humiliation and Exaltation
of Christ.
I. Christ’s humiliation.—Implied
in the words, “He that descended.”
These words bear the same sense
with those of Ps. cxxxix. 15, and
may be properly taken for Christ’s
incarnation and conception in the
womb of the Virgin.—1. Because other
expositions may be shown to be unnatural,
forced, or impertinent, and
there is no other besides this assignable.
2. Since Paul here uses David’s
words it is most probable he used them
in David’s sense. 3. The words descending
and ascending are so put together
in the text that they seem to intend a
summary of Christ’s whole transaction
in man’s redemption, begun in His
conception and consummated in His
ascension.
II. Christ’s glorious advancement
and exaltation.—“He ascended far
above all heavens” to the most eminent
place in dignity and glory in the
highest heaven.
III. The qualification and state of
Christ’s person in reference to both
conditions.—He was the same, showing
the unity of the two natures in the
same person.
IV. The end of Christ’s ascension.—“That
He might fill all things.” All
things may refer—1. To the Scripture
prophecies and predictions. 2. To the
Church as He might fill that with His
gifts and graces. 3. To all things in
the world. This latter interpretation
preferred. He may be said to fill all
things—1. By the omnipresence of
His nature and universal diffusion of
His Godhead. 2. By the universal
rule and government of all things
committed to Him as Mediator upon
His ascension.—South.
Vers. 11, 12. The Work of the Ministry.
I. It is evident that public teachers
in the Church are to be a distinct order
of men.—Christ has given some pastors
and teachers. None has a right
publicly to teach in the Church but
those who are called, sent, authorised
to the work in the Gospel way. All
Christians are to exhort, reprove, and
comfort one another as there is occasion;
but public teaching in the Church
belongs peculiarly to some—to those
who are given to be pastors and
teachers.
II. Public teachers are here called
Christ’s gifts.—“He gave some pastors
and teachers.” The first apostles were
commissioned immediately by Christ.
They who were thus commissioned of
Heaven to preach the Gospel were
authorised to ordain others. Christ
gave pastors and teachers, not only to
preach His Gospel, but to train up and
prepare holy men for the same work.
III. Ministers are to be men endued
with gifts suitable to the work to
which they are called.—As in the
early days of the Gospel public teachers
were called to extraordinary services,
so they were endued with extraordinary
gifts; but these gifts were only
for a season. As the business of
a minister is to teach men the things
which Christ has commanded in the
Scriptures, so it is necessary he
himself should be fully instructed in
them. In the early days, as there
were evangelists who went forth to
preach the Gospel where Christ had
not been named, so there were pastors
and teachers who had the immediate
care of Churches already established.
IV. The great object of the ministry
is the building up of the Church of
Christ.—The ministry is intended for
the improvement of saints, as well as
for the conversion of sinners. The
apostle mentions also the unity of the
knowledge of Christ. We must not
rest in attainments already made, but
continually aspire to the character of
a perfect man, to the measure of the
stature of the fulness of Christ.—Lathrop.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 13–16.
True Christian Manhood—
I. Attained by the unity of an intelligent faith in Christ.—1. This faith must
be based on knowledge. “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the
knowledge of the Son of God” (ver. 13). A faith, so called, not based on
knowledge is fanaticism. True faith is the result of conviction—a profound
consciousness of the truth. Many reach this stage. They have heard the
evidence, examined it, and are clearly persuaded of its truth; but they never get
beyond that. They are like the neap tide that comes rolling in as if it would
sweep everything before it; but when it arrives at a certain point, it stops, and
with all the ocean at its back it never passes the mark where it is accustomed
to pause. It is well to get to the neap-tide mark of conviction; but there is no
salvation till the soul is carried by the full spring tide of conviction into a
voluntary and complete surrender to Christ. It is weak, it is cowardly, when
convinced of the right, not to do it promptly and heartily. Faith acquires its
full-rounded unity when it is exercised, not on any abstract truth, but on a
Person who is the living embodiment of all truth. The final object of faith is
“the Son of God,” and any truth is valuable only as it helps us to Him. Christ
has Himself revealed the truth essential to be believed in order to salvation: He
is Himself that truth.
2. Perfect manhood is a complete Christ-likeness.—“Unto a perfect man, unto
the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (ver. 13). Man is so great
that he is perpetually striving after a loftier ideal; nothing that has limits can
satisfy him. “It is because there is an infinite in him which with all his
cunning he cannot quite bury under the finite. Will the whole finance
ministers and upholsterers and confectioners of modern Europe undertake in
joint-stock company to make one shoeblack happy? They cannot accomplish
it above an hour or two; for the shoeblack also has a soul quite other than
his stomach, and would require, if you consider it for his permanent satisfaction
and saturation, simply this allotment, no more and no less—God’s infinite
universe altogether to himself, therein to enjoy infinitely and fill every wish as
fast as it arose. Try him with half a universe of an omnipotence, he sets to
quarrelling with the proprietor of the other half and declares himself the most
maltreated of men” (Carlyle). True manhood does not consist in the development
of a fine physique, or a brilliant mentality, or in the pursuit of heroic
ambitions. It lies in the nobleness of the soul at peace with God, seeking in
all things to please Him, and to possess and exhibit the mind of Christ. The
pagan hero is the warrior, the ruler, the poet, the philosopher; the Christian
hero is the Christ-like man. The supreme type of manhood is Christ-likeness.
The ideal is conceived by faith, and the actual is attained only by the exercise
of the same grace.
II. Superior to the childish vacillation induced by deceptive teaching
(ver. 14).—The false teachers played with truth, as men play with dice, with the
reckless indifference of gamblers, and they and their victims were swayed to
and fro, with ruin for the ultimate goal. Like a rudderless ship they were
tossed about at the caprice of every current, with the inevitable result of
wreckage among the rocks and quicksands. Professing a zeal for truth, they
deceived themselves and others by ever changing their point of view, and craftily
avoiding the practical bearing of truth in the aims to change the heart and
reform the life. The moment the application of truth pressing upon the conscience
made them uncomfortable, they tacked about and sailed off under another
issue. As the restless seaweed, waving to and fro in the ever-changing tide, can
never grow to the dignity of a tree, so those who were swayed by every changing
phase of error can never grow up to the strength and stability of true Christian
manhood. We can sympathise with the doubts and perplexities of an earnest
seeker after truth; but our sympathy changes into impatience when we discover
that the seeker is more in search of novelty than truth, of variety rather than
certainty. To be for ever in doubt is to be in the fickle stage of mental and
moral infancy. It is the worst phase of childishness.
III. It is a continual growth in the truth and love of Christ (vers. 15, 16).—It
is the high distinction of man that he is susceptible of almost unlimited growth
in mental and moral attainments. One of the greatest distances between
animalism and man is seen in the unbridged gulf of progress. The animal
remains where he was, but man has been progressing in every department of life
from the very first. There is between them all the breadth of history. The
animal builds its nest as it ever did, the bee by the same marvellous instinct
constructs its geometrical cells now as at the first; but man is a genius—he
creates. His first rude efforts in shaping his dwellings have gone on progressing
and improving until we have the architectural development of to-day.
In every kind of art it is the same—rude flint knives, lance heads, needles,
were his first weapons and implements; to them succeeded bronze, and then
iron—each marking stages in that history of progress up to the beautiful cutlery,
stores, and arsenals of the present day. The animal roars or chatters to-day as
it has done all along. It has made no progress towards intelligent speech—a
Rubicon the animal will never cross. But man, who began with one speech,
and a very limited vocabulary of words, has developed speech into the great
languages of ancient and modern literature. A wider gulf than this is hardly
conceivable. But the moral growth of man is more remarkable. The era of
the Gospel is a revelation of the power of love. With the ancients a mere
sentiment, Christianity teaches that love is the essence of religion; and that
nature is the manliest and noblest that advances in the knowledge of Divine
truth and in the self-sacrificing love of Christ. The whole fabric of the
Christian character is built up in the ever-increasing exercise of Christ-like love.
Lessons.—Christian manhood is—1. Acquired by an intelligent faith in Christ.
2. Developed by an imitation of Christ. 3. Maintained and strengthened by constant
fidelity to Christ.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 13–16. The Growth of the Church.
I. The goal of the Church’s life
(ver. 13).—The mark at which the
Church is to arrive is set forth in a two-fold
way—in its collective and its individual
aspects. We must all unitedly
attain the oneness of the faith and the
knowledge of the Son of God; and we
must attain, each of us, a perfect manhood,
the measure of the stature of the
fulness of Christ. All our defects are,
at the bottom, deficiencies of faith.
We fail to apprehend and appropriate
the fulness of God in Christ. The
goal of the regenerate life is never
absolutely won; it is hid with Christ
in God. But there is to be a constant
approximation to it, both in the individual
believer and in the body of
Christ’s people. And a time is coming
when that goal will be practically
attained, so far as earthly conditions
allow. The Church after long strife
will be reunited, after long trial will
be perfected. Then this world will have
had its use, and will give place to the
new heavens and earth.
II. The malady which arrests its
development (ver. 14).—The childishness
of so many Christian believers
exposed them to the seductions of error,
and ready to be driven this way and
that by the evil influences active in the
world of thought around them. So
long as the Church contains a number
of unstable souls, so long she will
remain subject to strife and corruption.
At every crisis in human thought there
emerges some prevailing method of
truth, or of error, the resultant of
current tendencies, which unites the
suffrages of a large body of thinkers,
and claims to embody the spirit of the
age. Such a method of error our own
age has produced as the outcome of the
anti-Christian speculation of modern
times, in the doctrines current under
the names of Positivism, Secularism, or
Agnosticism. Modern Agnosticism removes
God farther from us, beyond the
reach of thought, and leaves us with
material nature as the one positive and
accessible reality, as the basis of life
and law. Faith and knowledge of the
Son of God it banishes as dreams of our
childhood. This materialistic philosophy
gathers to a head the unbelief of
the century. It is the living antagonist
of Divine revelation.
III. The means and conditions of
its growth (vers. 15, 16).—To the craft
of false teachers St. Paul would have
his Churches oppose the weapons only
of truth and love. Sincere believers,
heartily devoted to Christ, will not fall
into fatal error. A healthy life instinctively
repels disease. Next to the
moral condition lies the spiritual condition
of advancement—the full recognition
of the supremacy and sufficiency
of Christ. He is the perfect ideal for
each, the common source of life and
progress for all. He is the Head of the
Church and the heart of the world.
Another practical condition of Church
growth is organization—“all the body
fitly framed and knit together.” A
building or a machine is fitted together
by the adjustment of its parts. A body
needs, besides this mechanical construction,
a pervasive life, a sympathetic
force, knitting it together. And so it
is in love that this body of the Church
builds up itself. The perfect Christian
and the perfect Church are taking
shape at once. Each of them requires
the other for its due realisation. The
primary condition of Church health
and progress is that there shall be an
unobstructed flow of the life of grace
from point to point through the tissues
and substance of the entire frame.—Findlay.
Vers. 13–15. Christian Manhood.
I. Christian manhood is a growth.—1. A
growth having its inception
in the simple fact of becoming a
Christian. This is a decided advance
upon the most moral and cultivated
state otherwise attainable. It involves
the quickening into a new life which is
to grow. 2. A growth marking a continual
advancement till we all come in
the unity—the respect in which one
grows—the union, conjunction of faith
and of knowledge. 3. A growth resulting
from culture under Divinely
appointed agencies. The most splendid
growth, other things being equal, is the
result of the highest culture. The
highest culture is possible only through
the most rigid conformity to the laws
of development and the appliance of
the best agencies. 4. A growth the
standard of whose completeness is the
fulness of Christ. The stature—the
adultness, the full-grown manhood of
Christ—is the standard of growth,
whose attainment is the Christian’s
noblest zeal.
II. The elements of Christian manhood.—1. Largeness—in
the Christian’s
views of truth, of man’s need, of
Christ’s work, of schemes and plans
for its greater furtherance.
2. Dignity.—That deep, inwrought
sense of the true worth and greatness
of his nature, as a renewed man, and
of his position as a child of God
and joint-heir with Christ. Christian
ethics are the best ethics; highest,
purest, noblest, safest. He lives by
these naturally who has a well-developed
Christian manhood.
3. Courageousness and strength.—Courage
makes a man put forth his
best strength, while strength enables
courage to achieve its best deeds.
III. The outworking of Christian
manhood.—It gives:—
1. Steadfastness.—No more children.
No more carried about—borne round
and round as in the swiftly whirling eddy
of the sea—by every wind of doctrine.
2. Sincerity.—“Speaking the truth
in love” refers both to the sincerity of
life and our relation to the truth.
3. A further growth.—As the full-grown
tree, leaves and blossoms and
bears; as fruit, after it is full-grown,
mellows, matures, sweetens; ripening
as wheat for the garner.—J. M. Frost.
Vers. 14–16. Christian Maturity.
I. The negative part of this description.—1. Christians
must not
remain children.—In humility, meekness,
and teachableness, let them be
children; but in understanding, constancy,
and fortitude they should be
men. Children have but little knowledge
and a weak judgment. They
believe hastily and act implicitly. They
are governed by passion more than
reason, by feeling more than judgment.
2. The apostle cautions that we be
not tossed to and fro like a ship rolling
on the waves.—The man without principle,
knowledge, and judgment is at
the mercy of every rude gust. He is
driven in any direction, as the wind
happens to blow. He makes no port,
but is every moment in danger of
shipwreck.
3. We must not be carried about with
every wind of doctrine.—False doctrines,
like winds, are blustering and unsteady.
They blow from no certain point, but
in all directions, and frequently shift
their course. The light and chaffy
Christian, the hypocritical and unprincipled
professor, is easily carried
about by divers and strange doctrines.
He shifts his course and changes his
direction, as the wind of popular
opinion happens to drive.
4. We are in danger from the cunning
craftiness of men.—True ministers use
plainness of speech, and by manifestation
of the truth commend themselves
to the consciences of men. Corrupt
teachers use sleight and craft, that
they may ensnare the simple, decoy
the unsuspecting, and thus make
proselytes to their party. They pretend
to superior sanctity. They are
watchful to take advantage of an
unhappy circumstance in a Church.
They unsettle men’s minds from the
established order of the Gospel, and
prejudice them against the regular
maintenance of the ministry, representing
all order in Churches as tyranny
and all stated provision for the ministry
as oppression. They promise men
liberty, but are themselves the servants
of corruption.
II. The positive part.—1. The
mature Christian must speak the truth
in love. Be sincere in love. We
should acquire a good doctrinal knowledge
of the truth as it is in Jesus.
We should be well established in the
truth. We should see that our hearts
are conformed to the truth. We must
walk in the truth.
2. We must grow up in all things
into Christ.—A partial religion is not
that which the Gospel teaches. We
must have respect to the whole character
of Christ, to the whole compass
of duty, to every known doctrine and
precept of Scripture. All the graces
of the Gospel unite in forming the
Christian’s temper. They all operate
in harmony. His religion is one continued,
uniform, consistent work.
III. How Christian maturity is
attained.—From the growth of the
human body the apostle borrows a
similitude to illustrate the spiritual
growth of the Christian Church. It
is as absurd to expect growth in knowledge
and holiness without the means
instituted for the edifying of the body
of Christ as it would be to expect the
growth of a natural body without
supplies of food.
Lessons.—1. There is no Christian
growth where love is wanting. 2. Christians
are bound to seek the peace in
order to the edification of the Church.—Lathrop.
Ver. 14. The Case of Deceivers and
Deceived considered.
I. Consider the case of deceivers or
seducers such as by their sleight and
cunning craftiness lie in wait to
deceive.—The particular motives by
which men may be led to beguile
others are reducible to three—pride,
avarice, and voluptuousness: love of
honour, or profit, or pleasure. 1. There
is often a great deal of pride and
vanity in starting old notions and
broaching new doctrines. It is pretending
to be wiser than the rest of
the world, and is thought to be an
argument of uncommon sagacity. Upon
this footing some are perpetually in
quest of new discoveries. Nothing
pleases them, if they have not the
honour of inventing it or of receiving
it in their times. When once a man
has thus far given loose to his vanity
and thinks himself significant enough
to be head of a sect, then he begins
first to whisper out his choice discoveries
to a few admirers and confidants,
who will be sure to flatter him
in it; and next to tell aloud to all the
world how great a secret he had found
out, with the inestimable value of it.
And now at length comes in the use of
sleight and cunning craftiness and all
imaginable artifices; first to find out
proper agents to commend and cry up
the conceit, next to spread it in the
most artful manner among the simple
and least suspecting, and after that to
form interests and make parties; and
so, if possible, to have a public sanction
set to it or a majority at least contending
for it. Love of fame and
glory is a very strong passion, and
operates marvellously in persons of a
warm complexion. 2. Observe how
avarice or love of profit may sometimes
do the same thing. There is a gain to
be made in some junctures by perverting
the truth and deceiving the
populace. Men who are not worthy
to teach in the Church, or who have
been set aside for their insufficiency
or immorality, may bring up new
doctrines and draw disciples after
them, for the sake of protection and
maintenance or for filthy lucre. With
such the vending of false doctrines is
a trade and preaching a merchandise.
Thus has avarice been the mother of
heresies and has brought many deceivers
into the Church of Christ; but
they have contrived generally to give
some plausible turn and colour to their
inventions through their “sleight” and
“cunning craftiness,” in order to deceive
the hearts of the simple and to
beguile unwary and unstable souls.
3. One motive more—voluptuousness,
or love of pleasure. As religious restraints
set not easy upon flesh and
blood, but bear hard upon corrupt
nature, so men of corrupt minds will
be ever labouring to invent and publish
smooth and softening doctrines, such
as may either qualify the strictness of
the Gospel rule or sap the belief of a
future reckoning. Many ancient heretics
had such views as these in the
first broaching of their heresies. Their
design was to take off the awe and
dread of a future judgment, and thereby
to open a door to all licentiousness of
life and dissoluteness of manners.
II. Consider the case of the deceived
who suffer themselves to be “tossed
to and fro with every wind of doctrine.”—They
are supposed to be ignorantly,
and in a manner blindly, led on by
others, otherwise they would be rather
confederates and confidants in managing
the deceit, and so would be more deceivers
than deceived. 1. Now as to
those who are so ignorantly imposed
upon. They are more or less to blame,
according as their ignorance is more or
less blamable; and that, again, will be
more or less blamable, according as
it is more or less affected or wilful.
There are, I think, three cases which
will take in all sorts of men who suffer
themselves to be deceived in things of
this kind. The first is of those who
have no opportunity, no moral possibility
of informing themselves better;
the second is of those who might inform
themselves better, but do not; the
third of those who might also be better
informed, but will not. If they be
“like children tossed to and fro with
every wind of doctrine,” yet if
they are really children in understanding
and are overborne by others
in such a way as is morally irresistible
considering their circumstances, then
it seems to be their misfortune to be
so imposed upon rather than their
fault, and so is not imputable. 2. A
second case is of those who may inform
themselves better but neglect to do it.
I suppose it to be merely neglect in
them, not design. Perhaps they have
little or no leisure for inquiries; they
are taken up with worldly cares and
business. They have a very great
esteem and value for the man who so
misleads them, and they know no
better, but swallow everything he says
without considering; or they are not
aware of any ill consequences of the
doctrine, see or suspect no harm in it.
They are much to blame in this affair,
because God has given them the faculty
of reason, which ought not to be thus
left to lie dormant and useless. Men
who can be sharp enough in secular
affairs to prevent being imposed upon
may and ought to have some guard
upon themselves with respect also to
their spiritual concernments. 3. There
is yet a third sort of men, worse than
the former, who suffer themselves to
be deceived and might know better,
but will not; that is to say, their
ignorance is affected and wilful, they
“love darkness rather than light
because their deeds are evil.” These
are such as readily run in with “every
wind of doctrine” which hits their taste
and chimes in with their favourite
inclinations. They admit the doctrine
because they like it, and they easily
believe it true because they would
have it so. It is with this kind of
men that deceivers prevail most and
make their harvest.
III. Some advices proper to prevent
our falling in with either.—The best
preservative in this case is an honest
and good heart, well disposed towards
truth and godliness, having no by-ends
to serve, no favourite lust or passion
to indulge. If any man is but willing
to know and to do God’s commandments,
he will easily discern in most
cases whether a doctrine be of God or
whether it be of men. The evidences
of the true religion and of its main
doctrines are so bright and strong when
carefully attended to, that common
sense and reason are sufficient to lead
us, when there is no bias to mislead us.
For several years last past rude and
bold attacks have been made against
the important doctrines of Christianity
and against all revealed religion, and
this is what they are still carrying on
with exquisite subtlety and craftiness
many ways and with a great deal of
fruitless pains and labour. For I may
have leave to suppose that no man can
in this case be deceived who has not
first a desire to be so, and is not the
dupe and bubble to his own lust and
vices.—Dr. Waterland.
Ver. 15. Speaking the Truth in Love.—1. A
different thing from the irritating
candour of the professed friend.
2. Implies an experimental knowledge
of the truth and its spiritual
mission. 3. Is the most effectual way
of winning a hearing and gaining
adherents. 4. A method conspicuously
exemplified in the teaching of
Christ.
Growth into Christ in Love and
Truth.
I. The standard of Christian excellence—Christ’s
headship.—1. The
prominent notion suggested is His
rank in the universe. He rules as God
in creation. But evidently the apostle
does not mean this in the text. We
are to grow into Him as Head. Growth
into Christ’s Godhead is impossible.
God-like we may, God we cannot even
by truth and love, become. 2. He is
the Head as being the Source of
spiritual life. This is implied in
metaphor. The highest life-powers—sensation,
feeling, thought—come from
the brain. To one who has read the
history of those times, there is an
emphatic truth in Christ’s being the
life of the world. The world was
like a raft becalmed in the tropics—some
of its freight dead and baking in
the sun, some sucking as if for moisture
from dried casks, and some sadly, faintly
looking for a sail. Christ’s coming to
the world was as life to the dead,
imparting new impulse to human heart
and human nature. It was like rain
and wind coming to that bark—once
more it cuts the sea, guided by a
living hand. So also with each man
who drinks Christ’s Spirit. He becomes
a living character. Not sustained on
dogmas or taken-up opinions, but alive
with Christ. 3. He is Head as chief of
the human race. Never had the world
seen, never again will it see, such a
character. Humanity found in Him
a genial soil, and realised God’s
idea of what man was meant to
be. He is chief. Nothing comes near
Him.
II. Progress towards the standard
of Christian excellence.—“We grow
up into Him in all things.”
1. Growth in likeness to Him.—The
human soul was formed for growth, and
that growth is infinite. The acorn
grows into the oak, the child into the
philosopher. And at death the soul is
not declining; it is as vigorous as ever.
Hence nothing but an infinite standard
will measure the growth of the soul of
man.
2. Growth in comprehension of Him.—Christ
is not comprehensible at first.
Words cannot express the awe with
which a man contemplates that character
when it is understood. This is
the true heroic, this the only God-like,
this the real Divine. From all types
of human excellence I have made my
choice for life and death—Christ.
III. The approved means of growth
the mode of progress.—“Speaking the
truth in love.” Truth and love—and
these joined. To “grow into Christ”
we must have both traits of character.
Would you be like Christ? Cultivate
love of beauty and tenderness. His soul
was alive to beauty. He noted the
rising and setting sun, the waving
corn, the lily of the field. His was
love which insult could not ruffle nor
ribaldry embitter, and which only
grew sweeter and sweeter. Would you
be like Christ? Be true! He never
swerved. He was a martyr to truth.
Would He soften down truth for the
young man whom He loved, or make it
palatable? No; not for friendship, not
for love, not for all the lovely things
this world has to show. “One thing
thou lackest: sell all that thou hast,
and distribute unto the poor, and
thou shalt have treasure in heaven:
and come, follow Me” (Mark x. 17–22; Luke xviii. 17–23). That was
“speaking the truth in love.” There
is no good to be got out from Christ,
except by being made like him. There
is no pardon, no blessing, separate from
inward improvement. Sanctity of
character alone blesses. Each man is
his own hell and his own heaven.
God Himself cannot bless you unless
He gives you His own character.—F. W. Robertson.
Ver. 16. The Law of Mutual Dependence.
I. This text admonishes us of the
manifold instruments and agencies on
whose concurrence and harmonious
action the prosperity and the perfection
of the Christian Church depend.—It
likens the Church to that most
complicated, admirable machine, the
human body, which only produces its
proper results, the preservation and
comfort of human life, by the healthful
tone and right performance of its
various powers and functions. We
live, and are at ease, in virtue of the
sound condition and regular operation
of all the multitude of parts and organs
which compose our corporeal frame.
Should the heart refuse to circulate
the blood, and to diffuse through all
the various channels of inter-communication
with the members of the body
its life-sustaining pulses, death ensues
in a moment.
II. The same law of mutual dependence
reigns in improved civilised
society.—In man, social as well as
individual, the body politic and
social must prosper, or its members
suffer. The individual too cannot
suffer without inflicting, by so much,
an injury on the community. The
ruler and the subject, the capitalist
and the operative, the merchant, the
farmer, the scholar and the artisan,
the manufacturer and the sailor,
perform functions alike indispensable
to the great result aimed at or desired
by all communities. They are mutually
dependent, are indissolubly united in
interest by ties not always visible, but
yet real and essential to the well-being
of all parties.
III. I hasten to apply my subject
to the Church, where the text finds
illustration yet more pertinent and
affecting. The Church is a community,
organised, with special ends to be
accomplished, and endowed with
special capabilities and adaptations,
yet having many points of resemblance
to human society in general.
All the members and all the
officers of the Church are appointed
and honoured of God to be co-workers
with Himself, co-agents with the Holy
Ghost, in the edification of the body of
Christ. The pastor, not less in the
study, when he gathers things new and
old from holy books and common, than
in the pulpit or in breaking the
bread of the sacrament at the altar,
or in the sick-chamber—all the subordinate
lay ministries devoted to godly
counsel, to faithful admonition, or to
the management and conversation of
the material interests of the Church—the
pious mother nurturing up her
children in God’s love—the sufferer on a
bed of languishing, giving forth blessed
examples of patience and resignation
and faith—the teacher of the Sabbath
school—they who, in the Spirit, lift up
our joyous songs of praise in the
sanctuary—all who pray in the closet
or in the congregation, are, and
should be deemed, essential parts of
that good, great system through whose
wondrous, harmonious working God is
pleased to renew and sanctify souls
and train them up to be heirs of glory.
Who, in this great co-partnership for
honouring Christ, has any ground of
complaint?—the foot, that it is not the
head? the eye, that it is too feeble to
do the functions of the brawny arm?
the ears, that they cannot do the office
of locomotion? Every part is indispensable.
None can say which is most
important in God’s plan; and achievements,
ascribed hastily to the eloquence
of the preacher, often stand credited in
the record kept above to the prayer of
faith.—Dr. Olin.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 17–24.
A Thorough Moral Transformation—
I. Contrasted with a former life of sin.—1. A state of self-induced mental
darkness. “Having the understanding darkened, . . . because of the blindness of
their heart” (ver. 18). Infidelity is more a moral than a mental obliquity. The
mind is darkened because the heart is bad. Men do not see the truth because
they do not want to see it. The light that would lead to righteousness and to
God is persistently shut out.
2. A state of moral insensibility that abandoned the soul to the reckless commission
of all kinds of sin.—“Who being past feeling have given themselves over . . .
to work all uncleanness with greediness” (ver. 19). Sin is made difficult to the
beginner. The barriers set up by a tender conscience, the warnings of nature,
the teachings of providence, the light of revelation, the living examples of the
good, have all to be broken down. Early transgressions are arrested by the
remorse they occasion; but gradually the safeguards are neglected and despised,
until the habit is acquired of sinning for the love of sin. A spirit of recklessness
ensues, the reins are relaxed and then thrown upon the neck of the passions, and
the soul is abandoned to the indulgence of all kinds of iniquity.
“We are not worst at once. The course of evil
Is of such slight source an infant’s hand
Might close its breach with clay;
But let the stream get deeper, and we strive in vain
To stem the headlong torrent.”
3. A state that rendered all mental activities worthless.—“Walk not as other
Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind” (ver. 17). The art of right thinking
was lost. For the man that will not think, think clearly and justly, the
calamities and the raptures of life, the blessing and the curse, have no meaning.
They evoke neither gratitude nor fear. The beauties of nature, as they
sparkle in the stars, or shine in the flowers, or gleam in the coloured radiance of
the firmament, are unheeded. The voice of God that speaks in the events of
daily life has no lesson for him. The senses, which are intended as the avenues of
light and teaching to the soul, are dulled by inaction, clogged by supine indifference,
and polluted and damaged by inveterate sin. When the reason is poisoned
at its source, all its deductions are aimless and worthless.
II. Effected by the personal knowledge of the truth in Christ.—“But ye have
not so learned Christ, . . . as the truth is in Jesus” (vers. 20, 21). The Gospel
has introduced to the world the principles of a great moral change. It announces
Christ as the light of the world—a light that shines through all the realms of
human life. The diseased reason is restored to health, the intellectual faculties
have now a theme worthy of their noblest exercise, and are made stronger and
more reliable by being employed on such a theme, and the moral nature is lifted
into a purer region of thought and experience. The world is to be transformed
by the moral transformation of the individual, and that transformation is effected
only by the truth and a personal faith in Christ.
III. Involves the renunciation of the corrupting elements of the former life.—“That
ye put off . . . the old man, which is corrupt” (ver. 22). The inward change
is evidenced by the outward life. The old man dies, being conquered by the new.
Corruption and decay marked every feature of the old Gentile life. It was gangrened
with vice. It was a life of fleshly pleasure, and could end in only one way—in
disappointment and misery. The new moral order inaugurated by the Gospel
of Christ effected a revolution in human affairs, and the corrupting elements of
the old order must be weeded out and put away. An excellent man in London
kept an institution near the Seven Dials at his own expense. He spent his
nights in bringing the homeless boys from the streets into it. When they came
in he photographed them, and then they were washed, clothed, and educated.
When he sent one out, having taught him a trade, he photographed him again.
The change was marvellous, and was a constant reminder of what had been done
for him. The change effected in us by the grace of God not only contrasts with
our former life, but should teach us to hate and put away its corrupting sins.
IV. Evidenced in investing the soul with the new life Divinely created and
constantly receiving progressive renewal by the Spirit (vers. 23, 24).—It is a
continual rejuvenation the apostle describes; the verb is present in tense, and
the newness implied is that of recency and youth, newness in point of age. But
the new man to be put on is of a new kind and order. It is put on when the
Christian way of life is adopted, when we enter personally into the new humanity
founded in Christ. Thus two distinct conceptions of the life of faith are placed
before our minds. It consists, on the one hand, of a quickening constantly
renewed in the springs of our individual thought and will; and it is at the same
time the assumption of another nature, the investiture of the soul with the
Divine character and form of its being. The inward reception of Christ’s Spirit is
attended by the outward assumption of His character as our calling amongst
men. The man of the coming times will not be atheistic or agnostic; he will be
devout; not practising the world’s ethics with the Christian’s creed; he will be
upright and generous, manly and God-like (Findlay).
Lessons.—1. Religion is a complete renewal of the soul. 2. The soul is renewed by
the instrumentality of the truth. 3. The renewal of the soul is the renewal of the
outward life.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 17–19. The Gentile Life—a
Warning.
I. The Gentiles walked in the
vanity of their minds.—The false
deities the Gentiles worshipped are
called vanities. The prevalence of
idolatry is a melancholy proof of the
depravity of human nature. Atheism
and idolatry proceed not from the want
of sufficient evidence that there is
one eternal, all-perfect Being, but from
that corruption of heart which blinds
the understanding and perverts the
judgment.
II. The heathens were darkened in
their understanding.—Not in respect
of natural things, for in useful arts
and liberal sciences many of them
greatly excelled; but in respect of
moral truth and obligation. Their
darkness was owing, not solely to the
want of revelation, but to the want of
an honest and good heart. Religion
consists not merely in a knowledge of
and assent to Divine truths, but in
such conformity of heart to their
nature and design, and in such a view
of their reality and importance as will
bring the whole man under their
government.
III. They were alienated from the
life of God.—They walked according
to the course of the world, not according
to the will of God. Their alienation
was through ignorance. Particular
wrong actions may be excused on
the ground of unavoidable ignorance.
This ignorance had its foundation in
the obstinacy and perverseness of the
mind. Such a kind of ignorance, being
in itself criminal, will not excuse the
sins which follow from it.
IV. They were become past feeling.—This
is elsewhere expressed by a
conscience seared with a hot iron. By
a course of iniquity the sinner acquires
strong habits of vice. As vicious
habits gain strength, fear, shame, and
remorse abate. Repeated violations of
conscience blunt its sensibility and
break its power.
V. They gave themselves over to
lasciviousness.—If we break over the
restraints the Gospel lays upon is,
and mock the terrors it holds up to
our view, we not only discover a great
vitiosity of mind, but run to greater
lengths in the practice of iniquity. As
water, when it has broken through its
mounds, rushes on with more impetuous
force than the natural stream,
so the corruptions of the human heart,
when they have borne down the
restraints of religion, press forward
with more violent rapidity, and make
more awful devastation in the soul
than where these restraints had never
been known.
Reflections.—1. How extremely dangerous
it is to continue in sin under
the Gospel. 2. You have need to guard
against the beginnings of sin. 3. Christians
must be watchful lest they be led
away by the influence of corrupt
example. 4. Religion lies much in the
temper of the mind.—Lathrop.
Vers. 17, 18. The Life of God.
I. There is but one righteousness,
the life of God; there is but one sin,
and that is being alienated from the
life of God.—One man may commit
different sorts of sins from another—one
may lie, another may steal; one
may be proud, another may be
covetous; but all these different sins
come from the same root of sin, they
are all flowers off the same plant.
And St. Paul tells us what that one
root of sin, what that same devil’s
plant, is, which produces all sin in
Christian brethren. It is that we are
every one of us worse than we ought
to be, worse than we know how to be,
and, strangest of all, worse that we
wish or like to be. Just as far as we
are like the heathen of old, we shall
be worse than we know how to be.
For we are all ready enough to turn
heathens again, at any moment. They
were alienated from the life of God—that
is, they became strangers to God’s
life; they forgot what God’s life and
character was like; or if they even did
awake a moment, and recollect dimly
what God was like, they hated that
thought. They hated to think that
God was what He was, and shut their
eyes and stopped their ears as fast as
possible. And what happened to them
in the meantime? What was the
fruit of their wilfully forgetting what
God’s life was? St. Paul tells us that
they fell into the most horrible sins—sins
too dreadful and shameful to
be spoken of; and that their common
life, even when they did not run into
such fearful evils, was profligate,
fierce, and miserable. And yet St.
Paul tells us all the while they knew
the judgment of God, that those who
do such things are worthy of death.
II. These men saw that man ought
to be like God; they saw that God
was righteous and good; and they
saw, therefore, that unrighteousness
and sin must end in ruin and everlasting
misery.—So much God had
taught them, but not much more; but
to St. Paul He had taught more.
Those wise and righteous heathen
could show their sinful neighbours that
sin was death, and that God was
righteous; but they could not tell
them how to rise out of the death of
sin into God’s life of righteousness.
They could preach the terrors of the
law, but they did not know the good
news of the Gospel, and therefore they
did not succeed; they did not convert
their neighbours to God. Then came
St. Paul and preached to the very
same people, and he did convert
them to God; for he had good news
for them, of things which prophets and
kings had desired to see, and had not
seen themselves, and to hear, and had
not heard them. And so God, and the
life of God, was manifested in the flesh
and reasonable soul of a man; and
from that time there is no doubt what
the life of God is, for the life of God
is the life of Christ. There is no
doubt now what God is like, for God is
like Jesus Christ.
III. Now what is the everlasting
life of God, which the Lord Jesus
Christ lived perfectly, and which He
can and will make every one of us
live, in proportion as we give up our
hearts and wills to Him, and ask Him
to take charge of us and shape us
and teach us? And God is perfect love,
because He is perfect righteousness;
for His love and His justice are not two
different things, two different parts of
God, as some say, who fancy that
God’s justice had to be satisfied in one
way and His love in another, and talk
of God as if His justice fought against
His love, and desired the death of a
sinner, and then His love fought
against His justice, and desired to save
a sinner. The old heathen did not
like such a life, therefore they did
not like to retain God in their knowledge.
They knew that man ought to
be like God; and St. Paul says they
ought to have known what God was
like—that He was love; for St. Paul
told them He left not Himself without
witness, in that He sent rain and
fruitful seasons, filling their hearts
with food and gladness. That was, in
St. Paul’s eyes, God’s plainest witness
of Himself—the sign that God was
love, making His sun shine on the just
and on the unjust, and good to the
unthankful and the evil—in one word,
perfect, because He is perfect love.
But they preferred to be selfish,
covetous, envious, revengeful, delighting
to indulge themselves in filthy
pleasures, to oppress and defraud each
other.
IV. God is love.—As I told you
just now, the heathen of old might
have known that, if they chose to
open their eyes and see. But they
would not see. They were dark, cruel,
and unloving, and therefore they
fancied that God was dark, cruel, and
unloving also. They did not love love,
and therefore they did not love God,
for God is love. And therefore they
did not love each other, but lived in
hatred and suspicion and selfishness
and darkness. They were but heathen.
But if even they ought to have known
that God was love, how much more
we? For we know of a deed of God’s
love, such as those poor heathen never
dreamed of. And then, if we have
God abiding with us, and filling us
with His eternal life, what more do we
need for life, or death, or eternity, or
eternities of eternities? For we shall
live in and with and by God, who can
never die or change, an everlasting
life of love.—C. Kingsley.
Ver. 19. Past Feeling.—1. Though
original sin has seized upon the whole
soul, yet the Lord has kept so much
knowledge of Himself and of right
and wrong in the understanding of
men as they may know when they
sin, and so much of conscience as to
accuse or excuse according to the nature
of the fact, whereupon follows grief
or joy in their affections. Wicked men
may arrive at such a height of sin
as to have no sense of sin, no grief,
nor check, nor challenge from conscience
from it. 2. A watchful conscience
doing its duty is the strongest
restraint from sin; and where that
is not, all other restraints will serve
for little purpose. For a man to be
given over to lasciviousness without
check or challenge argues a great
height of impiety. 3. As upon senseless
stupidity of conscience there follows
an unsatiableness in sinning especially
in the sin of uncleanness, so when a
man comes to this, he is then arrived
at the greatest height of sin unto
which the heathens, destitute of the
knowledge of God, ever attained.—Fergusson.
Vers. 20–24. Putting off the Old
Nature and putting on the New.
I. The change here spoken of is
radically seated in the mind.—These
terms do not import the creation of
new powers and faculties, but the
introduction of new tempers and
qualities. The renovation enlightens
the eyes of the understanding, and
gives new apprehensions of Divine
things. It purifies the affections and
directs them to their proper objects.
There are new purposes and resolutions.
II. He who is renewed puts off the
old man.—The new spirit is opposite
to sin and strives against it. The
Christian mortifies the affections and
lusts of the flesh because he has found
them deceitful. He in deliberate and
hearty purpose renounces all sin. He
abstains from the appearance of evil.
III. He puts on the new man.—As
the former signifies a corrupt temper
and conversation, so the latter must
intend a holy and virtuous disposition
and character. The new man is renewed
in righteousness and true
holiness. He not only ceases to do
evil, but learns to do well.
IV. The pattern according to
which the new man is formed is the
image of God.—The likeness must
be understood with limitations. The
image of God in us bears no resemblance
to the perfections in the Divine
nature, such as immensity, immutability,
and independence. There are
some essential properties of the new
man to which there is nothing
analogous in the Deity. Reverence,
obedience, trust, and resignation are
excellencies in rational creatures; but
cannot be ascribed to the Creator. In
those moral perfections in which the
new man is made like God there is
only a faint resemblance, not an
equality. The new man resembles God
in mercy and goodness, in holiness, in
truth.
V. This great change is effected by
the Gospel.—It was the consequence of
their having learned Christ. The first
production and improvement of this
change is the work of Divine grace,
and the Spirit of God works on the
soul by means of the Word. To this
change the use of means and the grace
of God are both necessary.
VI. The change is great.—Let none
imagine he is a subject of this
change merely because he entertains
some new sentiments, feels transient
emotions, or has renounced some of
his former guilty practices. The real
nature and essence of conversion is the
same in all.—Lathrop.
Religious Affections are attended with
a Change of Nature.
I. What is conversion?—1. A change
of nature. 2. A permanent change.
3. A universal change. 4. A union of
God’s spirit with the faculties of the
soul. 5. Christ by His grace savingly
lives in the soul.
II. Its connection with sanctification.—1. All
the affections and discoveries
subsequent to the first conversion
are transforming. 2. This
transformation of nature is continuous
until the end of life, when it is brought
to perfection in glory.
III. Reflections.—1. Allowance must
be made for the natural temper.
2. Affections which have no abiding
effect are not spiritual and gracious.
3. In some way it will be evident, even
to others, that the true disciple has
been with Jesus.—Lewis O. Thompson.
Ver. 23. The Christian Spirit, a New
Spirit.
I. There are some changes in men
which come not up to the renewed
spirit, and yet are too often rested in.—1. The
assuming of a new name and
profession is a very different thing
from a saving change in the temper of
the mind. We may be of any profession,
and yet be unrenewed. People
value themselves upon wearing the
Christian name, instead of that of
Pagan, or Jew, or Mahometan; or
upon being styled Papists or Protestants;
or upon their attaching themselves
to one or another noted party,
into which these are subdivided, and
upon such a new appellation they are
too ready to imagine that they are
new men: whereas we may go the
round of all professions, and still have
the old nature remaining in full force.
2. A bare restraint upon the corrupt
spirit and temper will not come up
to this renovation, though the one may
sometimes be mistaken for the other.
The light of nature may possess conscience
against many evils, or a sober
education lay such a bridle upon the
corrupt inclination as will keep it in
for a season, the fear of punishment
or of shame and reproach may suppress
the outward criminal act, while the
heart is full of ravening and wickedness.
Therefore, though it is a plain sign of
an unrenewed mind if a man live in
any course of gross sin, yet it is not
safe to conclude merely from restraints
that a man is truly renewed. 3. A
partial change in the temper itself will
not amount to such a renovation as
makes a true Christian. Indeed, in
one sense the change is but partial in
any in this life; there will be remains
of disorder in all the powers of the
soul, so as to exclude a pretence to
absolute perfection. It is not enough
to have the mind filled with sound
knowledge and useful notions, nor
barely to give a dead assent to the
doctrines of the Gospel, unless we
believe with the heart, and the will and
affections be brought under the power
of those truths; and even here there
may be some alteration, and yet a
man not be renewed. Nor is it
sufficient that we should find ourselves
disposed to some parts of goodness,
while our hearts are utterly averse to
others which are equally plain. And
therefore, though we should be of a
courteous, peaceable, and kind temper
towards men; though we should be
inclined to practise justice, liberality,
truth, and honesty in our transactions
with them, and to temperance and
chastity in our personal conduct;
though these are excellent branches of
the Christian spirit; yet if there be
not a right temper towards God also,
if the fear and love of God are not the
ruling principles of the soul, there is an
essential defect in the Christian spirit.
II. A particular view of this renovation
in some principal acts of the mind.—1. The
mind comes to have different
apprehensions of things, such as it
had not before. The new creation
begins with light, as the old is represented
to do. Light bearing in, and
the mind being fixed in attention, man
discerns the great corruption of his
heart, and the badness of the principles
and ends which governed him in the
appearances of goodness, upon which
he valued himself before. And so the
excellency and suitableness of Christ,
in all His offices, and the necessity of
real, inward holiness, appear in quite
another manner to his soul than
hitherto. 2. The practical judgment
is altered. This light, shining with
clearness and strength into the mind,
unsettles and changes the whole
practical judgment by which a man
suffered himself to be governed before
in the matters of his soul. He judges
those truths of religion to be real
which once had no more force with
him than doubtful conclusions, and
accordingly he cannot satisfy himself
any longer barely not to disbelieve
them, but gives a firm and lively
assent to them. 3. A new turn is
given to the reasoning faculty, and a
new use made of it. When the Word
of God is mighty it casts down
imaginations; so we render the original
word (2 Cor. x. 5). It properly
signifies “reasonings.” Not that the
faculty itself is altered, or that when
men begin to be religious they lay
aside reasoning; then in truth they
act with the highest reason; they
reason most justly and most worthy of
their natures. But now the wrong
bias, which was upon the reasoning
faculty from old prejudices and headstrong
inclinations, is in a good measure
taken off; so that instead of its being
pressed at all adventures into the
service of sin, it is employed a better
way, and concludes with more truth
and impartiality. 4. There is an
alteration in man’s governing aim,
or chief end. This is like the centre,
to which all inferior aims and particular
pursuits tend. The original end of a
reasonable creature must be to enjoy
the favour of God as his supreme
happiness, to be acceptable and pleasing
to Him. By the disposition of depraved
nature we are gone off from this centre,
and have changed our bias, from God
to created good, to the pleasing of the
flesh, to the gratification of our own
humour, or to the obtaining of some
present satisfaction, according to the
prevailing dictate of fancy or appetite.
This makes the greatest turn that can
be in the spirit of the mind; all must
be out of course till this be set right.
Now it is the most essential part of the
new nature to bring a sinner in this
respect to himself, that is, to bring him
back to God. All the light he receives,
all the rectification of his judgment,
is in order to this; and when this is
well settled, everything else, which
was out of course before, will return
to its right channel. 5. There is
hereupon a new determination to such
a course of acting as will most
effectually secure this end. As long
as this world is the chief good which a
man has in view, he contrives the best
ways he can think of to promote his
particular ends in it. But when the
favour of God comes to have the
principal share in his esteem, he
carefully examines and heartily consents
to the prescribed terms of making that
sure. Now he is desirous to be found
in Christ upon any terms. 6. The
exercise of the affections becomes very
different. A change will appear in
this respect, through the different
turns of his condition as well as in the
prevailing tenor of his practice. While
a man is a stranger to God and blind
to the interests of his soul, he is little
concerned how matters lie between God
and him. But a sinner come to himself
is most tenderly concerned at anything
that renders his interests in God
doubtful or brings his covenant-relation
into question; and nothing sets
the springs of godly sorrow flowing so
much as the consciousness of guilt,
or of any unworthy behaviour to God.
Lessons.—1. Let us seriously examine
our own minds, whether we can discern
such an alteration made in our spirit.
2. If we must answer in the negative,
or have just ground to fear it, yet let us
not despair of a change still, but apply
ourselves speedily in the appointed way
to seek after it. 3. Let the best retain
a sense of the imperfection of the new
nature in them, and of their obligation
still to cultivate it, till it arrive at
perfection.—Dr. Evans.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 25–32.
Christian Principles applied to Common Life.
Let us put these principles into the form of concrete precepts.
I. Be truthful.—“Putting away lying, speak every man truth, . . . for we are
members one of another” (ver. 25). Society is so clearly welded together and
interdependent that the evil effects of a falsehood not only damage others but
rebound ultimately towards the man who uttered it. A lie is a breach of
promise; for whosoever seriously addresses his discourse to another tacitly
promises to speak the truth, because he knows the truth is expected. Truth
never was indebted to a lie. “In the records of all human affairs,” writes Froude,
“it cannot be too often insisted on that two kinds of truths run for ever side by
side, or rather crossing in and out with each other form the warp and woof of
the coloured web we call history: the one the literal and eternal truths corresponding
to the eternal and as yet undiscovered laws of fact; the other the truths of
feeling and thought, which embody themselves either in distorted pictures of
outward things or in some entirely new creation—sometimes moulding and
shaping history; sometimes taking the form of heroic biography, tradition, or
popular legend.”
II. Avoid sinful anger.—“Be ye angry, and sin not: . . . neither give place to
the devil” (vers. 26, 27). Anger is not forbidden. A nature ardent for truth and
justice burns with indignation against cruelty and wrong. But it is a dangerous
passion even for the best of men, and is apt to exceed the limits of prudence and
affection. To nurse our wrath and brood over our imagined wrongs is to give
place to the devil, who is ever near to blow up the dying embers of our anger.
Plutarch tells us it was an ancient rule of the Pythagoreans that, if at any time
they happened to be provoked by anger to abusive language, before the sun set
they would take each other’s hands, and embracing make up their quarrel. The
Christian must not be behind the pagan in placability and forgiveness.
III. Be honest.—“Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him
labour” (ver. 28). Laziness is a fruitful source of dishonesty, and is itself
dishonest. There are sensitive natures to whom it is very difficult to be dishonest.
In Abraham Lincoln’s youthful days he was a storekeeper’s clerk. Once, after
he had sold a woman a little bill of goods and received the money, he found on
looking over the account again that she had given him six and a quarter cents
too much. The money burned in his hands until he had locked the shop and
started on a walk of several miles in the night to make restitution before he
slept. On another occasion, after weighing and delivering a pound of tea, he
found a small weight upon the scales. He immediately weighed out the
quantity of tea which he had innocently defrauded the customer, and went in
search for her, his sensitive conscience not permitting any delay. The thief is
not reformed and made an industrious worker by simply showing him the
advantages of honesty. The apostle appeals to a higher motive—sympathy for
the needy—“That he may have to give to him that needeth.” Let the spirit
of love and brotherhood be aroused, and the indolent become diligent, the
pilferer honest.
IV. Be circumspect in speech.—“Let no corrupt communication proceed out
of your mouth” (ver. 29). The possession of a human tongue is an immense
responsibility. Infinite good or mischief lies in its power. The apostle does not
simply forbid injurious words; he puts an embargo on all that is not positively
useful. Not that he requires all Christian speech to be grave and serious. It is
the mere talk, whether frivolous or pompous—spoken from the pulpit or the
easy-chair—the incontinence of tongue, the flux of senseless, graceless, unprofitable
utterance, that he desires to arrest (Findlay).
V. Grieve not the Holy Spirit (ver. 30).—Perhaps in nothing do we grieve
the Spirit more than by foolish and unprofitable speech, or by listening willingly
and without protest to idle gossip and uncharitable backbiting. His sealing of
our hearts becomes fainter, and our spiritual life declines, as we become indiscreet
and vain in speech.
VI. Guard against a malicious disposition.—“Let all bitterness, wrath,
anger, clamour, and evil speaking be put away, with all malice” (ver. 31).
Malice is badness of disposition, the aptness to envy and hatred, which apart
from any special occasion is always ready to break out in bitterness and wrath.
Bitterness is malice sharpened to a point and directed against the exasperating
object. Wrath and anger are synonymous, the former being the passionate
outburst of resentment in rage, the latter the settled indignation of the aggrieved
soul. Clamour and railing give audible expression to these and their kindred
tempers. Clamour is a loud self-assertion of the angry man who will make
every one hear his grievance; while the railer carries the war of the tongue into
his enemy’s camp and vents his displeasure in abuse and insult. Never to return
evil for evil and railing for railing, but contrariwise blessing—this is one of the
lessons most difficult to flesh and blood (Findlay).
VII. Cherish a forgiving spirit.—“Be ye kind, . . . forgiving one another, even
as God hath forgiven you” (ver. 32). It is man-like to resent an injury; it is
Christ-like to forgive it. It is a triumph of Divine grace when the man who has
suffered the injury is the most eager to effect a reconciliation. Dean Hook relates
he was once asked to see a gentleman who had ill-treated him. Found him very
thin and ill. Told me that he was conscious that his feelings and conduct had
not been towards me what they ought to have been for years. I told him that
whenever there was a quarrel there were sure to be faults on both sides, and
that there must be no question as to the more or less, but the forgiveness must
be mutual. I kissed his hand, and we wept and prayed together. O God, have
mercy on him and me for Jesu’s sake! I have had a taste of heaven where
part of our joy will surely consist in our reconciliations.
Lessons.—1. Religion governs the whole man. 2. True religion is intensely
practical. 3. Religion gives a nameless charm to the commonest duties.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Ver. 25. Truth between Man and
Man.
I. The duty of veracity here recommended.—1. Truth
is to be observed
in common conversation. People have
more special need, in some respects, to
be admonished of their obligations
inviolably to maintain truth here; for
many are more ready to allow themselves
to transgress in what they
account trivial instances than upon
solemn occasions; and yet by such
beginnings way is made for the disregard
of truth, in the most considerable
matters, in process of time. 2. Truth
should be maintained in bearing
testimony. A conscientious regard to
truth will engage us to be very careful
that we spread nothing to the lessening
or reproach of our neighbour of which
we have not good assurance; that we
publish not a defamation upon hearsay,
nor take up, without sufficient grounds,
“a report against our neighbour.” If
we are called to give public testimony
between man and man, a sincere respect
to truth will engage us to a careful recollection,
before we give our testimony,
as to what we can say upon the matter.
It will dispose to lay aside affection on
one hand and prejudice on the other,
and impartially to relate the true state
of things as far as we can bear witness
to them, nakedly to represent facts
as they have come within our notice.
3. Truth must be exercised in our
promises and engagements, and veracity
requires two things in relation to them:
(1) That we really intend to perform
them when they are made; (2) That
we are careful of performance after
they are made.
II. The reason the apostle gives for
the inviolable maintenance of truth:
because we are members one of another.—1. This
argument is applicable to
mankind in general. We are members
one of another, as we partake of the
same human nature, and in that respect
are upon a level. We are members of
society in common, entitled to the
same rights, claims, and expectations
one from another as men, and are
mutually helpful and subservient as
the members of the body are to each
other; and the principal link that
holds us together is mutual confidence,
founded upon the hope of common
fidelity. Now, lying makes void and
useless the great instrument of society,
the faculty of speech or writing. The
power of speech was given us by our
Creator, and the art of writing, since
found out, on purpose that we might
be able so to convey our sense to others,
that they may discern it, where we
pretend to express it, just as if they
were so far privy to what passed in
our minds. And unless truth be
inviolably observed in everything, the
bonds of human society cannot fail to
be weakened. 2. This argument may
be particularly applicable to Christians.
We are members one of another in a
more distinguishing sense, as we belong
to the body of Christ. And this lays
additional engagements upon all the
visible members of that body to put
away lying and to speak the truth
one to the other,—in conformity to
the common Father, to whom we belong,
who is eminently styled “a God of
truth”; in conformity to our head
the Lord Jesus, there should be a strict
observation of truth among Christians;
in conformity to the Spirit that
animates us, who is eminently described
by this attribute, “the Spirit of truth.”
Inferences.—1. This is one remarkable
evidence how much Christianity is
calculated for the benefit of mankind
and the good of society at present, as
well as for our everlasting welfare, in
that it so strictly enjoins and enforces
the exacted regard of truth. 2. We
see thence upon how good reason
the Christian religion strictly forbids
common swearing. 3. All that name
the name of Christ are concerned to
see that they comply with the exhortation.
4. Christians should do all they
can to promote truth among others,
both for the honour of God, and the
spiritual and eternal good of their
neighbours, and the general interest
of society.—Jeremiah Seed.
The Sin of Falsehood.
I. There are cases in which one may
speak that which is not true and yet
not be chargeable with lying, for he
may have no intention to deceive.
II. The grossest kind of lying, or
speaking a known falsehood under
the awful solemnity of an oath.—Men
violate truth when they affix to words
an arbitrary meaning or make in their
own minds certain secret reservations
with a design to disguise facts and
deceive the hearers. When we express
doubtful matters in terms and with
an air of assurance, we may materially
injure as well as grossly deceive our
neighbour. Men are guilty of malicious
falsehood when they repeat with
romantic additions and fictitious
embellishments the stories they have
heard of a neighbour that they may
excite against him severer ridicule or
cast on his character a darker stain.
Men may utter a falsehood by the
tone of their voice, while their words
are literally true.
III. We are bound to speak truth
in our common and familiar conversation.—We
must speak truth in our
commerce with one another. In giving
public testimony we must be careful
to say nothing but truth, and conceal
no part of the truth. We must adhere
to truth when we speak of men’s actions
or characters. We must observe truth
in our promises.
IV. A regard to truth is a necessary
part of the Christian character.—Deceitfulness
is contrary, not only to the
express commands of the Gospel, but to
the dictates of natural conscience.
V. The argument the apostle urges
for the maintenance of truth.—“We
are members one of another.” As men
we are members one of another. As
Christians we are children of the same
God, the God of truth; we are disciples
of the same Lord, the faithful and true
Witness. If we walk in guile and
deceit, if we practise vile arts of dishonesty,
we contradict our human and
our Christian character. We see the
danger of profane language, as it leads
to the grossest kind of falsehood, even
to perjury in public testimony. We
see how dangerous it is to practise
those diversions which are attended
with temptations to fraud.—Lathrop.
College Life. “For we are members
one of another.”
I. It is for us who govern and
teach to remember how great is our
responsibility in those respects.—We
are not merely instructors but educators
of youth. The question of what books
we use or what vehicles of teaching
we employ sinks into insignificance
compared with the question what end
it is we design in our teaching. Are
we prepared to abdicate our higher
functions of educators and to sink
down to the lower one of teachers?
Must we not, if we are are true to our
calling, strive to instil into you that
manliness which springs from the fear
of God, that truthfulness which is seen
in the frank look and unshrinking eye,
that obedience which is rendered in no
spirit of servility as unto the Lord and
not as unto men, that self-mastery
which is the foundation of all wisdom
and all power? If the soul is of more
value than the body, if the life to
come is of more importance than the
life that now is, if the knowledge of
God and His Christ is infinitely more
precious than all the knowledge of this
world and all the distinction to which
it leads—then there can be no question
that education is infinitely before
instruction, that principles are higher
than knowledge, that knowledge is
only of value in proportion as it is
pervaded and sanctified by the Spirit
of Christ. But precept without example
is powerless. A man whose life is
pure and high may not open his lips,
yet his very silence shall be eloquent
for God. Day by day a virtue is going
out of him; day by day he is giving
strength to one who is wrestling with
doubt or temptation; day by day he is
a beacon to those who are tossed on
the waves of irresolution and uncertainty.
The teacher, if he is to produce
a powerful moral effect, if he is to
mould character, if he is to leave an
impress upon the minds and hearts of
those whom he teaches, must be what
he teaches, must live what he inculcates.
II. And now I would place before
you your duties.—1. Keep distinctly
before you the end and aim of your
coming here—the ministry of Christ’s
Church. 2. You are members of a
community. You are all united to
one another. You have all common
pursuits, common ends, common
interests. You may all help greatly
to make or to mar the lives and
characters of those with whom
you are in such constant and daily
intercourse. Let this consideration
have its full weight with you. Be
but true to yourselves, and to the
God who has called you to the knowledge
of Himself and His Son Jesus
Christ, and by you this college shall
grow and prosper. If principles and
aims such as those I have endeavoured
to indicate prevail in a college, there
will be a real and substantial harmony
between those who govern and those
who are governed. Let us strive one
and all, teachers and taught, to make
this our college a college of which none
can be ashamed.—J. J. Stewart
Perowne (preached on the forty-sixth
anniversary of St. David’s College,
Lampeter).
Vers. 26, 27. Sinful Anger.
I. These words are not an injunction
to be angry, but a caution not to sin
when we are angry.—As there is in our
nature a principle of resentment against
injury, so there is in us a virtuous
temper, a holy displeasure against
moral evil.
II. Anger is sinful when it rises
without cause.—Rash anger is sinful.
Anger is sinful when it breaks out
into indecent, reviling, and reproachful
language; when it promotes to designs
or acts of revenge; when it settles
into malice.
III. Neither give place to the devil.—See
that you subdue your lusts and
rule your spirits. Arm yourselves
with the sword of the Spirit, which is
the Word of God. Take time to consider
whether any motive suggested in
favour of sin is so powerful as the
arguments the Scriptures offer against
it. Our greatest danger is from ourselves.—Lathrop.
Ver. 26. Anger and Meekness.
I. In what cases our anger may
be innocently indulged.—1. On the
approach of any injurious aggressor
threatening our destruction, or using
any act of violence that may endanger
our safety. 2. How far soever the
harsh gratings of anger may seem to
be removed from the soft motions of
benevolence, yet these sometimes, as
oil does to steel, give an edge to our
resentment; where it will be found
not only innocent and excusable, but
even commendable and generous. As
in the natural system of the world
there are some repelling qualities,
which yet must conspire to aid the
grand power of attraction; so even
those passions which, considered in a
simple view, have but an unfriendly
and unsociable aspect, are yet, in their
general comprehension, aiding and
assisting to preserve inviolable the
bonds of the great community. 3. Our
anger is apt to kindle at the apprehension
of a slight or an affront, a
contempt or reproach thrown upon us;
on which occasions, if the apprehension
be well grounded, our resentment, to a
certain degree, must be allowed to be
excusable, and so not sinful. Our
tameness in these instances would
be construed into stupidity, and be
treated as such by the pert and
petulant. 4. We may not only be
angry without sinning in the instances
alleged, as we sometimes may sin in
not being angry. God, who designed
human society, designed the good of it;
and that good to be promoted by every
individual to the utmost of his power.
Hereby there is tacitly committed to
every man a kind of trust and guardianship
of virtue whose rights he is
obliged to support and maintain in
proportion to his abilities; not only by
example, by advice and exhortation,
but even by reproof and resentment,
suitable to the circumstances of the
offender and the offence.
II. When our anger becomes intemperate
and unlawful.—1. When it
breaks out into outrageous actions;
for then, like a boisterous wind, it
quite puts out that light which should
guide our feet in the way of peace; it
dethrones our reason, and suspends its
exercise. An extravagance of this kind
is the more dangerous, and therefore
the more sinful, because, though the
impulse of passion should meet with
no opposition to inflame it—which,
however, is generally the case—yet,
when it has worked the blood into so
violent a ferment, it is apt of itself to
redouble its force. And no one can
tell what fury, wound up to the
highest pitch, may produce. 2. Anger
becomes unlawful when it vents itself
in unseemly and reviling language.
It were to be wished that those who
have such a peculiar delicacy of feeling
when they are affronted would abstain
from all appearance of an affrontive
and disrespectful behaviour to others;
that they who are so quick to receive
would be as slow to give an affront.
On the contrary it often happens that
they only feel for themselves; they are
not the least sensible of the indignities
offered to others. How frequently do
those who are highly enraged pass a
general and undistinguishing censure
upon a man’s character? 3. We are
not always to judge of the sinfulness
of anger from the open and undignified
appearance of it, either in our words
or actions; it may be concealed and
treasured up in our thoughts, and yet
retain as much malignity as when it
immediately breaks out and discovers
itself in contumelious language or acts
of violence. For by brooding in the
mind it becomes the parent of a very
untoward issue, malice, and hatred.
Malice is a cool and deliberate resentment;
but sometimes more keen and
malevolent than that which is rash
and precipitate. It is like a massive
stone, slowly raised, but threatening
the greater danger to him on whom it
shall fall. Anger is yet sinful when
encouraged in our thoughts to the
degree of hatred.
III. Consider its opposite virtue,
meekness.—Meekness, is, as Aristotle
long ago defined it, a due mean between
tameness and stupidity on the one
hand, and rage and fury on the other.
It is not absolute freedom from passion,
but such a command over it as to
prevent our being transported beyond
the bounds of humanity and good
sense. It is this virtue which, if it
does not give a man such a glaring
and shining figure as some other good
qualities, yet constitutes the most
lovely, beautiful, and agreeable character,
and gains unenvied praise.
1. A meek man will have sense
enough to know when he is injured,
and spirit enough to resent it; but
then he will consider whether he can
do more good by openly resenting the
offence and punishing the offender
than by overlooking it and passing it
by. 2. A man of meek temper will
distinguish between a man’s general
standing sentiments when he is perfectly
calm and undisturbed and his
occasional sentiments when his spirits
are ruffled and overheated. 3. A
meek man will never be angry with a
person for telling him what he imagines
to be a fault in him, provided it be
done in a private manner, and the
advice be conveyed in the most palatable
vehicle. 4. A man of a meek
spirit is glad to be reconciled to the
person who has offended or injured
him, and therefore is ready to hearken
to all overtures of accommodation.
A meek man will show such an inclination
and readiness to forgive the
offences of others as if he had perpetual
need of the same indulgence, but will
so carefully avoid giving the least
offence as if it might be thought he
would forgive nobody.
Lessons.—1. Let us endeavour to
acquire a greatness of mind: by this I
do not mean arrogance, for that bespeaks
a little mind—a mind that can
reflect on nothing within itself that
looks great except arrogance; but a
true greatness of mind arises from
a true judgment of things, and a noble
ascendency of the soul inclining us
to act above what is barely our duty.
It is rising to the sublime in virtue.
This will create a reverence for ourselves,
and will set us as far above the
mean gratification of giving any real
occasion of passion to others, as of
being susceptible of it when an occasion
may be given to us. 2. One of the
ancients said that he had gained one
advantage from philosophy: that it
had brought him to wonder at nothing.
But it looks as if we, the generality of
us, were strangers in the world; we
are ever expressing our surprise and
wonder at everything; and thus surprise
prepares the way for passion.
We wonder that we should meet with
such a behaviour, such a treatment,
such an affront; whereas the greatest
wonder is that we should wonder at it.
3. Nothing can have so prevalent a
power to still all the undue agitations
of passion so apt to arise from the
various connections we have with the
prejudices and passions of others,
nothing so fit to induce a smooth and
easy flow of temper, as a frequent
application to the throne of grace, to
beseech Him, who is the God of Peace,
that His peace may rule in our heats,
that it may be the fixed and predominant
principle there.—Jeremiah Seed.
Ver. 28. A Warning against Theft.
I. Here is a general prohibition of
theft.—This supposes distinct rights
and separate properties. Stealing is
taking and carrying away another’s
goods in a secret manner and without
his consent. The prohibition relates
to every unfair, indirect, dishonest
way by which one may transfer to
himself the property of another.
II. This prohibition of theft is a
virtual injunction of labour.—If a
man may not live at the expense of
others, he must live at his own; and if
he has not the means of subsistence, he
must labour to acquire them. No
man has a right to live on charity so
long as he can live by labour. The
obligation to labour is not confined to
the poor; it extends to all according
to their several capacities.
III. Every man must choose for
himself an honest calling, and must
work that which is good.—A work in
which a man makes gain by the expense
and enriches himself by the loss
of others is theft embellished and
refined. Gaming, when it is used as
an art to get money, is criminal,
because it is unprofitable, and what
one gains by it another must lose.
IV. In all our labours we should
have regard to the good of others.—The
man who is poor should aim to
mend his circumstances and to provide
not only for his immediate support but
for his future necessities. The condition
which subjects us to labour does
not exempt us from obligations to
beneficence. We must confine ourselves
within our own proper sphere,
for here we can do more good than
elsewhere. In all our works, secular
or spiritual, charity must direct us.
Love is an essential principle in religion,
and as essential in one man as another.—Lathrop.
St. Paul’s Exaltation of Labour.
I. St. Paul often recurs to the plain
and quiet work of humble life.—He
enforces not only the duty of it, but
how high the duty ranks; and if it is
well done, how it raises those who do it.
Having worked with his own hands, he
appreciated the sterling test of honest
attention to work. He knew what
temptations there were to relax and to
give in to the sense of tediousness day
by day and hour by hour. St. Paul,
who honours the industry of a slave,
will not allow it to be dishonoured by
the slave himself thinking himself
superior to it, and discourages all high
flights which set him at enmity with
his work and draw him away from the
sterling Christian yoke of humble
labour to which he has been called in
God’s providence.
II. At the same time the apostle
does not honour all industry; far from
it. He always reprobates the covetous,
money-getting spirit. He admires industry,
but it must be industry which
is consecrated by the motive; and the
motive which he requires for it is that
of duty—when a man fulfils in the
fear of God the task which is allotted
to him. Men form their religious
standard by two distinct tests: one the
law of conscience and obedience to God,
the other what is striking to man.
St. Paul’s standard is seen in his
sympathy with the work of the ruler
of a household, with the work of a
father or mother of a family, the
work of hospitality and attention to
strangers, the work of common trades
and callings, the work even of the
slave in doing his assigned daily tasks.
III. We see the spirit of this great
apostle—how it embraced the whole
appointed lot of man, from his highest
to his most humble field of employment.
He rejected nothing as mean
or low that came by God’s appointment;
all was good, all was excellent, all was
appropriate that He had commanded.
The heathen valued all labour by
which men became eloquent or became
able soldiers or statesmen; but they
had not the slightest respect for the
ordinary work of mankind. They
thought this world made for the rich.
How different is St. Paul’s view! No
work allotted to man is servile work in
his eyes, because he has an insight into
what faithful labour is—what strength
of conscience it requires, what resistance
to temptations and snares it
demands. The Word of God consecrates
the ordinary work of man—it
converts it into every one’s trial, and as
his special trial his special access to a
reward also.—J. B. Mozley.
Ver. 29. The Government of the
Tongue.
- The apostle cautions us against
all loose and licentious language.
- Enticing language is forbidden.
- Corrupt communication includes
all kinds of vain discourse; all such
language as offends Christian sobriety,
seriousness, and gravity, savours of
profaneness and impiety, or borders on
obscenity and lewdness.
- Instruction is useful to edifying.
- Reproof conducted with prudence
is useful to edifying.
- Exhortation is good for the use
of edifying.
- Christians may edify one another
by communicating things they
have experienced in the course of the
religious life.
- Conversing on religious subjects
in general is good for the use of
edifying.—Lathrop.
Ver. 30. The Benefit conferred by the
Spirit on Believers.
I. That believers are sealed by the
Spirit implies that they are recognised
and set apart and in a peculiar sense
the Divine property.—1. A seal is often
a distinguishing mark or token by
which a claim to property may be
shown and established (Rev. iii. 2, 3).
2. That believers are thus sealed
proves that they are His in a peculiar
manner. 3. The sense in which they
are His is clearly brought out
(1 Cor. iii. 23). They are Christ’s
by gift, by purchase, by conquest, by
surrender. Christ is God’s, and His
people in Him. 4. They who are
sealed are thus a peculiar people,
separated to God’s worship, service,
and glory. 5. Have you recognised
practically that you are God’s?
II. That believers are sealed implies
that attempts will be made to alienate
them from God’s possession.—1. A
mark or token is affixed to that which is
in danger of being taken away. 2. We
are distinctly taught that believers are
exposed to efforts to separate them from
God (John x. 7–10, 27–29). 3. The
activity of the wicked one seems in a
great measure directed to this point.
4. The doctrine of the perseverance of
the saints does not lead him to indolence.
5. Your safety is not merely to get
into the place of safety, but to continue
there.
III. That believers are sealed
implies that they have received the
impress of the Divine image.—1. The
sealing is the work of the Spirit, whose
office it is to regenerate and sanctify.
2. The seal is that which distinguishes
the believer from the unbeliever, and
the true distinguishing mark is regeneration.
3. We therefore conclude
that the seal has engraven on it the
image of God, which it leaves. 4. The
confidence of no one should outrun his
sanctification. 5. Can you discern
the outline of the image? There are
counterfeits.
IV. That believers are sealed implies
that, though associated and mixed up
with others, they are not confounded
with them.—1. A distinguishing mark
is necessary when things which are
again to be separated and classified are
mingled with each other. 2. The seal
leads to recognition. Hence the believer
is known by himself, fellow-believers,
the world, the devil, angels, Christ,
the Father. 3. This recognition takes
place in time, at the judgment, in
eternity.
V. That believers are sealed implies
that God will visit the earth with distinguishing
judgments.—In proof and
illustration (Exek. ix.; Rev. vii., ix.).
The Passover. The destruction of
Jerusalem. Now. The judgment day.
Are you prepared for such a season?
VI. That believers are sealed implies
that they are in a state of reservation.—A
seal is a pledge, a signature.
An engagement presently fulfilled needs
no pledge.—Stewart.
The Office of the Holy Spirit and the
Danger of grieving Him.
I. His office is to seal us unto the
day of redemption.—That day in which
the people of God will be put into
complete possession of the blessings
purchased for them by Christ. To
seal us to this day is to prepare us and
to set us apart from it, to fix such
a mark on us as in that day shall distinguish
us from others and make it
fully appear to whom we belong. When
a man sets his seal to a paper, he thereby
declares his approbation of it and
acknowledges it to be his own deed.
Those who bear the seal of the Spirit
will be approved by Christ and acknowledged
for His own in the day of
resurrection. A seal stamps its own
image on the wax. The Spirit stamps
on the soul the image of Himself. This
seal is said to be the earnest of our
inheritance. An earnest is a pledge
of something to be bestowed and enjoyed
hereafter—a part of it is already
bestowed to assure us that in due time
we shall receive the whole.
II. He is not to be grieved.—1. Beware
of doing anything which your
conscience, enlightened by the Word of
God, forbids you to do. 2. Beware of
running into temptation. 3. Beware
of indulging fleshly lusts. 4. Beware
of practising deceit and falsehood.
5. Beware of profaning the Lord’s
Day. 6. Beware of cherishing evil
and malignant tempers.—E. Cooper.
On Grieving the Holy Spirit.
- Our duty is to render to the
Holy Spirit cheerful and universal
obedience.
- The Spirit is the great Sanctifier.
- We must co-operate diligently
in the production of the fruits of the
Spirit.
- Our danger is in quenching the
Spirit.—Our light grows dim, and we
gradually adopt evil habits. We
neither see nor heed spiritual dangers.
Religious sensibilities are blunted.
How far any of us have gone in resisting
the Spirit God alone knows.
Many who resist great light and strong
impressions seem never to feel again.—Olin.
Grieving the Spirit.
- Indifference and carelessness in
religion is opposition to the grace of God.
- Spiritual pride grieves the
Divine Spirit.
- The Spirit is grieved when we
neglect the means appointed for obtaining
His influence.
- Opposition to the strivings of
the Spirit is another way in which He
is often grieved.
-
There are particular sins which
are opposite to the work of the Spirit.
Impurity, intemperance, dissipation,
and all the vices of sensuality. The
indulgence of malignant passions grieves
the Spirit. Contentions among Christians
are opposite to the Spirit. Men
grieve the Spirit when they ascribe to
Him those motions and actions which
are contrary to His nature. If they
blindly follow every impulse of a heated
imagination, every suggestion of the
common deceiver, every motion of their
own vanity and pride, they profane
and blaspheme His sacred name.—Lathrop.
Grieve not the Spirit.—But wherewith
can we so grieve Him? Alas! that
one must rather ask, “Wherein may he
not?” I fear that one of the things
which will most amaze us when we open
our eyes upon eternity will be the multitude
of our own rudenesses to Divine
grace, that is, to God the Holy Ghost
whose motions grace is. Oh, let not
that His seal upon you, the gift of His
Spirit, mark you as a deserter! O
Holy Creator Spirit, come down once
more into our souls in Thine own
thrilling fire of life and light and heat,
kindling our senses with Thy light,
our hearts with Thy love! wash away
our stains, bedew our dryness, heal our
wounds, bend our stubbornness, guide
our wanderings, that Thou, being the
inmate of our hearts, the instructor of
our reason, the strength of our will,
we may see by Thy light whom as yet
we see not and know Him who passeth
knowledge, and through God may love
God now as wayfarers, and, in the day
of perfect redemption, in the beatific
vision of our God!—E. B. Pusey.
The Sealing of the Spirit.—1. The
seal is used in conveying and assuring
to any person a title to his estate, in
delivering which a part is put into the
hands of the new proprietor. We are
sealed as an assurance of our title to
our inheritance until the redemption of
the purchased possession. 2. In sealing
any person, the contra-part of
the seal is impressed on that which is
sealed. We are thus sealed by the
Spirit, stamped with the image of
God. 3. Sealing is used for preservation.
It is by this we are to be
preserved until that day. By grieving
the Spirit we break this seal.—E. Hare.
Vers. 31, 32. Vices to be renounced
and Virtues to be cherished.
I. Put away all bitterness.—All
such passions, behaviour, and language
as are disgusting and offensive to
others, wound their tender feelings,
and embitter their spirits. No temper
is more inconsistent with the felicity of
social life than peevishness.
II. Put away wrath and anger.—The
former signifies heat of temper, the
latter this heat wrought into a flame.
Though anger, as a sense and feeling
of the wrongs done us, is innocent
and natural, all the irregular and
excessive operations of it are sinful
and dangerous.
III. Put away all malice.—This is
a degree of passion beyond simple
anger. It is a fixed, settled hatred,
accompanied with a disposition to revenge.
It is anger resting in the
bosom and studying to do mischief.
Malice is a temper which every one
condemns in others, but few discern in
themselves.
IV. Put away all clamour and evil
speaking.—Clamour is noisy, complaining,
and contentious language in opposition
to that which is soft, gentle,
and courteous. Never believe, much
less propagate, an ill report of your
neighbour without good evidence of its
truth. Never speak ill of a man
when your speaking may probably do
much hurt, but cannot possibly do any
good.
V. Christians are to be kind one to
another.—Such kindness as renders us
useful. Kindness wishes well to all
men, prays for their happiness, and
studies to promote their interest. It
will reprove vice and lend its aid to
promote knowledge and virtue.
VI. Christians should be tenderhearted.—They
should not be guided
by a blind, instinctive pity; but by
habitual goodness of heart, cultivated
with reason, improved by religion, and
operating with discretion. While they
commiserate all who appear to be in
affliction, they should regard among
them the difference of characters and
circumstances.
VII. We are to forgive one another.—Forgiveness
does not oblige us tamely
to submit to every insult and silently
bear every injury. To those who have
injured us we should maintain goodwill
and exercise forbearance. God’s
forgiveness of our sins is urged as a
motive to mutual forgiveness. “Even
as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven
you.” He who forgives not an offending
brother will not be forgiven of his
heavenly Father.—Lathrop.
Malice incompatible with the Christian
Character.
I. That we may be convinced of the
hatefulness of a malignant temper look
to the source whence it proceeds.—From
the bitterness of the fountain we
may judge of the character of the
water which it sends forth. From the
corruptness of the tree we may estimate
the character of the fruit. The
author of malice is the devil.
II. Let us after the same manner
proceed to appreciate the loveliness of
the opposite quality, the quality of
mercy and lovingkindness, by a reference
to its Author. Malice is gratified
by murder. In God we live and move
and have our being. Malice is envious.
God giveth us richly all things to enjoy.
Malice is false and calumnious. God
sent His Son into the world to give
light to them that sit in darkness.
Malice is resentful and vindictive, impatient
of offence, and intemperate in
requiring satisfaction. God is love.
III. Let us turn for a further motive
to the character and conduct of the
Son of God.—He has given us an example
of the most profound humility,
a temper in which malice has no portion,
and which cannot exist independently
of lovingkindness and tenderness of
heart.
IV. To the example of our blessed
Redeemer let us add His commandments;
and there arises another forcible
motive to put away all malice and to
be kind one to another.—“A new
commandment I give unto you, that
ye love one another.”
V. If we would avoid a malicious
and cultivate a charitable temper, we
must renounce the devil and all his
works.—We must triumph over those
passions which he plants and propagates
in the heart of man.—R. Mant.
Ver. 32. Errors respecting Forgiveness
of Sin.
I. That forgiveness of sin is unnecessary.—Every
sin is punished on the
spot. This natural punishment is felt
as long as the sin is indulged, and it
ceases as soon as the sin is abandoned.
This error may be exposed by a reference
to the philosophy of human nature,
to experience, and to Scripture.
II. That forgiveness of sin is impossible.—The
consequences of every
sin stretch out into infinity, and they
cannot be annihilated without a supernatural
interposition; but it would
derogate from the supremacy of law to
allow that a miracle is possible. The
possibility of miracle is contrary neither
to intuition nor to experience. A supernatural
Being is the Author of a supernatural
system: creation, incarnation,
the Bible, spiritual influence.
III. That forgiveness of sin might
be dispensed without an atonement.—“If
a man suffer insult or injury from
his fellow-man, he ought to forgive
him freely; why should not God?”
Because He is God, and not man. He
is the moral Governor of the universe,
and must consult for the majesty of
His law and the interests of His responsible
creatures. Forgiveness without
atonement would not satisfy the
conscience of the awakened sinner.
IV. That forgiveness of sin will not
be bestowed till the day of judgment.—Pardon
through Christ is immediate.
It is enjoyed as soon as we believe.
V. That forgiveness of sin as freely
offered in the Gospel is inimical to
morality.—“Pay a workman before he
begins his work, and he will be indolent;
pay him when he has finished his work,
and he will be diligent.” Not if he
were an honest man, and no one is forgiven
who is not sanctified. A sense
of unpardoned guilt is the greatest
hindrance to obedience. A sense of
redeeming love the most powerful
incentive.—G. Brooks.
Christian Forgiveness.
I. The reality of forgiveness, or the
grace of a forgiving spirit in us, lies
not so much in our ability to let go or
to be persuaded to let go the remembrance
of our injuries, as in what we
are able to do, what volunteer sacrifices
to make, what painstaking to
undergo, that we may get our adversary
softened to want or gently accept our
forgiveness.
II. In all that you distinguish of a
nobler and Diviner life, in Christ’s bearing
of His enemies and their sins, He
is simply showing what belongs in
righteousness to every moral nature
from the uncreated Lord down to the
humblest created intelligence. Forgiveness,
this same Christly forgiveness,
belongs to all—to you, to me, to
every lowest mortal that bears God’s
image.
III. Christ wants you to be with
Him in His own forgiveness. He
wants such a feeling struggling in your
bosom that you cannot bear to have
an adversary, cannot rest from your
prayers and sacrifices and the lifelong
suit of your concern, till you have
gained him away from his wrong and
brought him into peace. This in fact
is salvation: to be with Christ in all
the travail of His forgiveness. As
Christ was simply fulfilling the right in
His blessed ways of forgiveness, so we
may conceive that He is simply fulfilling
the eternal love. For what is
right coincides with love, and love with
what is right.
IV. When a true Christian goes
after his adversary in such a temper
as he ought—tender, assiduous, proving
himself in his love by the most
faithful sacrifices—he is not like to
stay by his enmity long. As the heat
of a warm day will make even a wilful
man take off his overcoat, so the silent
melting of forgiveness at the heart will
compel it, even before it is aware, to
let the grudges go. A really good man
may have enemies all his life long,
even as Christ had, and the real blame
may be chargeable not against him, but
against them.
V. Have then Christian brethren
under Christ’s own Gospel nothing
better left than to take themselves
out of sight of each other just to
get rid of forgiveness, going to carry
the rankling with them, live in the
bitterness, die in the grudges of
their untamable passion? What is
our Gospel but a reconciling power
even for sin itself, and what is it good
for, if it cannot reconcile? No, there
is a better way. Christ laid it on them
by His own dear passion when He gave
Himself for them, by His bloody sweat,
His pierced hands, and open side, to go
about the matter of forgiving one another
even as He went about forgiving
them.—Bushnell.
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.
Ver. 1. Followers of God.—R.V. imitators. St. Paul gathers up all duties into one
expression, “imitation of God,” and urges them on his readers by a reminder of their high
birth laying them under obligation, and rendering their copying easier.
Ver. 2. Walk in love.—“Love must fulfil all righteousness; it must suffer law to mark out
its path of obedience, or it remans an effusive, ineffectual sentiment, helpless to bless and
save.”
Ver. 3. Let it not be once named.—After the things themselves are dead let their names
never be heard.
Ver. 4. Nor jesting.—“Chastened insolence,” as Aristotle’s description of it has been
happily rendered. “Graceless grace” [of style], as Chrysostom called it. It is the oozing
out of the essential badness of a man for whom polish and a versatile nature have done all
they can.
Vers. 5, 6. Because of these things cometh the wrath of God, etc.—Look down beneath the
pleasing manners to the nature. If such terms as are used in ver. 5 describe the man, he is
simply one of Disobedience’s children, and all his versatility will not avert the descending
wrath of God.
Ver. 7. Be not ye therefore partakers with them.—Do not wish to share the frivolity and
impiety of their life, as you would shun the wrath that inevitably awaits it. How could
they so partake and continue to be what ch. iii. 6 calls them?
Ver. 8. Ye were . . . ye are . . . be.—The lesson must be learnt, and therefore reiteration
is necessary.
Ver. 9. For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth.—Neither
here nor at Gal. v. 22 does St. Paul intend a complete list of the fruits of the Spirit.
St. John’s tree of life bore “twelve manner of fruits” (Rev. xxii.2). All Christian morality lies in the
good, the right, and the true.
Ver 10. Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.—Each is to be an assayer—rejecting
all base alloys. Nothing must be accepted because it looks like an angel of light—“the
spirits” must be put to the proof (1 John iv. 1).
Ver. 11. Rather reprove them.—It may be with a voice as firm as the Baptist’s; it may be
by gentle and yet unflinching “showing up” of certain proceedings (cf. St. John iii. 20).
“This chastening reproof is an oral one,” says Meyer.
Ver. 12. It is a shame even to speak of.—Though the only sign of their shame having
touched them is that they seek the cover of secrecy, and our own cheeks burn as we speak
of what they do, we must convict.
Ver. 13. Made manifest by the light.—Whatever the light falls upon is no longer of the
darkness, but belongs to the light. Shame is one of the influences by which the light
conquers a soul from darkness.
Ver. 14. Wherefore He saith.—What follows is “a free paraphrase from the Old Testament
formed by weaving together Messianic passages—belonging to such a hymn as might be sung
at baptisms in the Pauline Churches” (Findlay). The thought is that of the change from
darkness to light—a change produced by the opening of the eyes to the light shining in the
face of Jesus Christ.
Ver. 15. See then that ye walk circumspectly.—R.V. “Look then carefully how ye walk.”
The way of life must be one of exactitude; and that it may be so the steps must not be
haphazard, but carefully taken.
Ver. 16. Redeeming the time.—R.V. margin, “buying up the opportunity.” Seizing the
crucial moment as eagerly as men bid for a desirable article at an auction sale. Because
the days are evil.—A man in Paul’s circumstances and with his consuming earnestness of
spirit may be forgiven if he does not see everything rose-coloured.
Ver. 18. Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess.—The word for “excess” is found
again in Tit. i. 6 as “riot,” and in 1 Pet. iv. 4. In all three texts the warning against
intoxication is near the word. In Luke xv. 13 we have the adverbial form—“riotously.”
Ver. 19. Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.—When the spirit is elevated so that
ordinary prose conversation is inadequate to express the feelings let it find vent in sacred
music. St. James’s advice to the “merry” heart is, “Sing psalms” (James v. 13). The “psalm” is properly
a song with accompaniment of a stringed instrument; “a ‘hymn’ must always be more or
less of a Magnificat, a direct address of praise and glory to God.” “Spiritual songs” were
“such as were composed by spiritual men and moved in the sphere of spiritual things”
(Trench). No spiritual excitement, however highly wrought, can be injurious that flows
between the banks of thanksgiving and mutual submission in the fear of God.
Ver. 20. Giving thanks always for all things.—If one who speaks as a philosopher merely
can praise the “sweet uses of adversity” and discern the “soul of goodness in things evil,”
how much more should one believing Rom. viii. 28!
Ver. 21. Submitting yourselves one to another.—In another Church the endeavour to take
precedence of each other had produced what a stranger might have taken for a madhouse
(1 Cor. xiv. 23). St. Paul’s word for “submitting” means “ranging yourselves beneath,”
and finds its illustration in the Lord’s words, “Go and sit down in the lowest place”
(Luke xiv. 10).
Ver. 22. Submit yourselves.—Same word as in previous verse; neither here nor there does
it involve any loss of self-respect. The wife’s tribute to her husband’s worth is submission—the
grace of childhood to both parents equally is obedience.
Ver. 23. Christ is the head of the Church.—Defending her at His own peril (“If ye seek Me,
let these go their way,” John xviii. 8); serving her in utmost forgetfulness of self (“I am amongst you as
he that serveth,” Luke xxii. 27); “Giving Himself up for her,” (ver. 25).
Ver. 25. Husbands, love your wives.—This will prevent the submission of the wife from
ever becoming degrading—as submission to a tyrant must be.
Ver. 26. That He might sanctify and cleanse.—There is no “and” between “sanctify”
and “cleanse” in what St. Paul wrote. “Sanctify it, having cleansed it” (R.V.). “I
sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified” (John xvii. 19).
Ver. 27. Spot or wrinkle.—“Spot,” a visible blemish, used in the plural, figuratively, in
2 Pet. ii. 13, of men who disfigure Christian assemblies. “Wrinkle”—“a wrinkled bride” is
an incongruity, just as the mourning which produces wrinkles is out of place in the bridechamber
(Matt. ix. 15).
Ver. 28. As their own bodies.—Not “as they love their own bodies” merely, but “as
being their own.” See ver. 31, “one flesh.”
Ver. 31. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his
wife.—We must regard these words, not as a continuation of Adam’s in Gen. ii. 23, but as
the words of the narrator, who regards what our first father said as a mystical hint of the
origin of marriage.
Ver. 32. This is a great mystery.—The meaning of which is known only to the initiated.
Something having a significance beyond what appears on the surface. But I speak.—The
“I” is emphatic: “I give my interpretation.” My chief interest in this mystery is as it
relates to Christ and to the Church.
Ver. 33. Nevertheless.—“I pursue the matter no further”; and though this mystical turn
is given to the words, still in actual life let the husband love (ver. 25) and the wife show
reverence (ver. 22). Let all the married among you apply the mystery to their own case, so
that the husband may love the wife and the wife fear the husband.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 1, 2.
The Life of Love—
I. Is an imitating of the Divine life.—“Be followers of God: . . . walk in love”
(vers. 1, 2). Though God is infinitely beyond us, and lifted above all heights,
we are to aspire towards Him. When we contemplate His glorious perfections
we are more deeply conscious of our limitations and sins, bend before Him in
lowly awe, and seem to despair of ever being able to approach to anything within
ourselves, that can be like Him. Nevertheless God is the pattern of all excellence,
and we can attain excellence ourselves only by imitating Him. The ideal
character is ever above and beyond the seeker, growing more beautiful, but
seeming as distant as ever. The life of God is the life of love—love is the
essence of His nature and the crowning glory of all His perfections. The chief
way in which He is imitable by us is in that direction: to love God is to be like
Him. Our life, in all its impulses, outgoings, and accomplishments, must be
suffused and penetrated with love. As the soul opens to the inflow of God’s love
and is filled with it, it becomes like God. Loving God is allowing God to love us.
The love of God is the most transcendent revelation of the Gospel. In Paris, a
little girl, seven years old, was observed to read the New Testament continually.
Being asked what pleasure she found in doing so, she said, “It makes me wise,
and teaches how to love God.” She had been reading the history of Martha and
Mary. “What is the one thing needful?” asked her friend. “It is the love of
God,” she earnestly replied.
II. Is befitting the relation in which the believer is Divinely regarded.—“Followers
of God, as dear children” (ver. 1). God is our Father, and He loves
us. That is enough; but how much is implied in that, who can tell? To
realise the Divine Fatherhood is to become acquainted with the love of God.
When we discover we are dear to Him our hearts melt, our rebellion is conquered,
we seek His forgiveness, we revel in His favour, we exult in His service. When
we discover He has always loved us we are overwhelmed. A mother, whose
daughter had behaved badly and at length ran away from home, thought of a
singular plan to find the wanderer and bring her back. She had her own
portrait fixed on a large handbill and posted on the walls of the town where she
supposed her daughter was concealed. The portrait, without name, had these
words painted underneath: “I love thee always.” Crowds stopped before the
strange handbill, trying to guess its meaning. Days elapsed, when a young girl
at last passed by, and lifted her eyes to the singular placard. She understood:
this was a message for her. Her mother loved her—pardoned her. Those words
transformed her. Never had she felt her sin and ingratitude so deeply. She
was unworthy of such love. She set out for home, and crossing the threshold
was soon in her mother’s arms. “My child!” cried the mother, as she pressed
her repentant daughter to her heart, “I have never ceased to love thee!”
III. Is a love of Christ-like sacrifice.—“As Christ also hath loved us, and
hath given Himself for us” (ver. 2). The offering of Christ as a sacrifice for
the sins of men was acceptable to God, and came up before Him as a sweet-smelling
savour, because it was the offering and sacrifice of love. The life of
love is the life of obedience; it is eager to serve, and it shrinks not from suffering.
Nothing can be love to God which does not shape itself into obedience. We
remember the anecdote of the Roman commander who forbade an engagement
with the enemy, and the first transgressor against whose prohibition was his own
son. He accepted the challenge of the leader of the other host, met, slew, spoiled
him, and then with triumphant feeling carried the spoils to his father’s tent.
But the Roman father refused to recognise the instinct which prompted this as
deserving of the name of love. Disobedience contradicted it and deserved death.
Weak sentiment—what was it worth? It was the dictate of ambition and self-will
overriding obedience and discipline; it was not love. A self-sacrificing life
is prompted, sustained, and ennobled by love. The trials which love cheerfully
undergoes in its ministry of love to others and in obedience to the will of God
are often transformed into blessings. There is a legend that Nimrod took
Abraham and cast him into a furnace of fire because he would not worship idols;
but God changed the coals into a bed of roses. So it will ever be. The obedience
that leads to the furnace of fire will find in the end that it is a bed of roses. The
life of loving sacrifice will issue in eternal blessedness.
Lessons.—The life of love is—1. The highest life. 2. The happiest life. 3. The
life most fruitful in usefulness to others.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 1, 2. St. Paul’s Doctrine of
Christian Ethics.
I. The fundamental truth of the
Fatherhood of God.—Man’s life has its
law, for it has its source in the nature
of the Eternal. Behind our race instincts
and the laws imposed on us in
the long struggle for existence, behind
those imperatives of practical reason
involved in the structure of our intelligence,
is the presence and active will
of Almighty God our heavenly Father.
Institutional morals bear witness to the
God of creation, experimental morals
to the God of providence and history.
The Divine Fatherhood is the keystone
of the arch in which they meet. The
command to be imitators of God makes
personality the sovereign element in
life. If consciousness is a finite and
passing phenomenon, if God be but a
name for the sum of the impersonal
laws that regulate the universe, for the
“stream of tendency” in the worlds,
Father and love are meaningless terms
applied to the Supreme, and religion
dissolves into an impalpable mist.
Love, thought, will in us raise our
being above the realm of the impersonal;
and these faculties point us
upward to Him from whom they came,
the Father of the spirits of all flesh.
It is not the loss of strength for human
service nor the dying out of joy which
unbelief entails that is its chief calamity.
The sun in the soul’s heaven is put
out. The personal relationship to the
Supreme which gave dignity and worth
to our individual being, which imparted
sacredness and enduring power to all
other ties, is destroyed. The heart is
orphaned, the temple of the Spirit
desolate. The mainspring of life is
broken.
II. The solidarity of mankind in
Christ furnishes the apostle with a
powerful lever for raising the ethical
standard of his readers. The thought
that we are “members one of another”
forbids deceit. Self is so merged in
the community that in dealing censure
or forgiveness to an offending brother
the Christian man feels as though he
were dealing with himself—as though
it were the hand that forgave the foot
for tripping, or the ear that pardoned
some blunder of the eye. The Christ
loved and gave; for love that does not
give, that prompts to no effort and
puts itself to no sacrifice, is but a luxury
of the heart—useless and even selfish.
The Church is the centre of humanity.
The love born and nourished in the
household of faith goes out into the
world with a universal mission. The
solidarity of moral interests that is
realised there embraces all the kindreds
of the earth. The incarnation of
Christ knits all flesh into one redeemed
family. The continents and races of
mankind are members one of another,
with Jesus Christ for Head.
III. Another ruling idea lying at
the basis of Christian ethics is St. Paul’s
conception of man’s future destiny.—There
is disclosed a world beyond the
world, a life growing out of life, an
eternal and invisible kingdom of whose
possession the Spirit that lives in
Christian men is the earnest and firstfruits.
Human reason had guessed
and hope had dreamed of the soul’s
immortality. Christianity gives this
hope certainty, and adds to it the
assurance of the resurrection of the
body. Man’s entire nature is thus
redeemed. Our bodily dress is one with
the spirit that it unfolds. We shall
lay it aside only to resume it—transfigured,
but with a form and impress
continuous with its present being.
IV. The atonement of the cross
stamps its own character and spirit on
the entire ethics of Christianity.—The
Fatherhood of God, the unity and solidarity
of mankind, the issues of eternal
life or death awaiting us in the unseen
world—all the great factors and fundamentals
of revealed religion gather
about the cross of Christ; they lend
to it their august significance, and gain
from it new import and impressiveness.
The fact that Christ “gave Himself
for us an offering and a sacrifice to
God” throws an awful light upon the
nature of human transgression. All
that inspired men had taught, that
good men had believed and felt, and
penitent men confessed in regard to
the evil of human sin, is more than
verified by the sacrifice which the Holy
One of God has undergone in order to
put it away. What tears of contrition,
what cleansing fires of hate against our
own sins, what scorn of their baseness,
what stern resolves against them, are
awakened by the sight of the cross of
our Lord Jesus Christ! The sacrifice
of Christ demands from us devotion
to Christ Himself. Our first duty as
Christians is to love Christ, to serve
and follow Christ. There is no conflict
between the claims of Christ and those of
philanthropy, between the needs of His
worship and the needs of the destitute
and suffering in our streets. Every new
subject won to the kingdom of Christ
is another helper won for His poor.
Every act of love rendered to Him
deepens the channel of sympathy by
which relief and blessing come to
sorrowful humanity.—Findlay.
Christ’s Sacrifice of Himself explained,
and Man’s Duty to offer Spiritual
Sacrifice inferred and recommended.
I. Our Lord’s unexampled sacrifice.—1. The
Priest. As a prophet or an
apostle properly is an ambassador from
God to treat with men, so a priest is
an agent or solicitor in behalf of men
to treat with God.
2. The sacrifice.—Our Lord was both
offering and sacrifice. Every sacrifice is
an offering to God, but every offering to
God is not a sacrifice. Perfect innocence
and consummate virtue, both in doing
and suffering, were not only the flower
and perfection but the very form and
essence of our Lord’s sacrifice. These
were the sacrifice of sweet odour, acceptable
to Him who alone could judge
perfectly of the infinite worth and
merit of it.
3. The altar.—From the third
century to this time the cross whereon
our Lord suffered has been called the
altar. There is another altar, a
spiritual altar—the eternal Spirit, the
Divine nature of our Lord. The
sacrifice of our Lord is an undoubted
Scripture truth; but as to a proper
altar for that sacrifice, it is a more
disputable point, about which wise and
good men may be allowed to judge as
they see cause.
4. The Divine Lawgiver.—To whom
the sacrifice was made, and by whom
it was graciously accepted. God the
Father is Lawgiver-in-chief, and to
Him our Lord paid the price of our
redemption. Thus the glory of God
and the felicity of men are both served
in this dispensation.
II. Our own sacrifice of ourselves.—As
Christ give Himself for us, so
we ought to give up ourselves to God
in all holy obedience, and particularly
in the offices of love towards our
brethren, as these are the most acceptable
sacrifices we can offer to God.
We cannot do greater honour to our
Lord’s sacrifice than by thus copying
it in the best manner we are able—a
sacrifice of love to God and love to our
neighbours.—Waterland.
The Imitation of God.—No argument
is so frequently urged as the example
of Christ to persuade us to mutual
love, because none is so well adapted
to influence the mind of a Christian.
God’s approbation of Christian charity
is expressed in the same terms as His
acceptance of the sacrifice of Christ;
for charity to our fellow-Christians,
flowing from a sense of Christ’s dying
love, is a virtue of distinguished excellence.
As the death of Christ is called
“a sacrifice for a sweet-smelling savour,”
so Christian charity is called “an odour
of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable,
well-pleasing to God.” Let it be our
care to follow Christ in His goodness
and love, and to learn of Him humility,
condescension, mercy, and forgiveness.
Religion is an imitation of the moral
character of God, brought down to
human view and familiarised to human
apprehension in the life of Christ.
The sacrifice of Christ is of great use,
not only as an atonement for guilt, but
also as an example of love.—Lathrop.
Ver. 1, The Duty and Object of a
Christian’s Imitation.
I. The duty enjoined.—1. Remove the
hindrances to imitation. (1) Spiritual
pride and self-conceit. (2) This self-conceit
works in us a prejudiced opinion,
and makes us undervalue and detract
from the worth of our brother.
(3) Spiritual drowsiness. 2. Observe
the rules of imitation. (1) We must not
take our pattern upon trust; no, not
St. Paul himself. He brings it in indeed
as a duty—“Be ye followers of me”;
but he adds this direction, “as I am of
Christ” (1 Cor. xi. 1). “For in imitation,
besides the persons, there is also
to be considered,” saith Quintilian,
“what it is we must imitate in the
persons. We must no further follow
them than they follow the rules of
art.” “Some there were,” said Seneca,
“who imitated nothing but that which
was bad in the best.” It is so in our
Christian profession: we must view,
and try, and understand what we are
to imitate. We must not make use of
all eyes, but of those only which look
upon the Lord. (2) That we strive to
imitate the best. Saith Pliny: “It is
great folly not to propose always the
best pattern”; and saith Seneca,
“Choose a Cato,” a prime, eminent
man, by whose authority thy secret
thoughts may be more holy, the very
memory of whom may compose thy
manners; whom not only to see, but
to think of, will be a help to the
reformation of thy life. Dost thou
live with any in whom the good gifts
and graces of God are shining and
resplendent, who are strict and exact,
and so retain the precepts of God in
memory that they forget them not
in their works? Give men the instructive
examples of these good men: let
them always be before my eyes; let
them be a second rule by which I may
correct my life and manners; let me
not lose this help, which God hath
granted me, of imitation.
II. The object of imitation.—We
must make God the rule of goodness in
all our actions: we must be just, to
observe the law; valiant, to keep down
our passions; temperate, to conform
our wills to the rule of reason; and
wise, to our salvation. But there is
no virtue which makes us more resemble
God than this which the apostle
here exhorts the Ephesians to; and
that is mercy. For although all
virtues are in the highest degree, nay,
above all degrees, most perfect in
Him; yet, in respect of His creatures,
none is so resplendent as mercy. Mercy
is the queen and empress of God’s
virtues; it is the bond and knot which
unites heaven and earth, that by which
we hold all our titles—our title to be
men, out title to the name of Christian,
our title to the profession of Christianity,
our title to earth, our title to
heaven. 1. As God forgiveth us, so
we must forgive our enemies. 2. As
we must forgive, so God’s mercy must
be the motive: we must do it “out
of a desire to imitate God.” 3. We
must conform our imitation to the
Pattern. He with one act of mercy
wipes out all scores; so must we.
When He forgives our sins, He is said
to cast them behind Him, never to
think of them, so to forget them as if
they never had been; so must we.
He doth it too without respect of
persons; and so we ought to do. We
must forgive all, for ever; and so far
must we be from respect of persons
that we must acknowledge no title
but that of Christian.—Farindon.
Likeness to God.
I. Likeness to God belongs to man’s
higher or spiritual nature.—It has its
foundation in the original and essential
capacities of the mind. In proportion
as these are unfolded by right and
vigorous exertion, it is extended and
brightened. In proportion as these lie
dormant it is obscured. Likeness to
God is the supreme gift. He can
communicate nothing so precious,
glorious, blessed as Himself. To hold
intellectual and moral affinity with
the supreme Being, to partake His
Spirit, to be His children by derivations
of kindred excellence, to bear a growing
conformity to the perfection which we
adore—this is a felicity which obscures
and annihilates all other good. It is
only in proportion to this likeness that
we can enjoy either God or the universe.
To understand a great and good being
we must have the seeds of the same
excellence.
II. That man has a kindred nature
with God, and may bear most important
and ennobling relations to Him, seems
to me to be established by a striking
proof. Whence do we derive our
knowledge of the attributes and perfections
which constitute the supreme
Being? I answer, We derive them from
our own souls. The Divine attributes
are first developed in ourselves, and
thence transferred to our Creator.
The idea of God, sublime and awful as
it is, is the idea of our own spiritual
nature, purified and enlarged to infinity.
It is the resemblance of a
parent to a child, the likeness of a
kindred nature.
III. God is made known to us as
a Father.—And what is it to be a
father? It is to communicate one’s
own nature, to give life to kindred
beings; and the highest function of
a father is to educate the mind of the
child, and to impart to it what is
noblest and happiest in his own mind.
God is our Father, not merely because
He created us, or because He gives us
enjoyment: for He created the flower
and the insect, yet we call Him not
their Father. This bond is a spiritual
one. This name belongs to God, because
He frames spirits like Himself,
and delights to give them what is most
glorious and blessed in His own nature.
Accordingly Christianity is said with
special propriety to reveal God as the
Father, because it reveals Him as
sending His Son to cleanse the mind
from every stain, and to replenish it
for ever with the spirit and moral
attributes of its Author.
IV. The promise of the Holy Spirit
is among the most precious aids of
influence which God imparts. It is a
Divine assistance adapted to our moral
freedom, an aid which silently mingles
and conspires with all other helps and
means of goodness, and by which we
are strengthened to understand and
apply the resources derived from our
munificent Creator. This aid we cannot
prize too much, or pray for too
earnestly.—Channing.
Ver. 2. “And walk in love.” The
Nature, Properties, and Acts of
Charity.
I. The nature of charity.—1. Loving
our neighbour implies we value and
esteem him. 2. Implies a sincere and
earnest desire for his welfare and good
of all kinds in due proportion. 3. A
complacence or delightful satisfaction
in the good of our neighbour. 4. Condolence
and commiseration in the evils
befalling him.
II. Properties of charity.—1. Love
appropriates its object in apprehension
and affection, embracing it, possessing
and enjoying it as its own. 2. It
desires reciprocal affection. 3. Disposes
to please our neighbour, not only
by inoffensive but by an obliging
demeanour. 4. Makes a man deny
himself—despising all selfish regards—for
the benefit of his neighbour. 5. To
be condescending and willing to perform
the meanest offices needful or
useful to his friend.
III. Acts of charity.—1. To forbear
anger on provocation. 2. To remit
offences, suppressing revenge. 3. To
maintain concord and peace. 4. To
be candid in opinion and mild in
censure. 5. Abstain from doing anything
which may occasion our neighbour
to commit sin, or disaffect him towards
religion, or discourage him in the
practice of duty.—Barrow.
The Sacrifice of Christ.
I. A Divine person was absolutely
necessary.—1. He who atones must be
in possession of infinite worth. Nothing
less than the glory of infinity and
eternity can atone for transgression.
The individual must also be possessed
of humanity for this obvious reason:
that man hath transgressed, and man
must atone. In the person of the
Messiah we behold everything God
could possibly desire. A Divine person,
comprising Deity and humanity in
Himself, atones for sin.
2. It was absolutely necessary that the
individual who atoned should be wholly
at his own disposal.—Now, no finite
being is at his own disposal; no finite
being can say, “I will do as I please;”
but Messiah speaks of Himself in
language that finite being could not
adopt without insulting God. The
doctrine of the Trinity is opposed; but
when we peruse Scripture we shall find
the absolute necessity of a plurality of
persons. A Divine person to present a
sacrifice; and if so, a Divine person to
receive that sacrifice.
II. Christ’s love in giving Himself.—And
here we behold the love of God in
all its glory. Christ hath saved us,
and given Himself for us. Here we
behold the love of Christ; the love of
a Divine person embracing God, embracing
the law of God, and embracing
the sinner in all his shame. Two of
the attributes of this love never unfolded
their glories before. The
intenseness and the holiness of it were
never before manifested. Behold God
as well as man, a Divine person
suffering for us. Here for once, and
once only, behold the sovereignty of
God in all its glory, in all its lowliness,
connected with the justice of God in all
its terrors. Messiah is punished, that
the transgressor may live for ever.
III. God’s pleasure in the sacrifice
of His Son.—1. God is infinitely
delighted with His Son, as He is one in
essence with Him. The pious Baptist
gives his disciples a volume of Divinity
in a few words. He traces everything
to its source. “The Father loveth the
Son.” Surely, then, we must anticipate
God’s pleasure in everything the
Saviour does. 2. The resurrection and
ascension of Christ prove God’s acceptance
of the sacrifice. 3. The success
of the Gospel another proof.
Lessons.—1. See the evil and danger
of unbelief. 2. All spiritual good comes
from God; all spiritual evil flows from
the creature. 3. Learn the work of
faith—to accept Christ.—Howels.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 3–14.
The Children of Darkness and of Light.
I. The children of darkness are known by their deeds (vers. 3–5).—A
loathsome and unsightly list! Sin marks its victims. Deeds done in darkness
do not escape detection and exposure. The revolting sins of the heathen reveal
the depth of wickedness to which man may sink when he abandons God and is
abandoned of God. Every single sin, voluntarily indulged, weakens the power
of self-control, and there is no deed of darkness a reckless sinner may not commit.
Sensuality is a devil-fish—a vampire of the sea—preying upon and devouring
the best powers of mind and body.
1. Their deeds exclude them from the inheritance of the good.—They have no
“inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God” (ver. 5). The children of
darkness can have no company and no place with the children of light; the two
cannot co-exist or blend together. The sinner excludes himself, and unfits
himself for fellowship with the good. Their purity is a constant reproof of his
vileness; he shrinks from their society, and hates them because they are so good.
We may well be on our guard against sins that shut us out of the kingdom of
grace on earth, and out of heaven hereafter.
2. Their deeds expose them to the Divine wrath.—“Because of these things
cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience” (ver. 6). The
wrath of God is already upon them (Rom. i. 18), and shall remain so long as they
are disobedient. Deeds such as theirs carry their own punishment; but there is
also the righteous vengeance of God to reckon with. For sin God can have
nothing but wrath; but yet that is mercifully restrained to afford every
opportunity for repentance. The Roman magistrates, when they gave sentence
upon any one to be scourged, had a bundle of rods tied hard with many knots laid
before them. The reason was this: whilst the beadle was untying the knots,
which he was to do by order and not in any other or sudden way, the magistrates
might see the deportment and carriage of the delinquent, whether he was sorry
for his fault and showed any hope of amendment, that then they might recall his
sentence or mitigate his punishment; otherwise he was corrected so much the
more severely. Thus God in the punishment of sinners. How patient is He!
How loth to strike! How slow to anger!
II. The children of light are Divinely illumined.—1. They were once in
darkness. “Ye were sometimes darkness” (ver. 8). Their present condition as
children of the light should remind them by contrast of their former state, and
should excite their gratitude to God for the change He had wrought in them.
They were not to be deceived by specious arguments (ver. 6) that they could
return to their old sins and yet retain their new inheritance. To go back to the
old life is to go back to darkness.
2. Their possession of Divine light is evident.—“But now are ye light in the
Lord. . . . For the fruit of the Spirit [the fruit of light] is in all goodness and righteousness
and truth” (vers. 8, 9). True virtue is of the light and cannot be hid.
Genuine religion manifests itself in goodness of heart, in righteousness of life,
and in truthfulness of character and speech—in a holy reality that is both
experienced and expressed. On Herder’s grave at Weimar there was placed by
royal authority a cast-iron tablet with the words, “Light, Love, Life.” The
life illumined by the Spirit is its own bright witness.
3. Their conduct aims at discovering what is acceptable to God.—“Walk as children
of the light, . . . proving what is acceptable unto the Lord” (vers. 8, 10). Their
outward life must be in harmony with the new nature they have received. They
were adopted as children of the light, and they must think, speak, and act in the
light and with the light they had received. The light will show what it is that
God approves; and striving in all things to please Him our light will increase.
We may sometimes be mistaken, but we shall get light from our mistakes, as well
as from our success, as to the will of God. Life is a trial, and our conduct will
be the test as to how we are using the light God has given us. The light we
shed will be a help and guide to others. There is a kind of diamond which, if
exposed for some minutes to the light of the sun and then taken into a dark
room, will emit light for some time. The marvellous property of retaining light
and thereby becoming the source of light on a small scale shows how analogous
to light its very nature must be. Those who touched the Saviour became sources
of virtue to others. As Moses’ face shown when he came from the mount, so
converse with spiritual things makes Christians the light which shines in the
dark places of the earth. “Let your light so shine before men” (Matt. v. 16).
III. The children of light cannot participate in deeds of darkness.—1. They
are to shun them. “Be not partakers with them . . . Have no fellowship with
the unfruitful works of darkness” (vers. 7, 11). We may not actually commit
certain sins; but if we tolerate or encourage them, we are partakers with the
transgressors. The safest place is that which is farthest from evil. It is a
perilous experiment to try how near we can approach and how far daily with
sin without committing ourselves. The easiest way to resist temptation is to run
away. It is beneath the dignity of the children of light to patronise or trifle
with sin.
2. They were not even to speak of them.—“It is a shame even to speak of those
things” (ver. 12). There are some subjects about which silence is not only the
highest prudence but a sacred duty. The foolish talking and jesting of ver. 4
belonged to the period when they were the children of darkness. Sparkling
humour refreshes; the ribald jest pollutes. The best way to forget sayings that
suggest evil is never to speak of them.
3. They are to expose them by bringing the light of truth to bear upon them.—“But
rather reprove them. . . . All things that are reproved are made manifest by
the light,” etc. (vers. 11, 13, 14). Silent absence or abstinence is not enough.
Where sin is open to rebuke it should at all hazards be rebuked. On the other
hand, St. Paul does not warrant Christians in prying into the hidden sins of the
world around them and playing the moral detective. Publicity is not a remedy
for all evils, but a great aggravation of some, and the surest means of disseminating
them. It is a shame—a disgrace to our common nature, and a grievous
peril to the young and innocent—to fill the public prints with the nauseous
details of crime, and to taint the air with its putridities. The fruit of the light
convicts the unfruitful works of darkness. The light of the Gospel disclosed and
then dispelled the darkness of the former time. So will it be with the night of
sin that is spread over the world. The light which shines upon sin-laden and
sorrowful hearts shines on them to change them into its own nature. The
manifested is light; in other words, if men can be made to see the true nature
of their sin, they will forsake it. If the light can but penetrate their conscience,
it will save them. “Wherefore He saith, Awake thou that sleepest.” With this
song on her lips the Church went forth, clad in the armour of light, strong in
the joy of salvation; and darkness and the works of darkness fled before her
(Findlay).
Lessons.—The Children of darkness and of light differ—1. In their conduct.
2. In their spirit and aims. 3. In the way in which they are Divinely regarded.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 3–6. Christian Sobriety inculcated.
I. The vices condemned.—1. Impurity.
Fornication is sometimes used
in Scripture to comprehend the grosser
forms of uncleanness, as incest, adultery,
and prostitution; but in common
speech it is appropriated to intimacy
between unmarried persons. If acts
of uncleanness are criminal, so are
impure thoughts and desires. The
Gospel forbids filthy communication,
which indicates a vicious disposition
and corrupts others. Christians must
abstain from everything that tends to
suggest wanton ideas, to excite impure
desire, and to strengthen the power of
temptation.
2. Covetousness.—An immoderate
desire of riches.
3. Foolish talking and jesting.—The
Gospel is not so rigid and austere as to
debar us from innocent pleasures and
harmless amusements. Jesting is not
foolish when used to expose the absurdity
of error and the folly of vice. The
apostle condemns lewd and obscene
jesting, profane jesting, and reviling
and defamatory jesting. Evil-speaking
never wounds so deeply nor infuses in
the wound such fatal poison as when
it is sharpened by wit and urged home
by ridicule.
II. The arguments subjoined.—1. Impurity,
covetousness, and foolish
talking are unbecoming in saints.
2. Foolish talking and jesting are not
convenient, as the heathen imagined
them to be, but are criminal in their
nature and fatal in their tendency.
3. The indulgence of these sins is
inconsistent with a title to heaven.
4. These sins not only exclude from
heaven, but bring upon the sinners the
wrath of God.—Lathrop.
Ver. 4. Against Foolish Talking and
jesting.
I. In what foolish talking and
jesting may be allowed.—1. Facetiousness
is not unreasonable which
ministers harmless delight to conversation.
2. When it exposes things base
and evil. 3. When it is a defence
against unjust reproach. 4. When it
may be used so as not to defile the
mind of the speaker or do wrong to
the hearer.
II. In what should it be condemned.—1. All
profane jesting or speaking
loosely about holy things. 2. Abusive
and scurrilous jesting which tends to
damage our neighbour. 3. It is very
culpable to be facetious in obscene and
smutty matters. 4. To affect to value
this way of speaking in comparison
to the serious and plain way of
speaking. 5. All vainglorious ostentation.
6. When it impairs the
habitual seriousness that becomes the
Christian.—Barrow.
Ver. 6. The Dissipation of Large Cities.
I. The origin of a life of dissipation.—Young
men on their entrance into
the business of the world have not been
enough fortified against its seducing
influences by their previous education
at home. Ye parents who, in placing
your children on some road to gainful
employment, have placed them without
a sigh in the midst of depravity, so
near and so surrounding that without
a miracle they must perish, you have
done an act of idolatry to the god of
this world, you have commanded your
household after you to worship him as
the great divinity of their lives, and
you have caused your children to make
their approaches to his presence, and in
so doing to pass through the fire of such
temptations as have destroyed them.
II. The progress of a life of dissipation.—The
vast majority of our young,
on their way to manhood, are initiated
into all the practices and describe the
full career of dissipation. Those who
have imbibed from their fathers the
spirit of this world’s morality are not
sensibly arrested in this career, either
by the opposition of their friends or
by the voice of their own conscience.
Those who have imbibed an opposite
spirit, and have brought it into competition
with an evil world, and have
at length yielded with many a sigh and
many a struggle, are troubled with
the upbraidings of conscience. The
youthful votary of pleasure determines
to be more guarded: but the entanglements
of companionship have got hold
of him, the inveteracy of habit tyrannises
over all his purposes, the stated
opportunity again comes round, and
the loud laugh of his partners chases
all his despondency away. The infatuation
gathers upon him every
month, a hardening process goes on,
the deceitfulness of sin grows apace,
and he at length becomes one of the
sturdiest and most unrelenting of her
votaries. He in his turn strengthens
the conspiracy that is formed against
the morals of a new generation, and
all the ingenuous delicacies of other
days are obliterated. He contracts a
temperament of knowing, hackneyed,
unfeeling depravity, and thus the
mischief is transmitted from one year
to another, and keeps up the guilty
history of every place of crowded
population.
III. The effects of a life of dissipation.—We
speak not at present of the
coming death and of the coming judgment,
but of the change which takes
place on many a votary of licentiousness
when he becomes what the world
calls a reformed man. He bids adieu
to the pursuits and profligacies of
youth, not because he has repented
them, but because he has outlived
them. It is a common and easy transition
to pass from one kind of disobedience
to another; but it is not so
easy to give up that rebelliousness of
heart which lies at the root of all
disobedience. The man has withdrawn
from the scenes of dissipation, and has
betaken himself to another way; but
it is his own way. He may bid adieu
to profligacy in his own person, but he
lifts up the light of his countenance on
the profligacy of others. He gives it
the whole weight and authority of his
connivance. Oh for an arm of strength
to demolish the firm and far-spread
compact of iniquity, and for the power
of some such piercing and prophetic
voice as might convince our reformed
men of the baleful influence they cast
behind them on the morals of the
succeeding generation! What is the
likeliest way of setting up a barrier
against this desolating torrent of corruption?
The mischief will never be
combatted effectually by any expedient
separate from the growth and the
transmission of personal Christianity
throughout the land.—T. Chalmers.
Vers. 7–12. Fellowship in Wickedness
and its Condemnation.
I. Illustrate this fellowship in
wickedness.—1. Not to oppose, in
many cases, is to embolden transgressors,
and to be partakers with
them. 2. We have more direct fellowship
with the wicked when we encourage
them by our example. 3. They
who incite and provoke others to evil
works have fellowship with them.
4. They who explicitly consent to and
actually join with sinners in their evil
works have fellowship with them.
5. To comfort and uphold sinners in
their wickedness is to have fellowship
with them. 6. There are some who
rejoice in iniquity when they have
lent no hand to accomplish it.
II. Apply the arguments the apostle
urges against it.—1. One argument is
taken from the superior light which
Christians enjoy. 2. Another is taken
from the grace of the Holy Spirit,
of which believers are the subjects.
3. The works of darkness are unfruitful.
4. This is a shameful fellowship.
5. If we have fellowship with
sinners in their works, we must share
with them in their punishment.—Lathrop.
Ver. 8. Light in Darkness.—I was
in a darkened room that I might
observe the effect produced by the use
of what is called luminous paint. A
neat card on which the words “Trust
in the Lord” were printed rested upon
the bookcase and shone out clearly in
the darkness. The effect startled me.
How remarkable that if from any
cause the light of sun or day failed to
rest upon the card its luminousness
gradually declined, but returned when
the sun’s action infused fresh light!
Truly we also, if hidden from the face
of our Lord, cease to shine. “Are ye
light in the Lord? walk as children of
light.”—H. Varley.
Ver. 9. Fruit of the Spirit.—As
oftentimes when walking in a wood
near sunset, though the sun himself be
hid by the height and bushiness of the
trees around, yet we know that he is
still above the horizon from seeing his
beams in the open glades before us
illuminating a thousand leaves, the
several brightnesses of which are so
many evidences of his presence. Thus
it is with the Holy Spirit: He works
in secret, but His work is manifest in
the lives of all true Christians. Lamps
so heavenly must have been lit from
on high.—J. C. Hare.
Ver. 10. The Rule of Christian Conduct.—1. We
cannot conform ourselves
to what is acceptable to the Lord and
walk as children of light except we
make serious search into the rule of
duty revealed in the Word and do our
utmost to come up to that rule. We
walk not acceptably when we do things
rashly without deliberation, or doubtingly
after deliberation, nor when the
thing done is in itself right, but we do
it not from that ground, but to gratify
ourselves. 2. It is not sufficient to
make this inquiry in order to some
few and weighty actions, but in order
to all, whether greater or less, whether
advantage or loss may follow our conforming
to the rule. 3. The finding
out of what is acceptable to the Lord,
especially in some intricate cases, is
not easily attained. There must be an
accurate search, together with an exercising
ourselves in those things we
already know to be acceptable, that so
we may experimentally know them to
be such, and get our knowledge bettered
in those things of which we are ignorant.—Fergusson.
Vers. 11, 12. Works of Darkness.—1. Though
we are not in all cases to
abstain from the fellowship of wicked
men, but may converse with them as
we are bound by necessity, or by any
civil, religious, or natural bond, yet
no tie of that kind can warrant us
to partake with them in their sins.
2. Though the command to reprove
the sins of others is an affirmative
precept, and not binding at all times
and in all cases, yet not reproving
when occasion offers is a partaking
with them in their sins. 3. There
should be such a holy bashfulness in
Christians as to think shame to utter
in speech, at least without detestation,
those things godless sinners are not
ashamed to practise. Ministers in
their public preachings should be
modest and sparing in deciphering
filthy sins, lest they teach others how
to commit the sin they reprove.
4. When men do not seek the veil of
secrecy to cover their sins, but glory in
their shame, they are more corrupt than
the grossest of pagans.—Fergusson.
Vers. 13, 14. Slumbering Souls and
their Awakening.
I. The character of the persons addressed.—They
are in a state of sleep.
1. If you allow yourselves in the
practice of known wickedness, your
conscience is asleep. 2. If you live in
the customary neglect of self-examination,
you are in a state of slumber.
3. If you have never been in any
degree affected with a sense of your
guilt and your dependence on the
mercy of God in Christ, you are among
those who are asleep. 4. If you have
no conflicts with sin and temptation,
you are in a state of slumber. 5. The
prevalence of a sensual and carnal disposition
is a sign of spiritual death.
6. Stupidity under the warnings of
God’s Word and providence indicates
such a state of soul as the Scripture
compares to sleep. 7. The soul in
which the temper of the Gospel is
formed hungers and thirsts after righteousness,
desires spiritual growth, and
reaches after perfection.
II. The awakening call.—1. This
awakening must suppose and imply a
conviction of your sin and a sense of
your danger. 2. This awakening from
sleep and arising from the dead
imply a real repentance of sin and
turning to God. 3. They who have
awoke from their sleep and risen from
the dead will experience the properties
and maintain the exercises of a holy
and spiritual life.
III. The encouragement to attend to
the awakening call.—“Christ shall
give thee light.” 1. This may be
understood as a promise of pardon and
eternal life on your repentance. 2. The
words import God’s gracious attention
to awakened souls when they frame
their doings to turn to Him.—Lathrop.
Ver. 13. The Light of God.
I. Light comes from God.—God is
light, and He wishes to give light to
His children. “Whatsoever doth make
manifest is light”—that which is made
manifest is light. There has been a
steady progress in the mind of the
Christian race, and this progress has
been in the direction of light. Has it
not been so in our notions of God?—a
gradual discovery that when God is
manifested, behold, God is light, and in
Him is no darkness at all—a gradual
vindication of His character from those
dark and horrid notions of the Deity
which were borrowed from the pagans
and the Jewish rabbis—a gradual
return to the perfect good news of a
good God which was preached by
St. John and by St. Paul. The day
shall come when all shall be light in
the Lord—when all mankind shall
know God from the least unto the
greatest, and, lifting up free foreheads
to Him who made them and redeemed
them by His Son, shall in spirit and
in truth worship the Father.
II. In the case of our fellow-men
whatsoever is made manifest is light.—How
easy it was to have dark thoughts
about our fellow-men simply because
we did not know them,—easy to condemn
the Negro to perpetual slavery,
when we knew nothing of him but his
black face; or to hang by hundreds
the ragged street boys, while we
disdained to inquire into the circumstances
which had degraded them; or
to treat madmen as wild beasts, instead
of taming them by wise and gentle
sympathy. But with a closer knowledge
of our fellow-creatures has come
toleration, pity, sympathy. Man, in
proportion as he becomes manifest to
man, is seen, in spite of all defects and
sins, to be hallowed with a light from
God who made him.
III. It has been equally so in the
case of the physical world.—Nature,
being made manifest, is light. Science
has taught men to admire where they
used to dread, to rule where they used
to obey, to employ for harmless uses
what they were once afraid to touch,
and where they once saw only fiends to
see the orderly and beneficent laws
of the All-good and Almighty God.
Everywhere, as the work of nature is
unfolded to our eyes, we see beauty,
order, mutual use, the offspring
of perfect love as well as perfect
wisdom. Let us teach these things to
our children. Tell them to go to the
light and see their heavenly Father’s
works manifested, and know that they
are, as He is, light.—C. Kingsley.
Ver. 14. Moral Stupidity.—How
many scarcely think of God from day to
day! It cannot therefore be uncharitable
to consider the mass of the people,
compared with the wakefulness their
infinite interests require, as sunk in a
profound slumber. Unless this slumber
is soon broken they must sleep the sleep
of eternal death.
I. Search for the cause of this
stupidity.—The proximate cause may
be comprehended in these two words—ignorance
and unbelief. The remote
cause is opposition to God and truth.
Were not the heart opposed, no man
with the Bible in his hand could remain
ignorant of truths which claim to have
so important a bearing on his eternal
destiny. Fortified by sevenfold ignorance,
men can no more be awakened
to contemplate their condition with
alarm than the pagans of the wilderness.
It is perfectly in character for
them to slumber. But there are men
who are respectable for their knowledge
of Christian truth who yet are
asleep. The cause with them is unbelief—the
want of a realising sense.
Their understanding assents to the
awful verities of religion, but they do
not realisingly believe them.
II. Apply some arguments to remove
the evil.—Consider that these awful
truths are as much realities as though
you were now overwhelmed with a
sense of their importance. Neither
the ignorance nor the unbelief of man
can change eternal truth. God is as
holy, as awful in majesty, He is as
much your Creator, Preserver, and
Master, He as much holds your destinies
in His hands, as though you were
now lying at His feet beseeching Him
not to cast you down to hell. What
would it avail if all the people should
disbelieve that the sun will ever rise
again, or that spring-time and harvest
will ever return? Can the soldier
annihilate the enemy by marching up
to the battery with his eyes and ears
closed? You have the same means
with others: why should you remain
ignorant while they are informed? If
your knowledge is competent and it is
unbelief that excludes conviction, then
call into action the powers of a rational
soul and cast yourselves for help on
God. If you ever mean to awake,
awake now. The longer you sleep the
sounder you sleep. The longer you
live without religion the less likely that
you will ever possess it. You are
sleeping in the presence of an offended
God. In His hands you lie, and if He
but turn them you slide to rise no
more.—E. D. Griffin.
The Call of the Gospel to Sinners.
I. The state in which the Gospel
finds mankind.—A state of sleep and
of death.
1. It is a state of insensibility and
unconcern with respect to the concerns
of another world.—Busied about trifles,
men overlook the great concerns of
eternity. Having their minds darkened,
they see no world but the present,
they live as if they were to live here
for ever. And if at any time this false
peace is shaken, they try all means to
prevent it from being destroyed, and
to lull themselves again to rest.
2. How indisposed and unwilling men
are to set about the work of true religion.—Nothing
but this religion of which
men are so ignorant, about which they
care so little, against which they have
conceived such a dislike, can in the end
deliver them from everlasting shame,
sorrow, and punishment. Here is their
extreme misery and danger. They are
unconcerned about an object which of
all others ought to concern them most,
and are set against the only remedy
which can be of any real service to
them. They are every moment liable
to fall into utter perdition; but they
are not aware of their danger, and
reject the only hand which is stretched
out to save them.
II. The duty the Gospel calls on
them to discharge.—To awake out of
sleep and arise from the dead. 1. Their
duty is to consider their state and danger.
2. To break off their sins by repentance.
3. To seek the knowledge and favour of
God.
III. The encouragement the Gospel
affords.—1. Christ will give thee knowledge.
He will enlighten thy darkened
mind, He will teach thee by His good
Spirit, and will effectually lead thee
into all saving truth.
2. Christ will give thee peace.—Whatever
peace thou mayest have arising
from not knowing and not feeling that
thou art a sinner and daily exposed
to the wrath of God, the peace which
Christ offers thee is a peace which will
arise from a consciousness that thy sins
are forgiven, and that, although though
art a sinner, thou art yet reconciled to
God.
3. Christ will give thee holiness.—Holiness
is our meetness for heaven.
It is that state and disposition of heart
which alone can fit us for seeing and
serving God.—E. Cooper.
A Summons to Spiritual Light.
I. A lamentable moral condition.—Sleep
implies a state of inactivity and
security. Men are busily employed
about their worldly concerns; but a
lamentable supineness prevails with
respect to spiritual things. The generality
do not apprehend their souls to
be in any danger—death, judgment,
heaven, and hell do not seem worthy
their notice. God’s threatenings
against them are denounced without
effect—they are like Jonah, sleeping
in the midst of a storm. Death includes
the ideas of impotence and corruption.
An inanimate body cannot perform
any of the functions of life. It
has within itself the seeds and the
principles of corruption. The soul
also, till quickened from the dead, is in
a state of impotence, it is incapable of
spiritual action or discernment. Yet,
notwithstanding this state appears so
desperate, we must address to every one
that is under it the command, “Awake.”
Your inactivity and security involve
you in the deepest guilt; your corruption
of heart and life provokes the majesty
of God. Nor is your impotence any
excuse for your disobedience. They
who exert their feeble powers may
expect Divine assistance. To convince
us that none shall fail who use the
appointed means God enforces His
command with—
II. A promise.—Sleep and death
are states of intellectual darkness:
hence light is promised to those who
obey the Divine mandate. Light in
Scripture imparts knowledge (Isa. viii. 20),
holiness (1 John i. 7), comfort (Ps.
xcvii. 11), and glory (Col. i. 12). And
all these blessings shall they receive
from Christ, the fountain of light
(Mal. iv. 2; John i. 9).
Lessons.—1. Let each one consider
the command addressed to himself—“Awake
thou.” 2. Let all our powers
be called into action. 3. In exerting
ourselves let us expect the promised aid.—Theological Sketch Book.
The Gospel Call and Promise.
I. Many of mankind are in a state
of deadly sleep.—In sleep the animal
spirits retire to their source, the nerves
are collapsed or embraced; and as the
nerves are the medium of sensation
and motion, the whole system is in a
state of insensibility and inactivity.
How exactly resembling this is your
spiritual state.
1. You are insensible.—Your eyes
and ears are closed; and you have no
proper sense of pleasure or of pain.
2. You are in a state of security.—You
have no fear of evil, no apprehension
of danger, and consequently no
concern for your safety.
3. You are in a state of inactivity.—You
are not inquiring, labouring,
wrestling. When the body is locked
in slumber, thought roves at random
and produces gay dreams of fancied
happiness. Thus many are dreaming
their lives away. (1) In this sleep many
are as void of sense and motion as if they
were actually dead. (2) In common
sleep a person after due repose spontaneously
awakes, renewed in vigour.
But from this sleep, unless God should
awake you, you will never awake till
the heavens be no more. (3) It is a
sleep unto death. Like one who has
taken a large quantity of opium,
unless you are awakened by some
external cause, you will insensibly sink
into the second death, the death which
never dies.
II. God is using means to awaken
them.—While you are asleep, light,
however bright and clear, shines upon
you in vain. Till warning has waked
attention, instruction and illumination
will be lost upon you. 1. God calls you
to awake from your dreams of fancied
happiness, and reflect upon the vanity
of the objects by which you are deluded.
2. Struggle to shake off the dull slumber
which weighs you down. 3. Consider
your misery and danger. 4. Rouse all
that is within you to activity. God calls
you—(1) By the language of His law.
(2) By the severe dispensations of His
providence. (3) By the strivings of
His Spirit. (4) By the voice of the
Gospel.
III. God will give light to all who
awake at His call.—It is the peculiar
property of light to make manifest
(ver. 13). Christ will give you light.
1. He shall make manifest to yourself
your character and your situation.
2. You shall behold the light of life.
3. He shall reveal to you the God of
pardoning love. 4. He shall chase
the darkness of sin from your soul, and
you shall walk in the light of holiness.
5. He shall put an end to your
mourning.
Learn.—1. The deceitfulness and
destructive character of sin. 2. How
fully God provides for your salvation.
3. Hear the voice of God.—E. Hare.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 15–18.
Christian Wisdom—
I. Cautiously regulates the outward life.—“See that ye walk circumspectly,
not as fools, but as wise” (ver. 15). The Christian needs not only spiritual
fervour and enthusiasm, but also prudence—sanctified common sense. It is
possible to do a right thing in a wrong way, or in such a way as to cause more
mischief than benefit. There is a severity of virtue that repels, and rouses
resentment; and there is a parade of Christian liberty that shocks the sensitive.
The truth lies between two extremes, and Christian wisdom is seen in maintaining
the truth and avoiding extremes. “I wisdom dwell with prudence.” Mr.
Edward Everett Hale is generally credited as the author of the following motto
for Christian workers:
"Look up, and not down;
Look out, and not in;
Look forward, and not back;
Lend a hand."
Success in soul-winning is only given to skill, earnestness, sympathy, perseverance,
tact. Men are saved, not in masses, but by careful study and well-directed
effort. It is said that such is the eccentric flight of the snipe when they rise from
the earth that it completely puzzles the sportsman, and some who are capital
shots at other birds are utterly baffled here. Eccentricity seems to be their
special quality, and this can only be mastered by incessant practice with the
gun. But the eccentricity of souls is beyond this, and he had need be a very
spiritual Nimrod—a mighty hunter before the Lord—who would capture them
for Christ. “He that winneth souls is wise.”
II. Teaches how to make the best use of present opportunity.—1. Observing
the value of time amid the prevalence of evil. “Redeeming the time, because the
days are evil” (ver. 16). Time is a section cut out of the great circle of eternity,
and defines for us the limits in which the work of life must be done. It is a
precious gift bestowed by the beneficent hand of God—a gift involving grave
responsibility; and we must render a strict account of the use we make of every
swing of the pendulum. It is doled out to us in minute fragments. One single
year is made up of 31,536,000 seconds. Every tick of the clock records the
ever-lessening opportunities of life. Time is in perpetual motion. Like a strong,
ever-flowing river, it is bearing away everything into the boundless ocean of
eternity. We never know the value of time till we know the value of the
fragments into which it is broken up. To make the most of a single hour we
must make the most of every minute of which it is composed. The most
dangerous moments of a man’s life are those when time hangs heavily on his
hands. He who has nothing to do but kill time is in danger of being killed
himself. It is a miracle of Divine goodness if he is preserved from serious folly,
or something worse; and such miracles rarely occur. The man who has learnt
the value of time can learn any lesson this world may have to teach him. Time
is the opportunity for the exercise of Christian wisdom, and should be the more
sedulously used “when the days are evil”—when evil is in power. Oh for wisdom
to number our days, to grasp the meaning of present opportunity! Here come
the moments that can never be had again; some few may yet be filled with
imperishable good. Let us apply our hearts—all our powers—unto wisdom.
2. Having the good sense to recognise the Divine will.—“Wherefore be ye not
unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is” (ver. 17). We must
read and interpret the signs of the times in the light of God’s purpose. A close
and deep study of the Divine mind will reveal to us the significance of the
passing opportunity, and aid us in making the wisest use of it. Our biggest
schemes are doomed to failure if they are not in accordance with the will of God.
The noblest tasks are reserved for those who have the keenest spiritual insight
and are most in harmony with the Divine purpose.
III. Avoids the folly and waste of intemperance.—“Be not drunk with
wine, wherein is excess” (ver. 18). The Asian Christians were a social, light-hearted
people, fond of convivial feasts. Wine was their danger; and even in
the celebration of the Lord’s Supper they ran into excess, and degraded the holy
ordinance. There were doubtless converted drunkards among them; and the
warning of the text was specially needed. Intemperance is not only a folly and
a waste; it is a degradation and a sin. It is the excessive indulgence of a craving
that at bottom may be in itself good, if wisely regulated—a craving for an intenser
life. “One finds traces,” says Monod, “of the primitive greatness of our nature
even in its most deplorable errors. Just as impurity proceeds at the bottom from
an abuse of the craving for love, so drunkenness betrays a certain demand for
ardour and enthusiasm which in itself is natural and even noble. Man loves
to feel himself alive; he would fain live twice his life at once; and he would
rather draw excitement from horrible things than have no excitement at all.”
When the physicians told Theotimus that except he abstained from drunkenness
and licentiousness he would lose his eyes, his heart was so wedded to his sins
that he answered, “Then farewell, sweet light.”
IV. Seeks to be under the complete control of the Divine Spirit.—“But
be filled with the Spirit” (ver. 18). The excitement of drunkenness must be
supplanted by a holier and more elevating stimulus: the cup that intoxicates
exchanged for the new wine of the Spirit. The general adoption of this principle
will be the grandest triumph of temperance. The cure of drunkenness will not
be accomplished simply by the removal of temptation, unless a relish for higher
things is created and springs of holier pleasure are opened in the hearts of men.
A lower impulse is conquered and expelled by the introduction of a higher.
Anachonis, the philosopher, being asked by what means a man might best guard
against the vice of drunkenness, answered, “By bearing constantly in his view
the loathsome, indecent behaviour of such as are intoxicated.” Upon this
principle was founded the custom of the Lacedæmonians of exposing their
drunken slaves to their children, who by that means conceived an early aversion
to a vice which makes men appear so monstrous and irrational. There is no
excess in drinking copious draughts of the Spirit. Christian wisdom opens the
soul to the ever-flowing tide of His influence, and strives to be animated and
filled with His all-controlling power.
Lessons.—1. Wisdom is the best use of knowledge. 2. Christianity opens the
purest sources of knowledge. 3. “Get wisdom, and with all thy getting get understanding”
(Prov. iv. 7).
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 15–17. Walking circumspectly.
I. The duty recommended.—1. Walk
circumspectly that you may keep within
the line of your duty. Your course
often lies in a medium between two
extremes. If from this course you
deviate, you step into the territory of
vice. Be circumspect that you may
not mistake your duty. Be watchful
that you may retain a sense of virtue
and rectitude. Be attentive that you
may conform to the Spirit of God’s
commands.
2. Walk circumspectly that you may
escape the snares in your way.—Often
look forward to descry your dangers.
Attend to your particular situation
and condition in life. Often review
your past life, and reflect on former
temptations. Be circumspect that
you may detect your enemies when
they approach you in disguise. Never
neglect your duty under pretence of
shunning a temptation.
3. Walk circumspectly that you may
wisely comport with the aspects of
Providence.
4. Be circumspect that you may do
every duty in its time and place.—Attend
on the daily worship of God in
your families and closets. Be kind
and beneficent to the poor. Neglect
not the care of your body. Attend on
the instituted ordinances of the Gospel.
5. Walk circumspectly that your good
may not be evil spoken of.
II. The argument by which the
apostle urges the duty.—“The days
are evil.” The argument was not
peculiar to those early times, but is
pertinent to all times. 1. The days
are evil because the Christian finds
in himself much disorder and corruption.
2. The days are evil as he is
exposed to various afflictions. 3. There
are many adversaries. 4. Iniquity
abounds.—Lathrop.
Ver. 15. The Wise Conduct of Life.—1. The
more light and knowledge a
man receives from God he ought to
take the more diligent heed that in all
things he practises according to his
light. 2. Those only are most fit to
reprove sin in others who walk most
circumspectly and live so as they
cannot be justly blamed themselves.
Even the righteous walking of such
is a forcible reproof of sin in others,
though they speak nothing. 3. As
those are only truly wise in God’s
account who labour to walk most
exactly by the rule of God’s Word, so
where this sanctified wisdom is it will
render itself evident by making the
person endowed with it walk circumspectly.
4. The less circumspect and
exact men be in walking by the rule of
God’s Word the greater fools they are
in God’s esteem.—Fergusson.
Ver. 16. Redeeming the Time.—To
redeem time is to regain what is lost
and to save what is left.
-
Enter on your work speedily.—Do
you ask what is your work? It is
time you knew. Consult God’s Word;
that will tell you.
- Attend to your work with diligence.—A
sense of past slothfulness
must excite you to severer industry.
Be not only fervent but steady in your
work.
- Guard against the things which
rob you of your time.—An indolent
habit is inconsistent with laudable
actions. A versatile humour is active,
but wants patience. An excessive
fondness for company and amusement
is the cause of much waste of time.
- Do every work in its season.—Youth
is the most promising season.
The time of health is more favourable
than a time of sickness. There are
seasons friendly to particular duties.
In doing works of charity observe
opportunities.
- Wisely divide your time among
your various duties.—Lathrop.
The Redemption of Time.
I. The subject of the exhortation.—1. Time
sometime signifies the whole
duration assigned to the present world.
2. The period of human life.—The
time we occupy in the present state is
that which God allots for our personal
probation and trial. All God’s dispensations
in respect to us refer to
this period and have their limits fixed
by it.
3. Time means season or opportunity.—In
this sense the apostle uses it here.
We are to redeem all the opportunity
God bestows on us for getting and
doing good, for acquainting ourselves
with Him and being at peace.
II. The duty enjoined on us.—“Redeeming
the time”—the opportunity.
1. We redeem time by consideration.
2. When we turn everything we have
to do, in the common concerns of life,
into a religious channel.
3. By living in a devotional spirit.—(1) This
will cast out everything
trifling, much more everything sinful,
from our leisure hours. (2) Its preservation
and exercise are perfectly
compatible with the affairs of life.
4. The principal way by which time
is to be redeemed is not merely by
making efforts to promote our final
blessedness, but by actually securing
our present salvation.
III. The motives by which the
exhortation is enforced.—“Because
the days are evil.”
1. The days are evil in a general
sense.—This age, as well as the age of
the apostles, is a wicked one.
2. Because they are days of distress.
3. The days are evil individually.—In
the sense of affliction to a number
of individuals.
4. It is an evil day that we are ever
exposed to enemies and temptations.
5. Every day opportunities of improvement
are wasted is an evil day.
6. The time will come when, as to
many unhappy spirits, the opportunity
of salvation will be lost for ever.—R. Watson.
The Redemption of Time.—The more
the days are beset by things that
grievously invade them, disturb them,
waste them, the more careful and
zealous should we be to save and
improve all that we can. To this
end—
I. It is of the highest importance
that time should be a reality in our
perception and estimate; that we
should verify it as an actual something,
like a substance to which we
can attach a positive value, and see it
as wasting or as improved as palpably
as the contents of a granary or as the
precious metals. The unfortunate case
with us is, that time is apprehended
but like air, or rather like empty
space, so that in wasting it we do not
see that we are destroying or misusing
a reality. Time is equivalent to what
could be done or gained in it.
II. Keep established in the mind,
and often present to view, certain
important purposes or objects that
absolutely must be attained.—For
example: that there is some considerable
discipline and improvement of the
mind, some attainment of Divine knowledge,
some measure of the practice of
religious exercises, and there is the one
thing needful in its whole comprehensive
magnitude.
III. That time be regarded in an
inseparable connection with eternity
is the grand principle for redeeming
it; to feel solemnly that it is really for
eternity, and has all the importance of
this sublime and awful relation. It
might be a striking and alarming
reflection suggested to a man who has
wasted his time—now the time has
gone backward into the irrevocable
past, but the effect of it, from the
quality you have given it, is gone
forward into eternity, and since you
are going thither, how will you meet
and feel the effect there?
IV. Nothing short of the redemption
of the soul is the true and
effectual redemption of time.—And
this object gives the supreme rule for
the redeeming of time. How melancholy
to have made so admirable a use
of time for all purposes but the supreme
one!—John Foster.
Ver. 17, 18. Sensual and Spiritual
Excitement.—There is the antithesis
between drunkenness and spiritual
fulness. The propriety of this opposition
lies in the intensity of feeling
produced in both cases. There is
one intensity of feeling produced by
stimulating the senses, another by
vivifying the spiritual life within. The
one commences with impulses from
without, the other is guarded by
forces from within. Here, then, is
the similarity and here the dissimilarity
which constitutes the propriety
of the contrast. One is ruin, the
other salvation. One degrades, the
other exalts.
I. The effects are similar.—On the
day of Pentecost, when the first influences
of the Spirit descended on the
early Church, the effects resembled
intoxication. It is this very resemblance
which deceives the drunkard;
he is led on by his feelings as well as
by his imagination. Another point of
resemblance is the necessity of intense
feeling. We have fulness—it may be
produced by outward stimulus or by
an inpouring of the Spirit. The
proper and natural outlet for this
feeling is the life of the Spirit. What
is religion but fuller life?
II. The dissimilarity or contrast in
St. Paul’s idea.—The one fulness begins
from without, the other from within.
The one proceeds from the flesh, and
then influences the emotions; the other
reverses this order. Stimulants like
wine inflame the senses, and through
them set the imaginations and feelings
on fire; and the law of our spiritual
being is, that that which begins with
the flesh sensualises the spirit; whereas
that which commences in the region of
the spirit spiritualises the senses, in
which it subsequently stirs emotion.
That which begins in the heart ennobles
the whole animal being; but that which
begins in the inferior departments of
our being is the most entire degradation
and sensualising of the soul. The
other point of difference is one of
effect. Fulness of the Spirit calms;
fulness produced by excitement satiates
and exhausts. The crime of sense is
avenged by sense which wears with
time—the terrific punishment attached
to the habitual indulgence of the senses
is that the incitements to enjoyment
increase in proportion as the power of
enjoyment fades. We want the Spirit
of the life of Christ, simple, natural,
with power to calm and soothe the
feelings which it rouses; the fulness of
the Spirit which can never intoxicate!—F. W. Robertson.
Christian Mirth versus Drunken
Mirth.—Carnal men seek the joys of
life in revelry, but Christians must
seek them in a higher inspiration—that
of the Holy Ghost, whose
fulness is the source of the blithest
and most joyous life.
- The mirth begotten of wine is
the mother of all kinds of profligacy.
- The mirth begotten of wine
destroys men body and soul.
-
The fulness of the Holy Spirit
produces a truly blithe and merry
life.—In this life, with its many causes
of depression, men need exhilaration,
and the text points us to the only
place where it is to be found without
any alloy.—G. A. Bennetts, B.A.
What is your Heart filled with?
- The heart of man must be full
of something.
- Those who are full of wine
cannot be filled with the Spirit.
- Those who are filled with the
Spirit will not be full of wine.
- The joy that is kindled by
fulness of wine is degrading while it
lasts, and will soon expire.
- The joy that is kindled by the
fulness of the Spirit makes us like
the angels, and it will never end.—Lay Preacher.
The Vice of Drunkenness.
I. The nature and extent of the sin.—The
use of meat and drink is to
support and comfort the body. Whatever
is more than these is excess. The
highest degree of intemperance is such
an indulgence as suspends the exercise
of the mental and bodily powers. If
by the indulgence of your appetite you
unfit your body for the service of your
mind, or your mind for the service of
God, you waste your substance as to
defraud your family of a maintenance
or your creditors of their dues, become
enslaved to a sensual habit and fascinated
to dissolute company, stupefy
your conscience, extinguish the sentiments
of honour and banish the
thoughts of futurity, you are chargeable
with criminal excess.
II. The guilt and danger which
attend the vice.—1. It is an ungrateful
abuse of God’s bounty. 2. It divests the
man of his native dignity and sinks
him below the brutal herds. 3. Is injurious
to the body as well as mind.
4. Consumes men’s substance. 5. Wastes
a man’s conscience as well as his substance.
6. Intemperance generates other
vices—impure lustings, angry passions,
profane language, insolent manners,
obstinacy of heart, and contempt of
reproof. 7. Has most lamentable effects
on families. 8. The Scripture abounds
in solemn warnings against this sin.
9. This sin must be renounced, or the
end of it will be death.—Lathrop.
Being filled with the Spirit.—1. It
supposes a sufficiency and fulness in
the Spirit and His influences every
way to fill our souls, to supply all
our spiritual wants, and to help our
infirmities. 2. It imparts an actual
participation of His influences and
fruits in a large and plentiful measure.
(1) As men come to have every power
and faculty of their souls more subject
to the Spirit’s authority and under the
influence proper to it. (2) As they
grow to experience His operations in
all the several kinds of them. (3) As
His agency comes to be more stated
and constant in them. (4) As His
grace becomes more mighty and operative
in them, so as actually to produce
its proper and genuine effects. (5) As
they taste such a sweetness and delight
in the measure of participation attained
that they reach forward with greater
ardour toward perfection. 3. That
every one should esteem the fulness of
the Spirit a desirable thing. (1) It
puts us into a fit posture of mind for
daily communion with God. (2) Would
settle our minds in the truest pleasure
and peace. 4. That we should look
upon it as an attainable good. (1) From
the Spirit’s own gracious benignity
and His declared inclination to fill our
souls. (2) From the purchase and
intercession of Christ. (3) From the
nature of the Spirit’s work in consequence
of redemption (4) From the
Gospel being described as the ministration
of the Spirit. (5) From the
declarations of God concerning the
Spirit. (6) From the instances of
His grace already made in others.
(7) From the beginnings of His saving
grace in themselves, good men may
conclude the greatest heights attainable
by them, if they be not wanting
to themselves.—John Evans.
On being filled with the Spirit—
- Implies that the Spirit has been
largely given to the Church.
- That as God has given the Spirit
largely so He has been abundantly
received.
- Is to be possessed by His graces
in all their variety.
- Is to be wholly guided by
His influence and subject to His
control.
- Is to be the instrument of fulfilling
His mission on earth.
- Is to have God as the only
portion of the soul.—1. The Spirit is
God on the earth. 2. To be filled with
the Spirit is to be fully occupied with
God.—Stewart.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 19–21.
Spiritual Enjoyment—
I. Expressed in heartfelt praise to God.—“Speaking . . . in spiritual songs, singing
and making melody in your heart to the Lord” (ver. 19). Men filled with wine
seek their enjoyment in singing bacchanalian odes and songs; but the men of
the Spirit find a higher and more satisfying joy in chanting psalms and hymns of
praise to God. The holiest excitement seeks expression in music and song. In
the praise meetings of the Ephesians we have the beginnings of Christian
psalmody. The psalms of the Old Testament were sung, accompanied by musical
instruments. “Singing and making melody” means singing and playing, voice
and instrument blending in joyous strains of praise. Then would follow hymns
expressing the great ideas of the Gospel. Regarding the early Christians Pliny
wrote: “They are wont on a fixed day to meet before daylight—to avoid persecution—and
to recite a hymn among themselves by turns to Christ, as being
God.” There might not be much artistic taste in the music, either of voice or
instrument; but the sincerity of the heart was the true harmony. The contrast
of the verse is between the heathen and the Christian practice. Let your songs
be not the drinking songs of heathen feasts, but psalms and hymns; and their
accompaniment, not the music of the lyre, but the melody of the heart. Is any
merry, let him sing, not light and frivolous songs, breathing questionable
morality, but psalms. The glad heart is eager first to acknowledge God.
II. Largely consists in thanksgiving.—“Giving thanks always for all things
unto God” (ver. 20). God is the active Source of all blessings in creation,
providence, and grace, and should be constantly acknowledged in grateful
adoration. The thankful heart is the happiest; and it is the happy who sing.
Thanksgiving is the predominating element in praise; and praise is the essence
of true worship. Prayer is not the essence of worship, though it is an important
help. Prayer becomes worship when it merges into praise. The reading and
exposition of God’s Word are not worship. Preaching accomplishes one of its
loftiest functions when it incites to praise. Music is not worship but it may
become a valuable accessory. Christianity has taken hold of music and consecrated
and elevated it to the highest uses of worship. It has produced the
greatest musicians and the grandest music. All true music is the outward and
melodious expression of our dearest and most sacred thoughts and feelings. The
musical artist touches what is deepest and best in us. Nature has no false
notes. When we praise God aright, worship becomes an act of the highest
intelligence, calling forth and exercising our noblest powers. We are to sing
with the Spirit, and we are to sing with the understanding also. Worship is
acceptable to God as it is the joyous expression of the soul, brimming over with
thankfulness and reverence. We are then brought under the spiritually transforming
power of the Being we worship; the worshipper becomes like the object
worshipped.
III. Soberly recognises the relation in which we stand to each other and to
Christ.—“Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God” (ver. 21).
In the fear of Christ—so read all the old MSS, and authorities. The believer
passes from under the bondage of the law to be the servant of Christ, which
through the instinct of love to Him is really to be the Lord’s freeman, for he is
under the law to Christ. Thus reverential fear of displeasing Him is the motive
for discharging our relative duties as Christians. The Church should be a
pattern and an example of harmony and peace, and this can only be by the
members submitting themselves one to another “in the fear of Christ.” The
man with the most distinguished gifts must not be above submitting himself to
the judgment and will of his fellow-members. Preacher, organist, choir, and
congregation must vie with each other in harmonious rivalry in the service
and worship of God.
Lessons.—1. Spiritual enjoyment is not dependent on fictitious excitement.
2. Expresses itself in holiest song. 3. Is unselfish.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Ver. 19. Singing in the Worship of
God.
I. The singing of psalms is here
enjoined as a sacred branch of social
worship.—We are to glorify God in
our bodies and in our spirits. To Him
we are to consecrate the use of all our
powers. And there is the same reason
why the musical as any other faculty
should be employed in His service.
Praise is the most excellent part of
Divine worship.
II. The matter or subject of our
singing.—In psalms, hymns, and
spiritual songs. By psalms is intended
that collection of sacred poems which
passes under this name and is one of
the canonical books of Scripture. By
hymns may be designed other poetical
compositions of Scripture as the songs
of Moses, Hannah, Zechariah, Simeon,
and others. By spiritual songs may be
meant those pious and devout songs
which in that age were composed by
prophets and holy men in the Church
under the immediate influence of the
Spirit. The matter we sing should be
accommodated to the occasion of the
worship. If in the days of David it
was thought necessary that on extraordinary
occasions a new song should
be sung, surely now we may sing some
new songs on the glorious occasion of
the Gospel.
III. We are to sing, making
melody.—The use of music in social
worship is to assist and enliven the
devotion of the heart. When music is
performed with melody of sound, exactness
of time, and harmony of voices, it
greatly contributes to this end. Singing
cannot be performed to edification
and comfort without skill. The singers
in the Jewish Temple were carefully
instructed, and this branch of worship
conducted with great order and
solemnity.
IV. In singing we must make
melody in our hearts to the Lord.—Singing
as part of religious worship
must be directed to God. We sing in
obedience to His command, with a
sense of His presence, with hearts
disposed for His service, with affections
corresponding to the matter of the
psalm. The man who can hear holy
anthems sung to the universal Parent,
with voices sweetly mingling and
harmonising together, and not feel
himself softened into benevolence and
love and moulded into condescension
and peace, must have a soul rugged as
the rocks and stubborn as an oak.
Lessons.—1. If singing is an instituted
part of Divine worship, all should
take a share in it. 2. Every one according
to his ability is bound to
promote the psalmody of the Church.
3. Psalmody as a branch of Divine
worship should be regarded, not as a
theatrical exhibition, but as a religious
solemnity.—Lathrop.
Ver. 20. The Duty of Thanksgiving.
I. The duty to which we are
exhorted.—1. Implies a right apprehension
and considerate attention to
benefits conferred. 2. Requires a
faithful retention of benefits in memory
and frequent reflections on them.
3. A due esteem and valuation of
benefits. 4. That benefits be received
with a willing mind, a hearty sense, a
vehement affection. 5. Always attended
with the esteem, veneration, and
love of the benefactor.
II. The time allotted to the performance
of the duty.—“Always.” 1. Hereby
is required a frequent performance
thereof. 2. Appointing and punctually
observing convenient times for the
purpose. 3. A vigilant attendance on
the duty such as men bestow on their
employments. 4. Implies a ready disposition
to give thanks ever permanent
in us. 5. That we embrace every
opportunity of actually expressing our
thankfulness.
III. The matter of this duty.—“For
all things.” 1. We are to give
thanks not only for great but the least
favours of God. 2. Not only for new
and present benefits, but for all we
have formerly or may hereafter receive.
3. Not only for pleasant occurrences
of providence, but also those which are
adverse. 4. Not only for temporal but
for spiritual and eternal blessings.—Barrow.
Thanksgiving.
- The duty here enjoined is to give
thanks.
- Consider the character of that
Being to whom our thanks must be
supremely directed.—“To God, even
the Father.”
- We are required to give thanks
always to God.
- The matters for which we are
to give thanks.—“For all things.”
- Consider the medium of our
access to God in this duty.—“In the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”—Lathrop.
Ver. 21. Mutual Submission.
- A degree of submission is due to
superiors.—Superiors in age, in knowledge
and wisdom, in authority.
Honour a virtuous character wherever
you see it.
- Mutual submission as it respects
equals.—All men have the same
immutable right to an equitable treatment
from all with whom they have
intercourse. Mutual subjection ought
to be seen in families.
- There is a submission due to
those who on some accounts may
be deemed inferiors.—Superiors owe
respect to those below them. They
should be easy of access, gentle in
language, and condescending in deportment.
- This mutual submission ought to
appear in Christian Churches.—Ibid.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 22–33.
Duties of Wives and Husbands.
I. The duty of the wife is submission to her husband.—“Wives submit yourselves
unto your own husbands.”
1. A submission defined by religious obligation.—“As unto the Lord” (ver. 22).
This submission implies no inferiority. Husband and wife are equal before God,
and each is separately responsible to Him. The husband cannot love and serve
God for the wife, nor the wife for the husband; each stands related to Him as a
distinct personality, with distinct duties and responsibilities for each. God has
the first claim upon them both, and their relation and duties to each other must
be in harmony with that supreme claim. The submission demanded is not the
subjection of an inferior to a superior, but the voluntary, sympathetic obedience
that can be gracefully and appropriately rendered only by an equal to an equal.
“It is here that Christianity, in contrast with paganism and notably with
Mahometanism, raises the weaker sex to honour. In soul and destiny it
declares the woman to be man, endowed with all rights and powers inherent in
humanity. It is one of the glories of our faith that it has enfranchised our
sisters, and raises them in spiritual calling to the full level of their brothers and
husbands.”
2. A submission recognising the headship of the husband.—(1) Analogous to
the headship of Christ to His Church. “For the husband is the head of the
wife, even as Christ is the Head of the Church” (ver. 23). (2) Unlike that
headship inasmuch as Christ is not only the head but also the Saviour of the
Church. “And He is the Saviour of the body” (ver. 23). As the Saviour His
headship is unrivalled and must be acknowledged by every member alike. The
wife must not think too much of her husband: there is One who is superior to
him, and who must be all in all to them both.
3. A submission after the pattern of that of the Church to Christ.—“As the
Church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything”
(ver. 24; cf. ver. 33). Religion sanctifies all relationships and makes duty
a joy. As the wife obeys Christ in spiritual things, so she will obey her
husband in all things righteous. Mary, wife of Prince William of Orange and
the heir-apparent to the English throne, was asked what her husband the prince
should be if she became queen. She called in her husband and promised him
he should always bear rule; and asked only that he would obey the command,
“Husbands, love your wives,” as she should do that, “Wives, be obedient
to your husbands in all things.”
II. The duty of the husband is to love his wife.—1. A love that seeks to promote
the highest spiritual interests of the wife (vers. 25–29). It must be a Christ-like,
self-sacrificing, all-devoted love. It is greatly within the power of the
husband to help or hinder the spiritual life of the wife. The man is apt to
become so self-absorbed and forgetful that he needs reminding of his duty to love
and cherish the one who should be dearer to him than any other. Assured of
the reality and unselfishness of her husband’s love, there is no sacrifice she will
hesitate to make, nor will she spare any effort to attain the Christ-likeness of
character to which he may wish to lead her. “One with Christ. This is the
ideal Christian state. We have a faint reflection of this in that which should be
flesh. They are to be as nearly as possible one person. Their thoughts, their
interests, their hopes, their aims are one. Marriage was given that it might be
a representation of the spiritual union between Christ and His Church. The
union of each separate soul with Christ is a fragment of His union with the
whole Church, and must partake of the same character. He that is joined to the
Lord is one spirit with Him.”
2. A love arising from the intimacy and sacredness of the marriage bond
(vers. 30–32).—Marriage is a union for life between one man and one woman;
consequently bigamy, polygamy, and voluntary divorce are all inconsistent with
its nature. It must be entered into freely and cordially by the parties, with the
conviction that one is suited to the other, and to take the positions involved in the
natural and scriptural view of the relation. “Marriage,” said Jeremy Taylor, “is
a school and exercise of virtue. Here is the proper sense of piety and patience, of
the duty of parents, and the charity of relatives; here kindness is spread abroad
and love is united and made firm as a centre. Marriage is the nursery of heaven,
hath in it the labours of love and the delicacies of friendship, the blessing of
society and the union of hands and hearts. Like the useful bee, marriage builds
a house, unites into societies and republics, exercises many virtues, promotes the
interest of mankind, and is that state of good things to which God has designed
the present constitution of the world.”
3. A love strengthened by the observance of mutual duties (ver. 33).—Love
manifested begets love, and strengthens with exercise. The loving reverence of
the wife follows on the frank and genuine love of the husband. This was an
epitaph in a churchyard inscribed by a husband after sixty years of married life:
“She always made home happy.” The Christian conception of love and marriage
began a new era in the world, and has exalted woman to her true place.
Lessons.—1. Marriage is not to be lightly entered into. 2. Is dignified as a symbol
of the union between Christ and His Church. 3. Binds the contracting parties to
fidelity in observing the most sacred vows.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 22–33. Wives and Husbands.
I. There are duties which are common
to both the correlates.—The
husband and wife are in some respects
equals. As they are one and have
one common interest they ought to
act with an undivided concern for the
happiness of the family. They are
alike bound to mutual fidelity and a
chaste conversation. They are under
equal obligations to study each other’s
peace and comfort.
II. There are some duties particularly
incumbent on the wife.—These
the apostle expresses by the terms submission,
reverence, obedience, and subjection.
Since the Church is subject
to Christ, the woman ought to be
subject to her husband, who, by Christ’s
authority, is constituted her head. A
family should resemble a Church in
union, peace, and subordination. The
honour and interest of religion require
that wives, by a cheerful subordination,
co-operate with their husbands in all
the important concerns of the household,
and in the nurture, education,
and government of the dependent
members.
III. There are duties particularly
incumbent on the husband towards his
wife.—These the apostle expresses by
the word “love,” which here stands opposed
to sharpness and severity. One
argument for this love is the example
of Christ in His love and devotion to
the Church. Another reason is, the
intimacy of the relationship—“Whoso
loveth his wife loveth himself.” Where
the spirit of religion reigns in both, the
union will be easy and their joint
government in the family have efficacy.
The maintenance of family religion
depends on nothing more than the
union of the heads. For how can they
unite in prayers and praises who unite
in nothing else.—Lathrop.
Vers. 23–32. Christ and His Bride.
I. Christ’s love to the Church
(vers. 25–27). We must value and
joyfully assert our individual part in
the redeeming love of the Son of God;
but we must equally admit the sovereign
rights of the Church in the Redeemer’s
passion. There is in some an absorption
in the work of grace within their
own hearts, an individualistic salvation-seeking
that like all selfishness defeats
its end, for it narrows and impoverishes
the inner life thus sedulously
cherished. The Church does not exist
simply for the benefit of individual
souls; it is an eternal institution, with
an affiance to Christ, a calling and
destiny of its own; within that
universal sphere our personal destiny
holds its particular place. The Christ
is worthy and she must be made
worthy. From eternity He set His
love upon her; on the cross He won
her back from her infidelity at the
price of His blood. Through the ages
He has been wooing her to Himself,
and schooling her in wise and manifold
ways that she may be fit for
her heavenly calling. Through what
cleansing fires, through what baptisms,
even of blood, she has still to pass ere
the consummation is reached, He only
knows who loved her and gave Himself
for her. He will spare to His Church
nothing, either of bounty or of trial,
that her perfection needs.
II. Christ’s authority over the
Church (vers. 23, 24).—The Church is
no democracy, any more than she is an
aristocracy or a sacerdotal absolutism:
she is a Christocracy. The people are
not rulers in the house of God; they
are the ruled, laity and ministers alike.
We acknowledge this in theory; but
our language and spirit would oftentimes
be other than they are, if we
were penetrated with the sense of the
continual presence and majesty of the
Lord Jesus in our assemblies. The
Church’s protection from human
tyranny, from schemes of ambition,
from the intrusion of political methods
and designs, lies in her sense of the
splendour and reality of Christ’s
dominion and of her own eternal life
in Him.
III. The mystery of the Church’s
origin in Christ (vers. 30–32).—God
chose us in Christ before the world’s
foundation. We are created in the
Son of God’s love antecedently to our
redemption by Him. Christ recovers
through the cross that which pertains
inherently to Him, which belonged to
Him by nature, and is as a part of
Himself. The derivation of Eve from
the body of Adam, as that is affirmed
in the mysterious words of Genesis, is
analogous to the derivation of the
Church from Christ. The latter relationship
existed in the ideal, and as
conceived in the purpose of God, prior
to the appearance of the human race.
In St. Paul’s theory, the origin of the
woman in man, which forms the basis
of marriage in Scripture, looked
farther back to the origin of humanity
in Christ Himself. In some mystical
but real sense marriage is a reunion,
the reincorporation of what had been
sundered. Seeking his other self, the
complement of his nature, the man
breaks the ties of birth and founds a
new home. So the inspired author of the
passage in Genesis (Gen. ii. 21–24)
explains the origin of marriage, and
the instinct which draws the bridegroom
to his bride. But our apostle
sees within this declaration a deeper
truth, kept secret from the foundation
of the world. When he speaks of this
great mystery, he means thereby not
marriage itself, but the saying of Adam
about it. This text was a standing
problem to the Jewish interpreters.
“But for my part,” says the apostle,
“I refer it to Christ and to the
Church.” St. Paul, who has so often
before drawn the parallel between
Adam and Christ, by the light of this
analogy perceives a new and rich
meaning in the old dark sentence. It
helps him to see how believers in
Christ, forming collectively His body,
are not only grafted into Him, but
were derived from Him and formed in
the very mould of His nature. In our
union through grace and faith with
Christ crucified we realise again the
original design of our being. Christ
has purchased by His blood no new or
foreign bride, but her who was His
from eternity—the child who had
wandered from the Father’s house, the
betrothed who had left her Lord and
spouse.—Findlay.
Vers. 25–33. The Christian Law of
Marriage—
- Demands self-sacrificing love.
- Recognises the sacredness of
the union between the contracting
parties.
- Is ennobled in being a type
of the union between Christ and the
Church.
- Involves mutual fidelity on the
part of both husband and wife.
Vers. 25–27. Christ’s Love for the
Church.
I. Christ’s love of His Church.—It
was—1. Ancient. 2. Self-moved.
3. Active. 4. Effective.
II. Christ’s sacrifice of Himself as
an exhibition of His love.—1. Himself.
His life. What a life! 2. As a
sacrifice. The essence of it is vicarious
suffering. 3. To all the suffering
which justice demanded.
III. Christ’s more immediate object
in what He has done.—1. Sanctification.
As essential as pardon. 2. By
the agency of the Holy Spirit.
Signified by the washing of water.
3. Through the instrumentality of the
Word.
IV. Christ’s ultimate aim.—1. To
present His Church to Himself. A
nuptial figure. 2. Free from all imperfections.
3. Adorned with all
excellencies. (1) Our obligations to
Christ. (2) The real value of holiness.
(3) The high destiny of believers.—G. Brooks.
The Future Glory of the Church.
I. The future state of the Church.—In
describing the future condition of
the Church, the apostle has evidently
in his mind two previous states: her
original state when lying dead in trespasses
and sins, and her subsequent
earthly state when separated from the
mass of the ungodly and partially
redeemed. We have the people of
Christ before us in three distinct points
of view:—
1. As wholly defiled.—Speaking of
“sanctifying and cleansing” the
Church intimates her complete defilement.
2. As in some measure cleansed.—Though
sanctified and cleansed, we
read of spots still left on the Church.
3. As altogether pure.—Faultless in
God’s presence and estimation.
II. The causes to which this state
is to be ascribed.—1. The love of
Christ. 2. Love revealed in sacrifice as
another step towards final purity.
3. The work of the Holy Spirit (ver. 26).
4. The Word of God (ver. 26). A
right understanding of its testimony
and a heartfelt belief in its truth.
III. The great end for which all
these means of holiness are brought
into operation.—“That He might
present it to Himself a glorious
Church” (ver. 27). The likeness of
God will be put on her, the image of
God shine in her; that attribute of
Divinity—holiness—which is the perfection
of Divinity will be her crown.—C. Bradley.
The Divine Ideal of the Church.
I. We have an array of stupendous
facts concerning the Church.—1. The
Divine prevision. Before the eternal
Son of God could give Himself for the
Church, He must have had it in His
mind. 2. The Redeemer’s actual love for
the Church. 3. The Redeemer’s amazing
self-sacrifice on behalf of the Church.
4. That the Redeemer has a very definite
purpose concerning His Church.
II. The distinguishing marks or
signs of the members of the Church.—They
are personal and experimental.
1. The casting out of natural impurities.
Improvement is not enough.
Nothing but a thorough re-creation
can effect what is required. 2. The
instrument of this change is the truth.
3. This change, this introduction into the
Church, is a thing complete in itself,
becomes historical, and ought never to
need repeating. 4. The way is open
for the appearance of the other personal
and experimental sign—sanctification
(ver. 26). 5. Christ’s idea of the
Church given in these verses is not
abstract, impracticable, and untrue to
the possibilities of ordinary human
nature.
III. Here we catch a glimpse of
the future and eternal glory of the
Church.—How stupendous an event it
will be when, at the consummation of
all things, the whole Church will be
presented to the Lord Jesus! What
can secure Church membership?
Neither early training, nor baptism,
nor the holding of an orthodox creed,
nor associating with a religious and
devout assembly, nor the filling of
ecclesiastical office, nor even intelligent
approach to the table of the Lord.
Such things are means to an end.
That end is true membership in the
Church of Christ. And that membership
is attained and secured by Divine
renewal of the heart, and by that
conformity to the mind of Christ which
is expressive of the new life. The true
unity of the Church of Christ is that
spiritual oneness which has its expression
in identity of Christian life.—W. Hudson.
Ver. 25. A Noble Self-sacrifice.—Caius
Gracchus, who was the idol of
the Roman people, having carried his
regard for the lower orders so far as to
draw upon himself the resentment of
the nobility, an open rupture ensued;
and the two extremities of Rome
resembled two camps—Opimius the
consul on one side, and Gracchus and
his friend Fulvius on the other. A
battle ensued in which the consul,
meeting with more vigorous resistance
than he expected, proclaimed an
amnesty for all those who should lay
down their arms, and at the same time
promised to pay for the heads of
Gracchus and Fulvius their weight
in gold. This proclamation had the
desired effect. The populace deserted
their leaders. Fulvius was taken and
beheaded, and Gracchus, at the advice
of his two friends, Licinius Crassus
and Pomponius, determined to flee the
city, and reached the bridge Sublicius,
where his enemies, who pursued him
close, would have overtaken and seized
him if his two friends had not opposed
their fury; but they saw the danger
he was in and determined to save his
life at the expense of their own. They
defended the bridge against all the
consular troops till Gracchus was out
of their reach; but at length, being
overpowered by numbers, and covered
with wounds, they both expired on the
bridge they had so valiantly defended.—Biblical Treasury.
Ver. 30. Members of the Body of
Christ.
I. The doctrine.—The apostle is
speaking of believers only; of believers
as believing; of all believers. His
language implies:—
1. Union.—Real, intimate, indissoluble.
2. Dependence.—Of the members on
the heart. Of the members on the
head.
3. Sympathy.—Sincere, entire, uninterrupted.
Value of human sympathy.
Its rarity. Its necessary
imperfection. The superiority of
Christ’s.
II. The duty.—1. Love. A special
affection arising out of a special relation.
2. Reverence.—There should be no
unholy familiarity.
3. Obedience.—Responsive to His
will as a part of Himself.—G. Brooks.
Ver. 33. The Sanctity of Home Life.—The
Christian home is the corner-stone
of modern civilisation—the best fruit
Christianity has yielded the earth.
The Anglo-Saxon home is the crowning
glory of the race. Contrast it with
French home life, or the miserable
home life in Utah! National self-preservation
demands a vigorous uprooting
of Mormon polygamy and
Western divorce lawlessness. That
which is punished as a crime in the
best and purest Christian lands must
be punished as a crime wherever it
is found. Garfield kissing his mother
and his wife at his Inauguration was
a sweet revelation of holy family life.—Homiletic Monthly.
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.
Ver. 1. Children, obey.—Until the days of discretion arrive this is the grace of childhood.
If through obedience the child errs, the responsibility of that is with those who have commanded.
It is only a “surrendered soul” that can sing:
"I would be treated as a child,
And guided where I go."
Ver. 2. Honour thy father and mother.—As long as they are so.
Ver. 3. That it may be well with thee.—If ever “that it may be” could mean “and so it
shall be,” we should strenuously plead for that meaning here. For it would be a pitiable
thing indeed to find a man showing filial piety as a profitable course.
Ver. 4. Nurture and admonition.—The former word is more general than the latter, including
everything that goes to the instruction of the child. “Admonition” is reproof, either of
word or punishment, or yet again, warning.
Ver. 5. Servants, be obedient.—R.V. margin, “bond-servants.” There was One who had
“become obedient even unto death,” having “taken the form of a bond-servant”
(Phil. ii. 7). With fear and trembling.—“With that zeal which is ever keenly apprehensive
of not doing enough” (Meyer). The same phrase is used of the way in which our personal
salvation is to be worked out (Phil. ii. 12).
Ver. 6. Not with eyeservice.—A word used only by St. Paul. The thing it describes is
easily recognised to-day.
Ver. 7. With good will doing service.—If a philosopher-slave like Epictetus could rise
superior to his condition, surely Christianity could do as much for the humblest believer.
Ver. 8. Knowing that whatsoever good . . . bond or free.
"This is the famous stone
That turneth all to gold,
For that which God doth touch and own
Cannot for less be told"ÂGeorge Herbert.
Ver. 9. Do the same things unto them.—The utmost application of the “golden rule.”
Forbearing threatening “may either mean abating or giving up.”
Ver. 10. Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.—In ch. i. 19 the phrase
“power of His might” is reversed. See note there.
Ver. 11. The whole armour.—“The panoply.” “A complete suit of armour.” The wiles of
the devil.—A craftily designed plan of attack.
Ver. 12. For we wrestle.—We need not suppose a transference of the metaphor. It may
describe the hand-to-hand fight in which equally matched opponents refuse to back an
inch. Not against flesh and blood.—With “vulnerable crests” (Macbeth). When ghostly
combatants appear, unassailable, and with powers of injury against which we are helpless,
we may well say:
“Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves
Shall never tremble.”
Ver. 13. In the evil day.—Compare ch. v. 16. A day of great peril. And having done all, to
stand.—“When the hurly-burly’s done” to find oneself unvanquished.
Ver. 14. Stand therefore.—The words ring short and sharp as a bugle-call. Loins girt
about with truth.—“To speak of a well-equipped warrior without a girdle is a contradictio in
adjecto, for it was just the girdle which produced the free bearing and movement and the
necessary attitude of the warrior” (Meyer). “Truth is a subjective conception corresponding
with the eternal realities” (Beet). Breastplate of righteousness.—“As the actual warrior
has protected the breast when he laced the corslet over his chest, so with you righteousness . . .
renders your breast (heart and will) inaccessible to the hostile influence of the
demons” (Meyer).
“He is but naked though locked up in steel
Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted.”
Ver. 15. Feet shod.—Ensuring agility and a firm foothold. Preparation of the gospel of
peace.—“Preparation” might perhaps give way to “preparedness.” St. Paul does not mind
a paradox. “What hast thou to do with peace?” said one soldier to another; but the
herald was a soldier too.
Ver. 16. Above all, taking the shield.—Large enough to block the entrance to a doorway—being
about four feet by two and a half. The lighter missiles were harmless against a
roof of these shields over-lapped. They were of wood, thickly coated with leather. Quench
the fiery darts.—“Arrows tipped with inflammable material, and shot off after having been
kindled” (Meyer).
Ver. 17. Take the helmet of salvation.—For the large shield might leave the head exposed
to the archer’s aim. The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.—How effectual in
fence and thrust it was in the hands of the Captain of our salvation, the “world-ruler” had
experienced.
Ver. 18. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit.—Here we have
the recognition of a directing Superior. The true soldier fights under the direction of his
ἀρχηγός.
The “sounds of strife” are dying away in this verse.
Ver. 20. An ambassador in bonds.—R.V. “in chains.” Sustaining the honour of Christ
under personal indignity. That I may speak boldly.—It needed not only the apostle’s own,
but his readers’ prayers to enable him to speak freely within stroke of the “lion’s paw”
(2 Tim. iv. 17).
Ver. 21. Tychicus, a beloved brother and faithful minister.—If all servants were “brethren”
first, the troubles of our modern commercial life would be few.
Ver. 23. Peace, love and faith.—A worthy triad, and the greatest of these is love.
Ver. 24. Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity.—Paul’s favourite
word “grace” comes in as “epilogue”—as it was “prologue” (ch. i. 2). Sincerity means
incorruptly—to love in a spirit corruption cannot touch.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 1–4.
Duties of Children and Parents.
I. The duty of children to parents is to obey.—1. This obedience has the Divine
sanction. “In the Lord” (ver. 1). Both the command and the obedience must
be in harmony with the relation in which both parents and children stand
towards God. The parent who has not himself learnt to respect and obey the
law of God is ill prepared for the grave responsibilities of family government.
Natural affection and the instincts of common sense will guide the parents in the
ordinary affairs of home-life, and the sense of dependence and respect should
induce instinctive obedience in the child. No parent has any right to enforce an
obedience which is not in harmony with the supreme claims of God. The child
who submits to the will of his parents is taught at the same time to obey the
higher law of God. If he defies parental authority and persists in disobedience,
he is sure to be treated in the same way if he ever has children of his own. To
be able to govern we must first learn to obey.
2. This obedience is in harmony with natural order and the eternal principles of
justice.—“For this is right” (ver. 1). Obedience is the law of the universe, and
without it everything would rush into anarchy and chaos. Law is so all-pervasive
as to cover every department and relationship of life, and its breach in
any sphere carries with it its own punishment. Disobedience is not only a wrong
to the person who commits it, but it is an injustice to somebody else. Obedience
to parents in things lawful is no hardship. It is becoming and commendable
because it is right. It is the perversity of our nature, when it becomes difficult
to do right. Disobedience is a wilful divergence from the straight line of
rectitude, and is the essence of all sin.
3. This obedience ensures the Divine blessing (vers. 2, 3).—It is our duty to
obey irrespective of any advantage to be secured. The loyal heart looks, not
to the reward, but to the duty. It is no merit to do what it is our duty to do.
Yet such is the condescension and goodness of God that He attaches a special
blessing to every act of unselfish obedience. Filial obedience should not be
dilatory and reluctant, but prompt, cheerful, self-denying, and uniform.
Obedience is the path of safety. A pointsman in Prussia was at the junction
of two lines of railway, lever in hand, for a train that was signalled. The
engine was within a few seconds of reaching the embankment when the man,
turning his head, perceived his little boy playing between the rails on which the
train was running. He stuck to his lever, but shouted to the child, “Lie down!
lie down!” The train passed, and the father rushed forward to pick up what
he feared would be the mangled body of his child; but what was his joy to find
the boy had at once obeyed his order, had lain down, and the train passed over
him without injuring him. His prompt obedience saved his life. Dutiful
children secure the blessing of God. Filial obedience practised in the Christian
home forms habits of promptitude, self-control, and self-respect which are
important conditions of success and prosperity.
II. The duty of parents to children is to exercise discipline.—1. Not by
enforcing commands that tend to irritate. “Ye fathers, provoke not your children
to wrath” (ver. 4). Children are a sacred trust and solemn responsibility; not
to be weakly fondled or foolishly spoilt, but to be wisely, kindly, and strictly
disciplined into obedience and duty. The Chinese have a proverb, when a son
is born into a family a bow and arrow are hung before the gate. In Eastern
books sons are spoken of as arrows of their fathers. “As arrows are in the hand
of a mighty man, so are children of the youth” (Ps. cxxvii. 4). As the bowman
straightens and polishes his arrow, giving it a sharp and solid point, and wings it
with feathers, so parents must train and equip their children that they may go
straight to the point of duty and hit the mark. The arrows that are not prepared
and directed when in the hand may, when they are gone abroad into the world,
and all parental training is too late, prove arrows in the heart that will rankle
with unspeakable pain. The training of children is also a training of the parent.
Many a hint is unconsciously given as to “training up a parent in the way he
should go.” While there should be firm discipline, there should not be exasperating
and tantalising severity. Rousing a child’s anger is not the best way
of subduing it. A sullen submission gained, by provoking and then crushing an
angry opposition, is rendered with a sense of injustice and wrong that will breed
future mischief. Monod says: “Correction and instruction should proceed from
the Lord, and be directed by the Spirit of the Lord in such a way that it is not
so much the father who corrects his children and teaches them, as the Lord
through him.” The father who chastises in wrath provokes the child to wrath
and rebellion.
2. But by judicious religious culture.—“But bring them up in the nurture and
admonition of the Lord” (ver. 4). Children are the gifts of God to be trained
for God. They are susceptible of genuine religious experience, and are often
nearer the truth than grown-up people. Christ recognised the spiritual faculty
in children, and gave them a conspicuous place in His kingdom. When He
wished to show the type of true greatness, He did not point to stars or mountains
or earthly dignities, but “called a little child unto Him and, set him in the
midst” (Matt. xviii. 2–4). Children are capable of useful religious service, and
in many ways may be little missionaries for Christ. Dr. W. L. Breckenridge
once said to his mother: “Mother, I think you ruled us with too rigid a rod in
our boyhood. It would have been better had you used gentler methods.” The
old lady straightened up and said: “Well, William, when you have raised up
three as good preachers as I have then you can talk.” The smaller magnets
have proportionately much the greater power, and children have a remarkable
spiritual force with which the Christian parent has to deal.
Lessons.—1. Personal discipline should be in harmony with the law of God.
2. The rigour of parental discipline should be tempered with love. 3. Respect and
obedience to parents will be Divinely rewarded.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 1–4. The Mutual Duties of
Children and Parents.
I. Children are to obey and honour
their parents.—1. Children owe to their
parents an inward affection and regard.
Their obedience should flow from love,
gratitude, and esteem. The love
parents bear to their children entitles
them to reciprocal affection. 2. They
are to honour their parents by external
tokens of respect. 3. They are to obey
the just commands of their parents.
4. They are to receive with decent and
humble regard the instructions, counsels,
and reproofs of their parents. 5. They
should remunerate the favours received
from their parents. 6. They are encouraged
in their obedience by the Divine
promise.
II. The duties of parents to children.—1. To
instruct their children in the
doctrines and duties of religion. 2. To
endeavour by arguments, exhortations,
and reproofs to form their lives according
to those instructions. 3. To regulate
the diversions of their children. 4. To
maintain the worship of God in their
houses. 5. To let their conversation be
exemplary. 6. To train up their children
with diligence in some honest business.
7. To commend their children to
God and the word of His grace.—Lathrop.
Vers. 1, 2. Obedience.—The dutiful
obedience of children is declared by
God in the fifth commandment to be
the foundation of all social happiness
and of every social virtue.
I. The behaviour of a child to its
parents is no such trifle as too many
perverse children and too many foolish
parents are prone to fancy it.—How
often we hear mothers saying, “It is
only the poor child’s way; it is a little
pettish and fractious at times, but it
means no harm by it. To be sure it does
not mind me quite so well as it ought
to do; but children will be children.”
So the child goes on uncorrected, and
grows up disobedient and undutiful—with
habits and dispositions so evil
that God has classed them with the
very worst crimes, with false swearing,
theft, adultery, and ever murder. If
undutifulness in children had been a
mere trifle, would God have put it into
this black list?
II. Observe the reasonableness and
justice of the duty of children to obey
their parents.—The child is helpless
and entirely dependent on its parents’
care and kindness. So strong and
lasting is a mother’s love that, while
other animals drive their young away
as soon as they can feed themselves,
the love of human parents descends
and prolongs itself even to their offspring’s
offspring. Think of their
fears, their wishes, their prayers for
your souls’ welfare. Your love to them
should be dutiful love, showing itself
in acts of gentleness, respect, and kindness,
and in the strictest and readiest
obedience. Children are bound to obey,
not from constraint, nor from fear of
blows, but readily, willingly, cheerfully.
The obedience paid for fear of stripes
is the obedience of a mule, not of a
son. What can a child know save
what its parents teach it? Its parents
for a time stand in the place of God
to it; as such, it must believe them
and obey them. You may be the
better for their experience, you may
profit by their warnings, you may
learn from their lessons.
III. Observe the use and benefit of
obedience in forming the character of
the child.—It is in the school of home,
amid the little hardships, restraints,
crosses, and disappointments which
every child must needs meet with, that
the great lesson of obedience is best
learnt. There is a root of self-will born
in every man, and out of this root
grow two evil and misshapen stems—pride
and disobedience. You may as
well expect water to burn and fire to
wet, you may as well expect a barren
common that has never been ploughed
and sown to produce a crop of wheat,
as that a child, which has gone on
year after year in pride, self-will, and
disobedience to its parents, will readily
or easily tear off its habits and its
nature, to walk humbly and obediently
before God. We must cultivate obedience
in the child that it may outgrow,
overtop, and stifle, or at least keep
under, the evil stem of disobedience.
We must cultivate humility in him,
that it may keep under the evil of
pride. We must train and accustom
him to habits of steady self-denial,
which our Lord has recommended to us
as the best yokes for our headstrong
and else unmanageable self-will. Thus
the fifth commandment is a kind of
practical school where the child, in
obeying its parents, learns to obey all
to whom it owes obedience.—A. W. Hare.
Ver. 4. A Father’s Charge.
I. The duties parents owe to their
children.—1. Children are weak and
helpless and totally incapable of caring
for themselves—hence arises the first
duty which parents owe them, that of
feeding and clothing them. 2. Are
ignorant and without understanding—hence
they should not only be fed but
taught. 3. Are unruly, and therefore
must be governed. 4. Are prone to evil,
and therefore must be restrained.
II. The obligations parents are
under to practise these duties.—1. They
should do it for their own sakes. 2. For
their children’s sake. 3. For society’s
sake. 4. For God’s sake.
Learn.—1. The practicability of a
religious education. 2. How awful is
the responsibility of parents—of fathers
especially.—Sketches.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 5–9.
The Duties of Servants and Masters.
I. The duty of the servant to the master is to obey.—1. This obedience is to
be rendered with conscientious solicitude. “With fear and trembling, in singleness
of your heart; . . . not with eyeservice, as menpleasers” (vers. 5, 6).
There must be a genuine care for our work. “Be obedient, with fear and
trembling.” The fear enjoined is no dread of human displeasure, of the master’s
whip or tongue. It is the same fear and trembling with which we are bidden to
work out our own salvation (Phil. ii. 12). The inward work of the soul’s salvation
and the outward work of the busy hands labouring in the mine, or at the loom, or
in the lowliest domestic duties—all alike are to be performed under a solemn responsibility
to God and in the presence of Christ, the Lord of nature and of men.
No man, whether he be a minister of state or a stable-groom, will dare to do
heedless work who lives and acts in that august Presence. The sense of Christ’s
Lordship ensures honesty in work. “Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers.”
It is the common fault and temptation of servants in all degrees to observe the
master’s eye, and to work busily or slackly as they are watched or not. Such
workmen act as they do because they look to men and not to God. Their work
is without conscience and self-respect. Let us all adopt St. Paul’s maxim; it
will be an immense economy. What armies of overlookers and inspectors we
shall be able to dismiss when every servant works as well behind his master’s
back as to his face, when every manufacturer and shopkeeper puts himself in the
purchaser’s place and deals as he would have others deal with him (Findlay).
2. This obedience should be cheerful and hearty as rendered unto a higher than
an earthly master.—“As unto Christ; . . . doing the will of God from the heart;
with good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men” (vers. 5–7).
Obedience should be not only careful and honest, but hearty. The heart is the
source of our greatest power. Nothing can be translated into an act that has
not first been conceived and set in motion by the heart. As the stroke of the
piston sets in motion the most complicated machinery and produces certain
results, so the throb of the heart brings all our activities into play and gives
direction and character to our work. The worth of our work as a whole will be
decided by the heartiness we throw into every single duty. Workmanship counts
for much. I have read of a chain, weighing two ounces, costing £170, being
163,000 times more than the value of the original bit of iron from which it was
made. The work of the artist made all the difference; he put into it his best
self, his heart, his genius. So in the works of the divine Creator. The
symmetry, the beauty, the perfect balance and shining magnificence of the
world are the result of the patient work and hearty enthusiasm with which the
great Architect has put together and finished the most minute parts of
the planet.
3. Genuine obedience is always rewarded.—“Whatsoever good thing any man
doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord” (ver. 8). Even in this world conscientious
work is not without reward. “In all labour there is profit. The
diligent hand maketh rich.” A stationer settling a large account with a paper-manufacturer
said: “I owe all my success in business to you; but let me ask
you how a man of your caution came to give credit so readily to a beginner of
my slender means?” “Because,” said the paper-maker, “at whatever hour in
the mourning I passed to my business, I always observed you at yours with your
coat off.” Work gives character, and is the pathway to success and wealth.
But in the world to come, when servant and master stand before the bar of
Christ, reward will be equitably meted out according to the work of each.
II. The duty of the master is to act towards his servant on the same principles
as obedience to himself is regulated.—“And, ye masters, do the same
things unto them” (ver. 9). The master is to put himself in the place of his
servant, and act towards him as he would desire to be treated if their positions
were reversed. It is a practical application of the great rule, “Whatsoever ye
would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them”—a rule we are in
danger of interpreting on one side only: our own side.
1. To avoid irritating severity.—“Forbearing threatening” (ver. 9). The
slave in early times was treated as scarcely human, and was ruled by the fear of
punishment. Christianity in the beginning did not interfere with domestic
slavery; but it introduced principles which, wherever adopted, utterly abolished
slavery. The Christian master cannot act on the policy of cruelty, but treats his
servants with justice and kindness.
2. To remember that both are servants of a higher and impartial Master.—“Knowing
that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of
persons with Him” (ver. 9). A party of friends setting out together upon a
journey soon find it to be the best for all sides that while they are upon
the road one of the company should wait upon the rest, another ride
forward to seek out lodging and entertainment, a third carry the portmanteau,
a fourth take charge of the horses, a fifth bear the purse, conduct,
and direct the route; not forgetting, however, that as they were equal
and independent when they set out, so they are all to return to a level
again at their journey’s end. The same regard and respect, the same
forbearance, lenity, and reserve in using their service, the same mildness in
delivering commands, the same study to make their journey comfortable and
pleasant which he whose lot it was to direct the rest would in common decency
think himself bound to observe towards them, ought we to show to those who,
in the casting of the parts of human society, happen to be placed within our
power or to depend upon us (Paley). Master and man must give an account to
Him who will judge every act according to its merit.
Lessons.—1. Masters and servants are amenable to Divine law. 2. Neither
master nor servant gains any advantage by tactics that violate Divine law. 3. Where
the Christian spirit predominates trade disputes will soon be satisfactorily settled.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 5–9. The Duties of Servants and
Masters.
I. The duties of servants.—1. To be
obedient to their masters. This must be
understood with the same limitation as
all other commands enjoining relative
duties. We are to obey God rather
than men. Servants no further obey
their masters according to the will of
God than they make His will the rule
and measure of their obedience to their
masters. 2. Servants owe their masters
reverence as well as obedience. 3. There
is an honour, as well as fear, due
to their masters. 4. Cheerfulness in
their obedience is recommended by the
apostle. 5. Diligence of faithfulness is
another duty which they owe to their
masters. 6. They are to be patient and
submissive, though they meet with
usage more severe than they think
reasonable, not breaking their own
obligations, or deserting their master’s
service for trivial causes, but bearing
his smaller indiscretions without complaint,
and in cases of real injury
seeking relief in a prudent manner
and by lawful means. 7. In all their
service they should act with an aim to
please God and to obtain His approbation.
II. The duties of masters to their
servants.—1. Their government is to be
mild and prudent, not passionate and
severe. 2. With respect to apprentices,
the contract binds the master not only
to give them comfortable support, but to
instruct them in his business and profession.
3. With respect to labourers,
justice obliges us to give them the stipulated
wages when they have faithfully
performed the promised service. 4. With
respect to all servants, equity requires
that we treat them with humanity and
kindness, and contribute all proper
assistance to render them useful,
virtuous, and happy.—Lathrop.
Vers. 6–8. Christian Servitude.—1. To
propose to ourselves the pleasing
of men as our great design is inconsistent
with the work of grace in the
heart and with that subjection we
owe to Christ. The meanest service
is service done to Christ, and will
be accepted by Him as such. 2. So
ingrate is man, and so slow to reward
those from whom he receives favour,
that a man can never heartily do
service to the most of men, except he
look to God, whom to serve in the
meanest employment is a reward in
itself. 3. The Lord in dispensing rewards
looks not to the external beauty,
splendour, or greatness of the work,
but to the honesty and sincerity of it.—Fergusson.
Ver. 9. Masters accountable to God.—1. There
is no power among men so
absolute—not that of kings and supreme
rulers—but implies an obligation,
through virtue of God’s ordinance,
on those invested with it to make
conscience of duties towards their inferiors
and subjects. 2. As it is usual
for powers on earth sinfully to oversee
and not to punish the cruel and unjust
dealings of masters towards servants,
so those sins most connived at by men
are most severely taken notice of by
God. 3. It is too ordinary for men in
place and authority to carry themselves
as if they had none above them to be
accountable to, or to dream that the
Lord will not take such strict account
of them as of their underlings and
servants.—Ibid.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 10–12.
The Christian Warfare—
I. Can be fought only with Divine help.—“Be strong in the Lord, and in the
power of His might” (ver. 10). The apostle has dwelt like one enraptured on the
sublime constitution and glorious destiny of the Church; now he deals with
the formidable foes with which the Church will have to contend. He sees the
evil forces gathering, and hears the clash of arms among the approaching
enemies. He warns believers that unaided they will be powerless in the strife
and must suffer defeat. They are secure and will be victorious only as they
make the strength of God their own. The strength of the general, in other
hosts, lies in his troops; he flies, as a great commander once said, upon their
wings; if their feathers be clipped, their power broken, he is lost. But in the
Christian army the strength of every saint lies in the Lord of hosts. God can
overcome His enemies without their hands; but they cannot even defend themselves
without His arm. Man is impotent without the strength of God. If the
ship, launched, rigged, and with her sails spread, cannot stir till the wind fills
them, much less can the timber in the carpenter’s yard hew and frame itself
into a ship. Power to contend with the spiritual foes must come from God.
II. Involves a fierce conflict with the powers of evil.—1. A conflict, not with
men, but with unseen spiritual enemies. “We wrestle not against flesh and blood,
but against principalities” (ver. 12). The apostle brings out in bold relief the
terrible foes they are summoned to encounter. (1) As to their position. They
are no subalterns, but foes of mighty rank, the nobility and chieftains of the
spirit world. (2) Their office. Their domain is this darkness in which they
exercise imperial sway. (3) Their essence. They are not encumbered with an
animal frame, but are spirits. (4) Their character. They are evil—their appetite
for evil only exceeds their capacity for producing it (Eadie). The Church is
engaged in a double conflict—of the flesh and of the spirit. We are assailed
with the temptations of the world of sense, and with seductions of error that
attack us in the world of the mind; and in both spheres we have to contend with
the subtle influences set in motion by the rulers of the darkness of this world.
Our foes invade “the high places” of our faith and hope, and would rob us of
our heaven.
2. A conflict with unseen spiritual enemies led by an astute and subtle commander.—“That
ye may be able to withstand against the wiles of the devil”
(ver. 11). The New Testament assumes the personality of Satan. This belief
runs counter to modern thought, governed as it is by the tendency to depersonalise
existence. The conception of evil spirits given us in the Bible is treated as an
obsolete superstition; and the name of the evil one with multitudes serves only
to point a profane and careless jest. To Jesus Christ, Satan was no figure of
speech, but a thinking and active being, of whose presence and influence He
saw tokens everywhere in this evil world. Satan’s empire is ruled with a settled
policy, and his warfare carried on with a system of strategy which takes advantage
of every opening for attack. The manifold combinations of error, the
various arts of seduction and temptation, and ten thousand forms of the deceit of
unrighteousness constitute “the wiles of the devil.” Satan is no longer the God
of this world since Christianity rose to its ascendant. The manifestations of
demonism are, at least in Christian lands, vastly less conspicuous than in the
first age of the Church. But they are more bold than wise who deny their
existence, and who profess to explain all occult phenomena and phrenetic moral
aberrations by physical causes (Findlay).
III. Is victorious only as the warrior is armed with the Divine panoply.—“Put
on the whole armour of God” (ver. 11). They who put on Christ are well
clothed; they are armed from head to foot, and are proof against the darts of
the devil. The Christless man is defenceless; his own understanding and gifts
do not sufficiently arm him. The soldier comes into the field with no arms but
what his general commands: it is not left to every one’s fancy to bring what
weapons he pleases; this would breed confusion. So the Christian soldier must put
on the armour God provides, and be completely clothed with it. To leave one part
unguarded will bring disaster. In one of the famous battles between the English
and French, that which lost France the day was a shower of English arrows which
so galled the horses that they became unmanageable, put the whole army into
disorder, and trod down their own men. So if there be the least loophole in our
armour the wily adversary will quickly discover it and shoot through his fiery
darts which will effect confusion and defeat.
Lessons.—1. The Christian life is a conflict between good and evil. 2. God is
always on the side of the good. 3. The Christian warrior must fight with weapons
Divinely provided.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 10–12. A Call to Christian
Fortitude.
I. Here is an exhortation to Christian
fortitude.—“Be strong in the
Lord, and in the power of His might.”
It is not bodily but mental strength
which is here intended. True fortitude
or courage is a temper of mind by
which we steadily follow the calls of
duty, without being deterred by danger
or diverted by difficulty. It is a virtue
founded in a regard to God and supported
by faith in Him. It is cool
and deliberate, not rash and impetuous;
it is kind and compassionate, not cruel
and revengeful; it is steady and
patient, not fickle and inconstant; it
continues in well-doing, persuaded that
its labour is not in vain.
II. A warning against the enemies
to be opposed.—The apostle mentions
two sorts of enemies.
1. The first he calls flesh and blood.—The
motions of our animal nature.
The phrase may further intend those
sensible objects which are suited to
gratify fleshly desires; or it may intend
mankind, who are partakers of flesh and
blood.
2. The other kind of enemies
with whom we are to contend are evil spirits.—These
spirits are enemies to mankind.
Their number is great, and the
terms used denote a subordination
among them. They are not divided
against themselves, but act in concert
under the direction of one leading
spirit, who is called the devil and
Satan. They have great power over
such as submit to their dominion.
Their chief influence is over the
ignorant and superstitious. They
most successfully carry on their designs
in the dark. When the Gospel
began to shine, Satan began to fall.
Among those who reject the Gospel he
recovers his full dominion.—Lathrop.
Vers. 11, 12. The Christian Warfare.
I. Consider the danger to which
we are exposed.—As in other cases so
it is in this: our greatest danger lies
in not feeling our danger, and so not
being prepared to meet it.
1. View the enemy we have to contend
with.—He is one who bears an inveterate
hatred against us, and seeks
nothing less than our destruction or
eternal overthrow. . . . He hates us as
God’s creatures, but especially as those
who have been rescued from his power
and taken up arms against him;
nothing now will satisfy him but our
eternal ruin. . . . It is therefore a
struggle of life for life; if we do not
overcome him, he will overcome us. It
is in vain to think of being neuter, or
making peace with him.
2. He is mightier than we are; and
unless we have help from above, we
are no match for him. . . . We know
but little of the power of wicked spirits,
abstractly considered; but viewed
as the god of this world, Satan has all
its temptations in alliance with him.
3. He is an artful enemy. . . . We are
told of the “wiles of the devil,” hiding
his designs, and falling upon us when
we least expect it. We are in his net
before we are aware, and when Providence
seems to smile upon us (Deut.
viii. 11–14). . . . He studies our propensities,
and suits his temptations to
them (Eph. iv. 14).
4. He is invisible. . . . If he were
“flesh and blood,” like ourselves, we
might beware; but his influence is like
the mighty pestilence, which walks in
darkness. . . . When least suspected,
danger is nigh.
5. He is near us, as it were, within
our gates. The safety of a nation
menaced by an enemy often depends
on his being kept at a distance, by
walls or seas, or fortresses of defence.
But here it is supposed that the enemy
has entered into our borders, and that
we have no other resource left but to
struggle as it were for life. . . .
6. What is still worse, he has a strong
party within us.
7. On the issue of this warfare depend
all our hopes.—If we “stand”
not in this, our loss when defeated can
never be retrieved.
II. The armour provided for us.—1. In
general, this armour is the grace
of the Gospel believed and trusted in.
In common warfare it is usual for the
commanders to persuade their enemies
to think highly of their strength; but
in this it is quite the reverse. We
must go as Israel was always taught to
do, as having no might of our own,
but deriving all our strength from the
Lord.
2. It is described as a whole or perfect
armour.—Sufficient to defend us in
every part. . . . “Truth” is the girdle
to strengthen us; “righteousness” a
breastplate; the “gospel” of peace as
shoes, by which we shall be able to
trample upon the lion and the adder,
the young lion and the dragon; “faith”
is a shield; “salvation,” or the hope
of eternal life, a helmet. . . . All this
armour is to be drawn from the truths
of the everlasting Gospel.
3. The use to be made of it is, that
we may be able to “withstand,” and to
face the enemy. There is no armour
for the back; he that fleeth is wholly
defenceless, and must inevitably fall.
III. The necessity of putting on this
armour.—Armour is of no avail, unless
it is used. The application of the
Gospel is that which proves our
security.
IV. The inducement to put on this
armour.—“That we may be able to
stand against the wiles of the devil”
(ver. 11). Many neglecting this armour
have been foiled in the day of battle.—Theological Sketch Book.
Ver. 11. The Wiles of the Devil.
I. Some of those artifices by which
the devil entices men to sin.—1. He
often presents to man the pleasing advantages
of sin, while its judicial consequences
are kept in the background.
Sin is often presented to man under
the form of virtue or religion. The
names of sins are changed in order
that their natures may seem changed.
Sin is thus recommended to the more
tender conscience. The vileness and
criminality of sin are often extenuated
to man by plausible excuses. They
need an apology—youth, old age,
strong temptation, a desire to please,
to prevent loss of place, provision for
a family, etc. The inconsistencies of
the acknowledged people of God are
often pleaded as an apology for sin.
The falls of God’s people have been
recorded for good; but the record has
been perverted to evil. A legitimate
use of the record is to prevent despair
on the part of God’s people who have
fallen. But, by Satan, the beacon has
been converted into a decoy.
2. The sinner is often freed from his
difficulties in sinning by false views
of God’s character and of the design of
Christ’s work.—God is regarded as a
Being of mere mercy. Christ is thought
of as saving from sin’s consequences,
rather than from sin itself. The
individual is often persuaded to expose
himself to temptation, under the impression
that he will resist it.
II. Some of the artifices by which
he entices men from the performance
of positive duty.—1. Many are restrained
from duties by a consideration
of their hardness in themselves (Matt.
x. 34–39). 2. Many are persuaded to
let duty alone, on account of the sacrifices
which a performance of it involves.
3. Argument against a full devotedness
to the service of God may sometimes
be drawn from the fewness and meanness
of those who are engaged in it
(John vii. 48). 4. An argument against
the necessity of duty is drawn from the
doctrines of grace (Rom. vi. 2, 3; Jas.
ii. 17). 5. The worth and value of all
performances are taken away by the trust
in them for righteousness to which Satan
prompts the heart.—Stewart.
Ver. 12. The Invisible Enemies of
Man.
I. Spiritual forces are much greater,
much more efficient, much more formidable
than any mere material forces.—A
strong will is a more formidable
thing than the most highly developed
muscle. An idea which appeals to the
intelligence and heart of the multitude
is likely to do more work and to wield
a greater sway in the end than any
number of batteries and parks of
artillery. It is in the encounter, not
of brute force with conscience and with
thought, but in the encounter of ideas
with ideas, in the encounter of wills
with wills, that the destiny of the
world is ultimately decided. St. Paul
knew that the Church had to contend
with the thought and the reason of
paganism much more truly than with
its proconsuls and its legions; and as
he wrote to the Ephesians, he did not
mean merely human principalities and
powers, since he contrasts the beings
of whom he is speaking with mere flesh
and blood.
II. Behind all that met the eye in
daily life the apostle discovered another
world that did not meet the eye.—He
discerned other forms hovering,
guiding, marshalling, arranging, inspiring
that which met the eye. “Do
not let us deceive ourselves,” he cries,
“as if we had only to encounter so
many social or political forces, so many
human minds and wills, so many human
errors, human prejudices, human traditions,
human passions; our real
enemies are not human, they lie in
ambush behind the manifold activities
of man; they are really supersensuous.
Two great departments of moral life
among men are watched over, each one
of them beyond the sphere of human
life, by beings of greater power, greater
intelligence, greater intensity of purpose
than man in the world of spirits.
These spiritual beings, good and evil,
act upon humanity as clearly, as
certainly, and as constantly as man
himself acts upon the lower creatures
around. It is not any mere disposition,
inseparable from the conditions of
human thought, to personify, to externalise
passion, which has peopled
the imagination of Christendom with
demons. It is within ourselves that
we meet now, as the first Christians
met, the onset of the principalities and
powers. It is in resisting them, in
driving from us in the name of Christ
the spirits of untruthfulness, of sloth,
of anger, and of impure desire, that we
really contribute our little share to the
issue of the great battle that rages still.”
III. To love truth and righteousness
is to hate their contraries.—Hatred of
evil is distinct from any hatred of
those who do evil, and who are objects
of sincere sorrow, and have claims on
Christian charity. The easy tolerance
of moral evil is one of the most alarming
features of our day. Only when
the struggle with evil is a matter of
personal experience do we hate it, and
enter even remotely into the apostle’s
stern language about its agents and its
champions.—H. P. Liddon.
The Enemies of Believers.
I. The enemies referred to are here
described as numerous.—1. They are
here spoken of in the plural number, as
they are also in other passages: “The
angels which kept not their first
estate.” “The devil and his angels.”
The names here employed are collective,
and imply numbers. We read of a
single person being possessed with
many devils. 2. Hence the whole world
has been filled with their worship and
studded with their temples. 3. Hence
the strength of the temptations with
which each one is tried. 4. Hence the
intensity of human wickedness. 5. Hence
the need of watchfulness.
II. The enemies here spoken of are
represented as being in a kind of
subordination the one to the other—there
are “principalities.”—1. There
may be remains among them of that
diversity of rank which originally existed.
2. It may be a submission called for by
difference of intellectual and innate power.
3. It may be made conducive to the more
successful waging of the war in which
they are engaged—giving unity of aim,
of plan, of co-operation. They leave no
point neglected; turn all their strength
to account. All unity is not of God.
III. The enemies here described
are singly and as detached mighty
for evil.—They are “powers.” 1. Power
intellectual. 2. Power physical. 3. Power
directed. 4. Collective power.
IV. The apostle characterises these
adversaries as the rulers of the darkness
of this world.—1. Here a limitation
of Satan’s dominion is expressed.—“Rulers
of the darkness of this world”—of
the hiding and blinding errors
which abound—of those deceived and
misled. 2. It is as the prince of darkness
that he contends, using falsehood
and the wicked as his instruments.
V. The enemies are spiritual in
their nature.—1. They are intelligent
and crafty. 2. Invisible. 3. Active
and unwearied.
VI. They are wicked spirits.—1. They
are in themselves wicked.
2. They would make others wicked.
3. They employ the most wicked means.
Lessons.—1. Watch. 2. Pray.
3. Resist. 4. Stand fast.—Stewart.
Evil Angels.
I. The nature and properties of evil
angels.—1. Their original properties
were the same as those of the holy angels.
2. We do not know either the occasion
of their apostasy or what effect it
immediately produced upon them.
3. From the time they shook off their
allegiance to God, they shook off all
goodness, and contracted those tempers
which are most hateful to Him and
most opposite to His nature. 4. In the
prosecution of their infernal designs
they are diligent in the highest degree.
5. They do not wander at large, but
are all united under one common
head.
Transcriber’s Note: With respect to point 5 below,
the Transcriber asserts that man is perfectly capable of doing evil without any help.
Please see Jer. xvii. 9 and James i. 13–15.
II. The employment of evil angels.—1. They
are, as far as God permits,
the governors of the world. 2. Satan
and all his angels are continually
warring against us, and watching over
every child of man. 3. By them the
foolish hearts of those who know not
God are darkened. 4. They hinder
every good word and work. 5. There
is no evil done, spoke, or thought
without the assistance of the devil.
6. Such is the malice of the wicked
one that he will torment whom he cannot
destroy. In all these instances we say
“the devil,” as if there was only one,
because these spirits, innumerable as
they are, all act in concert, and
because we know not whether one or
more are concerned in this or that
work of darkness.—Wesley.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 13–17.
The Christian Warrior equipped.
I. He is clothed from head to foot with defensive armour.—1. The girdle of
truth. “Stand, therefore, having your loins girt about with truth” (ver. 14).
The military girdle was the belt or cincture with which the warrior braced himself
round the waist, to tighten and keep every part of his armour in its true
place, that there might not be anything loose and trailing about him to encumber
his movements. Everything about him must be tense and firm, that he may be
prepared to receive the attack of the enemy, however suddenly and powerfully
made, and to act with decision and concentrated energy. So the Christian
warrior must be strengthened and sustained with the girdle of truth. The truth
of the Gospel must be known and conscientiously embraced, so that we may detect
the numerous foes that error is constantly letting loose upon us, and be able to
attack and conquer them. To cast away our girdle is to incapacitate ourselves
for the combat, and to expose ourselves to wounds and defeat. Conscious
integrity inspires the spiritual warrior with confidence and bravery. “Let this
be my brazen wall, that no man can reproach me with a crime, and that I am
conscious of my own integrity.” On the truth we take our stand, and by the
truth we stand. If we keep the truth, the truth will keep us, and we shall not
be “tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine.” “The
luxury of agnosticism, the languors of doubt, the vague sympathies and hesitant
eclecticism in which delicate and cultured minds are apt to indulge; the lofty
critical attitude as of some intellectual god sitting above the strife of creeds,
which others find congenial—these are conditions of mind unfit for the soldier of
Christ Jesus. He must have sure knowledge, definite and decided purposes—a
soul girdled with truth.”
2. The breastplate of righteousness.—“And having on the breastplate of righteousness”
(ver. 14). The military breastplate or cuirass was the chief piece of
defensive armour. It consisted of two parts or wings; one covered the whole
region of the thorax and protected the vital organs of the body, and the other
covered the back as far down as the front part extended. As the breastplate
guarded the vital functions contained within the region of the thorax, so righteousness—the
life of God in the soul of man—defends everything on which the
spiritual existence and triumph of the Christian warrior depend. Righteousness—conscious
integrity of character—is an impenetrable mail from which the
missiles of the enemy fall pointless. Rectitude of life is an invulnerable defence
against the most furious attacks of calumny and oppression: it is an immovable
rock that breaks up the dark billows of opposition into clouds of helpless spray.
3. The greaves, or feet-guards.—“Your feet shod with the preparation of the
gospel of peace” (ver. 15). The military greaves or brazen boots covered the
shin or front of the leg. A kind of solen was often used which covered the sole
and laced about the instep, preventing the foot from being wounded by thorns or
rugged ways, and giving firmness and security to the foothold. Thus shod, the
warrior would take his stand with safety, or move with alertness over all sorts
of ground. Being “shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace” indicates
that the Christian soldier is ever ready to move with expedition and willingness
in publishing the good tidings of peace. The Israelites were commanded to eat
the passover with their feet shod to show that they were ready for their journey.
Christ commanded His messengers to be shod with sandals, that they might be
ready to go and proclaim the Gospel wherever they were sent. The Christian
warrior is on his way through a strange and hostile country, and should be every
moment not only prepared to proceed, but be every moment in actual progress,
proclaiming peace on his way to the land of eternal peace. Progress in truth is
made by being firmly established in its principles; every advancing step is taken
with confidence and with the air of one who is assured of the ground on which
he is treading. The Gospel of peace establishes peace between God and man, and
proclaims goodwill and peace to the universe. “The objection that the apostle
is addressing the faithful at large who are not all of them called to preach the
Gospel is mistaken. Every believer should be prepared to witness for Christ so
often as opportunity affords and needs a readiness thereto. The knowledge of
Christ’s peace qualifies him to convey its message. He brings it with him into
the strife of the world. And it is the consciousness that he possesses himself
such peace, and has it to communicate to others, which enables him to walk
firmly and with sure step in the way of faith” (Von Hofman). We preserve
the truth by spreading it; and the best defence against the enemies of the truth
is to persuade them to accept the Gospel of peace. The Christian warrior is not
a fighter, but a peacemaker.
4. The shield of faith.—“Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye
shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked” (ver. 16). The shield
signified is not the small round buckler or targe of the light-armed man, but the
oblong, doorlike shield, measuring four feet by two and a half, and curved to
the shape of the body, that the Greek hoplite and the Roman legionary carried.
Joined together, these large shields formed a wall, behind which a body of troops
could hide themselves from the rain of the enemy’s missiles. These military
shields were made of wood, covered on the outside with thick leather, which not
only deadened the shock of the missile, but protected the frame of the shield from
the fire-tipped darts used in the artillery of the ancients. So faith is the shield
of the Christian soldier, defending him from the fierce attacks of the foe, from
within and without. By “the fiery darts of the wicked” the apostle may allude
to the darts called falarica, which were headed with lead, in or about which some
combustible stuff was placed that took fire in the passage of the arrow through
the air, and often burnt up the enemies’ ships and engines, or stuck in the shields
and set them on fire. The shield of faith cannot be pierced or destroyed by the
fiercest fires of hatred or malice. The arrows of the wicked, flaming with cruelty,
are caught on this shield, blunted, and extinguished.
5. The helmet of salvation.—“And take the helmet of salvation” (ver. 17). The
helmet was the armour for the head, was of various forms, and embossed with a
great variety of figures. On the top of the helmet was the crest or ridge, adorned
with several emblematic figures, either for ornament or to strike terror. The
apostle may refer to a helmet which had an emblematic representation of hope—that
the person who wore it should be safe, should be prosperous in all his
engagements, and escape unhurt from battle. So the hope of conquering every
adversary, and surmounting every difficulty by the salvation of the Gospel, is a
helmet that protects the head, and is of such impenetrable texture as the blow of
the battle-axe cannot cleave. The hope of continual safety and protection, built
on the promises of the Gospel, protects the understanding from being confused
by the subtle attacks of Satan or the sophisms of unbelief. Salvation guards
the whole man, the head and heart, and is both helmet and shield.
II. He is armed with an all-potent offensive weapon.—“And the sword of
the Spirit, which is the word of God” (ver. 17). The military swords were
in various sizes, and in the earliest times were made of brass. The swords of
Homer’s heroes were all of this metal. Great dexterity was acquired in the use
of the sword, and an expert swordsman was an antagonist greatly dreaded. The
Word of God is the offensive weapon wielded by the Christian combatant. It is
called the sword of the Spirit, because it comes from the Holy Spirit, and receives
its fulfilment in the soul through the operations of the Spirit, who alone can
teach its potent use. Facility in quoting the Word in times of temptation and
trial enables the spiritual warrior to cut in pieces the snares of the adversary.
The shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit are the principal armour of the
soul. The enemies of the cross of Christ fall humiliated and defeated under the
powerful strokes of the Spirit’s sword. There are times when the Christian
soldier must not only stand on the defensive, but must lead the attack with
unflinching bravery on the forces of evil. He is safe only by slaying the
enemy.
III. He is fully prepared to resist and conquer his terrible opponents.—“Wherefore
take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to
withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand” (ver. 13). Stand is the
spiritual battle-cry. Being armed, defend your liberties, maintain your rights,
discomfort your spiritual foes, hold your ground against them, never put off your
armour, but be ever standing ready to repel any new attack. The defence is
necessary, for the evil day is at hand, is already dawning. The early Church had
its evil day of persecution and defection, and the Church of to-day is threatened
by an evil day of subtlest error. The unwary and supine will go down before
the forces of evil, and only the brave and steadfast will survive.
Lessons.—1. The Christian armour is invulnerable. 2. The Christian warrior
must attack as well as defend. 3. The Christian warrior can conquer only as he
uses the armour provided.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 13–17. The Christian’s Armour.—St.
Paul lay in prison at Rome, bound
with a chain to the Roman trooper
who watched him day and night. He
employed his prison hours in writing.
It was very natural that his language,
like his thoughts, should be coloured
here and there by the objects around
him; and we find that whilst writing
this circular epistle to the Ephesians
his eye had actually been resting on
the soldier to whom he was chained.
In the outfit of the Roman legionary
he saw the symbol of the supernatural
dress which befits the Christian. The
ornamented girdle or balteus, bound
around the loins, to which the sword
was commonly attached, seemed to the
apostle to recall the inward practical
acknowledgment of truth, which is the
first necessity in the Christian character.
The metal breastplate suggests
the moral rectitude or righteousness
which enables a man to confront the
world. The strong military sandals
spoke of the readiness to march in the
cause of that Gospel whose sum and
substance was not war, but spiritual
even more than social peace. And then
the large oblong, oval, wooden shield,
clothed with hides, covering well-nigh
the whole body of the bearer, reminded
him of Christian faith, upon which the
temptations of the evil one, like the
ancient arrows, tipped as they often
were with inflammable substances,
would light harmlessly and lose their
deadly point; and then the soldier’s
helmet, pointing upwards to the skies,
was a natural figure of Christian hope
directed towards a higher and better
world; and then he sword at his side,
by which he won safety and victory in
the day of battle, and which you will
observe is the one aggressive weapon
mentioned in this whole catalogue—what
was it but the emblem of that
Word of God which wins such victories
on the battle-fields of conscience,
because it pierces, even to the dividing
asunder of soul and spirit and of the
joints and marrow, and is a discerner
of the thoughts and intents of the
heart, and is the power of God to
salvation to every one that believeth?
Thus girded, thus clad, thus shod, thus
guarded, thus covered, thus armed, the
Christian might well meet his foes.
He was indeed more than a match for
them, and might calmly await their
onset.—H. P. Liddon.
The Whole Armour of God.
I. Truth.—“Having your loins girt
about with truth.” By truth is intended
sincerity in our Christian profession,
or a firm belief of and full
consent to the Gospel of Christ. A
rational conviction of its truth, joined
with a sense of its importance is our
best security against apostasy in the
evil day.
II. Righteousness.—“And having
on the breastplate of righteousness.”
A holy and inoffensive life will prevent
many injuries. It will command the
reverence of bad and the compassion of
good men. It will obtain the protection
of God’s providence and the
supports of His grace. It will preserve
peace and serenity of conscience
under the reproaches of a malignant
world.
III. Peace.—“Your feet shod with
the preparation of the gospel of peace.”
This peaceable disposition is a preparation
for the trials of an evil day,
and an excellent defence against the
asperities of our Christian path. This
will go on before us to smooth the
rough passages of life, or attend us to
guard our feet against the sticks and
traps which our enemies cast in our
way. Possessed of this disposition we
shall give no offence and provoke no
injuries by an insolent, overbearing
behaviour.
IV. Faith.—“Above all, taking the
shield of faith.” Faith is a grace of
universal influence. It is the basis of
all Christian graces. It is the ground-work
of all religion in the heart.
Faith is a more effectual defence
against the temptations of Satan and
the world than the shields of the
mighty against the darts and spears
of their enemies.
V. Hope.—“And take the helmet
of salvation.” The hope of salvation.
God brings salvation. We appropriate
it by hope. We must fight the good
fight of faith in hope that the Captain
of salvation will support us in the
conflict and lead us to victory.
VI. Knowledge.—“The sword of
the Spirit, which is the word of God.”
The Divine Word is called the sword
of the Spirit because it is rendered
effectual by the Spirit in slaying the
fleshly lusts and repelling the outward
temptations which war against the soul.
Reflections.—1. We see of what importance
it is that we have the power of
religion in our hearts. 2. It concerns
us to live much in the exercise of faith.
3. Let us exercise our courage according
to the various exigencies of the Christian
life.—Lathrop.
The Duty of Believers in the Evil Day.
I. The time to which the exhortation
refers—the evil day.—1. By the evil
day we are clearly to understand the
season of temptation. When “we
wrestle.”
2. The evil day may be understood of
life itself.—“Few and evil have been
the days of my pilgrimage.” Man is
tempted till his death.
3. The evil day may refer to seasons
during which temptation is peculiarly
strong.—With our first parents whilst
they listened to Satan. With Christ
in the wilderness—near death (John
xiv. 30).
4. Of such seasons we have many
examples in Scripture.—The lives of
Noah, Abraham, Moses, Job, Lot,
Samson, David, Asa, Hezekiah, Peter,
Demas.
5. Such seasons each believer can mark
in his history.—They are generally
turning points. They are attended by
every variety of outward circumstances,
prosperity, adversity, society, solitude,
health, sickness.
6. With the wicked such days are
evil.—Days of suffering, of danger,
of backsliding, of apostasy, of dishonour
to Christ, and triumph to the
world and to all the enemies of
Christ.
7. This season of temptation is short.—A
day. We should not grow weary.
8. Though it be short it is important.—The
day of battle is generally most
important in its results. So in spiritual
warfare. The temptation in Eden, etc.
II. The duty which falls to be performed
in the evil day.—1. To withstand.
(1) This has reference to Satan
as an assailant. (2) It binds us to
resistance, i.e., to perform the duty
from which Satan dissuades, to refuse
the sin which he recommends, to hold
fast that which we have, and to reject
that which he offers in exchange
(Rev. iii. 2).
2. To proceed from the defensive to
the offensive.—“Having done all,” or
“conquered all.” (1) The believer, as
“the good soldier of Christ,” is, like his
Master, to be an assailant. (2) By
attacking, Satan discovers himself;
and the believer, having resisted, may
gain an advantage. When his stronghold
in the heart is found out, it may
be pulled down. Is it pride? (2 Cor.
x. 4, 5). (3) Satan can be contended
against only by carrying on an offensive
warfare—in the heart, in the world.
The Romans could be conquered only
in Italy.
3. That having resisted and conquered,
we still stand.—(1) Though repulsed,
Satan is not slain, his resources are
not exhausted, “his wrath” continues.
(2) We must therefore “stand” after
victory. Our armour must be kept on.
We must be vigilant. We must be in
an attitude for the fight.
III. The preparation necessary to
the performance of the peculiar duties
of the evil day.—1. The evil day is a
day of war, and hence its duties and
the kind of preparation called for.
2. There are three things to be noticed
in the account of the believer’s preparation.—(1) He
must be armed—Divine
grace. An unarmed soldier a contradiction;
he is useless for duty, exposed
to death. (2) He must be completely
armed. For defence and for offence.
(3) His armour must be that “of
God.” Human virtues will not do.
Human energies will not do.—Stewart.
Ver. 14. The Girdle of Truth.
I. Honesty and truthfulness of character.—Love
of truth as being from
God, hatred of lies as being from the
devil—this is a primary condition of
being strong in the Lord. Nothing
can be more injurious to the character
of the Christian religion than the suspicion
that it shuns examination, that
its claims are in antagonism with
demonstrated truth. There is a kind
of false liberalism concerning religious
truth. It is easy for a man to fancy
his loins are girt about with truth
when the fact is they are girt about
with indifference; and a person so
armed may assume an attitude of impartiality
with regard to religious
questions because he cares nothing
concerning the issue; and sometimes
it seems to be assumed that a writer
possesses a virtue, compensating for all
vices, if he is apparently free from all
bias either for or against revealed
truth. The true path is taken by him
who, strong in his own faith and love,
fears no honest investigation, and
shrinks from adopting in matters of
religion any tone of thought or line of
argument which he cannot justify upon
the broadest grounds of calm judgment
and sober reason.
II. But the words of the apostle
refer not only to truthfulness, but to
truth itself, to that which we know
to be true.—It would be unworthy of
an apostle if he should include under
the title of truth, necessary for the
protection of a Christian champion, all
human knowledge which is rightly so
called. Do not consider that the progress
you make in human knowledge
lies beside your path as Christians.
As members of Christ, as His soldiers
and servants, take a nobler view of
your work than that. Christ has taken
the elements of this world and sanctified
them for Himself; there is nothing
really secular but what is evil, and all
that is not evil ought to be used on the
side of truth.
III. The apostle has in mind that
definite form of revealed truth which
in Scripture is described as emphatically
the truth.—The great doctrine of
godliness, the incarnation of the eternal
Son, and all those truths which flow
from this one mysterious spring. While
there is no antagonism between Scriptural
and human knowledge, there is
a wide difference between the sources
from which they are derived the evidences
by which they are established,
and the conditions of their being rightly
apprehended. Whereas other knowledge
is the slow accumulation of the
experience of ages, and the result of
the guesses and labours of gifted men,
and is consequently an ever-growing
and changing body of truth, Christian
truth admits of no change and no
growth. It admits of application to
new circumstances; it admits too of
growth, between the limits of a mustard
seed and a full-grown tree, in its subjective
apprehension by each believing
heart; but objectively it knows neither
diminution nor expansion, it is ever one
and indivisible, because it resolves itself
ultimately into the one great mysterious
fact, the manifestation of God
in human flesh. No amount of argument
would ever turn religious belief
into religious life, if the articles of the
creed did not attest their Divinity by
filling up the void of the human heart
and by their constraining influence on
human conduct; and, on the other
hand, no religion could maintain its
ground and command the assent of
thinking men, unless its historical
claims and its objective truth would
stand the test of the severest scrutiny.
The truth of Christ rests upon both
grounds; and because this is so we are
bound to gird it about our loins as our
only sure support in our conflict with
the spiritual wickedness of this world,
our support in the hour of death, our
support in the day of judgment.—Harvey Goodwin.
Truth the Girdle of the Christian.
I. The particular grace which is
here mentioned—truth.—1. By this
exhortation we might understand that
we must in all things act according to
truth or what is truth. This implies
the knowledge of truth, the yielding
up of ourselves to truth, so as to
embody it.
2. By the truth we may understand
sincerity.—Being in appearance what
we are in reality, seeming to follow
what we do follow, expressing the real
thoughts and feelings of the heart.
This sincerity is displayed towards
God, towards our fellow-men, and
towards ourselves.
II. The uses or purposes of truth in
the Christian life: it is a girdle.—By
comparing truth to a girdle the apostle
suggests the purposes which it serves:
1. The ancient girdle was meant to give
firmness and strength. 2. To fit for
activity, by binding up the loose, flowing
garments. 3. To the girdle arms were
attached.—Stewart.
Ver. 15. The Gospel of Peace.
I. The nature of this peace.—1. It is
peace with God.—A mutual reconciliation
following a mutual estrangement.
2. It is a peace with ourselves.—This
includes both the silencing of the
accusations of conscience and the
restoration of the internal harmony
of our nature.
3. It is peace with our fellow-men.—Between
nations and classes, and
families and individuals.
4. It is peace with our fellow-Christians.
II. The relation of the Gospel to this
peace.—1. In the Gospel it is proclaimed.
2. In the Gospel its grounds are unfolded.
3. By the belief of the Gospel it is conveyed.—G. Brooks.
Ver. 17. The Bible the Sword of the
Spirit.
I. The Bible is a sword.—1. Like a
sword, it is of no use till it is unsheathed.
The Bible must not lie idle in the library
or in the intellect. Must be used.
2. Like a sword, when it is unsheathed
it cuts deeply.—Makes deep gashes in
the heart and conscience.
3. Like a sword, it is a weapon of
defence as well as of offence.—“It is
written.”
II. The Bible is the sword of the
Spirit.—1. Because He inspired it.
Those whom we call the sacred writers
were its penmen; He alone was its
Author.
2. Because He interprets it.—Its
Author is also its interpreter. Wherever
it is carried He is, and in answer to
the prayer of faith He expounds its
true meaning as far as saving truth is
concerned.
3. Because He wields it as the instrument
of His victories.—Refer to some of
the remarkable revivals, to individual
conversions.
III. Our duty with regard to the
Bible as the sword of the Spirit.—1. Take
it and study it. Sword
exercise.
2. Take it and bind it to your heart.—Delight
in it.
3. Take it and employ it vigorously
till your life’s end.—“His sword was
in His hand.” “There is none like
it.”—Ibid.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 18–20.
The Programme of Prayer.
I. Prayer should be constant and varied in its methods.—“Praying always
with all prayer and supplication” (ver. 18). The Christian warrior is armed
from head to foot with the girdle, the breastplate, the greaves, the shield, the
helmet, and the sword; no weapon of defence or offence is wanting; it would
seem as if nothing was needed to complete the equipment. The one essential
now is the spirit and courage to fight, to use the spiritual weapons with dexterity
and effect; and the power to do this is secured by prayer. Prayer should be
constant; the soul should be ever in a praying mood; and supplication, earnest
entreaty, should be used in the special emergencies that occur in the battle of life.
“Praying always with all prayer”: all kinds and methods of prayer should be
employed—prayer in public aided by the sympathy and inspiration of numbers,
in private when alone with God, in the family, in the whirl of business, in the
stress of battle, in the intervals of recreation, in the heart without a voice and
with the voice from the heart. The earnest and needy soul will find its own
way of keeping up a prayerful intercourse with God. “Some there are,” said
Wesley, “who use only mental prayer or ejaculations, and think they are in a
state of grace and use a way of worship far superior to any other; but such only
fancy themselves to be above what is really above them, it requiring far more
grace to be enabled to pour out a fervent and continued prayer than to offer up
mental aspirations.”
“Warrior, that from battle won,
Breathest now at set of sun;
Woman, o’er the lowly slain,
Weeping on his burial plain!
Ye that triumph, ye that sigh,
Kindred by one holy tie:
Heaven’s first star alike ye see—
Lift the heart and bend the knee.”—Hemans.
II. Prayer is prompted and sustained by the Divine Spirit.—“Praying . . .
in the Spirit” (ver. 18). The Spirit is the author and element of the believer’s life
in Christ. It is He who gives the grace and power to pray; He helps our
infirmities, and intercedes for us and in us. Prayer is one of the highest
exercises of the soul, and achieves its loftiest triumphs under the inspiration and
help of the Spirit. He suggests topics for prayer, proper times and seasons,
imparts urgency and perseverance in supplication, and He alone makes prayer
effectual.
III. Prayer should be accompanied with persevering vigilance.—“Watching
[keeping awake] thereunto with all perseverance and supplication” (ver. 18).
We must not only watch and pray, but watch while we pray. Watch against
wandering thoughts, against meaningless and insincere petitions, against the
seductive suggestions of the tempter, and against the tendency to trust in our
prayers or in our earnestness rather than in God, whose help we supplicate.
“With all perseverance” means a sustained, unsleeping, and unresting vigilance.
The word implies stretching out the neck and looking about in order to discern
an enemy at a distance. Without watchfulness prayer and all the spiritual
armour will be unavailing. The best-appointed army, over-confident in its
strength, has suffered inglorious defeat by neglecting to watch. The wakeful
and earnest suppliant must persist in prayer, undaunted by opposition and
unwearied by delay.
IV. Prayer should be offered on behalf of the Church in general.—“For all
saints” (ver. 18). Prayer that in its nature is generous and comprehensive is
apt to become selfish and narrowed down into despicable limits. The man prays
best for himself who prays most earnestly for others. “Prayer for ourselves
must broaden out into a catholic intercession for all the servants of our Master,
for all the children of the household of faith. By the bands of prayer we are
knit together—a vast multitude of saints throughout the earth, unknown by face
or name to our fellows, but one in the love of Christ and in our heavenly calling
and all engaged in the same perilous conflict. All the saints were interested in
the faith of the Asian believers; they were called with ‘all the saints’ to share
in the comprehension of the immense designs of God’s kingdom. The dangers
and temptations of the Church are equally far-reaching; they have a common
origin and character in all Christian communities. Let our prayers at least be
catholic. At the throne of grace, let us forget our sectarian divisions. Having
access in one Spirit to the Father, let us realise in His presence our communion
with all His children” (Findlay).
"The saints in prayer appear as one,
In word and deed and mind;
While with the Father and the Son
Sweet fellowship they find.
"Nor prayer on earth is made aloneÂ
The Holy Spirit pleads;
And Jesus on the eternal throne
For sinners intercedes."ÂJ. Montgomery.
V. Prayer should be definite and special in its petitions.—1. For the preacher
of the Gospel in unfavourable circumstances. “And for me . . . an ambassador in
bonds” (vers. 19, 20). An ambassador, being the representative of his king, his
person was in all civilised countries held sacred, and it was regarded as the
greatest indignity and breach of faith to imprison or injure him. Contrary to
the rights of nations, this ambassador of the King of heaven was put in chains.
Even Paul, with all his magnificent endowments, felt the need for the prayers of
God’s people and craved for them. The fortunes of the Gospel were bound up
with his life, and he was now suffering for his courageous defence of the truth.
It was of immense importance to the early Church that he should be true and
faithful in this crisis, and he asks for the prayers of God’s people that he may be
sustained and the Gospel victorious. Here was a definite and special theme for
prayer. Occasions of great peril evoke the spirit of earnest supplication. It is
an aid to devotion to have some one specially pray for.
2. For courage and facility in unfolding the mystery of the Gospel he feels constrained
to declare.—“That utterance may be given unto me, that I may . . . make
known the mystery of the gospel, . . . that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought
to speak [as I must needs speak]” (vers. 19, 20). The apostolic prisoner was more
concerned about his message than his own fate. He hailed the occasion of His
defence before the civil authorities as an opportunity for unfolding and enforcing
the Gospel, for preaching which he was now in chains. He feels the gravity of
the crisis, and he is nervously anxious to do justice to his grand theme. Clear
as was his insight and firm as was his grasp of the leading truths of the Gospel,
he invokes the prayers of the Ephesian saints that God may give him liberty and
power in their exposition, and that he may win converts to the truth from the
midst of his enemies. The pulpit will become a greater power if the people of
God pray fervently and unitedly for the ambassadors of Christ. Prayer is more
potent in winning souls than the logic and eloquence of the preacher.
Lessons.—1. The topics for prayer are abundant and ever present. 2. Prayer
nerves the soul with Divine power. 3. Earnest and believing prayer will prevail.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 18–20. Praying with all Prayer.
I. The apostle supposes our obligation
to prayer to be so plain that every
rational mind will see it, and so
important that every pious heart will
feel it.—Our obligation to prayer
naturally results from our weakness
and dependence and God’s all-sufficiency
and goodness. Desires directed
to Him are prayers. To clothe our
desires in language is not essential.
God hears the desire of the humble.
There is the same reason for daily
prayer as for daily labour. Prayer is
a means of enlivening our pious sentiments
and exciting us to the practice
of duty and thus preparing us for
Divine favours.
II. Prayer is of several kinds.—Social
and secret, public and domestic,
stated and occasional; and consists of
several parts—confession, supplication,
intercession, and thanksgiving. The
apostle points out no part or kind of
prayer in distinction from all others,
but exhorts in general to pray with all
prayer.
III. The manner in which our
prayers should be offered.—The spirit
and temper of the heart in our prayers
is the main thing necessary to qualify
them for God’s acceptance. The first
thing necessary in prayer is faith.
Our desires must be good and reasonable.
Attention of mind, collection of
thought, and warmth of affection are
qualifications required in prayer. Our
prayers must be accompanied with
justice to men. Charity is an essential
qualification in prayer. Our
prayers must be joined with a sense of
and sorrow for sin, and submission to
the Divine will. We are to continue
in prayer, and watch thereunto with
all perseverance.
IV. The apostle here teaches the
duty of intercession for others.—If
God is good to others as well as to
us, there is the same ground on which
to offer our social intercessions as our
personal petitions. We are commanded
to pray for all men, and especially for
all saints; this is to pray for the
general virtue and happiness of the
human race in this and all succeeding
ages. Christians ought to pray for
their minister. There was something
special in Paul’s case—he was an
ambassador in bonds.
V. The apostle points out the
manner in which he aimed and all
ministers ought to preach the Gospel.—The
apostle desired to make known the
mystery of the Gospel, and to speak
boldly. In a minster boldness is
necessary; not that impudent boldness
which assumes an unmerited superiority,
but that pious fortitude that
dares to utter the important things of
religion without reserve and without
fear of personal inconvenience. He
must persevere in the faithful execution
of his office, whatever discouragements
may arise from the opposition of
the world, the frowns of the great, the
contempt of the proud, the want of
concurrence, or the smallness of his
success.—Lathrop.
Ver. 18. Praying in the Spirit.
I. The time.—“Always.” 1. The
frequent practice of prayer. 2. The constant
cultivation of the spirit of prayer.
II. The manner.—“With all
prayer and supplication.” 1. The
prayer of the closet. Secret. 2. The
prayer of the family. Domestic. 3. The
prayer of the social circle. United.
4. The prayer of the sanctuary.
Public.
III. The manner.—“With all prayer
and supplication.” 1. There are thanksgivings
to be rendered. 2. There are
confessions to be made. 3. There are
petitions to be offered. 4. There are
intercessions to be presented.
IV. Spirituality.—“In the Spirit.”
1. With our own heart. Not formal
or mechanical. 2. In dependence on
the aid of the Holy Ghost.
V. The continuance.—“With all
perseverance.” 1. In the general habit.
Prayer never to be given up. 2. In
special objects. No fainting in prayer.
VI. The intercession.—“And supplication
for all saints.” 1. For the
whole Church. 2. For any part of the
Church that is in danger of distress.
3. For our own section of the Church.
4. For our Christian friends.—G. Brooks.
The Duty of Prayer.—Prayer is the
communion of the soul with God, and
the casting of itself upon Him for help
and guidance.
I. God has implanted prayer as an
instinct in the hearts of men.—In
times of danger the soul instinctively
cries out for God or some unseen power
to interpose and save.
II. God desires that men should
pray regularly and constantly.—Blessings
are promised in answer to
prayer which the soul can obtain in
no other way.
III. God commands men to pray.—To
abound in prayer and to pray without
weariness and fainting.
IV. God teaches how to pray and
what to pray for.—The Spirit helps
our infirmities.
V. There is no religious life apart
from prayer.—The Bible saints were
men of prayer. At the very beginning
of human history men began to call
upon God. And in the visions of
heaven which St. John has recorded,
when the Lamb had taken the book to
open its seals, the twenty-four elders
fell down before Him, “having every
one of them harps and golden phials
full of odours, which are the prayers of
the saints, and they sang a new song” (Rev. v.%8, 9).
Prayer leads to praise.
VI. How can we make the duty a
privilege and the privilege a pleasure?—If
Christ was comforted and
strengthened by prayer, can we as
Christians live without it? Is not a
prayerless Christian in danger of being
no Christian at all?—Homiletic Monthly.
Vers. 19, 20. A Picture of Moral
Bravery.
I. An ambassador charged with a
message of world-wide significance
and importance.—“To make known
the mystery of the gospel” (ver. 19).
II. An ambassador, contrary to the
law of nations, imprisoned because of
his message.—“For which I am an
ambassador in bonds” (ver. 20).
III. An ambassador irresistibly
constrained to declare the message
for which he suffers.—“That therein
I may speak boldly as I ought to
speak” (ver. 20).
IV. An ambassador imploring, not
the sanction of civil authorities, but the
prayers of God’s people that he may
be emboldened to discharge his high
commission.—“And for me, that utterance
may be given unto me, that I may
open my mouth boldly” (ver. 19).
Ver. 19. The Gospel a Mystery.
I. Because it is known only by
Divine revelation.—Such a secret it is
that the wit of man could never have
found out. As none but God could lay
the plot, so none but Himself could
make it known.
II. Because when revealed its
truths exceed the grasp of human
understanding.—They are to the eye
of our reason as the sun to the eye of
our body, that dazzles and overpowers.
They disdain to be discussed and tried
by human reason that there are three
subsistences in the Godhead and but
one Divine essence. We believe, because
they are revealed. God and man
united in Christ’s person is undeniably
demonstrable from the Gospel, but the
cordage of our understanding is too
short to fathom this great deep.
“Would’st thou see a reason,” said
Augustine, “for all that God says?
Look into thine own understanding,
and thou wilt find a reason why thou
seest not a reason.”
III. The Gospel is a mystery in
regard of the kind of knowledge the
saints themselves have of it.—1. Their
knowledge is but in part, and imperfect.
The most of what they know is the
least of what they do not know. The
Gospel is a rich piece of arras rolled up:
this God has been unfolding ever since
the first promise was made to Adam,
opening it every age wider than the
other.
2. It is mysterious and dark.
Gospel truths are not known in their
native beauty and glory, but in
shadows. Our apprehension of things
are mainly compared with those under
the law, but childish compared with
the knowledge of glorified saints.
Transcriber’s Note: In this next paragraph, the word
“faggot” is used in its original literal meaning, a bundle of sticks used
to kindle a fire, or metaphorically, execution by burning at the stake.
IV. The Gospel is a mystery in
regard to the rare and strange effects
it has upon the godly.—It enables
them to believe strange mysteries—to
believe that which they understand
not, and hope for that which they do
not see. It enables them to do as
strange things as they believe—to live
by another’s spirit, to act from
another’s strength, to live by another’s
will, and aim at another’s glory. It
makes them so meek and gentle that a
child may lead them to anything good,
yet so stout that fire and faggot shall
not fright them into sin. They are
taught that all things are theirs, yet
they dare not take a penny, a pin,
from the wicked by force and rapine.
They can pray for life, and at the
same time desire to die.—Gurnall.
Ver. 20. Boldness a Duty in a
Minister.
I. The nature of the boldness desired.—1. To speak
all he has in command
from God to deliver. 2. To speak with
liberty and freedom of spirit, without
fear or bondage to any. Speaking
openly and plainly.
II. Boldness to be shown in preaching
the Gospel.—1. In asserting the
truth of the Gospel. 2. In reproving
sin and denouncing judgment against
impenitent sinners.
III. The kind of boldness a
minister should cultivate.—1. A convincing
boldness. 2. A meek boldness.
3. A zealous boldness.
IV. The means of procuring ministerial
boldness.—1. A holy fear of God.
2. Castle thyself within the power and
promise of God for assistance and protection.
3. Keep a clear conscience.
4. Consider that which thou most fearest
is best prevented by freedom and boldness
in thy ministry. 5. Consider how bold
Christ was in His ministry. What
greater incentive to valour can the
soldier have than to see his general
stand with undaunted courage where
the bullets fly thickest! Such valiant
captains do not breed white-livered
soldiers. It is impossible we should be
dastardly, if instructed by Him and
actuated by his Spirit.—Ibid.
Ver. 20. The Gospel Ambassador.
I. The dignity of his office.—Seen:
1. In the majesty of the Prince from
whom he comes. 2. In the greatness of
the Person whose place he supplies. 3. In
the excellency of the message he brings.
II. How the duty of his office should
be discharged.—1. Stain not the
dignity of thy office by any base, unworthy
practices. 2. Keep close to thy
instructions. 3. Think it not enough
that thou deliverest thy message from
God, but show a zeal for thy Master
whose cause thou negotiatest. 4. Let not
any person or thing in the world bribe
or scare thee from a faithful discharge of
thy trust. 5. Be kind to and tenderly
careful of thy fellow-subjects.—Ibid.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 21, 22.
A Trusted Messenger—
I. Commended for his acknowledged Christian character.—“Tychicus, a
beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord” (ver. 21). These are high
and honourable designations, and indicate the genuine esteem in which he
was held by the apostle. He had become endeared to Paul by the many
valuable services he had rendered to him, and by the marked fidelity of his
ministerial work. He appears to have joined St. Paul’s staff, and remained with
him from the time he accompanied him to Jerusalem in the year 59. He was
sent to Ephesus to relieve Timothy when Paul desired the presence of the latter
at Rome. He was well known to the Asian Church, and every way qualified to
discharge the mission with which he was entrusted. He was “the beloved
brother” in his relation to the Church in general, and the “faithful minister
in the Lord” in his special relation to the apostle. It is better to be loved than
to be simply popular. Genuine piety forms character, and commands the
confidence and respect of all lovers of the truth.
II. Entrusted with personal details of special interest.—“Whom I have sent
unto you for the same purpose, that ye might know our affairs” (ver. 22). There
were probably some details about St. Paul’s imprisonment that could be communicated
better in person than by letter, and certain allusions in the letter that
could be more fully explained in a personal interview. Every item about Paul
was of intense interest to the Asian Churches. Many of the members had been
brought to Christ through his instrumentality. They were alarmed as to his
fate and as to the future of the Gospel. They were anxious to know if there
was any prospect of his release and of his return to his missionary labours.
Tychicus, enjoying the full confidence of the apostle and the affection of the
people, was just the man to give them the information they so eagerly desired,
and would be cordially welcomed everywhere. The trusted messenger of a great
and good man is regarded for the time being with the reverence and respect
cherished towards the man he represents and of those whose affairs he is empowered
to speak.
III. Competent to minister encouragement.—“That he might comfort your
hearts” (ver. 22). Tychicus was not only a newsman and letter-carrier, but
also a minister of Christ. He knew how to present his message so as to allay
the fears of his hearers, to comfort their hearts, and to encourage their faith in
the power and triumph of the Gospel, notwithstanding the sufferings of its
preachers. The Gospel is full of consolation, and it should be the constant aim
of the minister to make it known and apply it to the circumstances of his people.
A diligent pastor in his visitations comes in contact with much suffering and
sorrow, and has many opportunities of administering the balm of Gospel comfort.
Great tact and sympathy are necessary, especially in visiting the sick. Referring
to this, a godly and experienced minister said, “Tenderness is essential. Enter
the chamber gently. Tread noiselessly. Get near to the sufferer. Speak as
softly as may be. Remember his nerves; noise is often torture. Sympathise
with his weakness, restlessness, and pain. True you are not come to minister to
his body; but enter into his sufferings and symptoms. Ask what his doctor has
said. Avoid a professional, official, conventional air. The case may be too
grave for cheerful words; but if otherwise, let your face carry a little sunshine
into the sick-room. Avoid fussiness. Go with a brother’s heart. Be brief—brief
in your talk, brief in your readings, brief in your prayers—your whole visit
brief. Take up one point. A sick man’s brain is soon overtasked, his nerves
soon jar, his strength soon fails. Let your good-by be ‘God bless you.’ Let
your last look be one of tenderness and love. Whatever you are in the pulpit,
Barnabas, not Boanerges, is your pattern by the sick-bed.” It is the privilege
and mission of every minister and believer to be a messenger of comfort
and strength to those in trouble. We shall be remembered for our kindness
when many of our sermons are forgotten.
Lessons.—1. The character of the good is self-evident. 2. A good man should
be trusted and honoured. 3. The value of a good man is recognised in times of
stress and difficulty.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 21, 22. Apostolical Care for the
Church.
I. Paul was careful to keep up an
intercourse and communion with the
Churches of Christ.—There ought to
be fellowship and correspondence among
the Churches. They should all unite
their endeavours for the common edification
and comfort. The Church of
Christ is one. We should seek the
counsel of sister Churches under our
difficulties, and be ready when requested
to afford them our counsel under
theirs.
II. Paul was solicitous that the
Christians among whom he had
preached should know of his condition
and doings.—He was a prisoner,
but suffered not his time to pass in
restless impatience or useless indolence.
He received all who came to him and
preached to them the kingdom of God.
He instructed his fellow-prisoners. He
spent much of his time in prayer.
Several of his epistles were written
when he was in bonds. Paul’s example
teaches us that we should do good in
every condition.
III. When Paul sends Tychicus he
gives him written testimonials that
he might be received in the character
of a minister.—This precaution was
taken that the Churches might not be
imposed upon by ignorant pretenders
or artful deceivers. The Church is a
regular, organised community. We
are to receive none as ambassadors
of Christ but those who come to us
according to the order He has settled.
Ministers ought to act in concert and
unite their labours in building up
the kingdom of Christ. Tychicus
co-operated with Paul.
IV. Fidelity is an essential part of
the ministerial character.—Paul calls
Tychicus “a faithful minister.” Such
a minister undertakes his work with
pure intentions and abides in it with
constancy, even though he may meet
with worldly discouragements. Tychicus
was sent to comfort the Ephesians
under their grief for Paul’s imprisonment,
and to guard them against any
discouraging apprehensions. Ministers
are to strengthen new converts and
young professors to constancy and perseverance
in religion by laying before
them the comforting and animating
motives of the Gospel.—Lathrop.
A Faithful Minister.—1. It concerns
Christians to inform themselves of the
life and way of eminent men in the
Church, and chiefly of those who have
been sufferers for truth, that they may
be incited to sympathise with them, to
follow their example and bless the
Lord on their behalf. 2. It is in a
singular manner required of a minister
that he be faithful—diligent in his
work, sincere in his aims and endeavours,
neither adding nor paring
what God has committed unto him
to speak. 3. We should labour so
to inform ourselves of the case and
carriage of others and how it goes
with the affairs of Christ’s kingdom
elsewhere as to draw spiritual edification
thence. 4. To know God’s
gracious providence towards his suffering
servants, together with their undaunted
courage under sufferings and
the use God makes of their sufferings
to advance His truth, is sufficient
ground of comfort and encouragement
to God’s people.—Fergusson.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 23, 24.
A Suggestive Benediction—
I. Recognises the Divine source of all blessing.—“From God the Father and
the Lord Jesus Christ” (ver. 23). All our blessings are Divine, and flow from
the inexhaustible fountain of the Divine beneficence. “God the Father,” in the
eternal counsels of His wisdom and love, “and the Lord Jesus Christ,” who
through the eternal Spirit offered Himself as an atonement for human sin—the
glorious Trinity of Persons in the Godhead—contribute from their combined
perfections, the spiritual good that encircles every believing soul. “The God of
Christians,” says Pascal, “is not barely the Author of geometrical truths, or of
the order of the elements—this is the Divinity of the heathen; nor barely the
providential Disposer of the lives and fortunes of men, so as to crown His
worshippers with a happy series of years—this is the portion of the Jews. But
the God of Abraham and of Jacob, the God of Christians, is a God of love and
of consolation; a God who fills the heart and the soul where He resides; a God
who gives them a deep and inward feeling of their own misery and of His infinite
mercy, unites Himself to their spirit, replenishes it with humility and joy, with
affiance and love, and renders them incapable of any end but Himself.” The
religious character of the Lancashire people was illustrated by an incident that
happened towards the close of the cotton famine. The mills in one village had
been stopped for months, and the first waggon-load of cotton that arrived seemed
to them like the olive branch that told of the abating waters of the deluge. The
waggon was met by the women, who hysterically laughed and cried and hugged
the cotton bales as if they were dear old friends, and then ended by singing that
grand old hymn, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow.”
II. Implores specific blessings upon Christian brethren.—“Peace be to the
brethren, and love with faith” (ver. 23). Where there is no love there is no
peace, and peace and love without faith, are capricious and worthless. Love is
the strength of the forbearance and self-suppression so essential to the maintenance
of peace. As faith grows and intensifies it opens up new channels in
which love can flow. We are to contend for the faith, not that peace may be
disturbed, but that it may rest on a firmer and more permanent basis. What
greater boon can we desiderate for our brethren than that they may abound in
“peace and love with faith”?
III. Greets with expansive generosity all genuine lovers of Christ.—“Grace
be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen” (ver. 24).
The overflow of Divine grace submerges the barriers of sects and effaces the
distinctions of a selfish and pretentious bigotry. Sincere love to Christ opens
the heart to the richest endowments of grace, and blends all hearts that glow
with a kindred affection. If we love Christ, we love one another, we love His work,
His Word, and are eager to obey Him in all things He commands. We may not
agree in a uniformity of creeds, but we reach a higher union when our hearts
are mingled in the capacious alembic of a Christ-like love. The benediction of
grace to all who love Jesus is answered and confirmed by an appropriate Amen.
“Amen” under the law was answered to the curses, but not to the blessings
(Deut. xxvii. 15–26). Every particular curse must have an “Amen.” But in the
next chapter, where the blessings follow, there is no “Amen” affixed to them
(Deut. xxviii. 2–12). But it is otherwise in the Gospel. To the blessings there
is an “Amen,” but not to the curses. If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ
(1 Cor. xvi. 22)—a fearful curse; but there is no “Amen” to that. “Grace be
with all them that love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity”: there is an “Amen”
to that.
Lessons.—1. Christianity is freighted with blessings for the race. 2. It has
special blessings for present need. 3. It points men to God as the true source of all
blessing.
GERM NOTES OF THE VERSES.
Ver. 23. Elements of Religious Comfort.—The
apostle prays that, with
faith, there may be peace and love.
I. Faith captivates the soul into
obedience to the Gospel by giving
efficacy to its precepts, examples, and
doctrines. Where faith operates, love
will appear, and peace will follow.
II. Love produces peace.—1. Inward
peace. It extinguishes malice, envy,
hatred, wrath, revenge, every unfriendly
passion.
2. Social peace.—Christians will be
careful not to give offence, either by
real injuries or unnecessary differences.
They will be slow to take offence.
III. Love brings religious comfort.—Love
is comfortable in its immediate
feelings and in its pacific influence. It
brings comfort to the soul as it is
an evidence of godly sincerity. If we
would enjoy the comfort, we must maintain
the comfort of religion.—Lathrop.
Ver. 24. The Christian’s Truest Test
and Excellence.—Other things may be
required to complete the character of
the Christian; but without love to
Christ there can be no Christian at all.
It is the Master-spirit which must
animate and enliven the whole combination;
and in whomsoever this
Spirit prevails we are entitled and
enjoined to welcome that person as
a disciple.
I. Consider the love of Christ as a
duty we owe to Himself.—1. Bring to
your remembrance His personal excellences.
2. Consider the great and
glorious object of all He did and endured—the
everlasting happiness of human
souls.
II. Consider the love of Christ as a
principle which works in ourselves.—1. It
does not destroy natural affections,
but teaches us to fix them on proper
objects and to give a right direction to
their fullest energies. 2. A due sense of
the Saviour’s love makes us feel at once
that He merits all our best affections in
return. 3. It gives delight in meditating
on the precepts and promises of
God’s Word. 4. It helps in all the
duties we owe to our fellow-creatures.
5. It animates the soul in the hour of
death and the prospect of eternity.—J. Brewster.
Loving Christ in Sincerity.
I. On what account Christ is entitled
to our love.—1. He is a Divine
person. 2. He was manifest in the flesh.
In the man Christ Jesus appeared every
virtuous quality which can dignify and
adorn human nature. 3. His mediatorial
offices entitle Him to our love.
4. He is an object of our love because
of His kindness to us.
II. An essential qualification of love
to Christ is sincerity.—1. Our love to
Christ must be real, not pretended.
2. Must be universal. It must respect
His whole character. 3. Sincere love to
Christ is supreme. It gives Him the
preference to all earthly interest and
connections. 4. It is persevering. 5. It
is active.
III. How sincere love to Christ will
discover itself.—1. It will make us
careful to please Him. 2. Will be accompanied
with humility. 3. We shall
be fond of imitating Him. 4. We shall
promote His interest and oppose His
enemies. 5. We shall do good to His
needy brethren and friends.
IV. The benediction connected with
this temper.—It is called grace. It
comprehends all the blessings the
Gospel reveals and promises. 1. Justification
before God. 2. The presence of
the Divine Spirit. 3. Free access to
the throne of grace. 4. The gift of a
happy immortality.—Lathrop.
Love to Christ.—What is it that constitutes
Christ’s claim to love and respect?
What is it that is to be loved
in Christ? Why are we to hold Him
dear? There is but one ground for
virtuous affection in the universe, but
one object worthy of cherished and enduring
love in heaven and in earth,
and that is—moral goodness. My
principle applies to all beings, to the
Creator as well as to His creatures.
The claim of God to the love of His
rational offspring rests on the rectitude
and benevolence of His will. It is the
moral beauty and grandeur of His
character to which alone we are bound
to pay homage. The only power which
can and ought to be loved is a beneficent
and righteous power. The ground of
love to Christ is, His spotless purity,
His moral perfection, His unrivalled
goodness. It is the spirit of His religion,
which is the Spirit of God,
dwelling in Him without measure. Of
consequence, to love Christ is to love
the perfection of virtue, of righteousness,
of benevolence; and the great
excellence of this love is, that by
cherishing it we imbibe, we strengthen
in our own souls the most illustrious
virtue, and through Jesus become like
God. I call you to love Jesus that
you may bring yourselves into contact
and communion with perfect virtue,
and may become what you love. I
know no sincere, enduring good but the
moral excellence which shines forth in
Jesus Christ.—Channing.
The Apostolic Benediction.
I. The subjects of the benediction.—“All
them that love our Lord Jesus
Christ in sincerity.”
1. The object of their love.—“The
Lord Jesus Christ.”
2. The character of their love.—They
love in sincerity. This proved by the
effects it produces. (1) Love to God’s
Word. (2) Prompt obedience to Christ’s
precepts. (3) Brotherly love. (4) Zeal
for God’s house.
II. The nature of the benediction.—1. The
prayer embraces the communication
of Divine grace. 2. All Christians
need the grace of God. (1) In all trials
peculiar to the age in which they
live. (2) In time of temptation and
spiritual darkness. (3) In the discharge
of Christian duties. (4) To
sanctify, refine, and make them meet
for the inheritance of the saints in
light.
Lessons.—1. Imitate the catholicity of
the apostle. 2. Sectarian bigotry and
hostility should cease. 3. How perilous
the state of those who love not Christ.—Pulpit Themes.
- Page 123, Introduction, “Readers” paragraph, change “i. 1”
to “ch. i. 1.” “Certain expressions” paragraph,
change “i. 15” to “ch. i. 15.”
- Page 124, “Again” paragraph, change “in iii.” to
“in ch. iii” and “ii. 6–9” to
“Gal. ii. 6–9,” for concreteness. Analysis, chapter i. 3–14,
apply RC to “Divine will.” Chapter ii. 1–10,
apply RC to “Divine grace.” Chapter ii. 14–19, apply RC to
“love Divine.”
- Page 126, Notes for chapter i., verse 3, apply RC to “Divine blessing”;
remove comma from “heaven, and.” Verse 4, apply RC to “Divine goodness.”
Verse 5, apply RC to “Love Divine” and “Divine Graciousness.”
Verse 7, change “ix. 22” to “Heb. ix. 22” for concreteness.
- Page 127, verse 8, apply RC to “Divine aims.”
Verse 11, add “Deut. xxxiii. 9” reference.
- Page 128, top of page, apply RC to “Divine power.”
Verse 20, tag Latin phrase as Latin and set it in Italic.
Lesson “Apostolic Salutation,” point I, apply RC to “Divine source”;
remove commas from “care, and” and “God, and”; apply RC to “Divine will,”
“the Gospel,” “Divine authority,” and “Divine will.”
- Page 129, same lesson, point II, remove comma from “God, and” and apply RC to
“in Him.” Point III, apply RC to “Divine source.”
“Paul’s Introduction” note, apply RC to “that Gospel” and
“the Gospel.”
- Page 130, same note, point I 2, apply RC to “the Gospel.” Point III,
apply RC to “the Gospel” and “Divine Spirit.”
- Page 131, lesson “Praise,” introduction, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Point I 1, apply RC to “the Gospel.”; change “in Him” to
“in him,” referring to a new convert; remove comma from “Him, and.”
Point I 2, apply RC to “Divine grace.”
Point I 3, apply RC to “Divine Father” and “Divine family.”
Point II, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
- Page 132, same lesson, point II 2, apply RC to “Divine will” and
“Divine counsels.” Point II 3, apply RC to “Gospel age”
and “Divine purpose.” Point III, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Point III 1, apply RC to “the Word,” “the Gospel,” and
“the Word” (twice). Point III 2, apply RC to “Divine attestation.”
Application (“Lessons”), each points 1, 2, and 3, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
- Page 133, same lesson, “Mystery” note, remove comma from “salvation, if.”
“Spiritual Blessings” note, point I, apply RC to “Divine operation.”
Point II, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
- Page 134, same lesson, “Nature, Source” note, point II, apply RC to
“Divine nature”; remove comma from “will, and”; apply RC to “Gospel
holiness.” Point VI, apply RC to “the Gospel.” “Glory” note, point I,
apply RC to “Divine will.”
- Page 135, same lesson, “Redemption” note, point I, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
“Harmony” note, apply RC to “the Gospel” and “Divine justice.”
- Page 136, same lesson, same note, point III, apply RC to “Divine grace.”
Point VII, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Point XII, apply RC to “the Gospel.” “Mystery” note, point I 1, apply
RC to “the Gospel” (thrice); remove comma from “reason, and”; apply RC
to “Divine revelation” and “the Gospel.”
Point I 2, add comma to “us yet.”
- Page 137, same lesson, same note, point II 1, apply RC to “the Gospel”
and “the Word.” Point II 3, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
“Christ” note, apply RC to “Divine purpose.”
- Page 138, same lesson, “Gospel” note, point I, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Point II, apply RC to “the Gospel.” Point III, apply RC to “the Gospel”;
change subpoint indicators from parenthesised Arabic numerals to Arabic
numerals with periods, for consistency. “Truth” note, point I, change
subpoint indicators from parenthesised Arabic numerals to Arabic numerals
with periods, for consistency; point I 4, apply RC to “Divine majesty.”
Point II, apply RC to “Divine revelation.”
- Page 139, same lesson, “Faith” note, point I, apply RC to “the Word,”
“the Gospel,” “the Word,” “own Divinity,” and
“the Gospel.” Point II, apply RC to “the Word” and “the Gospel.”
Point III 1, add comma to “So the”; apply RC to “the Word,”
“Divine likeness,” “the Gospel,” and “the Word.”
Point III, apply RC to “Divine influence.”
Point III 1, add comma to “So the”; apply RC to “Divine image,”
“the Word,” “Divine likeness,” “the Gospel,” and “the Word.”
Point III 2, add comma to “So the.”
- Page 140, lesson “Prayer,” point II, apply RC to “the Word”;
remove comma from “suffice, unless.” Point III, apply RC to
“Divine inheritance” and “Divine blessings.”
- Page 141, same lesson, “Clearer” note, point I 1, apply RC to
“the Gospel.” Point I 2, apply RC to “the Gospel” (twice) and
“Divine qualities”; remove comma from “sanctuary, but.” Point II,
apply RC to “the Gospel.” Point III, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Point IV, remove comma from “knowledge, but.” Point V, apply RC to
“Divine calling” and “Divine preparation.”
- Page 142, same lesson, “Apprehension” note, point II, add “1 John iv. 10”
reference. Point III, apply RC to “Divine nature”; add comma to “Thus these.”
“Spiritual enlightenment” note, apply RC to “Divine mysteries.”
- Page 143, lesson “Church Complete,” point I, apply RC to
“Divine power,” “a Divine,” and “Divine Spirit.”
Point II, apply RC to “Divine power”; change “instals” to
“installs”; add “Heb. i. 6” and
“Ps. xxiv. 7–10” references.
- Page 144, same lesson, point III, see in-line note about “quicksilver.”
Apply RC to “Divine fulness”; add comma to “Thus God”;
apply RC to “Divine fulness.”
Application (“Lessons”), point I, apply RC to “Divine creation.”
“Dignity and Dominion” note, point II, remove comma from “respect, and.”
- Page 145, same lesson, “Future life” note, end of point II,
add double quotes around what those already in heaven are said to say to us.
- Page 146, same lesson, “Headship” note, point I 6, apply RC to
“Divine attributes.” Point II 1, apply RC to “Mediator.”
Point II 3, apply RC to “Divine government.”
- Page 147, notes on chapter ii., verse 5, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Verse 6, change “i. 3” to “ch. i. 3.” Verse 10,
apply RC to “Divine thought.”
Verse 13, tag “Lo-ammi” as Hebrew and set it in Italic type.
- The break between pages 147 and 148 is in the word “consequently”: con|sequently.
- Page 148, notes on verse 17, change “lvii. 19” to “Isa. lvii. 19”
for concreteness. Verse 21, change “iv. 16” to “ch. iv. 16.”
Lesson “Children of Wrath,” point I, remove comma from “life, and”; apply RC
to “Divine wrath.”
- Page 149, same lesson, point III, remove comma from “appetite, but.”
Point IV, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
- Page 150, same lesson, “State of Sin” note, point II, apply RC to
“Divine power.” “State of Men” note, point I 2, apply RC to
“the Word” (twice); remove comma from “song, and.”
- Page 151, same lesson, “State of Nature” note, point I, apply RC
to “thing Divine.”
- Page 152, same lesson, same note, point II, apply RC to “the Spirit.”
Point III, apply RC to “the Spirit.” “Worst” note,
point I 1, add comma to “created and.” Point II, see in-line note on baptism.
- Page 153, lesson “Salvation,” point I, apply RC to “Divine beneficence,”
“Divine nature,” “Divine favour” and “Divine goodness.”
Point II, apply RC to “Divine power”; remove comma from “precede, and.”
- Page 154, same lesson, point III, apply RC to “Divine grace” (twice) and
“the Word.” Point IV, apply RC to “the Gospel” (twice) and
“Divine act.” Point V, apply RC to “Divine grace”; change
“ever new” to “ever-new”; apply RC to “Divine grace.”
“Great Change” note, point I, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
- Page 155, same lesson, same note,
point I 1 (4), remove comma from “Christ, and.” Point II, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Point III, apply RC to “the Gospel dispensation.” “State” note, point 3,
add comma to “Therefore God.”
- Page 157, same lesson, “Salvation by Faith” note, point I 5, apply RC to “whole Gospel.”
“Our Salvation” note, point III 3, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
“True Justifying Faith” note, remove comma from “creature, and”; apply RC to
“Divine work.”
- Page 158, lesson “Christian Life,” point I, apply RC to “Divine handiwork”
and “Divine power”; remove comma from “nature, and”; apply RC to
“Divine handiwork,” “Divine character,” and “Divine worker.”
Point III, apply RC to “Divinely provided.”
Application (“Lessons”), point 2, apply RC to
“Divine origin.” Point 3, apply RC to “Divine mind.”
- Page 160, lesson “Forlorn State,” application (“Lessons”), point 3, apply RC to
“Divine mercy.” “Condition” note, point II, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
- The break between pages 160 and 161 is in a unit that style indicates should
be kept together “Christ.—|To.” The whole unit was moved to the earlier page.
- Page 161, same lesson, same note, point V, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
“Helpless” note, point 3, add comma to “sought and.”
- Page 162, same lesson, same note, point 3 (5), remove comma from “other, and”;
add sentence-ending period after “powerless”; add comma to “Thus faith.”
- Page 164, lesson “Peacemaker,” point I, remove comma from “complied, and.”
- Page 165, same lesson, poem between points IV and V, change “there” to “then”
and “losers” to “loser” after referring to collection of Shakespeare.
Point V, change “#eads us” to “leads us.”
“Nearness” note, point I, remove comma from “God, and.”
Point II, apply RC to “the Gospel.” Point VI, apply RC to “His Word.”
- Page 166, same lesson, “Power” note, point 1, apply RC to “His Word.”
- Page 167, same lesson, same note, point 2, remove comma from “grace, and”;
add “Ezek. xxxiii. 11” and “Isa. xlv. 22” references.
Point 3, add comma to “is that.”
- Page 168, same lesson, “Privilege” note, point I 3, apply RC to
“His Own Son.” Point II, remove comma from “mercy-seat, and.”
- Page 169, same lesson, “Access to God” note, point I, apply RC to
“Divine Creator,” “into Divinity,” “God is Divine,”
“by Word,” “the Divinity” (twice) and “the Divine”;
add comma to “souls others”; apply RC to “a Divine end.”
Point II, apply RC to “the Divinity” and “the Gospels”;
add comma to “firm bright” and “confident golden”;
apply RC to “and Divine” and “the Gospel.”
- Page 170, same lesson, same note, apply RC to “Divine side,”
“the Divinity,” “was Divine,” and “is Divine.”
Point III, add comma to “so when”; apply RC to “Divine End”
and “Divine Power.”
- Page 171, same lesson, top of page, apply RC to “is Divine.”
“Christian Law” note, point II, apply RC to “Divine Justice.”
Lesson “Church the Temple,” point I, apply RC to “the Gospel”
and “Divine kingdom”; remove commas from “privileges, and”
and “ages, and.”
- Page 172, same lesson, point II, remove commas from “Church, and” and
“broad, and.” Point III, apply RC to “Divine purpose.”
- Page 173, same lesson, “Spiritual Building” note, point V, apply RC to
“His Word” (twice). “Christian Prayer” note, point I 1,
apply RC to “Divine light.” Point II 2, add comma to “still and.”
- Page 174, same lesson, “Communion” note, point I, apply RC to “Divine Presence.”
Point III, apply RC to “Divinely true.”
Point IV, apply RC to “Diviner love.”
- The break between pages 174 and 175 is in a unit that style indicates should not
be broken: “saints.—|1. They.” The whole unit was moved to the earlier page.
- Page 175, same lesson, “Characteristics” note, point III 4, remove comma from
“privileges, and.”
- Page 176, notes for chapter iii., verse 2, change “iv. 21” to
“ch. iv. 21”; apply RC to “Divine Taskmaster.”
Verse 9, change “iii. 1” to “Gal. iii. 1” for concreteness.
Verse 12, change “ii. 13” to “ch. ii. 13.”
- Page 177, notes for chapter iii., verse 15, change “ii. 19” to
“ch. ii. 19.” Verse 17, apply RC to “things Divine.”
Verse 20, change “i. 19–23” to “ch. i. 19–23.”
Lesson “Enlarged Gospel,” point I, apply RC
to “the Gospel,” “Divine revelation,” “Divine favour,”
and “Divine mind.”
- Page 178, same lesson, point II, apply RC to “the Gospel” (thrice).
Point III, apply RC to “the Gospel,” “enlarged Gospel,” and
“the Gospel.” Point IV, apply RC to “Divine grace,” “the Gospel,”
“Divinely prepared,” “the Gospel,” and “Divine Spirit.”
- Page 179, same lesson, top of page, apply RC to “the Gospel” and
“ever-enlarging Gospel.” Application (“Lessons”), point 1,
apply RC to “the Gospel.” “Calling” note, point I, apply RC
to “Divine Goodness.” Point II, apply RC to “the Gospel” (four times).
Point IV, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
- Page 180, “Knowledge” note, between lists, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Lesson “Exalted,” point I, apply RC to “the Gospel” (twice).
- Page 181, same lesson, point II, apply RC to “the Gospel” (twice),
and “Divine dealings.”
Point II 2, apply RC to “Divine mystery,”
“Divine purpose” (twice), and “the Gospel.” Point II 3,
apply RC to “Divine idea” and “the Gospel” (thrice). Point III,
apply RC to “Divine grace.” Point III 1, apply RC to “Divine grace,”
“Divine power,” “the Gospel” (twice) and
“Divine power” (twice). Point III 2, apply RC
to “Divine grace.”
- Page 182, same lesson, application (“Lessons”), point 1, apply RC to
“the Gospel.” “Apostle’s View” note, point II, apply RC
to “the Gospel.” Point III, apply RC to “the Gospel” (twice).
- Page 183, same lesson, “Christian Humility” note, point I, change
“self-righteous ness” to “self-righteousness.”
- Page 184, same lesson, same note, top of page, change period after
“management” to a question mark.
- Page 185, same lesson, “Unsearchable Riches” note, apply RC to
“Christ’s Divinity.” “Fellowship” note, point I,
apply RC to “His Gospel.” Point II, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
- Page 186, lesson “Manifold Wisdom,” point I, apply RC to
“the Gospel,” “Divinely freighted,” and “the Divine.”
Point II, apply RC to “the Gospel” (twice).
- The break between pages 186 and 187 is in the word “knowledge”: know|ledge.
- Page 187, same lesson, point III, top of page, apply RC to “Divine treatment” and
“the Gospel.” Application (“Lessons”), point 2, apply RC to
“Divine wisdom.” “Manifold Wisdom” note, point I 2,
apply RC to “Divine will.” Point II, apply RC to “Gospel redemption.”
- The break between pages 187 and 188 is in the word “expression”: expres|sion.
- Page 188, same lesson, same note, point II, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Point V, apply RC to “the Gospel” and “Divine grace.” Change
“He who preached” to “he,” referring to Paul. “Access”
note, point II, add sentence-ending period.
- Page 189, same lesson, “Courage” note, point 1, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Lesson “Sublime,” point I 1, see in-line note regarding Christ’s abiding presence.
- Page 190, same lesson, point I 1, top of page, apply RC to “Divine power.”
Point II, change “thirsty manna drink” to “thirsty man a drink.”
Point III, apply RC to “Divine fulness” and “Divine grace.”
- Page 192, “Church a Family” note, point II 1, apply RC to
“common Father.”
- Page 193, “Family” note, point I, apply RC to “Divine message.”
Point II, apply RC to “Divinest wisdom.”
- Page 195, “Paul’s Prayer” note, point V, apply RC to “Divine influence.”
“Love of Christ” note, point I 1, change “as He says” to “as Paul says.”
Point I 5, apply RC to “Divine nature” and “is Divine.”
- Page 196, “Transcendent” note, point I 1, apply RC to
“is Divine.” Point II, apply RC to “Divine infinitude.”
Point III 3, apply RC to “supreme Divinity.”
- The break between pages 196 and 197 is in the word “increase”: in|crease.
- Page 198, notes on chapter iv., verse 7, apply RC to “His endowment.”
Verse 13, apply RC to “Divine Archetype.”
- Page 199, verse 17, change “ii. 2, 3” to
“ch. ii. 2, 3.” Verse 19, change right single quote after
“covetousness” to right double quote and “sin’s”
to “sins.” Verse 30, change “i. 13” to “ch. i. 13.”
Verse 31, change “I.e.” to “i.e.”
- Page 200, verse 32, apply RC to “Divine forgiveness.”
Lesson “Dignity,” point I, apply RC to “Divine nature.”
- Page 203, lesson “Sevenfold Unity,” point I, add em-dash before poem.
Point II, apply RC to “Divine commands” and
“one Gospel”; change “initiatory right” to
“initiatory rite.”
- Page 204, same lesson, point III, apply RC to “Divine Mind.”
“Unity” note, point III, apply RC to “same Word.”
Point V, apply RC to “same Gospel” and “the Word.”
- Page 205, “Oneness” note, point 2, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
“One Body” note, point I, apply RC to “the Word.”
- Page 206, same note, point II 1, apply RC to “Divine essence.”
- Page 208, lesson “Gifts of Christ,” point I, after poem, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Point II, apply RC to “Divine Conqueror.”
- Page 209, same lesson, point IV, apply RC to “Divine Architect.”
“Mark” note, first paragraph, apply RC to “four Gospels,”
“Mark’s Gospel,” “first Gospel.”
- Page 210, same note, point II, apply RC to “his Gospel.”
Point III, apply RC to “Divine Mind.”
- Page 211, same note, apply RC to “his Gospel”; change “three gospels”
to “four Gospels”; apply RC to “that Life” and “the Gospel.”
- The break between pages 211 and 212 is in the word “summoned”: sum|moned.
- Page 212, “Humiliation and Exaltation” note, point I 2, apply RC to
“Divine temple.” Point II 4, apply RC to “Divine conduct.”
Point III, apply RC to “Divine perfections.”
- Page 213, “Ascension” note, point I, apply RC to “His Word,”
“the Gospel,” and “a Gospel.”
- Page 214, “Work” note, point I, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Point II, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
- Page 215, same note, same point, apply RC to “His Gospel.” Point III, apply RC to
“the Gospel” (twice). Lesson “Manhood,” point I 1,
apply RC to “a Person.” Point I 2, change “in Him”
to “him,” referring to a human.
- Page 216, same lesson, point III, change “ant” to “bee”
because ant nests are not particularly geometrical; capitalise “Rubicon”;
apply RC to “the Gospel” and “Divine truth.”
- Page 217, “Growth” note, point II, apply RC to “Divine revelation.”
- Page 218, “Manhood” note, point I 3, apply RC to “Divinely appointed.”
“Maturity” note, point I 4, apply RC to “the Gospel”;
change “repre senting” to “representing.”
- The break between pages 218 and 219 is in the word “knowledge”: know|ledge.
- Page 219, same note, point II 2, apply RC to “the Gospel” (twice).
“Deceivers” note, point I 3, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
- Page 221, “Growth” note, point II, add right double quote at end of sentence.
Point II 2, apply RC to “real Divine.”
Point III, add “Mark x. 17–22; Luke xviii. 17–23” references.
- Page 223, lesson “Thorough,” point II, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Point III, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
- Page 224, same lesson, point IV, apply RC to “Divinely created” and
“Divine character.” Change reference for “Gentile Life” note
from “17, 19” to “17–19.” Point II, apply RC to
“Divine truths.” Point V, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
- Page 225, same note, application (“Reflections”), apply RC to
“the Gospel.” “Life” note, point II, apply RC to
“the Gospel.”
- Page 226, “Putting Off” note, point I, apply RC to “Divine things.”
- Page 227, same note, point IV, apply RC to “Divine nature” and “the Deity.”
Point V, apply RC to “the Gospel,” “Divine grace,” and “the Word.”
- Page 228, “Christian Spirit” note, point I 3, apply RC to “the Gospel”;
change “alternation” to “alteration.”
Point II 3, apply RC to “the Word.” Point II 4, apply RC to “to Him.”
- Page 230, lesson “Christian Principles,” point VII, apply RC to “Divine grace.”
- Page 231, “Truth” note, point I 1, remove Italic formatting from first sentence
for consistency with other subpoints.
- Page 232, “Falsehood” note, point IV, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
- The break between pages 232 and 233 is in the word “uncertainty”: uncer|tainty.
- Page 233, “Sinful Anger” note, point III, apply RC to “the Word.”
“Anger and Meekness” note, point I 4, at the end of the page, there is
blank space after the word “rights” which the Transcriber filled with
“he is” before “obliged” on the next page, giving
“. . . whose rights [he is] obliged . . . .”
- The break between pages 234 and 235 is in the word “bespeaks”: be|speaks.
- Page 236, “Exaltation” note, point III, apply RC to “the Word.”
“Benefit Conferred” note, point I, apply RC to “the Divine.”
- Page 237, same note, point III, apply RC to “the Divine.”
“Office” note, point II, apply RC to “the Word.”
“Grieving” note, point II, apply RC to “the Divine.”
- Page 238, “Grieve not” note, put double quotes around the rhetorical question;
apply RC to “Divine grace.” “Vices” note, point IV, change
“Never believe, much less propagate an ill report, of” to
“Never believe, much less propagate, an ill report of.”
- Page 239, “Errors” note, point II, apply RC to “the Author.”
- Page 240, same note, point V, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
“Christian Forgiveness,” point II, apply RC to “Diviner life.”
Point V, apply RC to “own Gospel” and “our Gospel.”
- Page 241, notes on chapter v., verse 7, change “iii. 6” to
“ch. iii. 6.” Verse 9, add “Rev. xxii. 2” reference.
Verse 19, add “James v. 13” reference; change the right double quote after
“hymn” to a right single quote.
- Page 242, verse 23, add “John xviii. 8,” “Luke xxii. 27,” and “ver. 25” references.
Lesson “Life,” point I, apply RC to “Divine life”
and “the Gospel.” Change “In Paris a little girl seven years old was observed” to
“In Paris, a little girl, seven years old, was observed.”
- Page 243, same lesson, point II, apply RC to “Divinely regarded”
and “Divine Fatherhood.”
- Page 244, “Doctrine” note, point I, apply RC to “the Divine.”
- Page 245, “Sacrifice” note, point I 3, apply RC to “the Divine.”
Point I 4, apply RC to “the Divine.”
- Page 247, “Likeness” note, point II, apply RC to “the Divine.”
Point IV, apply RC to “a Divine.” “Sacrifice” note, point I 1, apply RC
to “a Divine” (twice) and “in Himself.” Point I 2, add double quotes
around “I will do as I please.”
- Page 248, same note, same point, apply RC to “a Divine” (twice).
Point II, apply RC to “a Divine” (twice).
Point III 1, apply RC to “Divinity.”
Point III 3, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Lesson “Children,” point I 2, apply RC to “the Divine.”
- Page 249, same lesson, point II, apply RC to “Divinely illuminated.”
Point II 2, apply RC to “Divine light.”
Point II 3, add “Matt. v. 16” reference.
- Page 250, same lesson, point III 3, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Application (“Lessons”), point 3, apply RC to “Divinely regarded.”
“Sobriety” note, point I 1, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Point I 3, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
- Page 252, “Rule” note, apply RC to “the Word.”
- Page 253, “Slumbering” note, point I 6, apply RC to “God’s Word.”
Point I 7, apply RC to “the Gospel.” “Light of God” note,
point II, capitalise “the Negro.”
- Page 254, “Call” note, point I, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
- Page 255, same note, point II, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Point III, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
“Summons” note, point I, apply RC to “Divine assistance”;
add an em-dash to the end of the paragraph without punctuation.
Point II, apply RC to “Divine mandate.”
- The break between pages 255 and 256 is in a unit that style indicates should
not be broken: “inactivity.—|You.” The whole unit was moved to the earlier page.
- Page 256, “Gospel Call” note, point II 4 (4), apply RC to “the Gospel.”
- Page 257, lesson “Christian Wisdom,” point II 1, apply RC to “Divine goodness.”
Point II 2, apply RC to “the Divine” (thrice). Point IV, apply RC to “the Divine.”
- Page 258, same lesson, application (“Lessons”), point 3, add “Prov. iv. 7” reference.
“Walking” note, point I 4, apply RC to “the Gospel.” “Wise Conduct” note,
each of points 3 and 4, apply RC to “God’s Word.”
- Page 259, “Redeeming” note, point I, apply RC to “God’s Word.”
- Page 260, “Redemption” note, point II, apply RC to “Divine knowledge.”
- Page 261, “Being Filled” note, point 4 (4), apply RC to “the Gospel.”
- Page 262, lesson “Spiritual Enjoyment,” point I, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Point II, apply RC to “God’s Word.”
- Page 263, “Singing” note, point I, apply RC to “Divine worship.”
Point II, apply RC to “the Gospel.” Application (“Lessons”),
each of points 1 and 3, apply RC to “Divine worship.”
- Page 266, “Duties” lesson, point II 3, add a colon after “married life.”
- Page 267, “Christ” note, point III, add “Gen. ii. 21–24” reference.
- Page 268, “Christ’s Love” note, point III 3, apply RC to “the Word.”
“Future Glory” note, point II 4, apply RC to “the Word.” Point III,
apply RC to “Divinity” (twice). “Divine Ideal” note, point I 1,
apply RC to “the Divine.” Point III, apply RC to “Divine renewal.”
- Page 270, notes on chapter vi., verse 10, change “i. 19” to
“ch. i. 19.” Verse 13, change “v. 16” to
“ch. v. 16.”
- Page 271, notes on verse 24, change “i. 2” to “ch. i. 2.”
Lesson “Duties,” each of points I 1 and I 3, apply RC to “the Divine.”
- Page 272, same lesson, application (“Lessons”), point 3, apply RC to
“Divinely rewarded.”
- Page 273, “Mutual Duties” note, point I 6, apply RC to
“Divine promise.”
- Page 275, lesson “Duties,” point II 1, change
“it introduced principles which, wherever, adopted utterly”
to “it introduced principles which, wherever adopted, utterly.”
Application (“Lessons”), each of points 1 and 2, apply RC to “Divine law.”
- Page 276, lesson “Christian Warfare,” point I, apply RC to “Divine help.”
- Page 277, same lesson, point III, apply RC to “Divine panoply.”
- Page 278, same lesson, application (“Lessons”) point 3, apply RC to
“Divinely provided.” “Call” note, point II 2, apply RC to
“the Gospel” (twice). “Warfare” note, point I 3, change “Deut. viii. 12”
to “Deut. viii. 11–14.”
- Page 279, same note, point II 1, apply RC to
“the Gospel.” Point II 2, apply RC to “everlasting Gospel.”
Point III, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
- Page 281, “Evil Angels” note, see inline note about human depravity.
“Christian Warrior” lesson, point I 1, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
- Page 282, same lesson, point I 3, apply RC to “the Gospel” (four times).
- Page 283, same lesson, point I 5, apply RC to “the Gospel” (twice).
Point II, apply RC to “the Word” (twice).
- Page 284, “Christian’s Armour” note, apply RC to “that Gospel”;
change “even more tnan” to “even more than”; apply RC to “that Word.”
“Whole Armour” note, point I, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
- Page 285, same note, point VI apply RC to “the Divine Word.”
- Page 286, “Duty” note, point III 2, apply RC to “Divine grace.”
“Girdle of Truth” note, point III, apply RC to “their Divinity.”
- Page 287, “Gospel of Peace” note, each of points II, II 1, II 2,
and II 3, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
- Page 288, lesson “Programme of Prayer,” point II, apply RC to “Divine Spirit.”
- Page 289, same lesson, point V 1, apply RC to “the Gospel” (thrice).
Point V 2, apply RC to “the Gospel” (thrice). Application (“Lessons”),
point 2, apply RC to “Divine power.”
- Page 290, “Praying” note, point I, apply RC to “Divine favours.” Point III,
apply RC to “Divine will.” Point V, apply RC to “the Gospel” (twice).
- Page 291, “Duty of Prayer” note, point V, add “Rev. v. 8, 9” reference.
“Gospel a Mystery” note, point I, apply RC to “Divine revelation.”
Point II, apply RC to “Divine essence” and “the Gospel.” Point III,
apply RC to “the Gospel” (twice); add a colon after “rolled up.”
Point IV, see inline note defining “faggot”; apply RC to “the Gospel.”
- Page 292, “Boldness” note, in each of points II and II 1,
apply RC to “the Gospel.”
- Page 293, lesson “Trusted Messenger,” point II, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Point III, apply RC to “the Gospel” (twice) and “Gospel comfort.”
- Page 294, “Apostolical Care” note, point IV, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Lesson “Benediction,” point I, apply RC to “the Divine,” “are Divine,”
“the Divine,” and “Divinity.”
- Page 295, same lesson, point III, apply RC to “Divine grace,” “His Word,” and
“the Gospel.” “Elements” note, point I, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
- Page 296, “Truest Test” note, introduction, apply RC to “Master-spirit” and
“Spirit.” Point II 3, apply RC to “God’s Word.”
“Loving Christ” note, point I 1, apply RC to “Divine person.” Point IV, apply
RC to “the Gospel.” Point IV 2, apply RC to “the Divine Spirit.”
- Page 297, “Apostolic Benediction” note, point I 2 (1),
apply RC to “God’s Word.” Point II, apply RC to “Divine grace.”
Philippi and the Philippians.—It was a moment fraught with very far reaching
issues when at Alexandria Troas St. Paul seemed to see, in a night-vision, a man
standing on the beach over the head of the Ægean Sea eagerly calling for help,
as a herald might summon a general to the relief of a hard-pressed garrison.
There may be cold psychological explanations of the vision which leave little
scope for any Divine call to evangelise them of Macedonia; but the event proved
the indication of the will of God in the visionary call. In the prompt and
undoubting obedience of St. Paul and his co-workers our own continent first
received the glad tidings of great joy. Gliding out of the harbour of Troas, their
little vessel ran before the wind as far as the island of Samothracia, and next
day, rounding the island of Thasos, dropped anchor at Neapolis, the port of
Philippi. But Philippi itself is still three leagues distant, on the other side of
a mountain range, over which the great highway between the two continents
passes. Following this great road—the Via Egnatia—the colony founded by
Cæsar Augustus, and named Colonia Augusta Julia Philippensis, was the first
city reached. The place had been recognised by Philip of Macedon as a gateway
to be watched and strongly guarded, and when St. Paul visited it he found it
bearing all the marks of a strong military centre—a sort of ganglion in the great
system of which Rome was the brain. To remember this is to receive light on
certain expressions in the epistle; for even though “not many mighty are
called,” they may serve to illustrate a service whose weapons are “not carnal but
spiritual.”
If we follow the R.V. in Acts xvi. 13—we suppose there was a place of
prayer—the inference is that the Jews were not numerous in Philippi, and that
it was only by a knowledge of the ancestral custom which led them to place their
oratory by the water-side that St. Paul discovered the obscure company. Even
when discovered there is no evidence of that virulent Judaism which so greatly
embittered the apostle’s life and frustrated his missionary endeavours; and it
may be that its absence explains the cordial relations between the Philippians
and St. Paul.
Bishop Lightfoot notes the heterogeneous character of the first converts at
Philippi. As to race, an Asiatic, a Greek, and a Roman. As to everyday life,
the first is engaged in an important and lucrative branch of traffic; the second
is employed to trade on the credulity of the ignorant; the third is an under-official
of the government. As to religious training, one represents the speculative
mystic temper of Oriental devotion; the second a low form of an artistic
and imaginative religion; whilst the third represents a type of worship essentially
political in tone.
It is noteworthy and prophetic that women should be so closely connected with
the introduction of the Gospel to Europe; and this may account for the fact
that in Philippi whole families were gathered into the fold of the Church.
Thus humbly began the work of the evangelisation of a new continent, amidst
brutal bodily assaults and indignities heaped upon its heralds. Here commenced,
some ten years before the date of our epistle, a friendship, unbroken through
those years, with Timothy, a youth of exemplary ability and piety.
Place and time of writing the epistle.—Though Cæsarea has found favour
with some scholars as the place from which the epistle originated, by far the
greater number accept Rome. Indeed, we may almost say we are shut up to
this by ancient and modern opinions. Even though we may admit that the
subscription of the epistle in the A.V., as in general, is not worthy of any
special consideration as being authoritative, yet it agrees in this case with the
preponderant opinion.
It is the most natural interpretation of the expression in ch. iv. 32, “they of
Cæsar’s household,” which is decisive of Rome. The phrase in ch. i. 13, “throughout
the whole prætorian guard” (R.V.), is not absolutely conclusive for Rome, for
the word “prætorium” is used of Herod’s palace at Cæsarea, and is “the standing
appellation for the palaces of the chief governors of provinces” (Meyer).
Still, as Lightfoot argues, to apply it to Cæsarea in this case does not suit the
context.
As to the time of the writing, there is nothing like the same consent of opinion.
But the difference of opinion is limited to the confinement of the apostle at Rome
(on which see Acts xxviii. 30). The discussion is as to whether it was early or
late in that two years’ captivity that the letter was written.
For the later date the arguments are: 1. That it must have taken some considerable
time before St. Paul’s religion could be so widely known as this letter
indicates it was. 2. That Luke and Aristarchus are not mentioned here, as in
Colossians and Philemon, the inference being that they had left the apostle.
3. That the communications between Rome and Philippi would necessitate a
considerable interval after St. Paul’s arrival in Rome. 4. That the tone of the
apostle agrees better with a prolonged captivity.
Amongst English scholars, Ellicott, Alford, and others favour the later date.
On the other side are Lightfoot and Beet.
Occasion and contents of the epistle.—Godet remarks that, as Philemon
shows us the apostle’s way of requesting a favour; Philippians is a specimen of
how he returned thanks. The Church which was the “crown and joy” of the
apostle had sent into his captivity a token of their loving remembrance by the
hand of Epaphroditus. The messenger had been overtaken by alarming illness,
and after hearing that his friends in Philippi were anxious about him, he was
despatched homewards bearing the apostle’s expressions of gratitude—not so
much for the money gift as the genuine attachment which prompted it.
No epistle is so truly a letter, of all we have from St. Paul’s pen, as this to the
Philippians. The arrangement is less formal; we miss the chains of reasoning and
quotation from the Old Testament. As Meyer says: “Not one [of his epistles] is
so eminently an epistle of the feelings, an outburst of the moment, springing from
the deepest inward need of loving fellowship amidst outward abandonment and
tribulation; a model, withal, of the union of tender love and at times an almost
elegiac impress of courageous resignation in the prospect of death, with high
apostolic dignity and unbroken holy joy, hope, and victory over the world.”
A brief synopsis of the letter may be shown thus:—
| i. | 1–11. | Greeting of, thanksgiving, and prayer for the Philippians. |
| | 12–26. | Personal affairs of the apostle (so ch. ii. 19–30). |
| i. 27—ii. 1–11. | Exhortation to humility after the supreme Example. |
| ii. | 12–18. | Omitted. |
| iii. | 1–21. | Warning against the vain work-righteousness of Judaism. |
| iv. | 1–9. | Exhortations to unity, to Christian joy, and Christian graces. |
| | 10–19. | Renewed thanksgiving for the generosity shown. |
| | 20–23. | Doxology and salutations. |
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.
Ver. 1. Paul and Timothy, the servants of Jesus Christ.—There is no necessity for Paul to
mention his apostolate, inasmuch as the Philippians had never even thought of calling it in
question. “Paul an apostle and Timothy a servant” was a distinction too invidious for Paul
to make. There is a fine aroma of courtesy in what is not said as well as in what is said
here. Bishops and deacons.—“It is incredible that St. Paul should recognise only the
bishops and deacons (if ‘presbyters’ were a different order from ‘bishops’). It seems
therefore to follow of necessity that the ‘bishops’ were identical with the
‘presbyters’ ” (Lightfoot).
Ver. 3. I thank my God.—The keynote of the whole epistle. As the apostle’s strains of
praise had been heard by the prisoners in the Philippian gaol, so now from another captivity
the Church hears a song of sweet contentment. “My God.” The personal appropriation
and the quiet contentment of the apostle both speak in this emphatic phrase.
Ver. 4. Always in every prayer of mine for you all.—Notice the comprehensive “always,”
“every,” “all,” indicating special attachment to the Philippians. With joy.—The sum of
the epistle is, “I rejoice. . . . Rejoice ye.” “He recalls to our minds the runner who at the
supreme moment of Grecian history brought to Athens the news of Marathon. Worn,
panting, exhausted with the effort to be the herald of deliverance, he sank in death on the
threshold of the first house which he reached with the tidings of victory, and sighed forth
his gallant soul in one great sob, almost in the very same words as those used by the apostle,
‘Rejoice ye; we rejoice’ ” (Farrar, after Lightfoot).
Ver. 5. “Fellowship here denotes co-operation in the widest sense, their participation
with the apostle, whether in sympathy or in suffering, or in active labour, or in any other
way. At the same time, their almsgiving was a signal instance of this co-operation and
seems to have been foremost in the apostle’s mind” (Lightfoot). He which hath begun a
good work in you will perform it.—“The observation of the ebb and flow of the tide for so
many days and months and ages together, as it has been observed by mankind, gives us a
full assurance that it will ebb and flow again to-morrow” (Bishop Butler). Another sort of
assurance comes in here. It is an offence to every worthy thought of God that He should
begin and not be able to finish (Isa. xxvi. 12).
Ver. 7. Meet for me to think this.—“To form this opinion.” That the apostle cherished a
warm affection for these Philippians would have been, if alone, a very flimsy foundation
for hopes so substantial. Was not Judas cherished in a warmer heart than Paul’s? But
their sympathy and active co-operation made such an opinion not a pious hope, but a
reasonable likelihood. Defence and confirmation.—The “defence”
(ἀπολογία) is the clearing
away of objections—the preparation of the ground; the “confirmation” is the positive
settlement on the ground so prepared. “The two together will thus comprise all modes of
preaching and extending the truth” (Lightfoot). Partakers of my grace.—The grace
whether of preaching or of suffering for the Gospel. See ver. 29, where “given” requires the
addition “as a favour.” “You are privileged . . . to suffer.”
Ver. 8. God is my record.—As in Rom. i. 9. When we feel language too weak to bear our
impassioned feeling, it may be well to remember the “Yea, yea” of the Master rather than
copy this oath. In the bowels of Jesus Christ.—R.V. “in the tender mercies.” This is quite an
Eastern form of expression. Among the Malays a term of endearment is “my liver”; we
choose the heart as the seat of the affections. For the figure, cf. Gal. ii. 20.
Ver. 9. In knowledge and in all judgment.—“Perfect knowledge (as in Eph. i. 17, iv. 13)
and universal discernment.” “The one deals with general principles, the other is concerned
with practical applications” (Lightfoot).
Ver. 10. That ye may approve things that are excellent.—St. Paul would have his dear
Philippians to be connoisseurs of whatever is morally and spiritually excellent. That ye
may be sincere.—Bearing a close scrutiny, in the strongest light, or according to another
derivation of the word, perhaps more true if less beautiful, made pure by sifting. And without
offence.—Might be either “without stumbling,” as Acts xxiv. 16, or “not causing offence.”
Lightfoot prefers the former, Meyer the latter. Beet unites the two.
Ver. 11. Fruits of righteousness.—“A harvest of righteousness.” Which are through Jesus
Christ.—A more precise definition of “fruits.”
Ver. 12. The things which happened unto me.—Precisely the same phrase as in Eph. vi. 21;
is translated “my affairs” (so Col. iv. 17). These circumstances were such as naturally would
fill the friends of the apostle with concern for him personally. As to the effect on the
spread of the Gospel—ever St. Paul’s chief solicitude—they had been apprehensive. Rather
unto the furtherance.—Not to the hindrance, as to your fears seemed likely. It is the same
triumphant note which rises, in a later imprisonment, above personal indignity and suffering.
“I may be bound, but the message I bear is at liberty” (2 Tim. ii. 9).
Ver. 13. Bonds in Christ are manifest.—R.V. “bonds became manifest in Christ.” It is
not simply as a private prisoner that he is bound; it is a matter of public note that he is bound
for Christ’s sake. In all the palace.—R.V. text, “throughout the whole prætorian guard.”
R.V. margin, “in the whole prætorium.” “The best supported meaning of ‘prætorium’ is—the
soldiers composing the imperial regiments” (Lightfoot). “The barracks of the imperial
body-guard to whose ‘colonel’ Paul was given in charge on his arrival in Rome (Acts xxviii. 16)”
(Meyer). “As the soldiers would relieve guard in constant succession, the prætorians one
by one were brought into communication with ‘the prisoner of Jesus Christ’ ” (Lightfoot).
In all other places.—The italicised places of the A.V. text must be dropped; the margin is
better. A loose way of saying “to others besides the military.”
Ver. 14. Confident by my bonds.—The bonds might have been thought to be sufficient to
intimidate the brethren; but the policy of stamping out has oftener resulted in spreading
the Gospel.
Ver. 15. Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife.—Not some of the brethren
emboldened by the apostle’s chain, perhaps, although one sees no reason why the Judaisers
would not, with redoubled energy, spread their views when he whom they so violently
opposed was for the time being silenced, as they imagined. “Of envy.” Lightfoot refers to
the saying of the comic poet Philemon with its play on the word, “Thou teachest me many
things ungrudgingly because of a grudge” (on account of envy). This glaring inconsistency
of preaching a Gospel of goodwill from such a motive as envy, the worst form of ill-will,
must be closely observed here.
Vers. 16, 17.—These verses are transposed in R.V.; the order of the A.V. is against decisive
testimony (Meyer).
Ver. 16. To add affliction to my bonds.—“To make my chains gall me,” Lightfoot strikingly
translates. One can almost imagine St. Paul starting up, and straining at the wrist of the
soldier to whom he was chained as he hears of the intrigues of a party whose one object it
was to impose an effete ritual on men called to liberty in Christ.
Ver. 17. For the defence of the gospel.—Many a man in the apostle’s place would have
found himself absorbed by the question how best to make a good defence of himself.
Ver. 18. Whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached.—St. Paul evidently thinks
the imperfect knowledge of Christ preferable to heathen ignorance of Him. The truth is
mighty enough to take care of itself, without any hand that shakes with nervous apprehension
to steady its ark. St. Paul is beforehand with our method of keeping a subject before
the notice of the public. The policy of “never mentioning” was what St. Paul regarded as
fatal.
Ver. 19. This shall turn to my salvation.—“Salvation in the highest sense. These trials
will develop the spiritual life in the apostle, will be a pathway to the glories of heaven”
(Lightfoot). Meyer prefers to render “will be salutary for me,” without any more precise
modal definition. Supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.—“The Spirit of Jesus is both the giver
and the gift” (Lightfoot).
Ver. 20. Earnest expectation.—Same word again in Rom. viii. 19 (not again in New Testament).
“It is the waiting expectation that continues on the strain till the goal is attained”
(Meyer). The intensive in the compound word implies abstraction from other things through
intentness on one. Put to shame.—As a man might be who felt his cause not worth pleading,
or as one overawed by an august presence. With all boldness, i.e. of speech. A man overpowered
by shame loses the power of speech (see Matt. xxii. 12).
Ver. 21. For me to live is Christ.—The word of emphasis is to me, whatever it may be to
others. If this be not the finest specimen of a surrendered soul, one may seek long for that
which excels it. That life should be intolerable, nay inconceivable, except as the ego merges
into Christ’s; this is the sanest and most blessed unio mystica (Gal. ii. 20). And to die is
gain.—It is the purely personal view—“to me”—which the apostle has before him. “The
spirit that denies” says, that when all that a man hath has been bartered for life, he will
think himself gainer. “More life and fuller” is what St. Paul sees through the sombre corridor.
It is not simply the oblivious repose where “the wicked cease from troubling” that he yearns
for. Nor is it a philosophical Nirvâna.
“For who to dumb forgetfulness a prey
This pleasing, anxious being e’er resigned?”
Ver. 22. But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour (see R.V.).—“The grammar
of the passage reflects the conflict of feeling in the apostle’s mind. He is tossed to and fro
between the desire to labour for Christ in life and the desire to be united with Christ by
death. The abrupt and disjointed sentences express this hesitation” (Lightfoot).
Ver. 23. I am in a strait betwixt two.—I am laid hold of by two forces drawing in opposite
directions. “Desire” draws me away from earth; your “necessity” would keep me in it. As in
the old mythology everything bowed before Necessity (ἀνάγκη),
so here the apostle’s desire
is held in check by the needs of his converts. To depart.—As a ship weighs anchor and
glides out with set sails, or as a tent is struck by the Arabs as they noiselessly steal away.
To be with Christ.—St. Paul regards the soul, whilst in the body, as a “settler” in a land of
which he is not a native, an “emigrant” from other shores. But he would rather emigrate from
the land of his sojourn and settle with the Lord (2 Cor. v. 6, 8). “We come from God who is
our home.” “As soon as I shall have taken the poison I shall stay no longer with you, but
shall part from hence, and go to enjoy the felicity of the blessed” (Socrates to Crito). Which
is far better.—R.V. “very far.” How far from uncertainty is the eager estimate of the life
with Christ! It is one thing to extol the superiority of the life away from the flesh in a
Christian hymn, whilst health is robust; it is quite a different matter to covet it with the
sword of martyrdom hanging over one’s head.
Ver. 25. I know that I shall abide.—Not a prophetic inspiration, but a personal conviction
(Acts xx. 25).
Ver. 27. Your conversation.—R.V. “manner of life.” Margin, “behave as citizens.”
Perform your duties as citizens. St. Paul in Philippi, by the assertion of his Roman citizenship,
had brought the prætors to their knees (Acts xvi. 37, 38), and is addressing men who
could fully appreciate the honour of the jus Italicum conferred by Cæsar Augustus on their
city. He would have them be mindful of their place in the kingdom which “cometh not
with observation.” Whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear.—The question
arises whether St. Paul meant to say if he visited them, they themselves would inform him
of the condition of the Church; or whether he meant he would see for himself if he went,
and if not at least he would hear. As he is actually distant, the idea of hearing is uppermost,
and so we have “I may hear” where we might have expected “I shall learn.”
Ver. 28. In nothing terrified.—The phrase is a continuation of the idea of the amphitheatre
in ver. 27 (“striving together”). We must, it seems, recognise a double metaphor—behaving
in the arena, before antagonists and spectators, like a horse that takes fright and bolts.
The warning against such unworthy conduct might be rendered—
"In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of life,
Be not like dumb driven cattle,
Be a hero in the strife."
Which is to them an evident token of perdition.—When once they have discovered that all
their artifices have not the least power to alarm you, will not this be a clear indication that
they fight on behalf of a failing cause? But to you of salvation, and that of God.—The
Christian gladiator does not anxiously await the signal of life or death from the fickle
crowd. The great President of the contest Himself has given him a sure token of deliverance
(Lightfoot).
Ver. 29. It is given in the behalf of Christ.—God has granted you the high privilege of
suffering for Christ; this is the surest sign that He looks upon you with favour (Ibid.). The
veterans in Philippi would understand well enough that a position involving personal danger
might be a mark of favour from the prefect to the private soldier.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 1, 2.
Christian Greeting—
I. Addressed to a fully organised Church.—“To all the saints in Christ Jesus
which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons” (ver. 1). Christianity,
which began with the quiet meetings in the humble Jewish proseucha, or oratory,
by the river-side, had so far spread in Philippi as to settle down into a stable and
permanent Church organisation. This is the first instance in which bishops and
deacons are mentioned, and specially addressed in the apostolic salutation. The
former are sometimes called elders, presbyters, rulers, or presidents, and were
empowered to take the oversight of the whole Church, to instruct, exhort, and
rule the members; the latter were chosen to take care of the poor, and to
manage the finances of the Church. The bishops attended to the internal, the
deacons to the external affairs of the Christian community. The title presbyter
implied the rank, the bishop the duties of the office. As the apostles by their
frequent absence were unable to take the personal oversight of the Churches they
founded, they appointed officers in each Church. As the Churches multiplied,
and the Church-life developed, the organisation became more compact and complete.
It is noticeable in this instance that the apostle addresses the whole Church
more than its presiding ministers. It should be ever remembered that the
minister exists for the Church, not the Church for the minister. The clergy are
not the Church, but, under God, the servants and religious guides of the people.
The Christian Church is the glory and stability of a nation. When at Brussels
Lord Chesterfield was invited by Voltaire to sup with him and Madame C——.
The conversation happening to turn upon the affairs of England, “I think, my
lord,” said Madame C——, “that the Parliament of England consists of five or
six hundred of the best-informed men of the kingdom.” “True, madame, they
are generally supposed to be so.” “What, then, can be the reason they tolerate
so great an absurdity as the Christian religion?” “I suppose, madame,” replied
his lordship, “it is because they have not been able to substitute anything better
in its stead; when they can, I do not doubt but in their wisdom they will readily
adopt it.”
II. Valued as emanating from distinguished Christian pioneers.—“Paul and
Timothy, the servants of Jesus Christ” (ver. 1). The significance and worth of a
salutation depend upon the character and reputation of those from whom it comes.
Paul was honoured by the Philippians as their father in the Gospel, and as one
who had won a high distinction by his conspicuous abilities and labours in other
spheres; and Timothy was well known to them as a devoted minister and fellow-helper
of the apostle. Words coming from such a source would be gratefully
welcomed and fondly cherished. Paul does not give prominence to his apostleship,
as in the inscriptions to other epistles. The Philippians had already
sufficient proof of his apostolic authority and power. Paul and his colleagues
were reverenced as “the servants of Jesus Christ.” They acknowledged
subjection, not to the man, but to Christ; they lived to advance His interests and
honour, and found their highest joy in His service, though attended with hard
toil, unreasoning persecution, and unparalleled suffering. The Baptist Missionary
Society adopted for its motto a device found upon an ancient medal representing
a bullock standing between a plough and an altar, with the inscription “Ready
for either, for toil or for sacrifice.” The service of Christ is a life of self-sacrifice;
but that is the pathway of duty, of blessing, of reward, of glory.
III. Invokes the bestowment of great blessings.—“Grace be unto you, and
peace” (ver. 2). Grace and peace are Divine gifts, proceeding from “God the
Father,” as the original and active Source of all blessings, and from “the Lord
Jesus Christ” who is now exalted to the right hand of the Divine majesty to
bestow those blessings upon His people. Grace, the unmerited favour of God,
is the exhaustless fountain of all other blessings, and includes the ever-flowing
stream of the Holy Spirit’s influences; peace, the result of grace, is the tranquillity
and joy of heart realised on reconciliation with God. The very form of
this salutation implies the union of Jew, Greek, and Gentile. The Greek salutation
was “joy,” akin to the word for grace. The Roman was “health,” the intermediate
term between grace and peace. The Hebrew was “peace,” including both
temporal and spiritual prosperity. The great mission of the Gospel is to spread
peace on earth, peace with men, following on peace with God. The believer
enjoys peace even in the midst of trial and suffering. One of the martyrs,
exposed to public derision in an iron cage, is reported to have said to a bystander,
who expressed surprise at the cheerfulness he manifested, “You can see these
bars, but you cannot hear the music in my conscience.”
Lessons.—1. Religion teaches the truest courtesy. 2. The unselfish heart wishes
well to all. 3. That greeting is the most genuine that recognises the claims of
God.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 1, 2. The Apostolic Greeting.—1. Unity
and concord amongst ministers
in giving joint testimony to the same
truths and weight to what they preach.
Preachers are in a special manner the
servants of Christ as being wholly and
perpetually dedicated to His service.
2. As to make a man internally and
spiritually holy it is necessary he be
in Christ by faith, so to make him
externally holy requires a visible and
external union with Christ in professing
truths relating to Him. 3. The
dignity of a minister or of any Church
officer does not exempt him from the
necessity of being taught, exhorted,
reproved, and comforted. 4. God’s
grace is the fountain from which peace
with God, with our own conscience,
and all sanctified prosperity and peace
among ourselves do flow. In seeking
things from God we look to Him, not
as standing disaffected to us and at a
distance, but as our Father.—Fergusson.
Ver. 1. The Commencement of the
Gospel at Philippi.
I. To secure the widest diffusion of
the Gospel great centres should be the
first places chosen for the concentration
of its forces.
II. The Gospel of universal adaptation
has a world-wide mission.—The
first three converts embraced different
nationalities, employments, social
grades,—Lydia, the oriental trader,
the Grecian female slave and soothsayer,
the Roman keeper of the prison.
Christ has demolished all barriers to
the exercise of Divine mercy.
III. The duty and privilege of
Christian parents to consecrate their
children and home to Christ (Acts xvi. 15, 33, 34, 40).
IV. Civic distinctions subordinated
to Christ will further the Gospel and
adorn the Christian name.—Paul’s
Roman citizenship gained his freedom
and silenced his enemies. His chain
connects the history of Rome and
Philippi. The Christian’s spirit can
defy the inner prison to suppress its
praise or prayer (Acts xvi. 25).
Ver. 2. God our Father.—Christ
aimed at raising men from the bondage
of mere servants into the freedom of
sons. He taught that God our Father
was henceforth to be—
- The sole Model of perfection.
(Matt. vi. 48).
- The sole Rewarder of almsgiving.
(Matt. vi. 4).
- The sole Hearer of prayer
(Matt. vi. 6).
- The sole Observer of fastings
(Matt. vi. 18).
- The sole Provider of daily
wants (Matt. vi. 26–33).—Lay Preacher.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 3–8.
Eulogy of Christian Excellence—
I. Prompted by pleasant memories of faithful co-operation in Christian
work.—“I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, . . . for your fellowship
in the gospel from the first day until now, . . . inasmuch as both in my bonds, and
in the defence and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace”
(vers. 3, 5, 7). The apostle remembers with joy the way in which the Philippians
first received the Gospel, the effect it produced upon their lives, the eagerness
with which they entered into his plans for its wider propagation, the liberality,
though not themselves a rich people, they showed to their needy brethren in
other Churches, the affectionate attachment they displayed towards himself, the
help they afforded him when in imprisonment, and the many ways in which
they cheerfully co-operated with him in the defence and establishment of the
truth. They had laboured, suffered, triumphed, and rejoiced together. The
apostle’s eulogy of their character was not flattery, but sober and just commendation
of tried and sterling excellencies. Our happiest memories—memories that
become more vivid as life advances—are of those days in which we laboured
most earnestly in the service of God.
II. Springs from a loving appreciation and tender Christian solicitude.—“Even
as it is meet for me to think thus of you all, because I have you in my
heart. . . . For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of
Jesus Christ” (vers. 7, 8). There was something about the Philippians that
captivated the heart of the apostle. He loved them because they loved his
Master, and because they sought to spread the Gospel he preached. Love begets
love, and there is no power in uniting hearts like the love of Christ. The love of
the apostle was manifested in a yearning desire for their advancement in personal
godliness. “All real spiritual love,” says Alford, “is but a portion of Christ’s
love which yearns in all who are united to Him.” Christian love is not mere
self-indulgence of a personal feeling; its unselfishness is evident in seeking to
advance the highest spiritual interests of the person loved. It is something more
than a refined and noble sentiment. The finest feeling may be very superficial.
Some friends were drinking tea one evening at the home of Mr. Mackenzie, the
author of The Man of Feeling, and waited for some time for his arrival. At
length he came in heated and excited, and exclaimed: “What a glorious evening
I have had!” They thought he spoke of the weather, which was singularly
beautiful; but he went on to detail the intense enjoyment he had had in
witnessing a cock-fight. Mrs. Mackenzie listened some time in silence; then,
looking up in his face, she remarked in her gentle voice, “Oh, Harry, Harry,
your feeling is all on paper!”
III. Strengthened by the assurance of increasing Christian devotion.—“Being
confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in
you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (ver. 6). Even man, fickle as
he is, does not begin work at random and without purpose; some time or other
he hopes to finish it. But God, who begins the work of the new spiritual creation
in the soul, is constantly striving to finish it, until it shall be presented perfect
at the day of Christ. The apostle had no doubt about the Divine working, and
he rejoiced in the evidence he had that his converts were increasing in spiritual
fervour and devotion. Faithfulness to God strengthens fidelity in every duty of
life. On board the flag-ship of a celebrated commander a complaint was made
by the captain against a number of the crew for disturbing the ship’s company
by frequent noises. The admiral ordered an inquiry to be made. The accusation
was that these men were Methodists, and that when their watch was below
they were in the constant habit of reading the Bible to each other aloud, of
frequently joining in social prayer and singing of psalms and hymns. After the
statement had been proved, the admiral asked, “What is the general conduct of
these men on deck—orderly or disobedient, cleanly or the contrary?” “Always
orderly, obedient, and cleanly,” was the reply. “When the watch is called, do
they linger, or are they ready?” “Always ready at the first call.” “You have
seen these men in battle, sir; do they stand to their guns or shrink?” “They
are the most intrepid men in the ship, my lord, and will die at their post.”
“Let them alone, then,” was the decisive answer of this magnanimous commander;
“if Methodists are such men, I wish that all my crew were Methodists.”
IV. Expressed in thanksgiving and joyous prayer.—“I thank my God . . .
always in every prayer of mine for you all, making request with joy” (vers. 3, 4).
Joy is the characteristic feature in this epistle, as love is in that to the Ephesians.
Love and joy are the two firstfruits of the Spirit. Joy gives especial animation
to prayers. It marked the apostle’s high opinion of them, that there was almost
everything in them to give him joy, and almost nothing to give him pain
(Fausset). The labour of prayer is sure, if persisted in, to merge into the joy of
prayer. Prayer is a blessing to others as well as to ourselves. The father of
Sir Philip Sydney enjoined upon his son, when he went to school, never to
neglect thoughtful prayer. It was golden advice, and doubtless his faithful
obedience to the precept helped to make Philip Sydney the peerless flower of
knighthood, and the stainless man that he was—a man for whom, months after
his death, every gentleman in England wore mourning.
Lessons.—1. Christian excellence is a reflection of the character of Christ.
2. Christian excellence is acquired by praying and working. 3. Genuine Christianity
is its own best eulogy.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Ver. 3. Happy Memories.
- Those that are prompted by the
Spirit of God.
- Those that recall the past joy of
harvest.
- Those that still link us in
association with distant but kindred
spirits.
- Those that evoke perennial
gratitude to God.
- Those that enrich our own moral
worth.—Lay Preacher.
Vers. 4, 5. Fellowship in the Gospel.
- Christian ministers have a claim
to maintenance from the people.
- Fellowship is making another a
fellow-partaker of what belongs to us.
- The apostle Paul while claiming
his privilege was cautious in using
it.
- The voluntary system has advantages,
but greater disadvantages.—Archbishop Whately.
Ver. 4. “Making request with joy.”
Pure Joy—
- Springs from Divine communications.
- Succeeds a previous sorrow.
- Is superior to human surroundings.
- Is sustained by answered prayer.—Lay Preacher.
Ver. 5. True Gospel Fellowship.
- Lives which adorn it.
- Hearts which beat for it.
- Lips which testify for it.
- Hands which work for it.
- Gifts which extend it.—Ibid.
Ver. 6. Grounds of Confidence in the
Believer’s Salvation.
I. That the Philippians persevered
in the midst of great difficulties, opposition,
and persecution.
II. That their persevering fellowship
in the Gospel had been characterised
by great purity and consistency
of Christian life.
III. That they gave evidences of
zeal for the propagation of religion
and of liberality in contributing of
their worldly substance to this end.
Lessons.—1. This doctrine affords
comfort and hope to struggling Christians.
2. The grounds of assurance
forbid presumptuous confidence and
stimulate to watchfulness and effort.—Homiletic Monthly.
The Perseverance of the Saints.
I. I shall adduce some of the principal
arguments in support of the
doctrine of the perseverance of the
saints.—1. The decree of election.
2. The merit of Christ’s sufferings and
death. 3. The intercession of Christ.
4. The promises of God. 5. The constitution
of the covenant of grace.
6. The statements of Scripture in regard
to the constant indwelling of the
Holy Spirit in all believers.
II. I shall consider some of the most
plausible objections which have been
urged against this doctrine.—1. That
some of the most eminent saints have
fallen into very grievous sins. They
did not fall totally and finally. 2. That
many who were long regarded as true
Christians do in point of fact finally
apostatise. They never were true Christians.
3. That there are in Scripture
many earnest exhortations to watchfulness,
and many awful warnings against
apostasy. God works by means and
motives. 4. That believers being assured
of their ultimate recovery will
be encouraged to sin. The perseverance
of the saints is perseverance
in holiness. (1) Has a good work
begun in you? (2) If so, remember
that while the perseverance of the
saints is promised as a privilege, it is
also enjoined as a duty.—G. Brooks.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 9–11.
A Prayer for Christian Love—
I. That it may be regulated by knowledge and discretion.—“And this I
pray, that your love may abound . . . in knowledge and in all judgment” (ver. 9).
1. So as to test what is best.—“That ye may approve things that are excellent”
(ver. 10)—test things that differ. Two faculties of the mind are to be brought
into exercise—knowledge, the acquisitive faculty; and judgment, the perceptive
faculty. Love is not a wild, ignorant enthusiasm, but the warm affection of
a heart, guided by extensive and accurate knowledge, and by a clear, spiritual
perception. From a number of good things we select and utilise the best.
2. So as to maintain a blameless life.—“That ye may be sincere and without
offence till the day of Christ” (ver. 10). Be so transparent in heart and life as
neither to give or take offence, and when examined in the light of the day of
Christ to be adjudged blameless. To live a useful and holy life we must both think
and feel aright. Love will ever prompt us to the holiest conduct and to the best
work. “I once asked a distinguished artist,” said Boree, “what place he gave
to labour in art. ‘Labour is the beginning, the middle, and the end of art,’
was the answer. I turned to another and inquired, ‘What do you consider as
the great force in art?’ ‘Love,’ was the reply. In these two answers I found
but one truth.”
II. That it may stimulate the growth of a high Christian character.—1. A
high Christian character is the outcome of righteous principles. “Being filled with
the fruits—the fruit—of righteousness.” All Christian virtues are from the one
common root of the Spirit. It is He who plants them in the heart, fosters their
growth, brings them to perfection, and fills the soul with them as the trees
are laden with ripened fruit. The apostle prays for more love, because love
impels us to act righteously in all things, even in the minor affairs of life. “Just
as the quality of life,” says Maclaren, “may be as perfect in the minutest
animalculæ, of which there may be millions in a cubic inch and generations may
die in an hour—just as perfect in the smallest insect as in behemoth, biggest
born of earth, so righteousness may be as completely embodied, as perfectly set
forth, as fully operative in the tiniest action that I can do, as in the largest that
an immortal spirit can be set to perform. The circle that is in a gnat’s eye is as
true as circle as the one that holds within its sweep all the stars, and the sphere
that a dewdrop makes is as perfect a sphere as that of the world. All duties
are the same which are done from the same motives; all actions which are not
so done are all alike sins.”
2. A High Christian character honours God.—“Which are by Jesus Christ, unto
the glory and praise of God” (ver. 11). The righteousness which exalts man
honours God. It is a practical manifestation of the grace communicated through
Jesus Christ, and adorns the doctrine which is according to godliness. There are
those who live soberly and righteously in this present world; but what about
their duty to God? God is not in all their thoughts. That there has been no
acceptance into their lives of Christ—without which acceptance God is a stranger
to us and we strangers to God, no consecration to Christ, no referring to His
will, no love to His person, and no zeal for His glory—of all this they are
perfectly aware. And the thought of their heart is, that the omission is of no
great consequence, and so long as they live soberly and righteously, it matters
little or nothing whether they do or do not live godly. The power lacking is
that for which the apostle prays—the power of love, whole-hearted love to
Christ.
III. That it may be enjoyed in ever-increasing measure.—“And this I pray,
that your love may abound yet more and more” (ver. 9). Some time ago the
public mind was filled with uneasiness in expectation of a high tide which was
to visit our shores, and which it was feared would work great mischief. As the
time drew near, the anxiety increased. At length the tide flowed in, rose to its
highest point, and then retired, bearing with it the fears that had agitated the
public mind. Why this alarm? Because all know the unmanageable, destructive
power of water, when it once bursts its bounds. Love, unlike water, the more
it abounds and overflows the greater the benefits it bestows. There is no fear
that we shall love God too much; it is our shame and loss that we love Him so
little. Love chafes against all limitations.
Lessons.—1. Love is the essence of Christianity. 2. Love should govern every
part of the Christian life. 3. Love may be augmented by earnest prayer.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 9, 10. The Apostle’s Prayer for
Abounding Love—
I. In its application to the affections.—“That
your love may abound
yet more and more” (ver. 9).
1. Love to God.—(1) Because of the
supreme excellence of His character.
(2) Because of His generous interposition
in the work of human redemption.
(3) Because of the benefits He
is constantly bestowing.
2. Love to one another.—Love promotes
brotherly unity—oneness of
feeling, of aim, of effort. Unity
promotes strength. To strength in its
combined action victory is given.
3. Love to the unsaved.—The law of
Moses insisted, “Thou shalt love thy
neighbour”; to which the Pharisees
made this addition, “Thou shalt love
thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.”
Christ interprets the law of love in the
command, “I say unto you, Love your
enemies.”
II. In its application to the intellect.—“In
knowledge and in all
judgment; that ye may approve things
that are excellent” (vers. 9, 10).
Knowledge, the faculty to acquire
information; judgment, the faculty to
discern its value and use; the one leads
to the sources of truth and appropriates
its stores, the other selects and uses
what is acquired. These two faculties
necessary—1. In judging revealed
truth. 2. In judging Christian experience.
3. In selecting what is best
in all truths.
III. In its application to the conduct.—“That
ye may be sincere and
without offence till the day of Christ”
(ver. 10).
1. An inward state.—Sincerity,
transparency of character.
2. An outward walk.—Inoffensiveness
of conduct. Not designedly
giving offence; sacrificing everything
but principle rather than grieve or
mislead a weak brother.
3. Perseverance in an upright life.—“Till
the day of Christ.” This is the
scorner’s day; the good are hated and
despised; but the day of Christ is
coming, and will rectify all wrongs. A
day of blessing and honour to the
good, of confusion and punishment to
the wicked; of approval to the one, of
condemnation to the other.
Ver. 9. “And this I pray.” Definiteness
in Prayer—
- Implies a deep consciousness of
an intelligently apprehended need.
- Becoming, when an intelligent
being addresses the Divine Intelligence.
- Essential from the very nature
of prayer.
- Affords a fixed ground from the
exercise of faith.
- Emboldens supplication.
- Inspires hope of a definite
response.—Lay Preacher.
Ver. 10. “That ye may approve
things that are excellent.” Spiritual
Discrimination—
- Demands the exercise of the most
intelligent and sensitive charity.
- Commands a wide field of effort—the
bad, the good, the better, the
best—in character, life, doctrine,
practice, enjoyment, attainment.
- Implies the admission and use
of a noble liberty of thought, judgment,
and action.
- Involves a weighty and far-reaching
responsibility.
- Is essential to a pure and blameless
life.—Ibid.
“That ye may be sincere.” The
Value of Sincerity in Youth.
There is a false sincerity which is a
compound of ignorance and obstinacy.
The heathen may be devout and sincere
in his idolatry, but he is a heathen still.
The Mahometan may be devout and
sincere in his worship of the one God,
but he rejects the Christ who is the
source and substance of all true religion.
The sceptic may be devout and
earnest in his investigation of the facts
of the universe; but he ignores the
great moral truths on which he
stumbles in the course of his inquiries,
and refuses to accept and be influenced
by them. There is no craze of the
wildest fanatic that may not be adopted
as an article of faith, if apparent sincerity
is to be the test of its genuineness.
The fact is, a man may be
sincere, but grossly mistaken. A
sincere heart is that through which
the light of God shines, unimpeded by
duplicity and sin, and is a condition
of heart obtained only by living much
in the presence and light of God.
I. Be sincere in the search after
truth.—Truth must be sought for its
own sake, and is revealed only to the
humble and sincere seeker. It is of
supreme importance to you to find the
truth. Truth has but one direction
and one goal—it terminates in the
radiant presence of a living personality.
When you come into the presence of
truth, you come into the presence of
God. Truth has a living embodiment
in Christ Jesus. If you desire a solution
of the perplexing riddles of life, if
you would understand the principles on
which God governs the universe, if you
wish to dissipate the doubts that
becloud and harass the mind, if you
desire rest and peace of conscience, and
to obtain strength and inspiration to
live a happy, useful, and noble life—then
seek the truth as it is in Jesus;
and if you are really sincere, you shall
not seek in vain.
II. Be sincere in your social intercourse
with one another.—1. In your
friendships. 2. In your promises.
III. Be sincere in the service of
God.
IV. Be sincere in the cultivation of
your own personal piety.
Christian Rectitude—
I. Consists in internal sincerity.—1. This
involves a concentratedness of
heart upon one object. 2. A thoroughness
of life’s uniformity to that one object.
3. An unostentatious but manifest
integrity. 4. The completeness of that
manifestation should be proportionate to
the brightness of the testing light.
II. Consists in external blamelessness.—1. Without
being found guilty
of offence. 2. Without giving offence.
3. Without taking offence.
III. Consists in a present state of
life, with a glorious future destination.—“That
ye may be without
offence till the day of Christ.” 1. Then
life shall be judged. 2. Life shall be
made manifest. 3. Rectitude of life
shall be approved. 4. Rectitude of life
shall be rewarded.—Lay Preacher.
Ver. 11. Fruits of Righteousness.
I. The nature of righteousness.—1. Sometimes
the term refers to the
Divine Being, and signifies the purity of
His nature and the perfection of His
works. 2. Here it signifies personal
holiness.
II. The fruits of righteousness.—1. Christian
righteousness is productive
of gracious fruits. These fruits are
internal in the heart, and external in
the life.
2. The fruits of righteousness are
abundant and progressive.—“Being
filled with the fruits.”
III. The Author of righteousness.—“Which
are by Jesus Christ.”
1. Righteousness is purchased by Christ
as our Redeemer. 2. Is derived from
Him as our Saviour.
IV. The results of righteousness.—“Unto
the glory and praise of God.”
1. Righteousness is to the glory and
praise of God in the scheme of redemption.
2. In the subjects of redemption.
Lessons.—1. This subject should
stimulate our desires. 2. Promote our
devotion. 3. Inspire us with praise.—Theological Sketch Book.
Spiritual Attainment.
I. Righteousness of heart precedes
righteousness of life.
II. Righteousness of heart is self-disseminating.—1. Its
fruit is living.
2. Of harmonious unity. 3. Luxuriant.
III. Righteousness of heart is the
only thing that can fill the capacities
of man.
IV. Fulness of righteousness is all
Divine.—1. In its source. 2. In its
medium of communication. “By Jesus
Christ.” 3. In its end. “Unto the glory
and praise of God.” Glory before men:
praise among men.—Lay Preacher.
Divine Culture.
- The field.—The loving heart.
- The seed.—Righteousness.
- The fruit.—Abundant.
- The Husbandman.—Jesus Christ.
- The end.—The glory and praise
of God.—Ibid.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 12–18.
The Gospel Irrepressible—
I. Notwithstanding the circumscribed opportunities of its agents.—1. Their
sufferings for the Gospel call attention to its claims. “The things which happened
unto me have fallen out rather into the furtherance of the gospel; so that
my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace, and in all other places”
(vers. 12, 13). It might seem to the Philippians that the imprisonment of
Paul would be unfavourable to the Gospel and prevent its spread. He shows
there was no ground for that fear; but that the Gospel was becoming known in
quarters which, but for his imprisonment, it was not likely to gain access. The
palace referred to was the prætorium, or barrack of the prætorian guards
attached to the palace of Nero on the Palatine Hill in Rome. The regular
changes of guards was constantly furnishing new auditors for the irrepressible
preacher, and he did not fail to zealously improve his opportunities. Thus the
Gospel, which the malice and bigotry of the Jews sought to suppress, found
its way into Cæsar’s household, and ultimately captured the Roman empire
for Christ. The persecutions of the Gospel have been the best helpers of its
success.
2. Their sufferings for the Gospel stimulate the zeal of its propagators.—“Many
of the brethren, . . . waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak
the word without fear” (ver. 14). The fortitude of the apostle in suffering, and his
unwearied efforts to preach the Gospel, increased the courage of his fellow-helpers
in the same good work. The sufferings of the Gospel pioneers contributed to the
spread and triumph of the truth. The blood of Scotland’s proto-martyr, the
noble Patrick Hamilton, and the memory of his dying prayer, “How long, O
Lord, shall darkness cover this realm?” fomented the young Reformation life
over a comparatively silent germinating period of more than twenty years.
Knox, and with him Scotland, kindled at the pile of George Wishart. Andrew
Melville caught the falling mantle of Knox. When Richard Cameron fell at
Aird’s Moss—as if in answer to his own prayers as the action began, “Lord,
spare the green and take the ripe!”—all the more strenuously strove Cargill,
till he too, in the following year, sealed the truth with his blood. And more
followed, and yet more, through that last and worst decade of the pitiless
storm known as, by emphasis, the killing time. Through those terrible years
Peden dragged out a living death, and as he thought of Cameron, now at rest,
often exclaimed, “Oh to be with Ritchie!” Young Renwick too caught up
the torn flag, nobly saying, “They are but standard-bearers who have fallen;
the Master lives.” Thus one after another on blood-stained scaffold, or on blood-soaked
field, fell the precious seed-grain, to rise in harvests manifold, till just at
the darkest hour before the dawn of Renwick’s martyrdom closed the red roll
in 1688—the year of the revolution—and the seed so long sown in tears was
reaped in joy.
II. It is preached from a variety of motives.—1. Some preach the Gospel
from the love of controversy. “Some indeed preach Christ of envy and strife . . .
of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds” (vers.
15, 16). The Judaising teachers, taking advantage of the absence of the apostle,
sought to propagate their erroneous theories of the Gospel, and to annoy the
apostle by depreciating his authority and his preaching. They aimed not so
much at winning souls for Christ, as at exalting themselves, and gaining credence
to their corrupt opinions. They argued that Jesus of Nazareth was the King of
Israel, hoping thereby to exasperate the Roman government against Paul, who
preached the same truth, though in a different sense, and to cause increased
pain to the apostle by insisting upon the obligation of obedience to the law in
order to salvation. Yet in opposing the Gospel they stated some of its leading
truths, if only to refute them. Controversy is often a waste of strength. They
are small, insignificant beings who quarrel oftenest. There’s a magnificent
breed of cattle in the Vale of Clwyd, the most beautiful vale in Wales. They
have scarcely any horns but abundance of meat; yet if you ascend the hills on
every side, there on the heights you find a breed which grows scarcely anything
but horns, and from morning to night all you hear is the constant din of clashing
weapons. So there are many Christians who live on the heights, the cold and
barren heights of controversy. Everything they eat grows into horns, the
strength of which they are constantly testing.
2. Some preach the Gospel from the highest regard for its lofty message.—“Some
also of goodwill . . . of love, knowing that I am set [appointed of God] for the
defence of the gospel” (vers. 15, 17). An intense love of the Gospel and of the
Christ of the Gospel is the best preparation for preaching it. Preaching to be
effectual must be various as nature. The sun warms at the same moment
that it enlightens; and unless religious truth be addressed at once to the reason
and to the affections, unless it kindles while it guides, it is a useless splendour,
it leaves the heart barren, it produces no fruits of godliness. Preaching should
help us to a higher life. A man once heard an affecting sermon, and while
highly commending it was asked what he remembered of it. “Truly,” he
replied, “I remember nothing at all; but it made me resolve to live better, and
by God’s grace I will.”
III. The propagation of the Gospel by any means is matter of fervent joy.—“What
then? notwithstanding, . . . Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice,
yea, and will rejoice” (ver. 18). The false teachers gloated over Paul’s misfortune,
and thought to trouble him by their way of presenting the Gospel.
But the proclamation of Christ, however done, roused attention, and could not
but be of service. The apostle rejoiced in the good result of their bad intentions.
The success of the Gospel in any place and by any means, when that success is
real, is always a cause of rejoicing to the good.
Lessons.—1. The Gospel has a message for all classes. 2. Its faithful proclamation
involves difficulty and suffering. 3. Its interests are often promoted from
mixed motives.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 12–14. Christian Boldness.
I. Distinguish Christian boldness
from its counterfeits, and set forth
some of its leading attributes.—There
is a false and hurtful boldness arising
from—1. Ignorance. 2. A bad judgment.
3. Native rashness. 4. The
pride of courage which scorns to fear
the face of man. 5. Mere natural resolution.
6. A wilful obstinacy. 7. A
domineering spirit. The boldness which
God approves must be chiefly drawn
from other sources and possess higher
and more ethereal attributes. 1. It
must be bottomed on holy love—love
to God and love to man. 2. It must
be humble. 3. Must be delicate and
regardful of all the rules of decorum.
4. Must be wise, discreet, and prudent.
5. Must be faithful. 6. Must be
grounded not merely on self-denial and
submission to the will of God, but on
humble confidence in Him.
II. Some motives to rouse us to this
holy and elevated frame and to a
corresponding course of conduct.—1. This
Christian heroism is absolutely
necessary to clear up the evidences of
our own piety. 2. Without rising up
to this heroic and active zeal we cannot
be faithful to God and our generation.
3. Estimate the importance of this duty
by considering what would be the effect
if all professing Christians were thus
intrepid and faithful. 4. In many
instances fear is altogether groundless,
and is the mere suggestion of indolence.
5. For want of faithful admonition
and entreaty many may have perished.—E. D. Griffin.
Ver. 12. The Development of Events
in a Consecrated Life—
- Is the work of an over-ruling
Providence.
- Produces startling results, disappointing
alike to the hopes of the
enemy and the fears of friends.
- Whatever may be its starting-point
attains its end in the furtherance
of the Gospel.
- Illustrates how moral principles
when tried in suffering become
mightier forces in the world’s evangelisation.
- A pledge that fellowship of
suffering with Christ shall be followed
by a fellowship of glory.—Lay Preacher.
Ver. 13. Moral Influence.
- Paul’s moral influence exerted
a mighty power under the most disadvantageous
circumstances—in bonds.
- With a very limited opportunity—one
soldier daily.
- Upon a class of mind and
heart not easily impressed—the guard
which had charge of him.
- Throughout the city—notwithstanding
the restraints of his own
hired house.
- Reaching the further field by
first fully cultivating the one at
hand.—Ibid.
Ver. 14. The Ministry of Paul’s
Bonds.
- It was loyal to his Roman
citizenship (Acts xxvi. 31, 32).
-
Christ-like, it was silent amid
provocation, self-sacrificing, persuasive.
- It was fruitful in the furtherance
of the Gospel.—1. By preaching
it under the shadow of Nero’s palace.
2. By intensifying the love of it and
zeal for it in the hearts of the brethren.
- It illustrates how Christ can erect
a pulpit for Himself in the very camp
of the enemy, and put a voice for His
glory even into chains.—Lay Preacher.
Ver. 15. A Spurious Ministry.
I. The elements formative of it.—1. An
imperfect apprehension of Christ’s
mission. 2. A total absence of Christ’s
spirit. 3. Thought and sympathy
narrowed by early prejudice and preconceived
ideas. 4. Christ made subservient
to the doctrines, ritual, and
history of a system.
II. The results inseparable from it.—1. The
cross degraded into a rallying
point for party strife. 2. The basest
spirit indulged under the pretence of
fulfilling a sacred office. (1) Envy—displeasure
at another’s good. (2) Strife—selfish
rivalry which seeks to gain
the good belonging to another.
3. Christ preached merely to advance a
party. 4. Zeal for propagating a creed
greater than to save a lost world.—Ibid.
Ver. 16. The Germ of a Spurious
Ministry—
- May exist in those who zealously
preach Christ.
- Consists in a moral contradiction
between the heart of the preacher
and the theme of his discourse—contentiousness
and Christ.
- Produces impurity of motive
in Christian work—“not sincerely.”
- Biases the judgment to expect
results which are never realised—“supposing.”
- Inspires aims which are un-Christian—“to
add affliction to my
bonds.”
Ver. 17. The Real and the Counterfeit
in the Christian Ministry.
I. They correspond.—1. Both adopt
the Christian name. 2. Both utter the
same shibboleth. 3. Both active in
preaching Christ.
II. They differ.—1. In heart. Contention
rules the one; love reigns in
the other.
2. In spirit.—Envy and strife moves
the one; goodwill actuates the other.
3. In source of strength.—Love of
party animates the one; waxing confident
in the Lord emboldens the
other.
4. In aim.—That of the one is to
advance, it may be, a lifeless Church;
that of the other to propel the Gospel
of Christ.
5. In the depth and accuracy of conviction.—The
one “supposing to add
affliction to my bonds”; the other
“knowing that I am set for the defence
of the gospel.”—Lay Preacher.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 19–26.
The Noble Attitude of a Sufferer for the Truth.
I. The hostility of false brethren tends to the enlargement of the truth, whatever
may be the fate of the sufferer.—1. He is assured of personal blessing from
the Spirit through prayer. “For I know that this shall turn to my salvation
through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ” (ver. 19).
The apostle already sees how his troubles and suffering may develop his own
spiritual life and be a pathway to the glories of heaven. By the prayers of
God’s people he looks for an abundant supply of the Spirit, by whose agency his
salvation will be perfected. The enemies of the good man cannot rob him of his
interest in Christ, and suffering only adds new lustre to every Christian grace.
The Port Royalist exclaimed, “Let us labour and suffer; we have all eternity to
rest in.” Paul, who, fighting with wild beasts, was a spectacle to angels and
men, could reckon that “the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be
compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.”
2. The greatness of Christ is set forth by the courage given to the sufferer, though
uncertain of what awaits him.—“According to my earnest expectation and my
hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but . . . Christ shall be magnified in my
body, whether it be by life, or by death” (ver. 20). With the earnest expectation
and hope of future glory, the apostle had no need to be ashamed of his
work for God or of God’s work in him; but he regarded his sufferings, not as
a setting forth of his own goodness, but of the glory of Jesus, who gave him
strength and fortitude to endure. It is in tribulation that the grace of Christ
is most conspicuous. The Redeemer was perfected through suffering; so are
His followers.
II. The alternative of life or death presents a problem the sufferer is unable
to solve.—“What I shall choose I wot not. For I am in a strait betwixt two”
(vers. 22, 23).
1. Life has great attractions.—(1) Christ may be further exalted. “For
to me to live is Christ” (ver. 21). Life is an opportunity for setting
forth Christ, and this is done by carefully copying His example. “As I stood
beside one of the wonderful Aubusson tapestries,” says Eugene Stock, “I
said to the gentleman in charge, ‘How is this done?’ He showed me a small
loom with a partly finished web upon it, and said that the weaver stands behind
his work, with his materials by his side, and above him the picture he is to copy,
exactly thread for thread and colour for colour. He cannot vary a thread or a
shade without marring his picture.” It is a glorious thing for us to have a perfect
life for example by which to form our lives. And we cannot vary a hair-breadth
from that example without injuring our lives. (2) More results of Christian
work may be gathered. “But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour”
(ver. 22). The best use of life is to employ it in working for God. Work done
for Him will remain when the worker is forgotten. In ministerial work we may
garner the most precious fruits. (3) Help may be afforded to others. “Nevertheless
to abide in the flesh is more needful for you” (ver. 24). Paul was the
pioneer and founder of Christianity among the Gentiles, and the young Churches
looked to him for leadership and counsel. It seemed every way desirable that
for their sakes his life should be continued. No one felt this more keenly than
himself, though he was assured that if that life was prematurely terminated the
cause of the Gospel was safe in the hands of God.
2. Death admits to superior advantages.—“To die is gain” (ver. 21). Even by
his death Christ would be glorified, and the apostle admitted not to shame or loss,
as his enemies supposed, but to a state of blessed reward.
"Sorrow vanquished, labour ended,
Jordan past."
“Why should I fear death?” said Sir Henry Vane, as he awaited his execution;
“I find it rather shrinks from me than I from it.”
“Death wounds to heal; I sink, I rise, I reign;
Spring from my fetters, fasten in the skies,
Where blooming Eden withers in my sight,
Death gives us more than we in Eden lost.”—Young.
III. The undaunted sufferer is confident of continued opportunities of
advancing the joy of believers in the truth.—“And having this confidence, I
know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy
of faith, that your rejoicing may be more abundant” (vers. 25, 26). This assurance
was verified by the apostle’s return to Philippi on his release from his first
captivity. “Man is immortal till his work is done.” Life is short, and every
moment of its duration should be spent for God and the good of others. Shall
we repine at our trials which are but for a moment? “We are nearing home
day by day,” wrote General Gordon. “No dark river, but divided waters are
before us, and then let the world take its portion. Dust it is, and dust we will
leave it. It is a long, weary journey, but we are well on the way of it. The
yearly milestones quickly slip by, and as our days so will our strength be. The
sand is flowing out of the glass, day and night, night and day; shake it not.
You have a work to do here, to suffer even as Christ suffered.”
Lessons.—1. The highest virtues are not gained without suffering. 2. Suffering
for the truth strengthens our attachment to it. 3. Suffering for the truth is often
a means of spreading it.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Ver. 20. Christ the Christian’s Life.
- Christ was the recognised Source
of the apostle’s life.
- Christ was the supreme Object
of the apostle’s contemplation.
- The glory of Christ was the
great end of the apostle’s endeavours.—H. Simon.
Ver. 21. The Christian’s Life and
Death.
I. The Christian’s life.—1. It is a life
in Christ. (1) Begun in regeneration.
(2) Realised by faith. (3) Sustained
and increased by Divine knowledge.
2. It is a life for Christ.—(1) The
example of Christ is its model.
(2) The will of Christ is its laws.
(3) The glory of Christ is its end.
II. The Christian’s death.—1. The
Christian’s death is a gain by being
deprived of something. (1) Deprived
of the sinful body. (2) Freed from
temptation. (3) From his enemies.
(4) From suffering. (5) From death.
2. The Christian’s death is a gain by
acquiring something.—(1) Accelerated
liberty to worship God. (2) The ultimate
addition of the glorified body
with its exalted form and powers.
(3) The blessed reunion and fellowship
with departed friends. (4) The presence
and companionship of Christ for
ever.
Christian Life and Death.
I. The apostle’s language exhibits
the proper scope and character of all
truly Christian life.—The end and
substance of the Christian life is
Christ.
II. What Christian death is and
how it ought to be regarded.—Death
is not simply altered life. It is life
elevated and ennobled. It is gain
compared with life in the flesh. Death
raises the saint to be with Christ.
III. The text puts Christian life
and death before us regarded as an
alternative.—Whether life be more
or less desirable, less or more
desired, it should be spent under
the strong and penetrating assurance
that to die is gain. Be death ever so
desirable, it is our own fault if the
happiness of life does not more than
counterbalance the trial of it.—J. D.
Geden.
“For me to live is Christ.” Enthusiasm
for Christ.
I. Enthusiasm for Christ in the
home-life.
“The highest duties oft are found
Lying upon the lowest ground;
In hidden and unnoticed ways,
In household work on common days,
Whate’er is done for God alone
Thy God acceptable will own.”
II. Enthusiasm for Christ in public
life.
"Trust no future, howe'er pleasant,
Let the dead past bury its dead;
Act, act in the living present,
Heart within and God o'erhead."
III. Enthusiasm for Christ in
Church-life.
"Come, labour on,
No time for rest till glows the western sky,
While the long shadows o'er our pathway lie,
And a glad sound comes with the setting sun,
Servants, well done!"
—J. M. Forson.
The Christian’s estimate of living and
dying.
I. The Christian’s estimate of living
should be a life in Christ.—1. A life
of which Christ is the Source. 2. A life
of which Christ is the Sustainer. 3. A
life of which Christ is the Sphere.
II. The Christian’s estimate of living
should be a life for Christ.—1. A life
spent in labouring for Him alone.
2. A life of continued suffering for
Him. 3. A life of daring everything
for Him.
III. The Christian’s estimate of
dying should be that it is gain.—1. Because
death leads to closer and
more uninterrupted union with Christ.
2. Because death lands the true believer
in absolute security.
Lessons.—1. In some sense the utterance
of the apostle is true of every Christian.
2. In its full sense it is only true of preeminent
Christians. 3. The more it is
true of any, the happier and more
useful Christians they are.—Homiletic Quarterly.
The Believer’s Portion in both Worlds.
I. The believer’s life.—1. Is originated
by Christ. 2. Is sustained by
Christ. 3. Is spent to the glory of
Christ.
II. The believer’s end.—1. The gain
of sorrows escaped. 2. The gain of joys
secured.
Lessons.—1. Improve life. 2. Prepare
for death.—C. Clayton, M.A.
Vers. 23, 24. Willing to wait, but
ready to go.
I. The two desires.—1. To depart
and be with Christ. (1) The exodus
from this life by dissolution of the body—“to
depart.” (2) Christ’s presence the
immediate portion of His people, when
their life on earth is done—“to be
with Christ.”
2. To abide in the flesh.—It is a
natural and lawful desire. The love
of life—it is not necessary, it is not
lawful to destroy it. Let it alone to
the last. The way to deal with it is
not to tear it violently out, so as to
have, or say that you have, no desire
to remain; but to get, through the
grace of the Spirit, such a blessed
hope of Christ’s presence as will
gradually balance and at last overbalance
the love of life, and make it
at the appointed time come easily and
gently away.
II. A Christian balanced evenly
between these two desires.—“I am
in a strait betwixt two.” The desire
to be with Christ does not make life
unhappy, because it is balanced by the
pleasure of working for Christ in the
world; the desire to work for Christ
in the world does not make the
approach of dissolution painful, because
it is balanced by the expectation of
being soon, of being ever with the Lord.
III. Practical Lessons.—1. This
one text is sufficient to destroy the whole
fabric of Romish prayer to departed
saints. 2. The chief use of a Christian
in the world is to do good. 3. You
cannot be effectively useful to those who
are in need on earth unless you hold
by faith and hope to Christ on high.
4. Living hope of going to be with
Christ is the only anodyne which has
power to neutralise the pain of parting
with those dear to us.—W. Arnot.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 27–30.
Exhortation to Christian Bravery.
I. To act as becometh Christian citizens.—“Only let your conversation be as
becometh the gospel of Christ” (ver. 27). Whether the apostle is able to visit
them again or not, he exhorts the Philippians to attend diligently to present
duties, and act in all things with the dignity and fidelity becoming members of
the heavenly commonwealth. The Christian finding himself living for a time in
this world as in a dark place, where other gods are worshipped, where men sell
themselves for gain, where he is tempted to do as others do, and is asked to
coquette with the world, to mind earthly things, should at once take his stand
and say: “I cannot; I am a citizen of heaven, my affections are set on things
above; I cannot come down to your level, I have come out from the world and
may not touch the unclean thing; I have formed other tastes, have other
pleasures; other rules regulate my conduct; I cannot live as you live, nor do as
you do.”
1. Be united in spiritual steadfastness.—“That ye stand fast in one spirit”
(ver. 27). The Spirit inspires the highest courage, and helps all who partake of
His influence to stand fast in their integrity. “For God hath given us not the
spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”
2. Earnestly and unitedly maintain the faith.—“With one mind striving
together for the faith of the gospel” (ver. 27). With one soul, penetrated by
the same Spirit, unitedly strive to maintain the Gospel in its purity, as it was
committed unto them. Every true believer should be a valiant champion for
the truth. Men who have no settled faith are like those birds that frequent the
Golden Horn, and are to be seen from Constantinople, of which it is said they are
always on the wing and never rest. No one ever saw them alight on the water
or on the land; they are for ever poised in mid-air. The natives call them lost
souls, seeking rest and finding none. To lose our hold of the Gospel is to be
doomed to unrest and misery. To attempt to stand alone is to court defeat.
Union is strength.
3. Remember the interest of your religious teachers in your endeavours.—“That
whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs”
(ver. 27). That anxious minister is ever deeply concerned in the welfare of his
people. He rejoices in their faithfulness and progress; he mourns over their
laxity and defeat; he encourages them in their labours and struggles in the
spread of the truth. Our defection from the Gospel is not only a loss to ourselves,
but a disappointment and sorrow to others.
II. To act with fearlessness in the midst of oppression.—“And in nothing
terrified by your adversaries” (ver. 28). Opposition should nerve to more resolute
resistance. The enemies of the good are the enemies of God, and the good man,
with God on his side, need not fear either their numbers or their ferocity. One
of their ancient kings said, “The Lacedæmonians seldom inquire the number of
their enemies, but the place where they could be found.” When a certain
captain rushed in haste to his general and said, “The enemy is coming in such
vast numbers, it will be useless to resist,” the general replied, “Our duty is not
to count our enemies, but to conquer them.” And conquer them they did.
1. This fearlessness a proof of the inevitable punishment of their opponents.—“Which
is to them an evident token of perdition” (ver. 28). In contending
hopelessly against you they are only rushing on to their own destruction. Your
bravery in the contest, and their own consciousness of the weakness of their own
cause, will strike terror into their hearts, so that they will be easily routed.
2. This fearlessness a proof of the salvation of the steadfast.—“But to you of
salvation, and that of God” (ver. 28). God who gives courage to the steadfast
and helps them in the conflict, ensures to them the victory. We are not saved
because we are brave for God and truth, but the courageous soul will not fail of
salvation.
III. To accept suffering for the truth as a privilege and a discipline.—1. It
is suffering for Christ. “For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not
only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake” (ver. 29). Suffering is
no evidence of the Divine displeasure, but is often a signal proof of the Divine
regard. There is no virtue in the mere endurance of suffering, but in the
Christ-like spirit with which it is borne. There lived in a village near Burnley
a girl who was persecuted in her own home because she was a Christian.
She struggled on bravely, seeking strength from God, and rejoicing that she was
a partaker of Christ’s sufferings. The struggle was too much for her; but He
willed it so, and at length her sufferings were ended. When they came to take
off the clothes from her poor dead body, they found a piece of paper sewn inside
her dress, and on it was written, “He opened not His mouth.”
2. It is suffering which the best of men have endured.—“Having the same
conflict which ye saw in me, and now hear to be in me” (ver. 30). Suffering
for the truth links us with Paul and his contemporaries, and with the noble
army of martyrs in all ages. Christ has taught us how to suffer, and for His
sake we can bear pain and calumny without complaining and without retaliation.
Mrs. Sherwood relates that, pained at seeing Henry Martyn completely
prostrate by his tormentor, Sabat, the apostate, she exclaimed, “Why subject
yourself to all this? Rid yourself of this Sabat at once.” He replied, “Not
if his spirit was ten times more acrimonious and exasperating.” Then smiling
in his gentle, winning manner, he pointed upwards and whispered in low and
earnest tones, “For Him!”
Lessons.—1. The Christian spirit inspires loftiest heroism. 2. To strive
to be good excites the opposition of the wicked. 3. One true Christian hero is an
encouragement to many.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Ver. 27. Christian Consistency.
I. The apostle pleaded for a consistent
Christian Church.—1. The
Christian life must be characterised by
truthfulness. 2. By love. 3. By
purity.
II. The apostle pleaded for a united
Christian Church.—1. This union was
necessary to resist their common adversaries.
2. To develop their Christian
graces. 3. To establish the true faith.
III. The apostle pleaded for a
zealous Christian Church.—1. This
zeal demanded for a noble object. “The
faith of the gospel.” 2. To be exercised
in a commendable manner.
“Striving together.”—J. T. Woodhouse.
Evangelical Consistency.
I. What that conduct is which becomes
the Gospel.—1. It must be the
genuine result of Gospel dispositions.
2. It must be maintained under the
influence of Gospel principles and in the
use of Gospel ordinances. 3. It must
resemble Gospel patterns. 4. It must be
conformable to Gospel precepts.
II. What obligations are we under
to maintain this conduct.—1. God
requires us to conduct ourselves according
to the Gospel. 2. Consistency requires
it. 3. Our personal comfort requires
it. 4. Our connection with society
requires it. 5. Our final salvation
requires it.
Lessons.—1. How excellent is the
Christian religion. 2. How illiberal
and unreasonable is the conduct of those
who censure Christianity on account of
the unworthy actions of its inconsistent
professors.—R. Treffry.
The Effects of the Gospel upon those
who receive it.
I. Illustrate the exhortation of the
apostle.—1. The Gospel of Christ is a
system which assumes and proceeds upon
the invaluable value of the soul.
2. Which assumes and depicts the danger
and guilt of the soul, and provides a
plan for its immediate restoration to
the Divine favour. 3. Is a system of
peculiar and authoritative truth. 4. Is
a system of godliness. 5. Of morals.
6. Of universal charity.
II. The sources of the apostle’s
anxiety.—1. He desired the Philippians
thus to act from a regard of the honour
of the Gospel and its Author. 2. Out of
a regard for the Philippians themselves.
3. From a regard to the Gentiles.
4. From a regard to himself, his own
peace and his own joy.—T. Binney.
Vers. 28, 29. Conflict and Suffering.—1. Faith
in Christ must go before
suffering for Christ, so that to suffer
for Him is of greater importance, and
in some respects more honourable, than
simply to believe in Him. 2. Then
are sufferings truly Christian and an
evidence of salvation, when as the
sufferer is first a believer, so his sufferings
are for Christ’s sake—for His
truth. 3. Christian courage under
suffering will not be kept up without
conflict. 4. In suffering for truth
nothing befalls us but what is common
to men.—Fergusson.
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.
Ver. 1. Consolation in Christ.—Exhortation would be better, inasmuch as consolation
anticipates the comfort of the next phrase. Comfort of love.—Encouragement which love
gives. Fellowship of the Spirit.—“Participation in the Spirit.” Meyer’s remark is, “This is
to be explained of the Holy Spirit.” Beet intimates a widening of the idea—“brotherliness
prompted by the Holy Spirit.” Bowels and mercies.—On the former term see ch. i. 8. The word
for mercies denotes the yearning of the heart, though, it may be, there is no ability to help.
Ver. 2. Fulfil ye my joy.—“Fill up” my cup of joy. See ch. i. 4. Likeminded.—“General
harmony, . . . identity of sentiment” (Meyer). On this verse, with its accumulations, Chrysostom
exclaims, “Bless me! how often he says the same thing!”
Ver. 3. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory.—The verb is suppressed in the
Greek, a construction more natural and more forcible than to connect the nothing with the
preceding clause. “Partisanship and pomposity.” For the ruin of how many Churches are
this pair responsible! In lowliness of mind.—A rare flower, scattering its fragrance unseen.
“It was one great result of the life of Christ (on which St. Paul dwells here) to raise humility
to its proper level; and, if not fresh coined for this purpose, the word (for ‘lowliness of
mind’) now first became current through the influence of Christian ethics” (Lightfoot).
Ver. 5. Let this mind be in you.—The apostle’s word reminds us that he had already
counselled his readers to be likeminded amongst themselves. “Each to each, and all to
Christ,” this verse seems to say. What follows—to ver. 11—is the very marrow of the
Gospel.
Ver. 6. Who, being in the form of God.—R.V. margin, “being originally.” Form here implies
not the external accidents, but the essential attributes. Similar to this, but not so
decisive, are the expressions used elsewhere of the Divinity of the Son (2 Cor. iv. 4;
Col. i. 15; Heb. i. 3). Similar is the term “The Word.” Thought it not robbery.—“Did not
deem His being on an equality with God a thing to be seized on—and retained as a prize”
(Ellicott). “Yet did not regard it as a prize, a treasure to be clutched and retained at all
hazards” (Lightfoot). This interpretation of the two eminent bishops is accepted by the
R.V., the Speaker’s Commentary, and is the common and indeed almost universal interpretation
of the Greek Fathers (Lightfoot, flatly contradicted by Beet). Meyer (followed by
Beet), Cremer and Hofmann contend for the active meaning—“robbing.” To be equal with
God.—The Jews considered Christ’s peculiar claim of Sonship as a “making Himself equal
with God” (John v. 18).
Ver. 7. But made Himself of no reputation.—R.V. “emptied Himself.” The emphasis is
upon Himself. In contrast to the idea lying in “robbery”—that of emptying the treasures of
some one else—it was Himself whom He made bare. And took upon Him the form of a servant.—By
taking the form of a slave. Note the antitheses in these verses (6, 7), “being in
the form of God,” “took the form of a servant,” “equality with God,” “emptied Himself.”
And was made in the likeness of men.—Lit. “becoming in similitude of men.” The word
“likeness” (A.V. margin, “habit”) differs from “form” and “fashion.” There is, of course,
no support for the Docetic teaching that Christ was only seemingly a man.
Ver. 8. In fashion.—The entire outwardly perceptible mode and form. Men saw in Christ
a human form, bearing, language, action, mode of life, wants and their satisfaction, in
general, the state and relations of a human being so that He was recognised “as a man”
(Meyer). “Form” in (vers. 6, 7) is that which is intrinsic and essential. “Fashion” is that
which is outward and accidental. Became obedient unto death.—Does not mean that He
humbled Himself so as to become a cringing slave to the King of Terrors; but that His
obedience to God went to the uttermost limit—as far as death—even the death of the cross.
That is, the death of the accursed, the death reserved for malefactors. Jewish hatred still
speaks of Christ as, “The man who was hung.”
Ver. 9. Highly exalted.—A word much stronger than those, e.g., in the Acts, which describe
the raising up of the murdered Lord of life. We trace the descent step by step to the last
rung of the ladder; by one stupendous act (Rom. i. 4) God graced His Son with unique
honour and dignity (Eph. i. 21).
Ver. 10. That at the name of Jesus.—Not at the mention of the name Jesus, but in the
name of Jesus. For illustration of the phrase see Christ’s own words, “in My name”
(John xiv. 13, 14, etc.). Every knee should bow.—The outward symbol of an inward submission
or recognition of superiority. By what language could the apostle express the exaltation
above creaturely needs if not by this? If used of a creature, it would be blasphemous. The
jealous God does not allow bowing down in worship to any but Himself. As Pliny said,
Quasi Deo.
Ver. 11. Should confess.—“Proclaim with thanksgiving” (Lightfoot). It is the word which
describes the frank admission [of wrong, Matt. iii. 6]. That Jesus Christ is Lord.—The
emphasis is on “Lord.” The specific Christian profession of faith is “Jesus is Lord”; its
opposite “Anathema Jesus” (1 Cor. xii. 3 and Rom. x. 9).
Ver. 12. Ye have always obeyed.—Obedience describes the attitude of the mind of these
Philippians in presence of the commanding truths of the Gospel; “Obedience” or “obedience
of faith” is found several times in the epistle to the Romans; and in 2 Cor. vii. 15 stands in
close connection with “fear and trembling,” as here. Fear and trembling.—Such an apprehensive
desire to be right with God as is figured by bodily tremor.
Ver. 13. For it is God which worketh in you.—This sentence removes all merit from the
most punctilious diligence, whilst it as effectually takes away the paralysing fear of failure
to which “workers together with God” need never give place.
Ver. 14. Do all things without murmurings.—Without mutterings, as men who in cowardice
dare not speak plainly what they think. We must consider the warning as against God on
account of what He imposed on them both to do and to suffer. And disputings.—The word
goes much deeper than the restricted meaning of “disputings.” It seems here to mean without
first entering upon scrupulous considerings as to whether you are under any obligation
thereto, whether it is not too difficult, whether prudent, and the like (Meyer).
Ver. 15. That ye may be blameless.—Sons of God they are already; they are now to become
worthy sons. In the word “blameless” we have the idea of a character in which no grace is
defective (Heb. viii. 7 is a good illustration. If the first covenant had been faultless, a second
would have been superfluous). And harmless.—Christ’s own counsel. “Be harmless as
doves.” Lit. the word means unmixed, unadulterated, and figuratively, artless. Of sophistries
and the deep things of Satan he would rather they were in happy ignorance (Matt. x. 16;
Rom. xvi. 19). Without rebuke.—Vulgate, “immaculatum.” The word is originally a sacrificial
term. It describes the victim in which the keen inquisitorial eye of the official inspector
has found no fault. So (1 Pet. i. 19) of the Lamb of God, in the whiteness of spotless innocency.
Ver. 16. Holding forth the word of life.—“If we are to look for any metaphor it would most
naturally be that of offering food or wine” (Lightfoot). Why it should be at all events wholly
unconnected with the preceding image in “lights in the world” one does not quite see.
There is nothing objectionable in the thought of a star holding forth its beam to the mariner,
or the benighted wayfarer, and it has the advantage of continuity of the metaphor in the
verse previous. That I may rejoice in the day of Christ.—As good news of his convert’s
fidelity was like a new lease of life to the worn apostle (1 Thess. iii. 8), so his sweetest hope
was to be able to stand before his Lord with his children by his side. Have not run . . .
laboured.—Athletic terms familiar to St. Paul’s readers.
Ver. 17. If I be offered upon the sacrifice.—R.V. margin, “poured out as a drink-offering.”
Whether the reference is the the cup of wine poured over the heathen sacrifice or the drink-offering
of the Jewish is doubted, and is of little consequence, since in either case his meaning
would be clear enough. And service.—Priestly function (Luke i. 23).
Ver. 20. No man likeminded.—A.V. margin, “so dear unto me,“ evidently because the same
word is used in Ps. lv. 13. “Likeminded” with whom? “With me,” says Meyer, that is,
“having the same tender feeling towards you as I have.” Who will naturally care.—Not of
necessity, nor grudgingly.
Ver. 21. All seek their own.—Interpret how we will, this is a bitter sentence. We are apt
to be severe on those who have other engagements when we feel our need of friends.
Ver. 22. Ye know the proof.—The character that shows itself under strain or testing
(Acts xvi. 1 and xvii. 14, xix. 22, xx. 3, 4). As a son with the father.—R.V. “as a child
serveth.” The older man and the younger had slaved for the Gospel; as for some dear object
of desire a father and his son may be seen at work together.
Ver. 24. I trust in the Lord that I also myself shall come shortly.—The apostle, in personal
matters, is on the same footing with the most obscure Christian. When his friends forsake
him he must bear it with what fortitude he can. When darkness surrounds him he must
wait God’s time—no prophecy lifts the veil.
Ver. 25. Epaphroditus.—Brother, work-mate, comrade-in-arms, Church-messenger, and
serving-man. What a designation! St. Paul thinks him worthy of all the honour (ver. 29)
that the Church can give, and he himself immortalises him by this unusual estimate of his
personal character and worth.
Ver. 26. Was full of heaviness.—The same word is used of our Lord when in Gethsemane—“He
began to be very heavy.” Its etymology is an open question, Grimm, following
Buttmann, says it means “the uncomfortable feeling of one who is not at home.” If this,
the almost universally accepted derivation be the correct one, it is a beautiful idyll we have
presented to us. A convalescent, far from home, as his strength returns feels the pangs of
home-sickness strengthen and eagerly returns to dispel the misgivings of those made anxious
by tidings of his critical illness.
Ver. 27. Nigh unto death.—Or as we say colloquially, “next door to death.” God had
mercy on him.—St. Paul speaks after the manner of men, as we could not have dared to say
anything else if Epaphroditus had died. The cry of woe so often heard by Christ was “have
mercy.” Sorrow upon sorrow.—“He does not parade the apathy of the Stoics, as though he
were iron and far removed from human affections” (Calvin).
“When sorrows come they come not single spies,
But in battalions.”
Ver. 28. The more carefully.—R.V. “diligently.” “With increased eagerness” (Lightfoot).
How difficult it must have been for St. Paul to relinquish the company of so worthy a man we
do not realise; but he who gives up is worthy of the friend he gives up, for neither of them is
consulting his own wishes. “Love seeketh not her own.” What a contrast to sordid
Hedonism—old or new! Ye may rejoice, and that I may be the less sorrowful.—A variation
on the theme of the letter—the sum of which is, as Bengel says, “I rejoice; rejoice ye.”
What an exquisitely chosen form of expression! “A prior sorrow will still remain unremoved,”
says Lightfoot; “but if he cannot go so far as to say he will rejoice, the alleviation
of the loss of such a friend’s society is the fact that they have him again.”
Ver. 29. Hold such in honour.—Learn to know the value of such—“grapple them to thy soul
with hooks of steel.”
Ver. 30. For the work of Christ.—What noble self-oblivion the apostle manifests! He
thinks more of the cause dear to his heart than of his own comfort or even life. Not regarding
his life.—R.V. “hazarding his life.” There is the difference of a single letter in the long
word of the R.V. The word of the R.V. means “having gambled with his life.” Just as to-day
a visitor to Rome in the autumn must run the risk of malarial fever, so Epaphroditus,
for the work of Christ, had faced that, and other dangers as great, probably. The A.V. would
mean “as far as his life was concerned he followed an ill-advised course of action.” To
supply your lack of service toward me.—Does not mean that they had been remiss in their
attention. They did not lack the will, but the opportunity.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 1–4.
Christian Unity an Occasion of Joy.
I. Christian unity is a striving after the Spirit of Christ.—“That ye be
likeminded” (ver. 2).
1. Manifested in loving consolation to those in distress.—“If there be therefore
any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love” (ver. 1). If the pagan
expressed unity by those who dwelt in one village and drank of one fountain,
how much more real is the union of those who drink of the same Spirit and
practise the lovingkindness of the one Christ. A striking evidence of the
unity of Christianity is seen in its sympathy everywhere for the poor, the sick,
and the unfortunate. It is Christ-like to comfort and help the distressed.
2. Manifested in spiritual fellowship.—“If any fellowship of the Spirit”
(ver. 1). Christians are one by their communion together, flowing from their
joint participation in the same Spirit. The union of hearts is more real and
stable than the external union expressed by creeds and contracts. The Spirit is
the unifying power of Christendom.
3. Manifested in compassion for the suffering.—“If any bowels and mercies”
(ver. 1). Christianity is a mission to the suffering. Before the Christian era
there were no hospitals and infirmaries, no care for the afflicted poor. Unselfish
benevolence was almost unknown. Nothing is more remarkable than the spirit
of tender compassion that Christianity has breathed into social and national life.
II. Christianity is opposed to a spirit of faction and empty boasting.—“Let
nothing be done through strife or vainglory” (ver. 3). The message of the
Gospel is one of peace and goodwill to all men. It is foreign to its spirit to
exalt the interests of party or of self; it seeks to promote a universal and all-pervasive
charity. The Germans have a legend connected with the terrific battle
of Chalons between the Visigoths and the Romans against Attila. The bloody
work of the sword was done, the plain was strewn with heaps of the slain; but
for three nights following—so ran the story—the spirits of the slain hovered over
the scene and continued the strife in the air. The like has been done again and
again in the party strifes and controversies of the Church. Unity is impossible
where contention and vanity have sway.
III. Christian unity is strengthened by the maintenance of a humble spirit.—1. In
comparing oneself with others. “In lowliness of mind let each esteem
other better than themselves” (ver. 3). The man who walks humbly with God,
realising his complete dependence on Him, will not unduly exalt himself, and
will highly esteem others, as knowing that they are equally with himself
dependent on God for their abilities. Instead of fixing your eyes on those points
in which you may excel, fix them on those in which your neighbour excels you:
to do this is true humility. The excellencies of others are better known than
their defects, and our own defects are better known to ourselves than to others.
A sense of personal short-coming will keep us humble. Humility is a special
product of Christianity. The whole Roman language, with all the improvements
of the Augustan age, does not afford so much as a name for humility; nor was
one found in all the copious language of the Greeks, till it was made by the great
apostle.
2. In considering other people’s interests as well as your own.—“Look not every
man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others” (ver. 4).
The truly humble are thoroughly disinterested. The work of the meek and
lowly Jesus is the loftiest example of disinterestedness. He looked to the things
of others rather than to His own. In unselfishly seeking the good of others we
promote our own. When Augustine was asked, “What is the first thing in
religion?” he answered, “Humility.” “What is the second?” “Humility.”
“And what is the third?” “Humility.” Speaking of pride, Augustine truly
said, “That which first overcame man is the last thing he overcomes.” Humility
is a strong bond of Christian unity.
IV. Christian unity is an occasion of great joy.—“Fulfil ye my joy” (ver. 2).
The weak spot in the disposition of the Philippians was a tendency to quarrelsomeness;
hence he insists upon unity. They had given him joy in the other
Christian excellencies they possessed; he asks them to complete his joy in
cherishing the grace of unity. “Behold,” exclaimed the rejoicing Psalmist, as he
contemplated the union of the Jewish tribes, “how good and how pleasant a thing
it is for brethren to dwell together in unity” (Ps. cxxxiii. 1). The bundle of arrows cannot be
broken while it remains a bundle. Tacitus, an ancient Latin historian, says of
the Germans, what sceptics and others find true of Christians, “Whilst fighting
separately, all are conquered together.” The strength of the Christian Church
lies in its consolidation.
Lessons.—1. Christian unity is of supreme importance. 2. Is absolutely
necessary to represent the Spirit of Christ. 3. Is the cause of much joy to the anxious
minister.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 1, 2. Unity and Concord in the
Church.—1. As unity and concord is
necessary in itself and at all times, so
is it most necessary in suffering times:
the enjoyment of Christ’s presence, the
reaping of any spiritual advantage by
the communion and love of the saints,
fellowship with God through the operation
of the Spirit, depend upon it.
2. The success of the Gospel will be
matter of joy to a public-spirited
Christian, even in the midst of his own
crosses and sufferings. 3. That unity
and concord among the Churches may
be solid and lasting, there should be
unity of will and affections, of designs
and endeavours, and in opinion and
matters of judgment.—Fergusson.
Ver. 3. Humility an Antidote to
Contention.—1. The lust of vainglory,
whereby a man pursues more after the
applause of men than to be approved
of God, is the mother of contention and
strife, and unfriendly to union and
peace. 2. The grace of humility does
not consist in an affected strain of
words and gestures, but, being seated
in the heart, makes a man think
meanly of himself and of anything
that is his. 3. So conscious should we be
of our own infirmities, so modest in the
esteem of our own graces and virtues,
so prone to charity, that we ought to
esteem any other, for what we know of
him, to be better than ourselves.—Ibid.
Ver. 4. Looking on the Things of
Others.
I. One school in which we learn the
lesson of unselfishness is the home
circle.
II. Another way in which God
teaches us the same lesson is through
the experience we gain in the intercourse
of daily work.—We divide men
into the selfish and the unselfish—those
who work for self and think of self,
and those whose labours are for other
men.
III. We are taught to consider
other men by the perplexities and
confusion which arise when we think
only of ourselves.—The modern philosophy
is true so far when it says that
man is nothing in himself, but only a
bundle of relations, the meeting-point
of many influences. Those who fix
their attention upon the meeting-point
forget what makes the man. Probably
there is no more confused or miserable
man than the self-analyst.—A. R. MacEwen.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 5–8.
The Humiliation of Christ a Pattern of Supreme Unselfishness.
I. The humiliation of Christ was no violation of His Divine essence.—“Who,
being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God”
(ver. 6). Thought it not a prey to be seized upon. As He was in Himself truly
and properly God, it could be no object of desire or ambition to claim equality
with God. Being God He could not undeify Himself. His Divinity remained
with Him through the whole course of His self-imposed humiliation. It was
this that constituted both the mystery and the greatness of the humiliation.
II. The humiliation of Christ was a voluntary incarnation in human form.—“But
made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant,
and was made in the likeness of men” (ver. 7). He emptied Himself, not of His
Divinity—that was impossible—but of the outward and self-manifesting glories
of the Godhead. He took the form of a servant by being made in the likeness
of man. He remained full of Divinity, yet He bore Himself as if He were
empty. A native preacher among the Oneidas, addressing his fellow-converts,
said: “What are the views you form of the character of Jesus? You will
answer, perhaps, that He was a man of singular benevolence. You will tell me
that He proved this to be His character by the nature of the miracles He
wrought. He created bread to feed thousands who were ready to perish. He
raised to life the son of a poor woman who was a widow, and to whom his
labours were necessary for her support in old age. Are these then your only
views of the Saviour? I will tell you they are lame. When Jesus came into
the world He threw His blanket around Him, but the God was within.”
III. The humiliation of Christ reached its climax in a career of obedience
even unto death.—“He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross” (ver. 8). He fulfilled all the demands of law and
of God. He shrank not from death—death in its most shameful and ignoble
form, the death of the cross. He was numbered with the transgressors—not
an honourable death, but like the degrading execution of criminals. He went
to the realm of the dead and revolutionised it. Hitherto death had reigned
supreme, an unbroken power. The prison-house of the dead was fast locked.
None returned. Now One comes there who has the keys of Hades and of death.
He opens the door and sets the captives free. “Meekness in suffering, prayer for
His murderers, a faithful resignation of His soul into the hands of His heavenly
Father, the sun eclipsed, the heavens darkened, and earth trembling, the graves
open, the rocks rent, the veil of the Temple torn—who could say less than this,
‘Truly, this was the Son of God’? He suffers patiently; this is through the
power of grace; many good men have done so through His enabling. The frame
of nature suffers with Him; this is proper to the God of Nature, the Son of
God” (Bishop Hall).
IV. The humiliation of Christ is an example of unselfishness to all His
followers.—“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (ver. 5).
The apostle does not put forth himself as an example, but Christ. Christ gave
His all for us, and we should give our all to Him, and our best service for the
good of others. No one can follow Christ until he has first found Christ. Some
try to imitate Christ before they have savingly found Him. To look at Christ
as our Example only, and not as our Redeemer, is not to see Him as He is.
Without faith in Christ as our Redeemer we cannot really follow His example.
Without the grace of Christ there can be no imitation of Christ. A little girl
once presented to a celebrated statesman a small bouquet of ordinary flowers,
the only one she could procure at the season. He inquired why she gave him
the bouquet. “Because I love you,” the child answered. “Do you bring any
little gifts to Jesus?” he asked. “Oh,” said the child, “I give myself to Him.”
Lessons.—1. The unselfish are always humble. 2. The humble are patient
in doing and suffering. 3. Humility is the pathway to exaltation.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 5–8. The Incarnate Deity.
- That Christ did not seek to
retain an appearance of Divine glory
and co-equality.
- He divested Himself actually
of His appropriate and descriptive
ensigns of Divine nature and government.
- He entered upon a course of
responsible subordination.
- He united Himself to human
nature by a perfect incarnation.
-
He stooped to the most extreme
depression of state.
- He reduced Himself to the
necessity of death.
- He yielded to death in a
peculiar form.
Lessons.—1. How admirable is the
expedient of the Redeemer’s incarnation!
2. What a sublime example does the
conduct of the Saviour afford.—R. W. Hamilton.
Ver. 5. The Christian Temper the
Same Mind which was in Christ.
I. Some things in which we cannot
consider Christ as an example.—All
those graces in us which suppose our
guilt and fallen state could not be
exemplified to us by our Saviour.
II. Some things related of Christ
we must not pretend to imitate.—What
He did under the character of
Messiah was peculiar to Himself, and
not designed to put us on doing likewise.
III. Why Christians should copy
the mind and temper of Christ.—1. It
was the design of God to set His
Son before us as the model of the Christian
temper. 2. He was a pattern
admirably fitted to be proposed to our
imitation. (1) He was an example
in our own nature. (2) His circumstances
and conduct in our nature adapted
His example to the most general use.
(3) His example was perfect, so that it
has the force of a rule. 3. The relations
in which we stand to Christ and the
concern we have with Him lay us
under the strongest engagements to endeavour
a resemblance. He is our
friend, our Lord and Master, our Head,
our Judge, the model of our final
happiness.
Lessons.—1. Christianity in its
main design is a practical thing. 2. We
see the advantages we have by the Gospel
beyond any other dispensation for true
goodness. 3. How inexcusable must
they be who are not recovered to a God-like
temper and conversation by this most
excellent dispensation! 4. With what
care and attention should we study the
life of Christ!—J. Evans, D.D.
Christ our Pattern.
- The mind of Christ was a pure mind.
- A self-sacrificing mind.
- A lowly mind.
- A forbearing mind.
- A constant mind.
- A prayerful mind.—Preacher’s Magazine.
Vers. 6, 7. Christ the Redeemer.—This
which the Son of God did and
underwent is the one fact of heaven
and earth, with which none in creation,
none in history, none in your own
personal being, can for a moment be
compared, but in the presence and in
the light of which all these ought to be
contemplated and concluded—that it
is the great object of faith and practice.
Of faith—for upon the personal
and hearty reception of it as the
foundation of your life before God,
that life itself, and all its prospects,
depend; of practice—for high above
all other examples, shining over and
blessing while it surpasses them, is
this mighty example of the Son of
God. Oh, brethren, how the selfish man
and the selfish woman and the selfish
family ought to depart from such a
theme as this, downcast for very
shame, and abased at their unlikeness
to the pattern which they profess to be
imitating! Oh that this question might
be fixed and rankle like a dart in their
bosoms, even till it will take no answer
but the surrender of the life to Him,
and, by the daily grace of His Spirit,
living as He lived!—Alford.
Ver. 8. Christ’s Crucifixion.—
- As an historical fact.—It is quite
certain.
- As displaying in its circumstances
every variety of human
character.
- As accompanied by striking
prodigies.—The darkened sun, the
quaking earth, the cleft rocks, the rent
veil, the opened graves.
- As furnishing an illustrious
example of the passive virtues.—Taught
us how to suffer and to die.
-
As being the brightest manifestation
of self-denying and self-devoting
love.
- As constituting the sole meritorious
cause of human salvation.—Who
is the sufferer? The Son of
God. Why does He suffer? As a
prophet, as a martyr, as an example?
Yes; but chiefly as a sacrifice for
sin.
- As producing the most wonderful
moral transformations.—On individuals,
on communities, and on
Christendom.—G. Brooks.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 9–11.
The Exaltation of Christ—
I. Was a Divine act.—“Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him”
(ver. 9). As a recognition of the humiliation and obedience of Christ, God
exalted Him to the throne of mediatorial sovereignty. As Bengel puts it,
“Christ emptied Christ; God exalted Christ as man to equality with God”
(Compare Ps. viii. 5, 6, cx. 1, 7; Matt. xxviii. 18; Luke xxiv. 26; John v. 27,
x. 17; Rom. xiv. 9; Eph. i. 20–22; Heb. ii. 9).
II. Was the acquisition of a name of pre-eminent dignity and significance.—“And
given Him a name which is above every name, that at the name of
Jesus” (vers. 9, 10). Jesus is the same as Joshua, or Jehoshua, only framed to
the Greek pronunciation and termination. Joshua, who brought the hosts of
Israel into the rest of Canaan, was originally called Hoshea, but it was changed
into Joshua or Jehoshua, by an addition of the first syllable in the Divine name
Jehovah, perhaps to intimate that not Joshua of himself, but Jehovah by Him,
would complete the deliverance and rest of Israel. The name Jesus means
Jehovah-Saviour, or Jehovah-Salvation, and Jesus is so called because He saves
His people from their sins. The name cannot be given to any other being; it
belongs solely and absolutely to the one Jesus. “Here we should probably look,”
says Lightfoot, “to a common Hebrew sense of name, not meaning a definite
appellation, but denoting office, rank, dignity. In this case the use of the name
of God in the Old Testament to denote the Divine Presence or the Divine Majesty,
more especially as the object of adoration and praise, will suggest the true
meaning; since the context dwells on the honour and worship henceforth offered
to Him on whom the name has been conferred. To praise the name, to bless the
name, to fear the name of God, are frequent expressions in the Old Testament.”
The name of Jesus marks the pre-eminence of Jesus—it is the “name above
every name.” That name wields the mightiest power in the world to-day. A
modern writer of reputation has said: “There is a wave—I believe it is only
a wave—passing over the cultivated thought of Europe at present, which will
make short work of all belief in a God that does not grip fast to Jesus Christ.
As far as I can read the signs of the times and the tendency of modern thinking,
it is this—either an absolute silence, a heaven stretching above us, blue and clear
and cold, and far away and dumb; or else a Christ that speaks—He or none.
The theism that has shaken itself loose from Him will be crushed, I am sure, in
the encounter with the agnosticism and materialism of this day.” The name of
the exalted Jesus is the salvation of the world in more senses than one.
III. Entitles Him to universal homage.—“Every knee shall bow . . . and that every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” (vers. 10, 11). Beings above, below,
and on the earth shall acknowledge the supremacy and deity of Jesus, and unite
in a universal and consentaneous act of praise and worship of His Divine
majesty. On the door of the old mosque in Damascus, once a Christian church,
but now ranked among the holiest of Mahometan sanctuaries, are inscribed
these remarkable words: “Thy kingdom, O Christ, is an everlasting kingdom,
and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations.” For more than twelve
hundred years the inscription has remained unimpaired by time and undisturbed
by man. What is it waiting for? Already a Christian Church has been founded
in that ancient city, and the Gospel is preached there every Sabbath. The
world’s submission to Jesus is drawing near.
Lessons.—The name of Jesus—1. Is unique in its reputation. 2. In its
moral influence among the nations. 3. In its saving power. 4. In the homage
paid to it.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 9–11. The Name of Jesus: its
Exaltation and Power.
I. The Saviour’s exaltation (ver. 9).—He
was exalted by His resurrection
from the dead, His ascension into
heaven, and His glorious session at
the right hand of God, whence He
now discharges the high functions of
Prophet, Priest, and King.
II. The Saviour’s name.—“That
at the name of Jesus” (ver. 10).
Jehovah, the Saviour.
1. The supreme eminence of the
name.—“A name which is above every
name.”
2. Pre-eminent because no other being
could receive the title.
3. Pre-eminent because there is no
other name that has the mysterious virtue
of saving as this.
III. The power of the Saviour’s
name.—1. In saving the sinner. 2. In
commanding the homage and worship of
all, and in eliciting the universal acknowledgement
of His deity (vers. 10, 11).
We learn a lesson of humility.—1. Because
Christ humbled Himself for
us. 2. We should humble ourselves on
account of past sins. 3. Humility
leads to exaltation.
Christ Worthy of Universal Homage.—1. The
Lord Christ, having abased
Himself for our redemption, was
exalted by the Father to the highest
pitch of glory. 2. The name which
is above every name is said to be
given to Christ, because His Divine
majesty, before hid, was now manifested
and the human nature so highly
honoured that that person who is man
is true God, and is to be acknowledged
as such. 3. However small a part of
the world acknowledge Christ to be
the Lord, His glory will grow till all
reasonable creatures in heaven, earth,
and hell subject themselves to Him,
and the giving of Divine honour to
Him does in no way impair the glory
of God the Father.—Fergusson.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 12, 13.
Salvation—God’s Work and Man’s Care.
I. Salvation is a personal blessing.—“Your own salvation” (ver. 12). If
Christ died for all, then he died for me and I may be saved. It matters little if
others are being saved unless I am saved myself. It is impossible to be genuinely
interested in the salvation of others unless we are saved ourselves. Salvation
deals with the individual; it gathers its trophies one by one. “I have read of
some seas,” writes Bunyan, “so pure and clear that a man may see the bottom,
though they be forty feet deep. I know this river is a deep river, but it is not said
that we can see no bottom.” The comparison implies that a man with good eyes
may see the bottom. So, then, we shall look down through these crystal streams
and see what be at the bottom of all. The bottom of all is that we might be
saved. “These things I say,” saith Christ, “that ye might be saved.” What a
good, sound bottom is here! This salvation admits man to a wealth of blessings
impossible to estimate. Salvation should therefore be sought by every man
earnestly, believingly, promptly.
II. Salvation needs constant personal care.—“Work out your own salvation
with fear and trembling” (ver. 12).
1. The Christian worker is surrounded with spiritual perils.—The apostle has
referred to these perils in warning the Philippians against pride, selfishness,
faction, and vain boasting (vers. 3, 4). To secure his salvation the believer must
not only work, but work with circumspection, with vigilance, with fear and
trembling. “God does not give the flower and the fruit of salvation, but the
seed, the sunshine, and the rain. He does not give houses, nor yet beams and
squared stones, but trees, rocks, and limestone, and says, ‘Now build thyself a
house.’ Regard not God’s work within thee as an anchor to hold thy bark firmly
to the shore, but as a sail which shall carry it to its port. Fear thy depression
and faint-heartedness, but take courage at thy humility before God” (Lange).
2. Personal care the more necessary when deprived of the oversight of a loved
teacher.—“Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my
presence only, but now much more in my absence” (ver. 12). The Philippians
had shown a spirit of ready obedience both to the apostle and to God, and they
are urged to increased diligence. The apostle’s “absence did not make the
obligation less imperative, but it demanded more earnestness and vigilance from
them in the discharge of the duty. His voice and person were a guide and
stimulant and excited them to assiduous labour, so that his presence among
them wrought like a charm. And now that he was not with them, and they
were left to themselves, they were so much the more to double their diligence
and work out salvation with fear and trembling—with distrust of themselves,
earnest solicitude in every duty, humble reliance on Divine aid, with the abiding
consciousness that after all they come far short of meeting obligation” (Eadie).
III. Salvation is a Divine work.—1. God is pleased to work in us to create a
right disposition.—“It is God that worketh in you to will . . . of His good pleasure”
(ver. 13). The desire for salvation and the disposition and the to seek it come
from God. As the sun warms the earth and helps the flower to grow and bloom,
so the Spirit of God warms the heart and calls for the growth and blossom of
Christian graces. God does not take out mental and moral apparati and put
in a new set, like the works of a clock; but He encourages us to use the powers
already within and breathes upon us the vitalising influence of His Spirit, so
that we produce results in harmony with His will.
2. God is pleased to work in us to confer the moral ability to work.—“God worketh
in you . . . to do of His good pleasure” (ver. 13). Some men have ability to do
great things, but have not the disposition; others may have the disposition, but
not the ability. In the work of our salvation God gives both the disposition
and the power. Because God works in us we may work; because He works in
us we must work out our own salvation. The means of salvation are within
our reach; it is our part to use them. How does the miner get out of the pit?
There is a string at the bottom; he pulls it; a bell at the top rings; a rope,
worked by a steam-engine, is let down, and in this way he ascends to the top.
A man gets down into the pit of trouble; he cannot get up himself; he must
ring the bell of prayer; God will hear it and send down the rope that is to lift
him out. Man can do nothing without God, and God will do nothing without
the willing co-operation of man.
Lessons.—1. Salvation is possible for every man. 2. Salvation may be secured
by man yielding to the Divine influences working within him. 3. If man is not
saved, it is his own fault.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 12, 13. Divine and Human
Co-operation in Man’s Salvation.
I. The salvation to be wrought out.—Salvation
simply means deliverance.
It may be either temporal or spiritual,
or both. The process of salvation is to
be continuous.
II. In the work of our salvation
Divine and human co-operation is
necessary.—Illustrated in the products
of nature, in works of art and
skill. 1. God works in us by the light
of His truth. 2. By appealing to us
with the influence of powerful motives.
3. Works in us by the influences of His
Spirit.
III. Seek to ascertain to what
extent we are indebted for our
personal salvation to God working in
us.—Our salvation from first to last is
from God; that we are saved by grace,
yet not so as to destroy our own effort.
He produces in us the will and power.
We are to exercise the will and power
by repenting, believing, and living a
life of holiness.
IV. Why we are to work out our own
salvation with fear and trembling.—Because
of the possibility of our unfaithfulness.
May be too sure of salvation,
and too doubtful.—J. C. Symons.
The Active Exertion of Man in working
out his Salvation harmonises with
the Free Grace of God as being the Sole
Author of it.—There are two facts connected
with the deliverance of the
Israelites out of Egypt—their preservation
in the wilderness, and their settlement
in the land of Canaan—to which
I would solicit your attention.
I. That all was done for them by
God, and is to be ascribed solely, from
first to last, to His almighty power
and grace.—1. The means by which
the establishment of the Israelites in
the Promised Land was effected were
evidently beyond the reach of human
agency. 2. Even in those particular
cases in which the active exertions of
the Israelites were employed as the
means of their deliverance or success
the whole is ascribed to God. (1) He
gave them courage to fight against
their enemies; (2) He gave them
success by sending terror into the
hearts of their enemies.
II. That although God thus did
everything for them, He did it in
such a way as to bring every power of
their minds and bodies into exercise,
and to render their own activity absolutely
necessary to their preservation
and success.—Illustrated in the
passage of the Red Sea, and in the
first battle of the Israelites with
the Amalekites (Exod. xvii. 8).
Lessons.—1. As the deliverance of
the Israelites and their establishment in
Canaan was wholly of God, so the salvation
of every sinner is to be ascribed
solely and entirely to His mercy and
power. 2. As God required the Israelites
to be active, watchful, diligent, ardent,
and strenuous in their exertions to overcome
difficulties and to defeat their
enemies, so He requires His people to
make their calling and election sure, to
work out their salvation with fear and
trembling.—Although God does all for
us in the matter of our salvation,
yet He places us in situations where
we must exert ourselves or perish.—Anonymous.
The Co-operation of Human and
Divine Agency in our Salvation.
I. This co-operation of Divine and
human energies has place in all the
most important facts and pursuits that
make up the history of man.—1. It
is true of the commencement of our
being. 2. Our growth and education
are the result of the same joint agency.
3. This fundamental law reigns over
all the works of man.
II. What does God accomplish and
what does He demand of us in the
joint working out of our salvation?—1 God
works in us by the light of His
truth. 2. By the power of motives.
3. By the energy of His Spirit.
III. What is the intent and object
of these Divine operations?—1. They
are not designed to transform the character
as, when after conversion, they are
media of sanctification. 2. Human
co-operation is the indispensable condition
of progress. 3. Will and do. These
describe the duty of the unconverted
man.—S. Olin, D.D.
Man’s Work and God’s Work.
- This salvation is begun when we
believe in Christ, but it requires to be
worked out.
- The fact that God works in us
renders our working possible.
- The fact that God works in us
should make us fear and tremble.—R. Abercrombie, M.A.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 14–18.
The Lustre of a Blameless Life—
I. Suppresses all murmuring and doubt as unworthy of the children of God.—“Do
all things without murmurings and disputings: that ye may be blameless
and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke” (vers. 14, 15). As the sons of
God, distinguished by so high and holy a calling, believers should be blameless
and pure. Their spiritual integrity should lift them above the cause of blame.
To be pure and blameless they must not yield to the spirit of dissatisfaction and
doubt. “No matter what may tend to excite this spirit, it must not be indulged,
whether the temptation to it be the Divine command, the nature of the duty, the
self-denial it involves, or the opposition occasionally encountered. There was
neither grudge nor reluctance with Him whose example is described in the
preceding verses, no murmur at the depth of His condescension, or doubt as to
the amount or severity of the sufferings which for others He so willingly endured”
(Eadie).
II. Sheds a guiding light in the midst of a dark world.—“In the midst of a
crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; holding
forth the word of life” (vers. 15, 16). The Philippians were to be a light
and guide to their fellow-citizens, a people made up of Jew and pagan, moved
by tortuous and perverse impulses. Nothing would please them: give them one
argument, they cry for another; tell them of the simplicity of the Gospel, they
prefer you should dwell on its mysteries; speak of its power, they ask you to
expound its charity. The children of God are to society everywhere what the
heavenly luminaries are to the world—they are to diffuse light, and guide the
way to a better life. The star which led the wise men to Christ, the pillar of
fire which led the children of Israel into Canaan, did not only shine, but went
before them. Believers shine by the light of the Word which they hold forth,
and that light is the guide to others. Virtue should shine in cities, not in
solitudes. The Christian’s duty is here among men; and the nearer he draws to
his fellow-men, so that his religion be real and true, the more good he is likely
to do them. On the north coast of Cornwall and Devon is a lighthouse, which
first of all was placed high upon the cliffs, where the mists and fogs often obscured
and hid its brightness from the passing mariner in hours of the sorest need. So
they took it down and built it afresh on the rock out at sea, amid the waves of
that dangerous coast, there to shine where it was most necessary.
III. Supplies a prolific theme of ministerial joy.—1. A joy complete when his
work is finally appraised. “That I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have
not run in vain, neither laboured in vain” (ver. 16). The apostle had run with
the eagerness of a racer in the Isthmian games—the prizes he sought, the souls of
men; he had laboured with strenuous and persevering diligence—the wages he
sought, the souls of men; and now looking by anticipation at the results of his
apostolic toil, in the light of the great day of Christ, his greatest joy will be
that his efforts have not been in vain. His joy then will be, not in the
number and wealth of the Churches he founded, but in the spiritual progress
and advancement of the members. The results of work for Christ are
often in this world obscured and confused; but in the day of Christ all will be
clear and the work seen in all its beauty and dimensions. The joy of success is
often checkered and interrupted in this life; but yonder the joy will be complete
and full. We shall share the joy of the conquering Christ.
2. A joy not diminished though life is prematurely sacrificed.—“Yea, and if I
be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you
all” (ver. 17). The apostle’s image is that of an altar, on which the faith of
the Philippians is laid by him as priest, while his own blood is being poured out
as the usual drink-offering or libation. In the near prospect of martyrdom he
has no gloomy anticipations. Death will not terminate his joy, but accelerate it,
as it will admit him to realms where all is calm and joy and peace. Such is the
triumph of the Christian spirit; it can rejoice in tribulation and in the very
presence of death.
3. A joy in which his converts may share.—“For the same cause also do ye joy,
and rejoice with me” (ver. 18). So far from being dispirited by the prospect of
his martyrdom, the apostle calls upon them to share his joy on account of the
success of the Gospel. How often in the changeful experiences of life are joy and
sorrow mingled together. “Joy lives in the midst of the sorrow; the sorrow
springs from the same root as the gladness. The two do not clash against each
other, or reduce the emotion to a neutral indifference, but they blend into one
another, just as in the Arctic regions, deep down beneath the cold snow with its
white desolation and its barren death, you shall find the budding of the early
spring flowers and the fresh green grass; just as some kinds of fire burn below
the water; just as in the midst of the barren and undrinkable sea there may be
welling up some little fountain of fresh water that comes from a deeper depth
than the great ocean around it and pours its sweet streams along the surface of
the salt waste” (Maclaren).
Lessons.—1. A blameless life is the product of the grace of God. 2. Is a rebuke
to the wavering and inconsistent. 3. Evokes the congratulations of the good in both
worlds.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 15, 16. Christians Example to
the World.—1. Divisions and strife
grieve the Spirit and darken those
evidences of sonship which believers
in a calm and peaceful temper of
spirit used to see most clearly. 2. We
stop the mouths of enemies when our
conversation is such as may discover
to others their failings, and point out
that good way wherein they ought to
walk. 3. Suitable practice joined with
profession puts such a majesty and
splendour on truth that every Christian
is to profane men as the sun and
moon are in the firmament. 4. The
glory put on gracious souls at the
day of judgment will add to the
glory and joy of faithful ministers.—Fergusson.
Ver. 16. The Word of Life: a Living
Ministry and a Living Church.
I. To apprehend the life of the
Church we must apprehend the life
of its Head.
II. A living ministry.—1. Requires
confidence in the office and work itself.
2. Distinctness of purpose. 3. A quick
and profound sense of the nature and
dignity of the soul. 4. One that
preaches more than moral decency:
preaches piety, regeneration, and faith.
5. Must not be afraid to assert what
passes its own reason.
III. A living Church.—1. A safeguard
against dogmatism. 2. Formalism.
3. Partisanship. 4. Is a body whose
life is the life of Christ in the soul.—F. D. Huntington, D.D.
Vers. 16–18. The Joy of Ministerial
Success—
I. Sustained by the assurance of
the final approval of his heavenly
Master.—“That I may rejoice in the
day of Christ” (ver. 16).
II. Cheerfully sacrifices life itself
in the successful prosecution of his
work.—”Yea, and if I be offered
upon the sacrifice and service of your
faith, I joy, and rejoice with you
all” (ver. 17).
III. Shared by those who profit by
his ministry.—“For the same cause
also do ye joy, and rejoice with me”
(ver. 18).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 19–24.
A Projected Christian Mission—
I. Prompted by anxiety to promote the spiritual welfare of the Church.—“But
I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timotheus shortly unto you, that I also
may be of good comfort, when I know your state” (ver. 19). We have already
gathered, from our study of the epistle thus far, that the apostle was solicitous
about the spiritual state of the Philippian Church; and this visit of Timothy was
preparatory to his own coming to see them. He turns from the sadder side of
his own likely martyrdom to the more hopeful prospect of once more being in
their midst. The true minister of Christ can never forget his people, whether
present among them or absent; and his principal anxiety is to know that they
are growing in grace and Christian usefulness. He seeks to keep in touch with
them by letters or personal messengers, and the theme of his communications
will be based on their mutual interest in the cause of Christ. His movements
and wishes concerning them are all based on the will of Christ.
II. Committed to a trustworthy messenger.—1. A messenger in genuine
sympathy with the anxiety of the sender. “For I have no man likeminded, who
will naturally care for your state” (ver. 20). Timothy is of such a nature, has
a soul so like my own, that when he comes among you he will manifest a true
regard for your best interests. This choice evangelist was a native of Lycaonia,
in the centre of Asia Minor. Faithfully and lovingly taught by his mother, a
pious Jewess, to long and look for the Messiah promised to the fathers, he was
led, on Paul’s first visit to these regions, to recognise in Jesus of Nazareth the
great Deliverer and to accept Him as his Saviour. On the apostle’s second
visit, four or five years afterwards, finding Timothy highly commended by the
Christians of the district, he took him as his companion, to give such aid in
missionary work as a young man could, and to be trained for full efficiency as a
preacher of the cross. From that time onward we find him in constant connection
with the apostle, either as his companion or as carrying on some special
ministerial work which Paul had entrusted to him. His close fellowship with the
apostle gave him opportunities of becoming familiar with the great reading
themes of the Gospel, and with the high aims and motives with which his
teacher was constantly animated.
2. A messenger free from a self-seeking spirit.—“For all seek their own, not
the things which are Jesus Christ’s” (ver. 21). Among the other members of
the Church likely to be entrusted with such a mission there was no one like
Timothy—so devoted, so whole-hearted, so unselfish. The early Church was not
less free from imperfections than the modern Church; the self-seeking spirit is
as permanent as human nature. When a certain bishop was asked by an
acquaintance what was the best body of Divinity, he did not scruple to answer,
“That which can help a man to keep a coach and six horses.”
3. A messenger whose fidelity has been tested.—“But ye know the proof of him,
that, as a son with the father, he hath served with me in the gospel” (ver. 22).
Paul does not say that Timothy served him—though that was true—but served
with him in the Gospel, showing filial affection and willing obedience. The
simplicity and unselfishness, the mellow Christian wisdom, the patience and
gentleness of the apostle, fitted in with a charming meekness, unselfishness, and
affectionateness in his young friend. The apostle watched with joy the maturing
grace of his beloved companion and fellow-labourer; and Timothy was thankful
to God for giving him such a friend. The courage and fidelity of the young
evangelist had been tried in times of difficulty, and of this the apostle and the
Philippians had had many proofs. The Church was therefore ready to welcome
him with confidence and respect. The minister should be faithful to the Gospel
at all times. Oliver Millard, an earnest and popular preacher of the reign of
Louis XI., attacked the vices of the court in his sermons, and did not spare the
king himself, who, taking offence, sent the priest word that if he did not change
his tone he would have him thrown into the Seine. “The king,” replied Oliver,
“is the master to do what he pleases; but tell him that I shall reach paradise
by water sooner than he will by post-horses.” This bold answer at once amused
and intimidated the king, for he let the preacher continue to preach as he pleased
and what he pleased.
III. To be followed by a hoped-for personal visit.—“Him therefore I hope
to send presently, so soon as I shall see how it will go with me. But I trust in
the Lord that I also myself shall come shortly” (vers. 23, 24). Until his own fate
is determined, the apostle seems desirous to keep Timothy with him; but as soon
as he learned the issue, he would despatch his trusty messenger to Philippi, and
cherished the hope of coming himself. Whatever the result may be, martyrdom
or liberty, the apostle calmly and firmly trusts in the Lord.
Lessons.—1. The good are ever devising plans for the benefit of others. 2. An
earnest spirit inspires others to holy toil. 3. The best virtues are strengthened by
Christian work.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 19–24. Ministerial Anxiety for
the Welfare of the Church.—1. The
crosses and comforts of a Christian,
endued with a truly public spirit, depend
not so much upon those things which
concern himself, as those which are of
public concern to Jesus Christ and His
Church. 2. A minister imitates the
apostles in watching over their flock
when the state of souls is the object of
his care, and when the care arises, not
from constraint, but from love to the
party cared for. 3. Our own things
and the things of Christ are often in
two contrary balances. 4. The calling
of the ministry is a service, and
ministers are servants of Christ, for
the Church, and not lords over their
faith.—Fergusson.
Ver. 21. The Life of Christ the only
True Idea of Self-devotion.—A refined
selfishness is one of the worst antagonists
of the Church of Christ.
- It may consist with all the Church
requires as a condition to communion
in her fullest privileges.
- But it extinguishes all that ever
produced any great work in Christ’s
service.
- The secret of that stupendous
self-devotion which saints in all ages
have manifested is—they set up the
life of Christ before them.
- The customs of life and all the
current maxims and unwritten laws of
society maintain so tyrannous a hold
even over good minds that high and
generous tempers are chilled into
inaction.—H. E. Manning.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 25–30.
A Devoted Christian Minister—
I. A valued associate of good men.—“Epaphroditus, my brother, and companion
in labour, and fellow-soldier, but your messenger, and he that ministered
to my wants” (ver. 25). Epaphroditus had been sent by the Philippian Church
with a gift to Paul, and, pending the proposed visit of himself or Timothy, he
employs him as his messenger. The commendation of Epaphroditus indicates
the apostle’s high estimate of the character of the man—a Christian brother,
a colleague in toil, a fellow-soldier in scenes of danger and conflict. The work
of the Christian minister brings him into contact with the noblest spirits of the
times.
II. Full of sympathy for the anxieties of his people.—“For he longed after
you all, and was full of heaviness, because that ye had heard that he had been
sick” (ver. 26). It may be that Epaphroditus was the more anxious to return
to his people lest the rumour of his sickness should have disastrous consequences
on the state of his Church, that some parties between whom he had mediated
should take advantage of his prostration and fall again into animosity, or it may
be that he might dispel the distress and sorrow of his people on his own account.
This longing to see his people reveals a womanly tenderness that some men might
call weakness. Paul did not so regard it. He knew the manly robustness of
spirit, the decision, energy, and devotedness that had made Epaphroditus his
honoured companion in labour and fellow-soldier; and to him the element of
softness and sweetness brought out in the languor of the recovery exhibited a
new charm. “The best men often show a union of opposite virtues; for example,
Epaphroditus. The finest delicacy of soul which, if alone, might seem excessive
and effeminate, allies itself to a manly courage, which sets at naught life itself.
The deepest love of the Church does not exclude a most faithful attachment to
its great apostle, nor anxiety for the present moment forbid sympathy for a
distant community. One may reverence and acknowledge superior men, and yet
give all the glory to God alone; may be anxious for his own soul, and yet give
himself to the welfare of the Church and the common service of its membership”
(Lange).
III. Exposed himself to great risk in the eager discharge of duty.—“For
indeed he was sick nigh unto death: but God had mercy on him; . . . I sent him
therefore . . . that when ye see him again ye may rejoice, and that I may be the
less sorrowful” (vers. 27, 28). The sickness of Epaphroditus was probably
brought on by the risks and exposures of his journey from Philippi to Rome. It
was no easy task for a Christian, one of a sect everywhere spoken against, hated
and oppressed, having no protection from either Jewish or Roman rule, to undertake
such a mission, carrying aid to a man in prison, who was bitterly hated by
many, and over whose approaching execution they were gloating with a fiendish
satisfaction. But Epaphroditus braved all the privations and sufferings of the
perilous enterprise, and would not hesitate to acknowledge publicly before the
world that the prisoner he sought to help was his friend. Paul fully understood
all the perils of the adventure and that it had nearly cost a valuable life; he
thus specially acknowledges the mercy of God both to himself and the Philippians
and the mitigation of their mutual sorrow in the recovery of Epaphroditus.
“Life, especially the life of a faithful servant of Christ, possesses great value.
For such a life we ought to pray; and it is an act of God’s grace when it is
preserved to the Church” (Heubner). “It is a fine thing,” wrote Sailer, “if you
can say a man lived and never lifted a stone against his neighbour; but it is a
finer far if you can say also he took out of the path the stones that would have
caught his neighbour’s feet. So did Feneberg, and this his doing was his life.”
IV. Highly commended for his character and work’s sake.—“Receive him
therefore in the Lord with all gladness; and hold such in reputation: because for
the work of Christ he was nigh unto death, not regarding his life, to supply your
lack of service towards me” (vers. 29, 30). Words of highest eulogy, coming from
such a source, and uttered under such circumstances. How tender, unreserved
and unselfish are the apostle’s commendations of Timothy and Epaphroditus, and
how large and loving the heart from which they came! Even with these
friends, so dear and needful to him, the aged servant of Christ, worn with labour
and suffering, is willing, for the work of Christ, to part, and to be left alone.
And this man was notorious, a few years before, as Saul the persecutor. What
wrought the change? The glorious Gospel of the blessed God. The faithful,
conscientious, self-denying minister of the Word cannot fail to win the esteem
and love of his people.
Lessons.—1. A Christian minister has many opportunities of usefulness.
2. Should cultivate a generous and sympathetic nature. 3. Should be faithful in
all things.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 25–28. Anxieties of Ministerial
Life.—1. Ministerial employment is a
painful, laborious work, and faithful
ministers who are standard-bearers or
sentinels, and march in the front, before
the Lord’s people, have a peculiar
battle of their own for truth and
piety. 2. The Lord sometimes suffers
His servants to fall into desperate
dangers, that His mercy may be the
more seen in their delivery. 3. Courage
under sufferings for Christ,
and rejoicing in God, may consist
with moderate sorrow and heaviness.
4. The weights and griefs of the godly
do prove an occasion of rejoicing afterwards,
so the grief which the Philippians
had because of their pastor’s sickness
and apprehended death ended in joy
when they saw him in health again.—Fergusson.
Vers. 29, 30. Heroic Devotion to
Christ—
- Is wholly absorbed in the work
of Christ.
- Risks life in serving the cause
of God.
- Should be held in highest
esteem.
- Should be joyfully acknowledged
in whomsoever manifested.
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.
Ver. 1. Finally.—Lit. “as to the rest.” The apostle had intended to bring his letter to
a close, but something of which we have no information leads him to warn his readers
against Judaizers and their methods. He resumes his farewell at ch. iv. 8, yet lingers there.
To write the same things.—Whatever they may have been, they concerned the security of
his readers. His hand had so often written up in bold letters the Cave canem to warn his
unsuspecting children, that we may be allowed to think that is what he means to do again.
Ver. 2. Beware of dogs.—Who would “turn again and rend you.” If the term is a retort
on “Gentile dogs,” and looks like “railing for railing,” we may explain it by the directness
of the metaphor. Dogs and Judaizers have this in common—that they tear flesh. The
savage delight of having inflicted a wound is shown in Gal. vi. 13. Beware of the concision.—A
bitter play on the name by which the Jews thought themselves distinguished (Eph. ii. 11).
St. Paul changes the prefix, and stigmatises them as “the mutilation party.” Lightfoot gives
illustrations of this toying with words, e.g., in the complaint of an ambassador that he had
been sent, not to Spain, but to Pain.
Ver. 3. For we are the circumcision.—How completely Paul had sloughed his Rabbinic
literalism this verse clearly shows (Rom. ii. 28, 29). Which worship God in the Spirit.—See
our Lord’s words to the woman of Samaria, prophetic of the day when worship shall be
set free from its trammels and cerements (John iv. 23, 24).
Ver. 4. Though I might also have confidence in the flesh.—They will never be able to say
he “speaks evil of that which he knows not.” “If there is any profit in that direction,” he
might say, “I will set my foot as far as who goes farthest.” An argumentum ad hominem.
Ver. 5. Circumcised the eighth day.—Beginning with this he works his way, though this
and the following verses, to the climax of the straitest sect. The items of this verse have to
do with the birth and education of the apostle.
Ver. 6. Concerning zeal.—“An expression of intense irony, condemning while he seems to
exalt his former self” (Lightfoot). Righteousness which is in the law.—Legal righteousness.
Exact attention to all its manifold commands and prohibitions.
Ver. 7. What things were gain.—The various points in which I had considered myself
fortunate, giving me an advantage over others. Those I counted loss for Christ.—The tense
of the verb “counted” denotes an action the result of which continues. It leaves no place
for after-regrets, like those of the woman who stopped to look back on Sodom. St. Paul
counts his Judaism, with its emoluments, well lost. “Having found one pearl of great price,
he went and sold all that he had and bought it” (Matt. xiii. 46).
Ver. 8. Yea, doubtless, and I count, etc.—A more explicit statement of the abiding satisfaction
with the chosen lot. “I still do count.” All things.—Whatever they may be—not
simply those named above. For the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus.—“The
eminent quality of a possession attained is the ground for estimating other possessions
according to their relation to that one” (Meyer). For whom I have suffered the loss of all
things.—The words “gain” and “loss” are the same in these verses as in our Lord’s
memorable saying “What doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world and forfeit his
life?” [R.V., “soul” A.V.] (Mark viii. 36). And do count them but dung.—So R.V. text, “refuse,” margin. If
we accept the meaning “that which is thrown to the dogs,” we have an apt interpretation,
but we need to guard against attributing to the apostle subtleties of expression born in a
lexicographer’s brain.
Ver. 9. Through the faith of Christ.—Better without the article as R.V. Faith is the
medium by which righteousness comes. The righteousness which is of God.—Which originates
from God as the fount of all righteousness. By faith.—R.V. margin, “upon”; that is, resting
upon faith as its condition; above it was the medium.
Ver. 10. The power of His resurrection.—The wide-reaching and conquering force and
efficacy which render death inert (2 Tim. 1. 10) and draw “the sting of death” (1 Cor. xv.).
And the fellowship of His sufferings.—The apostle has no desire to go by any other way to
his glory than that by which his Lord went—per crucem ad lucem. Being made conformable
unto His death.—R.V. “becoming conformed.” The original is one word where we have
three, “being made conformable,” taking that lowly guise which will agree with the bearing
of Him who “took the form of a servant.” “The agony of Gethsemane, not less than the
agony of Calvary, will be reproduced, however faintly, in the faithful servant of Christ”
(Lightfoot).
Ver. 11. If by any means I might attain.—How little is there here of the spirit of those
who profess themselves “as sure of heaven as though they were there.” Meyer thinks the
expression excludes moral security, but not the certitudo salutis in itself. Unto the resurrection
of the dead.—By a very slight change “from the dead” instead of “of the dead” the
R.V. indicates rather too feebly the only use of the term in the New Testament. “From
amongst” would have been more likely to arrest attention. Whilst Meyer says the compound
word for resurretion in no way differs from the ordinary one, LIghtfoot thinks the form of
expression implies and the context requires the meaning “the final resurrection of the
righteous to a new and glorified life.”
Ver. 12. Not as though I had already attained.—The word for “attained” may possibly
refer to the turning-point in St. Paul’s history, and so the phrase would mean, “not as though
by my conversion I did at once attain.” This interpretation, which is Bishop Lightfoot’s,
is challenged by Dr. Beet. It seems preferable, on other than grammatical grounds, because
the following phrase, if we refer the former to conversion, is an advance of thought. Either
were already perfect.—Describing a present state which is the consequence of past processes.
He has not reached the condition where nothing else can be added. He is most blessed
who, as he mounts ever higher, sees perfection, like Abraham’s mount of sacrifice, “afar off.”
Ver. 13. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended.—Some think a reference to
the opinion of others lies in the words; but St. Paul seems to be denying of himself what
others asserted (in various ways) of themselves. But this one thing I do.—Lit. “but one
thing”; the words “I do” in A.V. and R.V. are a supplement. Meyer thinks it better to
supply “think.” It does not seem necessary to supply anything. “One thing” the apostle
never loses sight of; all the threads of life are gathered up into it. Forgetting the things
that are behind.—The thought of how much of the course had been covered, and how it was
done, sinks in the consideration of what has yet to be achieved. And reaching forth.—“Like
one of those eager charioteers . . . of the Circus Maximus . . . leaning forward in his flying
car, bending over the shaken rein and the goaded steed” (Farrar). St. Paul usually employs
the figure of the foot-race; and the “not looking back, which showed a right temper in a
runner, would be fatal to the charioteer” (Lightfoot).
Ver. 14. I press toward the mark.—“I hasten towards the goal” where the adjudicators
stand. For the prize of the high calling.—If the “hollow wraith of dying fame” could lead
the athletes to put forth almost superhuman effort, how much more worthy was “the
amaranthine crown of glory” (1 Pet. v. 4).
Ver. 15. As many as be perfect.—No longer novices, but having been initiated fully into
the most secret mysteries of the faith—“that Christian maturity in which one is no longer
a babe in Christ.” The reproachful irony which some detect hardly comports with the
general tone of the letter.
Ver. 16. Let us walk by the same rule.—That which had been to them the means of such
distinct progress had thus approved itself as the safe and prudent course to follow.
Ver. 17. Followers together of me.—He does not, as some ungracious pastors do, show the
steep road to perfection whilst himself staying at the wicket-gate. Like the Good Shepherd,
he leadeth his sheep.
Ver. 18. For many walk . . . the enemies of the cross of Christ.—Christians in name
only, whose loose interpretations of the perfect law of liberty make it possible to live an
animal life. The cross of Christ, symbol of His self-renunciation, should be the place of
execution for all fleshly desires of His followers; and, instead of that, these men over whom
an apostle laments have made it an opportunity of sensual gratification. They say, “We
cannot help Him; He does not heed our help; it is of little consequence how we live.”
Ver. 19. Whose end is destruction.—Beet argues from this that Universalism cannot be
true. It must be admitted that St. Paul is speaking of sins of the body, and perhaps is
thinking of the ruinous effects of fleshly indulgence. Whose god is their belly.—Against the
dominion of appetite all the teachers of mankind are at one. All agree in repudiating the
doctrine of the savage:
“I bow to ne’er a god except myself
And to my Belly, first of deities.”—Seeley.
“The self-indulgence which wounds the tender conscience and turns liberty into licence is here
condemned” (Lightfoot). Whose glory is in their shame.—Their natures are so utterly perverted
that they count that which is their degradation as matter for pride. Like the man
whom our Lord describes, such men not only “fear not God, nor regard man,” but can lightly
vaunt the fact. Who mind earthly things.—The peculiar form of expression is noteworthy.
At these men, “of the earth, earthy,” the apostle stands looking in amazement. His
expression reminds us of St. James: “Let not that man think that he shall receive anything
of the Lord; a doubleminded man, unstable in all his ways” (so the R.V.).
Ver. 20. For our conversation is in heaven.—“Our” is emphatic, contrasting with the
“earthly things” just named. “Conversation” is that to which we most readily turn, as
the needle trembles to the pole. Our hearts are with our treasure, and that is far away from
earthly things. “They that say such things declare plainly that they seek a city;” it is the
soul’s “Heimweh,” the yearning for the homeland. We must not understand the words to
mean “Our mode of speech is like that in heaven,” nor “Our habit of life is heavenly.”
The word for “conversation” means “the commonwealth,” “the greater assembly and Church
of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven” (Heb. xii. 23). From whence also we look for
the Saviour.—From that heaven, “whither the Forerunner is for us entered,” “He shall
come in like manner.” Meanwhile we stand in readiness to receive Him. The word for
“look for” (R.V. “wait for”) graphically depicts the attitude of waiting.
Ver. 21. Who shall change our vile body.—R.V. much better, “Who shall fashion anew the
body of our humiliation.” We are not to consider the body as the cause of sin, as something
outside the redemption wrought by Christ, “the Saviour of the body.” The fashioning anew
will not lose any essential part of the body. As the colours in a kaleidoscope change form
at each movement, but are yet always the same, so in the change of the body there will be
“transition but no absolute solution of continuity.” The body of our humiliation is the frail
tenement in which the exile spirit sojourns (2 Cor. v. 1–8); it is the soon-wearied companion
of an eager spirit (Matt. xxvi. 41); it “returns to the dust as it was” (Eccles. xii. 7). That
it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body.—R.V. “that it may be conformed to the
body of His glory,” as contrasted with the body of His humiliation (Phil. ii. 8), the body in
which He tabernacled amongst us (John i. 14). The power whereby He is able to subdue
all things.—He has power, not only to raise and glorify the body, but to subdue and
renovate all things.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verse 1–3.
The False and the True in Religion.
I. The false in religion evident in the character of its advocates.—“Beware
of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision” (ver 2.). “Dogs” was
an epithet expressive of great contempt, and indicative of impurity and profanity.
It was a term applied to the Judaizers, or, as Chrysostom calls them, “base and
contemptible Jews, greedy of filthy lucre and fond of power, who, desiring to
draw away numbers of believers, preached at the same time both Christianity
and Judaism, corrupting the Gospel.” They were “evil workers” causing much
spiritual mischief. They were of “the concision”—mere cutters or slashers of
the flesh. “The same men are described in each clause as impure and profane,
as working spiritual mischief, and as taken up with a puerile faith in flesh-cutting.
In this first clause you have their character, in the second their conduct,
and in the third their destructive creed. Men who insisted on circumcision as
essential to salvation made the rite ridiculous—Judaized ere they Christianised.
To circumcise a Gentile was not only to subject him to a rite which God never
intended for him, but it was to invest him with a false character. Circumcision
to him was a forgery, and he carried a lie in his person. Not a Jew, and yet
marked as one, having the token without the lineage, a seal of descent and
not a drop of Abraham’s blood in his veins. To hinge salvation, especially in
the case of a Gentile, on circumcision was such a spurious proselytism, such a
total misappreciation of the Jewish covenant, such a miserable subversion of the
liberty of the Gospel, such a perverse and superstitious reliance on a manual rite,
that its advocates might well be caricatured and branded as the concision”
(Eadie). The false in religion stands exposed and condemned by the character
and methods of its propagators.
II. The true in religion has definite characteristics.—1. In the spirituality
of its worship. “For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the Spirit”
(ver. 3). There is a great difference between the derisive use of the term
“concision” and the use of the circumcision in this verse. There is a Christian
circumcision, which is a “putting off the body of the sins of the flesh”; and this
is not a manual but a spiritual act. All that the old circumcision typified the
Christian enjoys. “The spiritual offspring of Abraham have nobler gifts by far
than his natural seed—blessing not wrapped up in civil franchise, or dependent
upon time, or restricted to territory.” The Christian has learnt that true
religion consists, not in forms and ceremonies and temporal privileges, but in a
right state of heart towards God, in a loftier worship, and a more intense
spiritual life.
2. In making Christ the basis of confident exultation.—“Finally, my brethren,
rejoice in the Lord . . . rejoice in Christ Jesus” (vers. 1, 3). Christ, and Christ
only, is the Christian’s plea, and the joyous theme of his unending song: Christ,
the Divine, all-glorious Son of God. Theodosius, in the fourth century, at one
time so far favoured the Arians as to let them open their place of worship and
labour to undermine the Divinity of Christ. Soon after this he made his son
Arcadius, a youth of sixteen, an equal partner with him in his throne; and the
noblemen and bishops were invited to come on an appointed day to congratulate
him. Among the number was Amphilocus, a famous old bishop who had bitterly
suffered in the Arian persecution. He made a very handsome address to the
emperor, and was about to take his leave, when Theodosius exclaimed: “What,
do you take no notice of my son? Do you not know that I have made him
partner with me in the empire?” Upon this the good old bishop went up to
young Arcadius, and, putting his hand upon his head, said, “The Lord bless thee,
my son.” The emperor, roused into rage by this apparent neglect, exclaimed:
“What, is this all the respect you pay to a prince that I have made of equal
dignity with myself?” Upon this the bishop, with the grandeur of an angel and
the zeal of an apostle, looking the emperor full in the face, indignantly said:
“Sire, do you so highly resent my apparent neglect of your son because I do not
give him equal honours with yourself? And what must the eternal God think
of you who have given leave to have His co-equal and co-eternal Son degraded in
His proper Divinity in every part of your empire?”
3. In distrusting the supposed virtue of outward rites.—“And have no confidence
in the flesh” (ver. 3). No confidence in the supposed good conferred by externals.
Birth and lineage, family, tribe, and nationality on the one hand, and the moral
character determined by them on the other, Paul reckons together as excellencies
and gifts of the same kind, and holds them in slight esteem compared with what
he has in Christ. The morality of men belongs to the province of the natural
life; it depends on birth, family, position, culture, time, and circumstances, and
gives reason, as does every favour, for humble thankfulness, but not for proud
boasting. Such, as contrasted with the concision, is the circumcision; the
children of believing Abraham and blessed with him; serving God by His Spirit
in a higher and more elastic worship; glorying in Him who has won such
privileges and blessings for them, and having no trust in any externals or
formalities on which the Judaizer laid such stress as securing salvation or as
bringing it within an available reach (Lange, Eadie).
III. Against the false in religion it is necessary to faithfully warn.—“Beware . . .
beware . . . beware!” (ver. 2) Like three peals of a trumpet giving
a certain blast do the three clauses sound, and the repetition reveals the intense
anxiety and earnestness of the alarmed apostle. It is the duty of the minister
to warn his people of whatever endangers their spiritual life and eternal welfare.
News came to a certain town, once and again, that the enemy was approaching;
but he did not then approach. Hereupon in anger the inhabitants enacted a
law that no man on pain of death should bring again such rumours as the news
of an enemy. Not long after the enemy came indeed, and besieged, assaulted,
and sacked the town, of the ruins of which nothing remained but this proverbial
epitaph—“Here once stood a town that was destroyed by silence.”
Lessons.—1. Genuine religion is self-evident. 2. Falseness in the garb of
religion works serious mischief. 3. True religion demands constant watchfulness.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Ver. 1. Safeguards against Error.—1. To
rejoice in Christ—to be constantly
and with delight making recourse
to Him—is a choice guard
against any error contrary to the
truths relating to Him. 2. Often
repeating and inculcating truths
that are most for edification ought
neither to be burdensome to a minister
nor yet wearied of by the people.
3. Temptations to error are covered
over with such pious pretences and
lively baits that there is need of many
guards and frequent warnings.—Fergusson.
Ver. 2. Emphatic Warnings against
False Teachers—
- Because of their snarling methods
and insatiable greed.—“Beware of
dogs.”
- Because of their wicked and
destructive policy.—“Beware of evil
workers.”
- Because their zeal is wholly
misdirected and injurious.—“Beware
of the concision.”
Ver. 3. Spiritual Circumcision—
- Is an inward and conscious
spiritual change.—“For we are the
circumcision.”
- While reverently using outward
forms of worship is superior to
them.—“Which worship God in the
Spirit.”
- Finds its joy in living union
with Christ.—“And rejoice in Christ
Jesus.”
- Repudiates all ordinances that
divert from Christ.—“And have no
confidence in the flesh.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 4–8.
External Religionism incomparable with the True Knowledge of Christ.
I. The highest example of external religionism affords no ground for confident
boasting (vers. 4–6).—External religionism had its most complete embodiment
in Paul. He was its most zealous devotee, its ablest champion. These verses
describe the best eulogy that can be given of the observer of external rites. By
birth, lineage, training, ability, consistency of character, and sincerity of aim,
Paul was an ideal Jew, a model all his countrymen might aspire to copy. If
there was ground for boasting, no one had a greater right than he. He needed
no Christ, no Saviour; he was well able to look after himself. But one day the
discovery came that all this glorying was vain; instead of gaining salvation he
was farther from it than ever, and in danger of losing everything. Religious
progress is often more apparent than real. When Captain Parry and his party
were in search of the North Pole, after travelling several days with sledges over
a vast field of ice, on taking a careful observation of the pole-star, the painful
discovery was made that, while they were apparently advancing towards the pole,
the ice-field on which they were travelling was drifting to the south, and bringing
them nearer to the verge, not of the pole, but of destruction.
II. The supposed gains of external religionism are for Christ’s sake esteemed
as loss.—“But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ”
(ver. 7). Not losses, compared with the plural of gains; but all the supposed
gains are treated as one great loss, and this after the most careful scrutiny and
calculation. “I counted loss.” The swelling sum of fancied virtues, painfully
gathered and fondly and proudly contemplated, vanishes into nothing at one
stroke of the discriminating pen. All that was prized as valuable, and as the
all of personal possession, is regarded as dross, because of Christ. They did not
help him to win Christ, but to lose Him; the more he gained in self-righteousness
the more he lost of Christ. It was not only profitless, but productive of
positive loss.
III. The surpassing excellency of the knowledge of Christ renders external
religionism utterly worthless.—“I count all things but loss for the excellency of
the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord; . . . and do count them but dung [refuse],
that I may win Christ” (ver. 8). The gains were: circumcision performed
without any deviation from legal time or method; membership in the house of
Israel, and connection with one of its most honoured tribes; descent from a long
line of pure-blood ancestry; adherence to a sect whose prominent distinction was
the observance of the old statutes; earnest and uncompromising hostility to a
community accused of undermining the authority of the Mosaic code, and a merit
based on blameless obedience to the law. These once gloried and confided in
were counted as a loss, for the sake of a superior gain in the excellency of the
knowledge of Christ. He was no loser by the loss he had willingly made, for the
object of knowledge was the Divine Saviour. Is it not super-eminent knowledge
to know Him as the Christ; to know Him as Jesus, not because he wears our
nature, but because we feel His human heart throbbing in unison with ours
under trial and sorrow; to know Him as Lord, not simply because He wears a
crown and wields a sceptre, but because we bow to His loving rule and gather
the spoils of the victory which He has won and secured? The apostle made a just
calculation, for neither ritualism, nor Israelitism, nor Pharasaism, nor zealotism,
nor legalism could bring him those blessing with which the knowledge of Christ
was connected; nay, until they were held as loss this gain of gains could not be
acquired (Eadie). As with the two scales of a balance, writes Rieger, when
one rises the other falls, and what I add to one diminishes the relative weight of
the other; so as one adds to himself he takes away from the pre-eminence which
the knowledge of Christ should have. What he concedes to Christ makes him
willing to abase himself, to resign all confidence in His own works. Therefore
the sharp expressions, “to count as loss, as dung,” become in experience not
too severe; for to reject the grace of Christ, to regard the great plan of God in
sending His Son as fruitless, were indeed far more terrible.
Lessons.—1. The highest kind and supreme end of all knowledge is the knowledge
of Christ. 2. True religion is the spiritual knowledge of Christ. 3. Religion
without Christ is an empty form.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 4–7. Formalism tested and
found wanting
- The best that formalism can do
for man, in religious lineage, reputation,
zeal, and strictest outward observances,
has been experimentally
exemplified (vers. 5, 6).
- The most distinguished champion
of formalism has confessed its
utter inadequacy to satisfy the soul
(ver. 4).
- The highest advantages of
formalism are worthless compared with
Christ (ver. 7).
Ver. 8. The Excellent Knowledge of
Christ—
I. Is extensive.—Apprehends Him in
all those notions and respects wherein
the Gospel principally discovers Him.
II. Appropriating.—Christ Jesus my
Lord.
III. Effectual.—Has a powerful
efficacy both upon heart and life, both
upon judgment, affection, and practice.
IV. Fiducial.—It brings the soul to
rest upon Christ and His righteousness
alone for pardon, acceptance, salvation.
V. Useful.—He that has it studies
to improve Christ, to make use of Him
for those blessed and glorious purposes
for which he knows Christ is given.
VI. Christ Himself is most excellent.—1. There
is nothing in Him but
what is excellent. 2. All excellencies
in the creatures are eminently to be
found in Christ. 3. All these excellencies
are in Him in a more excellent
manner; perfectly, without any shadow
of imperfection; infinitely, without any
bounds or limits; eternally and unchangeably,
they ebb not, they wane
not, they are always there in the full,
they alter not, they decay not. 4. Not
only all that are in the creatures, but
innumerable more excellencies than
are in all the creatures together, are
in Christ alone.
VII. Those that have attained the
excellent knowledge of Christ will not
think much to lose all things to gain
Christ.—1. All outward enjoyments
and earthly possessions. 2. Personal
righteousness as a means of justification.—David Clarkson.
The Excellency of the Knowledge of
Christ.
- To know Christ in the Divinity of
His person is excellent knowledge.
- To know Christ in the glory of
His redemption is excellent knowledge.
- The comparative worthlessness
of all else.—1. Wealth. 2. Worldly
honour. 3. Human learning. 4. Mere
morality.
The Excellency of the Knowledge of
Christ.
- Is pre-eminent excellence is to be
found in its certainty.—Proved by—1. Prophecy.
2. Miracles. 3. Experience.
- In its majesty and grandeur.
- It its suitableness and adaptation.
- In its comprehensiveness.
- The knowledge of Christ is
sanctifying.—R. Watson.
Christ the Only Gain.
- To count Him gain.
- To covet and seek Him as gain.
- To appropriate Him as gain.
- To enjoy Him as gain.—R. S. Candlish.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 9–11.
Features of the Believer’s Life in Christ.
I. The believer’s life has its home and stronghold in Christ.—“And be found
in Him” (ver. 9). Once lost, now found: found by Christ; found in Him by
others. Once homeless, now safely sheltered. One day Charles Wesley was
sitting by an open window looking over the bright and beautiful fields in summertime.
Presently a little bird, flitting about in the sunshine, attracted his
attention. Just then a hawk came swooping down towards the little bird. The
frightened thing was darting here and there, trying to find some place of refuge.
In the bright sunny air, in the leafy trees or green fields, there was no hiding-place
from the fierce grasp of the hawk. But seeing the open window and a
man sitting by it, the bird, in its extreme terror, flew towards it, and with
a beating heart and quivering wing found refuge in Wesley’s bosom. He
sheltered it from the threatening danger, and saved it from a cruel death.
Wesley was at that time suffering from severe trials, and was feeling the need
of a refuge as much as the trembling bird that nestled safely in his bosom. So
he took up his pen and wrote the well-known hymn—
“Jesu, Lover of my soul,
Let me to Thy bosom fly.”
To be found in Christ means more than mere shelter, more than external fellowship.
It means a union as close and vital and abiding as between the members
of the body and the head; a union effected by the Spirit, and being the very
Spirit of Christ dwelling in us.
II. The believing life consists of righteousness, not self-acquired, but
Divinely inspired through faith.—“Not having mine own righteousness, but
that which is through the faith of Christ” (ver. 9). The apostle now touches
upon a theme—justification by faith—which he has argued out with a clearness
and fulness unequalled by any other New Testament writer. The righteousness
which was his own was out of the law, or originated by the law, and was
acquired by his own effort; but the righteousness which he finds in Christ is not
his own, but God’s, and is acquired, not by his merits or efforts, but by faith
in Christ. “This righteousness, Divine in its origin, awful in its medium, and
fraught with such results, was the essential element of Paul’s religion, and the
distinctive tenet of his theology.” When a friend happening to say to the Rev.
John Brown, of Haddington, “I suppose you make not your labours for the
good of the Church the ground of your comfort,” he, with uncommon earnestness,
replied, “No, no no! it is the finished righteousness of Christ which is the only
foundation of my hope; I have no more dependence on my labours than on my
sins. I rather reckon it a wonder of mercy that God took any of my labours
of my hand. Righteousness belongeth unto Him, but unto me shame and
confusion of face.”
III. The believer’s life is the creation of Divine power.—1. It is a life communicated
by the exercise of the Divine power that raised Christ from the dead.
“That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection” (ver. 10). The
power exerted by Christ’s resurrection is exerted in raising the Divine life in the
believing soul, and raising it to still higher developments of power and enjoyment.
The aspirations of the soul after Christ are aspirations to know more
and more the power of His resurrection.
2. It is a life that will be consummated by the ultimate resurrection of the body.—“If
by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead” (ver. 11).
Towards this consummation the apostle yearns with intense desire. All his
hopes, all his soul longed for, seem gathered up in this: perfect freedom for ever
from sin and sorrow; knowledge of Christ up to the fullest measure of his
capacity of knowledge; perfect experimental acquaintance with the power of
His resurrection, through perfect fellowship of life with Him; the ineffable and
everlasting blessedness of being with Him and like Him; to rise out of the
ashes of the tomb and assume the glorious body of the resurrection. We can
never forget a corridor in the Vatican Museum, exhibiting on the one side
epitaphs and emblems of departed heathens and their gods, and on the other
side mementoes of departed Christians. Face to face they stand, engaged, as it
were, in conflict, the two armies clinging to their respective standards; hope
against despair—death swallowed up in victory. Opposite to lions seizing on
horses, emblems of destruction, are charming sculptures of the Good Shepherd
bearing home the lost lamb—a sign of salvation.
IV. The believer’s life is in sympathetic fellowship with the suffering Christ—“And
to know the fellowship of His sufferings” (ver. 10). The sufferings of
Christ are not ended—they are prolonged in the sufferings of His people—and
of these the apostle desired to know the fellowship. He longed so to suffer, for
such fellowship gave him assimilation to his Lord, as he drank of His cup and
was baptised with His baptism. It brought him into communion with Christ,
purer, closer, and tenderer than simple service for Him would have achieved.
It gave him such solace as Christ Himself enjoyed. To suffer together creates
a dearer fellow-feeling than to labour together. Christ indeed cannot be
known unless there be this fellowship in His sufferings (Eadie). An intimate
friend of Handel’s called upon him just as he was in the middle of setting the
words to music, “He was despised,” and found the great composer sobbing with
tears, so greatly had this passage and the rest of the morning’s work affected the
master.
Lessons.—1. The soul finds its highest life in Christ. 2. Life in Christ is
secured by the co-operation of man’s faith with Divine power. 3. To live in
Christ is to share the fruits of His mysterious passion.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Ver. 10. Knowledge of the Power of
Christ’s Resurrection.
- To know Christ includes a clearly
defined conception and familiar acquaintance
with the special characteristics
and unrivalled excellencies
of His person.
- To know the power of His resurrection.—1. As
it is a public and universal
vindication of the proper dignity
of His person. 2. As it seals the doom
of human sin. 3. As it ensures the
destruction of pain and death, and provides
for the perpetuation of the believer
in a state of immortal felicity.
The Power of Christ’s Resurrection—
- As a miracle attesting His Divine
mission.
- As an evidence of His Divinity.—Resurrection
does not always prove
Divinity, but in these circumstances
(Rom. i. 3, 4).
- As an indication of the acceptance
of His sacrifice.
- As an incentive to the pursuit
of holiness.—Risen with Christ; risen
in Him, sharing His life.
- As an instrument of social
amelioration.—The Gospel has civilised
where it has not Christianised, has
repressed and refined where it has not
renewed or regenerated.
- As a pledge and preassurance
of the glorious resurrection of His
people.—G. Brooks.
The Fellowship of Christ’s Sufferings.
- We have fellowship with Christ
in His sufferings in the pain caused
by coming in contact with sin.
- In having our motives misinterpreted
and our conduct misjudged.
- In the purifying influence of
suffering.
Ver. 11. The Resurrection of the
Dead as an Object to aim at.
I. The object which Paul contemplated.—1. The
resurrection as the proof
of final escape from all evil. 2. The
resurrection as the occasion of public
recognition by the Saviour-Judge.
3. The resurrection as the pledge of eternal
happiness in heaven.
II. His desire for that object.—It
supplies—1. A high appreciation of its
value. 2. A deep sense of its difficulty.
3. A persuasion that it may be attained
in various degrees. 4. A submission to
all the Divine arrangements in reference
to it.—G. Brooks.
The Resurrection of the Just.
I. What is that entire satisfaction
and climax for which we are to long
and labour?
II. What are the scriptural representations
of its accompaniments and
consequences?—1. The power of recognising
all those whom they have known
in holy fellowship on earth. 2. The
resemblance of our nature to Christ.
3. High honour is destined for
Christians.
III. What are the determinations
by which it is to be won?—1. The
relation which the present happy spiritualism
of deceased saints bears to the
resurrection. 2. The representation of
the intermediate state. It is a relic and
disadvantageous condition of death,
though of death as far as possible
mitigated. It shall be overthrown,
not only as a state, but as a separate
power, in the destruction of death.—R. W. Hamilton.
The Attainment of the Resurrection.
I. Paul’s aim.—“The resurrection
of the dead.” 1. The risen Christ is the
pledge of a risen life for man. 2. The
rising of Christ is a power to elevate life.
3. Hence arises the gradual attainment
of the resurrection.
II. Paul’s endeavour.—“If by any
means.” The necessity for this agonising
endeavour arises from—1. The
difficulty of accomplishing it. 2. The
glory of its attainment.—E. L. Hull.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 12–16.
The Highest Type of Christian Experience.
I. The highest type of Christian experience is Divinely outlined in Christ.—“That
for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus” (ver. 12). “The prize
of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (ver. 14). The prize is not definitely
described, but God through the Gospel calls upon the soul to take hold of some
great, dimly portrayed good, some rich spiritual blessing, some fulness and
splendour of character to be secured by a fuller knowledge of Christ. If we
say the prize is heaven or the kingdom of God, what is the heavenly kingdom
but the fulness of Christ? Though not explained in detail, the prize is sufficiently
outlined in Christ, by the master-hand of the Divine Artist, as to make it an
object of intense longing and strenuous effort to possess. The soul yearns to
attain a moral and spiritual perfection found only in Christ, and which the
unending development of the beauties of His character are constantly disclosing
in ever-growing splendour, and which closer union with Him alone can seize and
appropriate.
II. The effort to attain the highest type of Christian experience is stimulated
by conscious defect.—“Not as though I had already attained, either were
already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend” (ver. 12). The
more clearly the apostle saw his privilege in Christ, the more conscious was he
of his shortcomings. There is no progress possible to the man who does not see
and mourn over his defects. “The soul of all improvement is the improvement
of the soul;” and it is only a keen sense of need that stimulates the soul to
continuous and repeated efforts. The ideal is ever ahead of the actual, revealing
its defects and exciting to fresh and more earnest endeavours.
III. The highest type of Christian experience is attained only by strenuous
and continuous effort.—“But this one thing I do, . . . I press toward the mark”
(vers. 13, 14). The racer, fixing his eye upon the goal, leans forward, and
turning his back upon things behind, presses with all speed towards the prize he
covets. If he turns aside, he misses the mark and loses the garland. The great
prizes of life are gained only by persevering labour. However prodigious may
be the gifts of genius they can only be developed and brought to perfection by
toil and study. Think of Michelangelo working for a week without taking off
his clothes, of Handel hollowing every key of his harpsichord like a spoon by
incessant practice, and of the sculptor polishing his statue with unwearied
repetitions because he said, “the image in my head is not yet in my hands.” The
prize of the Christian race—the crown of eternal life and blessedness—is worthy
of the most laborious and self-denying efforts. When at times the heart grows
weary in the struggle, a glimpse of the diadem of beauty obtained by faith revives
the flagging energies.
IV. Those who do not see the obligation of striving after the highest type
of Christian experience shall be aided with Divine light.—“If in anything ye
be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you” (ver. 15). The
difference of view was not some wilful and wicked conception, or some wretched
prejudice adhered to with inveterate or malignant obstinacy. It was rather
some truth not fully seen in all its bearings, some principle not so perceived as
to be carried out in all its details and consequences, some department of duty
which they might apprehend rather than appreciate, or some state of mind
which they might admire in the apostle, but did not really covet for themselves.
The apostle throws his own teaching into the shade, and ascribes the coming
enlightenment to God (Eadie). The man who is honestly in pursuit of the highest
good, though led away for a time by erroneous views, shall not lack the light he
sincerely seeks. The light which will help him most must be light from God.
V. All progress towards the highest Christian experience must be on the
lines of real progress already made.—“Whereto we have already attained, let
us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing” (ver. 16). Every
victory over self and sin is a stepping-stone to further triumphs. The struggle
of to-day will be the victory of to-morrow. Our most helpful lessons are
gathered from our failures. Our present blessings were obtained through faith
and labour; our next must be gained in the same way. God will give more
light to the man who rightfully uses what he has. “When the morning bursts
suddenly on one awakened out of sleep, it dazzles and pains him; but to him
who, on his journey, has blessed the dawn and walked by its glimmer, the solar
radiance brings with it a gradual and cheering influence.”
Lessons.—1. Christ is the sum and pattern of the highest good. 2. Progress
in religious experience is a growing likeness to Christ. 3. The soul retains its
highest enjoyment and power only in Christ.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Ver. 13. The Happy Day and its
Sequel.
- St. Paul did not forget the circumstances
of his arrest by Jesus.
- St. Paul’s remembrance of his
arrest led to a practical inquiry as to
its purpose.
- The purpose of his arrest by
Christ Jesus is before and not behind
him, even in his old age.
- What is the mark to which he
presses onward?—1. A perfect likeness
to Christ. 2. A perfect service. 3. The
reward in heaven.—W. Hawkins.
Vers. 13, 14. Pressing toward the
Mark.
I. The apostle’s sense of his own
shortcomings.—1. It argued a high
estimate of a Christian’s duty. Perfection
is his aim, although not his
attainment.
2. It argued a humble estimate of
himself.—Though the most eminent
Christian on earth, he was fully conscious
of his own imperfection.
II. The apostle’s method of Christian
progress.—1. The concentration of
his energies. Many things he did, and
he did them wholly. But he made
them all subservient to his one idea,
which thus unified them all. Decision
of character.
2. Oblivion of the past.—A wonderful
past was his, but he forgot it,
except as it might supply a stimulus
to his future advances—past times,
past pleasures, past sins, past labours,
past attainments. The past must
have dwelt in his memory, but it did
not satisfy him. “Onward” was his
motto, and every day he began his
race afresh.
3. Untiring activity.—He had the
goal ever in his eye; he often
measured the distance between him
and the goal; he stretched every nerve
to reach the goal. (1) Do we resemble
Paul in his aim? (2) Do we
resemble Paul in his efforts?—G. Brooks.
Aim High—
- In pursuit of moral excellence.
- Intellectual character.
- Active usefulness.
Lessons.—1. God Himself has commanded
it. 2. Society expects it of you.
3. The age in which you live demands
it.—E. D. Griffin.
Vers. 15, 16. The Temper to be cultivated
by Christians of Different Denominations
toward each other.
I. Those who adhere to this rule.—1. Seek
and cultivate their society.
2. Use means to promote the mutual
improvement of these persons and of
ourselves. 3. Do all we can to render
our mutual reciprocal union more perfect
and our usefulness more extensive.
II. Those who differ from us in
matters of great importance.—1. Give
consideration to the way in which their
religious characters have been formed.
2. Pay regard to the difficulties and
misapprehensions which lie in the use
of words. 3. Reflect what would
probably have been the effects upon our
minds had we been placed in their circumstances.
4. Act towards them with
justice and kindness.
III. Those who differ from us in
matters of smaller moment.—1. Show
them sincere and honest respect and
kindness. 2. Cultivate friendly intercourse
with them as far as they are disposed
to reciprocate such intercourse.
3. Show that we esteem the essential
principle of the Gospel more than controversial
preciseness and ecclesiastical
form.—J. P. Smith.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 17–19.
Good and Bad Examples.
I. A good example should be attentively studied.—“Mark them which walk
so as ye have us for an ensample” (ver. 17). We cannot imitate what we do not
see and know. It will help us to be good if we carefully watch and meditate on
the conduct of the truly good. The best example of uprightness and consistency
is worthy of the most painstaking study. “Wherever they found the life of the
apostle imitated and displayed the Philippians were to mark it and make it their
pattern. Any excellence which they thus discovered they might by God’s grace
attain to. It was not some distant spectacle they were to gaze at and admire,
but an embodiment of earnest faith, walking on the same platform with them.,
and speaking, acting, praying, suffering, and weeping among them. What had
been possible to others was surely not impossible to them” (Eadie). A Polish
prince was accustomed to carry the picture of his father always in his bosom,
and on particular occasions used to take it out and view it, saying, “Let me do
nothing unbecoming so excellent a father.”
II. A good example should be faithfully imitated.—“Brethren, be followers
together of me” (ver. 17). Paul had studied profoundly the character of
Christ, and was earnestly striving to follow Him. He therefore exhorts the
Philippians to imitate him as he sought to imitate Christ; or rather, as Bengel
puts it, he invites them to be “fellow-imitators of Christ.” To imitate Christ is
not copying Him in every particular. We cannot follow Him as Saviour,
Mediator, Redeemer. What is meant is, that we are to do our work in the
Spirit of Christ, as He would do it. He who follows Christ never misses the
right way, and is always led on to victory. When in the Mexican war the troops
were wavering, a general rose in his stirrups and dashed into the enemies’ lines,
shouting, “Men, follow me!” They, inspired by his courageous example,
dashed on after him and gained the victory. What men want to rally them for
God is an example to lead them.
III. A bad example is in antagonism to the highest truth.—“Many walk, of
whom I have told you, . . . they are the enemies of the cross of Christ” (ver. 18).
Professed friends, dubious in their attachment and promises, are enemies of
Christ, and of the great movement in human redemption represented by His
cross. While professing to maintain the doctrines of the cross, by their wicked
lives they are depreciating them.
1. A bad example is set by those who concentrate their chief thought on the
material.—“Who mind earthly things” (ver. 19). The world has many attractions,
but it has also many dangers. To be wholly absorbed in its pursuits
weans the soul from God and holiness and heaven. Gosse tells us, in his
Romance of Natural History, of certain animals which inhabit the coral reefs.
So long as they keep the passage to the surface clear they are safe; but, this
neglected, the animal finds the coral has grown around it and enclosed it in a
living tomb. And so it is with the life of the soul on earth. The world is
around us everywhere; the danger is when we allow it to grow between our souls
and God.
2. A bad example is set by those who are supremely controlled by their sensual
appetites.—“Whose God is their belly” (ver. 19). The desires of the flesh
invite to self-indulgence—to gluttony, revelling, drunkenness; to gaudiness,
extravagance, and immodesty of dress; to impurity of speech and conduct. A
sensual man looks as if lust had drawn her foul fingers over his features and
wiped out the man. The philosopher Antisthenes, who had a contempt for all
sensual enjoyment, used to say, “I would rather be mad than sensual.”
3. A bad example is set by those who gloat in their degradation.—“Whose glory
is in their shame” (ver. 19). Man has reached the lowest depth of vice when
he boasts in what is really his shame. The last rag of modesty is thrown aside.
“These enemies of the cross were not hypocrites, but open and avowed sensualists,
conscious of no inconsistency, but rather justifying their vices, and thus perverting
the Gospel formally for such detestable conduct.”
4. The end of a bad example is ruin.—“Whose end is destruction” (ver. 19).
Evil is the broad way that leadeth to destruction. Sin must be inevitably
punished; it works its own fate—“sin when it is finished bringeth forth death.”
Judge Buller, speaking to a young gentleman of sixteen, cautioned him against
being led astray by the example or persuasion of others, and said, “If I had
listened to the advice of some of those who called themselves my friends, when
I was young, instead of being a judge of the King’s Bench, I should have died
long ago a prisoner in the King’s prison.”
IV. Professed members of the Church who set a bad example are the occasion
of constant solicitude and sorrow to the truly good.—“For many walk, of
whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping” (ver. 18). Even
when denouncing the worst sins, the apostle does it, not with harshness and
imperious superiority, but with the greatest tenderness and grief. The anxious
minister may well weep over the folly and delusion of half-hearted adherents,
over their false and distorted conceptions of the Gospel, over the reproach
brought against the truth by their inconsistent and licentious lives, and over
their lamentable end. The conduct of sinners is more a matter of heart-breaking
sorrow than of wrathful indignation.
Lessons.—1. Example is more potent than precept. 2. A bad example should
be carefully shunned. 3. A good example should be diligently imitated.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Ver. 17. Imitation of the Good—
- Possible only where there is a
sympathetic resemblance to and admiration
of the character sought to be
copied.—“Brethren.”
- Is easier when joined with those
who have similar aims.—“Be followers
together of me.”
- Is aided by careful observation
and study.—“Mark them.”
- Every good man is an example
for others to imitate.—“So as ye have
us for an ensample.”
Vers. 18, 19. Enemies of the
Cross—
- Deny the efficacy and purpose of
Christ’s sufferings.
- Are incompetent to appreciate
the spiritual significance of the cross.—“Who
mind earthly things.”
- Are the victims of sensuality.—“Whose
god is their belly.”
- Are degraded beyond all bounds
of modesty.—“Whose glory is in their
shame.”
- Will be inevitably punished.—“Whose
end is destruction.”
- Are the cause of much grief to
those who must constantly expose them.—“Of
whom I have told you often, and
now tell you even weeping.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 20, 21.
Christian Citizenship—
I. Has its centre of life and privileges in heaven.—“For our conversation
[citizenship] is in heaven” (ver. 20). To show the contrast between the earthly
things which absorb the thought of the worldly, and the things of heaven, the
apostle proceeds to indicate that the life of the believer, even on earth, is
associated with the privileges and blessings of the heavenly commonwealth, of
which he is a member. In this world the Christian is but a stranger—living
in temporary exile. His city, his home, is in heaven. Longing to enter into
possession of all the privileges of the heavenly franchise, earthly things have no
attraction for him, and he seeks to act in harmony with his high destiny.
II. Is assured of the deliverance of its members from the perils and hardships
of earth.—“From whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus
Christ” (ver. 20). The apostle characterises Jesus as Saviour, or as expected
in the character of Saviour, and thus suggests an awful contrast, in point of
destiny, between himself and those like-minded with him, and the party reprobated
by him in the two preceding verses. Their end is destruction, but ours is
salvation; to the one He descends as Judge, but to us as Saviour. If there be
such visible difference in present character, there is a more awful contrast in
ultimate destiny—the two poles of humanity—everlasting punishment; eternal
life (Eadie). The great Deliverer will emancipate us from the thraldom, suffering,
and sorrow of the present world, and complete in its fulness the salvation which
is now in process.
III. Has the confident hope of future dignity and blessedness.—1. The body
of humiliation shall be transformed into the likeness of Christ’s glorified body.
“Who shall change our vile body, that it may fashioned like unto His
glorious body” (ver. 21). The body of our humiliation connects us with the soil,
out of which it was formed, and by the products of which it is supported, on
which it walks, and into which it falls at death. It keeps us in constant physical
connection with earth, whatever be the progress of the spirit towards its high
destiny—its commonwealth in heaven. It limits intellectual power and development,
impedes spiritual growth and enjoyment, and is soon fatigued with the
soul’s activity. In it are the seeds of disease and pain, from functional disorder
and organic malady. It is an animal nature which, in spite of a careful and
vigilant government, is prone to rebellious outbreaks. But this body is reserved
to a high destiny: it shall be like Christ’s heavenly body. The brightness of
heaven does not oppress Him, neither shall it dazzle us. Our humanity dies
indeed, and is decomposed; but when He appears, it shall be raised and
beautified. These bodies shall cease to be animal without ceasing to be human
bodies, and they shall become spiritual bodies—etherealised vehicles for the pure
spirit that shall be lodged within them (Eadie, passim).
2. This transformation shall be effected by the Divine power that controls the
universe.—“According to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all
things unto Himself” (ver. 21). While omniscience is the actual possession or
exercise of all knowledge, omnipotence is universal ability, which may or may
not yet have put forth all its energies, for what is possible to it may not have
been effected by it. But Christ shall put forth His power, as we know from
other sources, and death itself shall be swallowed up in victory—that which has
swallowed up all humanity shall be surrounded by a wider vortex and be itself
engulfed. This body of our humiliation has some surviving element, or some
indissoluble link, which warrants the notion and shall secure the consciousness
of identity, in whatever that identity may consist (Eadie). If man’s art and
device can produce so pure and white a fabric as paper from filthy rags, what
shall hinder God by His mighty power to raise the vile body from the grave and
refine and fashion it like unto the glorious body of Christ? “Not a resurrection,”
says Neander, “as a restoration merely of the same earthly body in the
same earthly form; but a glorious transformation, proceeding from the Divine,
the all-subduing power of Christ; so that believers, free from all the defects of
the earthly existence, released from all its barriers, may reflect the full image
of the heavenly Christ in their whole glorified personality, in the soul pervaded
by the Divine life and its now perfectly assimilated glorified organ.”
Lessons.—1. The Christian citizen is but a sojourner on earth. 2. His conduct
on earth is regulated by a heavenly life. 3. He looks for his highest honours
and enjoyments in the future.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Ver. 20. Christian Citizenship.
I. The heavenly citizenship of
Christians.—1. The city to which they
belong—heaven. 2. When are true
Christians made citizens of this heavenly
state? When they are pardoned.
3. What are the privileges connected
with this state of relation to the heavenly
city? (1) Freedom. (2) Admits to
honourable employment and office.
(3) Fellowship and communion with
the whole body of Israel. 4. A right to
the common property—the inheritance
of the saints in light.
II. The conduct manifested by true
Christians, and corresponding with
their privilege.—1. Holiness. 2. Boast
of the institutions of the heavenly city.
3. Are bold and courageous. 4. It will
be seen in our spirit. 5. Our affections
are in heaven.—R. Watson.
Ver. 21. The Resurrection of the
Human Body.
I. We must be reminded of our
sinful condition.—1. Our body is called
a body of humiliation, because it, as
well as the spirit, is the seat of sin.
2. If we consider the immense labour
necessary to provide for its wants.
3. If we consider it as a clog to our
devotion. 4. It must be still further
humbled by death.
II. The transformation of this
humbled body.—1. There can be no
deformity. 2. The excessive care necessary
for the support of the body shall
exist no more. 3. It shall be an assistant
and no longer a hindrance to the
operations of the deathless spirit.
III. The means by which the transformation
will be effected.—The power
of God answers all objections, removes
all difficulties.
Lessons.—1. It becomes us to aspire to
as much of the glory of the future state
as can be attained. 2. This subject
affords encouragement to us on the loss
of our friends. 3. Ought to fortify our
minds against the fear of death.—Ibid.
The Glorious Destiny of the Human
Body.—If we are in Christ, He will
gather up what is left, He will transfigure
it with the splendour of a new
life, He will change our body of humiliation
that it may be fashioned like unto
the body of His glory. Sown in the
very extreme of physical weakness, it
will be raised in a strictly superhuman
power; sown a natural body controlled
on every side by physical law, it will
be a true body still, but a body that
belongs to the sphere of spirit. Most
difficult indeed it is even to the imagination
to understand how this poor body,
our companion for so many years—part
of our very selves—is to be first
wrenched from us at death and then
restored to us if we will, transfigured
by the majestic glory of the Son of
God. Little can we understand this
inaccessibility to disease, the radiant
beauty, the superiority to material
obstacles in moving through space, the
spirituality, in short, which awaits
without destroying it.
“Heavy and dull this frame of limbs and heart.
Whether slow creeping on cold earth, or borne
On lofty steed
Or loftier prow, we dart
O’er wave or field,
Yet breezes laugh to scorn
Our puny speed,
And birds, and clouds in heaven,
And fish like living shafts that pierce the main,
And stars that shoot through freezing air at even.
Who would not follow, might he break his chain?
And thou shalt break it soon.
The grovelling worm
Shall find his wings, and soar as fast and free
As his transfigured Lord, with lightning form
And snowy vest. Such grace He won for thee
When from the grave He sprang at dawn of morn,
And led, through bondless air, thy conquering road,
Leaving a glorious track where saints new-born
Might fearless follow to their blest abode.”—H. P. Liddon.
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.
Ver. 1. Brethren beloved and longed for . . . beloved.—By these caressing titles, which,
however, are not words of flattery but of sincere love, he works his way into their hearts.
The “beloved” repeated at the close of the verse is like the clinging embrace of affection.
My joy.—The most delectable joy of St. John was to hear that his children walked in truth.
So St. Paul says of his Philippian converts, as he had said of their neighbours of the
Thessalonian Church, that they are his joy. And crown.—“The word must be carefully
distinguished from ‘diadem.’ It means a chaplet or wreath, and the idea it conveys may
be either (1) victory, or (2) merriment, as the wreath was worn equally by the conqueror
and by the holiday-maker” (Lightfoot).
Ver. 3. And I entreat thee also, true yokefellow.—It is doubtful whom the apostle addresses.
On the whole, however, it seems most probable that Epaphroditus, the bearer of the
epistle, is intended (so Lightfoot, following Hofmann). Meyer says: “Laying aside arbitrariness
and seeing that the address is surrounded by proper names, we can only find in the word
for ‘yokefellow’ a proper name, . . . genuine Syzygus, i.e. thou who art in reality and
substantially that which thy name expresses: ‘fellow-in-yoke, fellow-labourer.’ ” Whose
names are in the book of life.—St. Paul had before said the polity of the Christians was a
heavenly one. Here he says there is a “burgess list” from which no name of a true citizen
is ever by accident omitted—though by any chance he might have omitted to mention his
co-workers in his epistle.
Ver. 4. Rejoice in the Lord.—R.V. margin, “Farewell.” The word is neither “farewell”
alone, nor “rejoice” alone (Lightfoot). That the A.V. and R.V. texts are justified in so
translating seems clear from the “always” which follows.
Ver. 5. Let your moderation be known.—This moderation or forbearance is the very
opposite of the spirit which will “cavil on the ninth part of a hair” in the way of asserting
personal rights.
Ver. 6. Be careful for nothing.—R.V. “in nothing be anxious.” The word suggests the
idea of a poor distraught mind on which concerns have fastened themselves, which drag,
one in one direction, another in the opposite. Well says Bengel, “Care and prayer are
more opposed than water and fire.” In all things, prayer—in nothing, care. By prayer.—The
general idea of an expression of dependence. Supplication.—The specific request—the
word hinting too at the attitude of the petitioner, e.g. clasping the feet of the person from
whom the favour is asked. With thanksgiving.—The preservative against any possible
defiance which might otherwise find its way into the tone of the prayer, or on the other
hand against a despair which creeps over those who think God “bears long” and forgets
to answer.
Ver. 7. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding.—If we say the peace
of God is so profound that the human mind cannot comprehend it, no doubt that is an
admissible interpretation of these words; but it seems better far to say, the peace of God
excels all that the mere reason of man can do. The νοῦς,
the highest faculty of man as such,
intended to be the guide of life, oftener brings anxiety than a calm heart. Shall keep your
hearts.—As a watchman keeps a city. Lightfoot says we have a verbal paradox, for “to
keep” is a warrior’s duty; God’s peace shall stand sentry, shall keep guard over your hearts.
And minds.—R.V. much better, “and thoughts,” for it is not the mind which thinks, but the
products of thinking which the word indicates. The sentry questions all suspicious characters
(cf. Prov. iv. 23, and Matt. xv. 19).
Ver. 8. Whatsoever things are true.—The apostle recognises the ability of the renewed
mind to discern truth under any guise. “Ye have an unction from the Holy One and know
all things” (1 John ii. 20). Honest.—A.V. margin, “venerable.” R.V. text, “honourable.”
R.V. margin, “reverend.” This variety shows the difficulty of finding an exact equivalent for the
word of St. Paul, in which the sense of gravity and dignity, and of these as inviting
reverence, is combined. Just.—Answering to that which is normally right (Cremer). Pure.—As
there is no impurity like fleshly impurity, defiling body and spirit, so the word “pure”
expresses freedom from these (Trench). It denotes chastity in every part of life (Calvin).
Lovely.—Christian morality as that which is ethically beautiful is pre-eminently worthy to be
loved. “Nihil est amabilius virtute,” says Cicero. Of good report.—R.V. margin, “gracious.”
Lightfoot says “fair-speaking” and so “winning, attractive.” Meyer says, “that which,
when named, sounds significant of happiness, e.g. brave, honest, honourable.” If there be
any virtue.—The New Testament is frugal of the word which is in such constant use in the
heathen moralists. If they sought to make man self-confident, it seeks to shatter that confidence.
The noblest manliness is godliness. Think on these things.—They are things to
be reckoned with by every man sooner or later—occupy the thoughts with them now.
Ver. 9. Those things . . . do.—Here speaks the same man, with a mind conscious of its own
rectitude, who could say, “I have lived in all good conscience before God unto this day.”
He had not only “allured” his Philippian converts “to brighter worlds,” but had “led the
way.” The God of peace shall be with you.—Note the phrase in connection with “the peace
of God shall mount guard” (ver. 7).
Ver. 10. Hath flourished again.—R.V. “ye have revived your thought for me.” The
active generosity of the Philippians towards St. Paul had never died, any more than a tree
does when it sheds its leaves and stands bare all through the winter. The winter of their
disability was past, and the return of the sun of prosperity made the kindly remembrance of
the apostle sprout into a generous gift to him.
Ver. 11. Not that I speak, etc.—“Do not mistake me; I am not moved thus by the good of
my own need.” The apostle does not leave it possible for one to say with the melancholy
Jaques, “When a man thanks me heartily, methinks I have given him a penny and he
renders me the beggarly thanks.” I have learned . . . to be content.—“Self-sufficiency,” said
Socrates, “is nature’s wealth.” St. Paul is only self-sufficient so far as Christ dwells in him
and assures him, “My grace is sufficient for thee” (cf. Heb. xiii. 5).
Ver. 12. I know how to be abased.—To be “in reduced circumstances.” I know how to
abound.—To be in affluence. By this it does not appear that St. Paul meant, “I have chewed
the bitter cud of penury, and tasted the sweets of prosperity.” Many a man has had to do
that—everything lies in how it is done. It is as much beneath the Christian philosopher to
make a wry face at the one, as to clap the hands in childish glee at the other. I
am instructed, etc.—Lit. “I have been initiated.” The pass-word is in the apostle’s
possession—no novice is he. To be full and to be hungry.—As if we said “to pasture and to
pine.” It is the psalmist’s “green pastures and still waters. . . . The valley of the shadow
of death” (Ps. xxiii.).
Ver. 13. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.—A fresh general
statement of the self-sufficiency of ver. 11. “In the grand brevity how marked is the
assurance, and at the same time humility” (Meyer).
Ver. 15. No Church communicated with me.—The lofty independence of the apostle had
not unbent to any other Church as to this. There are men from whom one could never
receive a gift without sacrifice of self-respect. St. Paul was not the man to be patronised.
Ver. 18. An odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God.—The
last word transfers their deed to another sphere entirely. “Ye did it unto Me,” says
Christ (Matt. xxv. 40).
Ver. 19. My God shall supply all your need.—Did I say, “I am filled”? (ver. 18). I can
make you no return, but my God will. He will fulfil every need of yours. According to
His riches in glory.—According to the abundant power and glorious omnipotence whereby as
Lord of heaven and earth He can bestow what He will.
Ver. 22. The saints . . . of Cæsar’s household.—This expression does not oblige us to think
that any relatives of Cæsar had embraced Christianity. It comprises all who in any way were
connected with the imperial service.
Ver. 23. Be with you all.—The oldest MSS. read, “Be with your spirit.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verse 1.
A Plea for Steadfastness—
I. After the pattern of those worthy of imitation.—“So stand fast in the
Lord.” Having pointed out the dignity of Christian citizenship and the exalted
conduct befitting those possessing its privileges, the apostle exhorts them to
steadfastness in imitating those who, through evil and good report and in the
midst of opposition and suffering, had bravely maintained their loyalty to Christ.
“So stand fast”—be sincere and earnest in devotion to God, as they were;
be faithful and unflinching, as they were; triumph over the world, the flesh, and
the devil, as they did. “Behold, we count them worthy who endure;” and the
same distinction of character is attainable by every follower of Christ, attainable
by patient continuance in well-doing. The ideal of a steadfast character is
embodied in the Lord, who was Himself a supreme example of unfaltering
obedience and love. Follow Him; being united to Him by faith, deriving
continual inspiration and strength from His Spirit, stand fast in Him. Riding
up to a regiment that was hard pressed at Waterloo, the Duke of Wellington
cried to the men, “Stand fast, Ninety-fifth! What will they say in England?”
History records how successfully the appeal was obeyed. Stand fast, Christians!
What will they say in the heavenly city to which you belong, and for whose
interests you are fighting? William of Orange said he learnt a word while
crossing the English Channel which he would never forget. When in a great
storm the captain was all night crying out to the man at the helm, “Steady!
steady! steady!”
II. Addressed to those who have given evidence of willingness to be
instructed.—“My joy and crown.” The Philippians who had embraced the
Gospel he preached, and whose lives had been changed by its power, were the joy
and crown of the devoted apostle. The crown was not the diadem of royalty,
but the garland of victory. He has in his mind the famous athletic games of
the Greeks, which in the diligent training and the strenuous effort to gain the
laurel coronet, and the intensity of joy felt by the victors, were a significant
illustration of the Christian life, whether as regards the spiritual progress of the
believer himself, or his work for the salvation of others. He believed the Lord
would place around his brow an imperishable garland of honour, of which each
soul that had been quickened, comforted, and strengthened by him would be a
spray or leaf. In Nero’s prison, aged, worn with trouble, manacled, uncertain
of life, he rejoiced in being a successful minister of Christ—a conqueror wreathed
with amaranth. The emperor in his palace was in heart weary and wretched;
the prisoner was restful and happy, invested with a glory that should shine on
undimmed, when the glitter of Nero’s power and grandeur should vanish as a
dream. The satisfaction enjoyed by those who first led us to Christ and who
have helped us in our spiritual struggles, is another reason for continued steadfastness
and fidelity.
III. Urged with affectionate solicitude.—“My brethren deeply beloved and
longed for, . . . my dearly beloved.” The terms employed are the outflow of a
jubilant spirit, and are full of tender endearment and loving appreciation. Love
delights to exaggerate; yet there is no exaggeration here. The Philippians
were to the apostle “brethren beloved—dearly beloved”—children of the same
spiritual Father, members of the one family of God, united together in a happy
Christian brotherhood. He recalls the first introduction of the Gospel into
Philippi, the preaching of the Word, the impression made, the converts won, the
formation of the Church, and its growth and prosperity, amid labours and
suffering. Attachments were then formed that deepened and strengthened with
the years. Christian friendships call forth the finest feelings of the soul, and
form a strong bond of union in the love of a common Saviour. Christ will have
no forced selection of men, no soldiers by compulsion, no timorous slaves, but
children, brethren, friends.
Lessons.—1. Steadfastness is a test of genuine devotedness. 2. Instability is a
loss of advantages often won at great cost. 3. They who endure will finally
conquer.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 2, 3.
Glimpses of Life in the Early Church.
I. The early planting of the Gospel involved arduous and united toil.—“Which
laboured with me in the gospel” (ver. 3). Prodigious as were the
labours of Paul, he could never have accomplished the work he did but for
the willing co-operation of others. There is great art in evoking the sympathy
and help of those who can help forward the work of God. Christian work finds
scope for all kinds of talents and agencies. Pioneer work is rough work and
tests all our powers and resources. The difficulties of the work unite its propagators
in heart and hand. There is little good done without strenuous labour,
though the results of our toil are not always immediately apparent. Dr. Judson
laboured diligently for six years in Burmah before he baptised a convert. At
the end of three years he was asked what evidence he had of ultimate success.
He replied, “As much as there is a God who will fulfil all His promises.” A
hundred churches and thousands of converts already answer his faith.
II. The names of Gospel pioneers are not forgotten.—“With Clement also,
and with other my fellow-labourers, whose names are in the book of life” (ver. 3).
Some of these names are recorded in the pages of history and handed down to
our day; the rest, though unknown on earth, are registered in the imperishable
pages of “the book of life.” Clement, though unknown to fame and unidentified
with any other of the same name mentioned in history, is referred to here
as recognising the apostle’s cordial recollection of his valuable work. But the
unknown on earth are not forgotten in heaven. The work we do for God will
live for ever. When Columbus was homeward bound after his brilliant discovery
of a new world he was overtaken by a terrible storm. In his indescribable agony
that not only his life and that of his crew, but his magnificent discovery must
all go down and be lost in the abyss, and that, too, not far from land, he
committed to the deep hurried entries of that discovery sealed up in bottles, in
the hope that some day they might reach land. We need not be unduly anxious
about either our work or our fame; God will take care of both.
III. From the earliest times women have rendered valuable help in the
propagation of the Gospel.—“Euodias, Syntyche, . . . women which laboured with
me in the gospel” (vers. 2, 3). In the Temple worship the Jewish women were
fenced off in a court by themselves. The woman occupied an inferior religious
position in Rabbinical teaching. It was a shock to public feeling to see a rabbi
talking to a female. Even the disciples were surprised that their Master should
be found conversing with a woman on the brink of the Samaritan well. Jesus
Christ broke down this middle wall of partition as He had broken down the
other. Here, again, He made both one. If in Christ there is no distinction of
Jew and Gentile, neither is there of male or female. Women were His faithful
and constant attendants; women were the favoured witnesses of His resurrection;
women were among the most helpful fellow-workers of the apostles. There was
an organised ministry of women deaconesses and widows in the Apostolic Church.
“What women those Christians have,” exclaimed the heathen rhetorician, on
learning about Anthusa, the mother of Chrysostom. Anthusa at the early age
of twenty lost her husband, and thenceforward devoted herself wholly to the
education of her son, refusing all offers of further marriage. Her intelligence
and piety moulded the boy’s character and shaped the destiny of the man, who
in his subsequent eminence never forgot what he owed to maternal influence.
It is no exaggeration to say that we owe those rich homilies of Chrysostom, of
which interpreters of Scripture still make great use, to the mind and heart of
Anthusa.
IV. We learn the apostolic method of reconciling two eminent women in
serious disagreement.—1. He addresses to each an earnest and pointed exhortation
to unity. “I beseech Euodias, and beseech Syntyche, that they be of the same
mind in the Lord” (ver. 2). He repeats the entreaty to show that he placed the
like obligation on each of them. He does not exhort the one to be reconciled to
the other, for they might have doubted who should take the initiative, and they
might wonder, from the position of their names and construction of the sentence,
to which of them the apostle attached the more blame. But he exhorts them
both, the one and the other, to think the same thing—not only to come to a
mutual understanding, but to preserve it. The cause of quarrel might be some
unworthy question about priority or privilege, even in the prosecution of the
good work—vainglory leading to strife. It does not seem to have been any
difference in creed or practice (Eadie).
2. He recognises their devoted and impartial labours.—“Those women which
laboured with me in the gospel” (ver. 3). Their work does not appear to have
been done from personal friendship, as is often the case; they treated all and
helped all alike. They were deeply interested in the spread of the Gospel and the
increase of the Church, and toiled with such self-sacrificing devotion as to elicit
the special commendation of the apostle.
3. He entreated that help might be rendered them in the adjustment of their quarrel.—“And
I intreat thee also, true yokefellow, help those women” (ver. 3). A
third party is appealed to, to interpose his good offices—an evidence that Paul
regarded the harmony of these two women a matter of no small importance.
Mediation between two persons at variance is delicate and difficult work, but if
judiciously done may help to a reconciliation. Women were the first to receive
the Gospel at Philippi, and from the first used their influence and opportunities
in commending it to their sex. The unseemly misunderstanding between these
two women whose labours had been so blessed made it the more necessary that
something should be done to heal the breach.
Lessons.—1. Pioneer work has special hardships and temptations. 2. The best
of women may quarrel. 3. It is the wise policy of the Christian statesman to
compose and strive to prevent discord and disunion.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Ver. 2. Feminine Disagreement—
- May occasion much mischief in a
Church.
- All the more dangerous where
the parties are eminent in gifts and
labours (ver. 3).
- Reconciled when truly possessing
one mind in Christ.—“Be of the
same mind in the Lord.”
- The most earnest entreaty
should be employed to rectify.—“I beseech
Euodias, and beseech Syntyche.”
Ver. 3. Names in the Book.
I. Some observations.—1. It is a
great thing to have a name in the New
Testament.—Think of the roll-call in
Rom. xvi. and Heb. xi.
2. It is a great thing now to have a
name in the family Bible, for that
generally signifies Christian training
and parental prayers.
3. It is a great thing to have a name
upon the pages of a church register.—How
affecting are these old manuals,
with their lists of pious men and
women, many of whom have passed
into the skies.
4. It is the greatest thing of all to
have a name in the Lamb’s Book of
Life.—Beyond all fame (Matt. xi. 11).
Beyond all power (Luke x. 20).
II. Some questions.—1. In how
many books is your name written now?
2. How can a human name be written
securely in the Lamb’s Book of Life?
3. To backsliders: are you going to
return to your name, or do you want
it to come back to you? 4. To Christian
workers: how many names have you
helped to write in the Book of Life?
5. Is there any cheer in thinking how
our names will sound when the books
are opened in the white light of the
throne?—Homiletic Monthly.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verse 4.
Christian Joy—
I. Is in the Lord.—“Rejoice in the Lord.” The joy of the Christian is
not in his own achievements, still less is it in himself or in his own experiences.
A glance at ourselves and the imperfections of our work for God
fills us with shame and sadness. Pure, lasting joy is found nowhere but “in the
Lord.” When Möhler, the eminent Roman Catholic symbolist, asserted that
“in the neighbourhood of a man who, without any restriction, declared himself
sure of his salvation, he should be in a high degree uneasy, and that he could not
repel the thought that there was something diabolical beneath this,” he only
afforded a deep glance into the comfortlessness of a heart which seeks the ultimate
ground of its hope in self-righteousness, and in making assurance of salvation to
depend on attainment in holiness instead of in simple faith in Christ. The
friends of Haller congratulated him on the honour of having received a visit in
his last hours from the emperor Joseph II.; but the dying man simply answered,
“Rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” The more we realise Christ,
not as a dim abstraction or a mere historic personage, but as a living and loving
personal reality, the more truly can we rejoice in Him.
II. Is constant.—“Always.” Christian joy is not a capricious sentiment, a
fitful rapture, but a steady, uniform, and continued emotion. The direction of
the apostle to rejoice always sounds like a paradox. How can we continually
rejoice when we are continually in the midst of sin, suffering, and sorrow?
Still, when we think of the change Divine grace has wrought in us, when we
think of the ample provisions of the Gospel every moment available to us, when
we contemplate the bright prospects before us which even present distresses
cannot dim, and when we remember the infinite ability of our Lord to accomplish
all He had promised us, our joy may well be perennial. Airay, the earliest
English expositor of this epistle, has well said: “When Satan, that old dragon,
casts out many flouds of persecutions against us; when wicked men cruelly,
disdainfully, and despitefully speake against us; when lying, slandering, and
deceitful mouthes are opened upon us; when we are mocked and jested at
and had in derision of all them that are about us; when we are afflicted,
tormented, and made the world’s wonder; when the sorrowes of death compasse
us and the flouds of wickednesse make us afraid, and the paines of hell come even
unto our soule; what is it that holds up our heads that we sinke not, how is it
that we stand either not shaken, or, if shaken, yet not cast downe? Is it not
by our rejoycing which we have in Christ Jesus?”
III. Is recommended by experience.—“And again I say rejoice.” Paul
recommended what he himself enjoyed. If he, in the midst of disappointment,
imprisonment, and suffering, would rejoice and did rejoice, so may others. It
might be that, as he wrote these words, a temporary depression crept over him,
as he thought of himself as a prisoner in the immediate prospect of a cruel death.
It was but a passing feeling. In a moment Divine grace triumphed, and with
heightened elation and emphasis he repeated, “And again I will say, rejoice.”
We have already remarked that joy is the predominating feature of this epistle,
and to the last the apostle maintains the exalted strain.
Lessons.—1. Great joy is found in working for God. 2. Joy is found not so
much in the work as in the Lord. 3. It is the Christian’s privilege to rejoice
always.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSE.
Ver. 4. Rejoicing in the Lord.
I. The text involves the fact that
believers may and should rejoice.—1. The
world holds that believers have
no enjoyment. 2. There are believers
who all but teach this; for—(1) they use
not the language of joy themselves;
(2) they discourage it in others.
3. But that believers may and should
rejoice is evident for—(1) joy is commanded
as a duty; (2) it is mentioned
as a fruit of the Holy Ghost; (3) it is
a feature of the Christian, portrayed
in the Scriptures (Acts ii. 46, 47).
4. The spiritually-minded, if not warped
by some defective system of doctrine,
rejoice. 5. Joy is quite consistent with
those states of mind which are thought
to be inconsistent with it. “Sorrowful,
yet always rejoicing.” 6. Joy is the
natural result of peace with God.
II. The text exhibits the nature of
the joy peculiar to the believer.—He
rejoices “in the Lord.” 1. The world
rejoices in the creature and shuts out
God. 2. The believer rejoices only in
God. 3. This joy has several elements.
(1) The believer rejoices that God is—“I am.”
(2) He rejoices that He is
what He is. (3) He rejoices in the
manifestations of His glory, which He
has made in His Word, works, and
ways. (4) He rejoices in his own
relation to Him in Christ—“boasting
himself in God.” (5) He rejoices in
the hope of the glory of God. 4. Every
element of pure and elevated pleasure
is found in His joy. 5. It is fellowship
with God Himself in His joy.
III. The text renders it binding
upon the believer at all times to seek
this privilege and to cherish this
feeling—“always.”—This command is
reasonable, for: 1. God is always the
same. 2. The believer’s relation to Him
is unalterable. 3. The way to God is
always open. 4. The mind may always
keep before it the views which cause joy—by
the indwelling Spirit.
IV. The manner in which the commandment
of the text is pressed teaches
us the importance of the duty it inculcates.—Its
importance is manifest, for:
1. It is the mainspring of worship and
obedience. 2. It prevents a return to
sinful pleasures. 3. It renders us
superior to temporal suffering—fits for
enduring for Jesus Christ. 4. It presents
to the world (1) True religion.
(2) Connected with enjoyment.
V. The manner in which the commandment
of the text is expressed
implies that there are obstacles in the
way of obedience.—What are some of
the obstacles? 1. A habit, natural and
strong, of drawing our satisfaction from
the creature. 2. Not keeping “a conscience
void of offence towards God and
man.” 3. Not having the heart in a
state to have sympathy with God’s character.
4. Not proportioning aright the
amount of attention given to self and
Christ. 5. Not making sure of our
interest in Christ.—Stewart.
Joy in the Lord—
- Is intellectual.
- Moral.
- Spiritual.
Lessons.—1. Our power of rejoicing
in the Lord is a fair test of our moral
and spiritual condition. 2. Is a Christian’s
main support under the trials of
life. 3. Is one of the great motive forces
of the Christian life.—H. P. Liddon.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verse 5.
Christian Equity—
I. Does not exact all the claims of legal justice.—“Let your moderation
[forbearance] be known.” Human laws, however carefully devised, may sometimes,
if rigidly enforced, act unjustly and cruelly. We should guide ourselves at
all times by the broad principles of equity in the sight of God. We should not
urge our own rights to the uttermost, but be wiling to waive a part, and thus
rectify the injustice of justice. “The archetype of this grace is God, who
presses not the strictness of His law against us as we deserve, though having
exacted the fullest payment for us from our Divine Surety” (Fausset). It is not
gentleness as an innate feeling, but as the result of self-restraint. It does not
insist on what is its due, it does not stand on etiquette or right, but it descends
and complies. It is opposed to that rigour which never bends nor deviates, and
which, as it gives the last farthing, uniformly exacts it. It is not facile
pliability—a reed in a breeze—but that generous and indulgent feeling that
knows what is its right, but recedes from it; is conscious of what is merited, but
does not contend for strict proportion. It is that grace which was defective in
one or other, or both, of the women who are charged by the apostle to be of one
mind in the Lord. For, slow to take offence, it is swift to forgive it. Let a
misunderstanding arise, and no false delicacy will prevent it from taking the
first step towards reconciliation or adjustment of opinion (Eadie).
II. Should be evident in dealing with all classes.—“Be known unto all
men.” We are to practise forbearance, not only towards our Christian brethren,
but towards the world, even towards the enemies of the Gospel. It is a rebuke
to the Christian spirit to be austere, unbending, and scrupulously exacting. If
we are always rejoicing in the Lord, we cannot cherish hard feelings towards
any. The Christian should be notorious for gentleness and forbearance; all with
whom we come in contact should be made to know it and feel it. We should be
prepared for yielding up what may be our own rights, and to endure wrong
rather than dishonour Christ, or give a false representation of the heavenly life
which He exemplified and recommended, and which is becoming in all His professed
followers. “This gentleness manifests itself at one time as equanimity
and patience under all circumstances, among all men and in manifold experiences;
at another as integrity in business relations; as justice, forbearance,
and goodness in exercising power; as impartiality and mercy in judging; as
noble yielding, joyful giving, and patent enduring and forgiving” (Passavant).
III. Should be practised as conscious of the near advent of Christ.—“The
Lord is at hand.” The early Church had a vivid sense of the immediateness of
the second coming of Christ, and were taught to do and bear everything as in
His sight. We lose much in spiritual power, and in the realisation of eternal
things, when we consign that advent to the remote and indistinct future.
After all, the second coming of Christ, and not our own death, is the goal on
which our eye should be fixed, as the period which will furnish us with the true
and final value of our life-work. In the first ages it would have been deemed a
kind of apostasy not have sighed after the day of the Lord. The coming of
the Lord is a motive to show moderation and clemency towards all men, even
towards our enemies, for the great Judge is near, who will rectify all inequalities
and redress all wrongs.
Lessons.—1. Equity is superior to legal enactments. 2. It is a sorry spectacle
when Christians appeal to the civil courts to settle their differences. 3. The Christian
spirit is the highest equity.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 6, 7.
The Cure of Care.
I. That all anxious care is needless.—“Be careful for nothing” (ver. 6). It
is not forethought that is here condemned, but anxious, distracting care. Care
is a kill-joy and is the great enemy of Christian peace. The future is not ours;
why be anxious about it? The past is done with, and regrets about it are
unavailing. The future is provided for, for God, the great Provider, is ahead of
every step we take towards that future. The ancient custom of distracting a
criminal by tying him to the wheels of two chariots which were then driven in
opposite directions well illustrates how cares may be allowed to distract the mind.
We put ourselves on the rack when we ought to cast our care on God, not in
part, nor occasionally, but in all things and at all times. Care depreciates the
value of all our past blessings and dims our vision of the blessings we now
actually possess. After the great military victories of Marlborough in 1704, he
one day said: “I have for these last ten days been so troubled by the many
disappointments I have had, that I think if it were possible to vex me so
for a fortnight longer, it would make the end of me. In short, I am weary of
my life.”
II. That all anxious care should be taken to God in thankful prayer.—“But
in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your
requests be made known unto God” (ver. 6). The best system of heathen
philosophy regarded equability of mind, undisturbed alike by the troubles and
allurements of the world, as the most perfect state of the soul; but it did not
provide any adequate motive for attaining this desirable equipoise. It could
only state the theory and insist on its importance; but refractory human nature
had its own way, in spite of philosophy. The apostle supplies in these words a
nobler and more workable philosophy. He not only exhorts us to tranquillity of
mind but shows us how it may be attained and kept. In all kinds of anxieties
and especially in the struggles of religious doubt, prayer is the truest philosophy.
Our difficulties vanish when we take them to God.
"By caring and by fretting,
By agony and fear,
There is of God no getting;
But prayer He will hear."
We should cast our care on God because He is our Father. A father’s office is
to provide for his family. It is out of place for a child to be anxiously making
provision for emergencies—asking where to-morrow’s food and clothing are to
come from, and how the bills are to be paid. We should rebuke such precocity,
and send the child to school or to play, and leave all such matters to the
ordained caretaker. The birds of the air are taken care of; so shall we be,
even though our faith is small. “Our prayers run along one road, and God’s
answers by another, and by-and-by they meet. God answers all true prayer,
either in kind or in kindness” (Judson).
III. That the peace of God in the heart will effectually banish all care.—“And
the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts
and minds through Christ Jesus” (ver. 7). The enemies of peace are: melancholy,
to which the apostle opposed joy in the Lord (ver. 4); want of self-restraint or
intemperance of feeling or conduct, to which he opposes moderation (ver. 5);
care and anxiety, or unthankfulness and unbelief, to which he opposes grateful
and earnest prayer (ver. 6); the final result is peace (ver. 7). The peace that
God gives “passeth all understanding”; it is deep, precious, immeasurable. God
alone fully understands the grandeur of His own gift. It is an impenetrable
shield to the believing soul; it guards the fortress in peace though the shafts
of care are constantly hurled against it.
Lessons.—1. Our sins breed our cares. 2. God is ever willing to take up the
burden of our cares. 3. Only as we commit our cares to God have we peace.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 6, 7. The Remedy for Worldly
Care.
I. A caution or warning.—“Be
careful for nothing.”
1. This does not respect duty.—We
must have a care for our Lord’s interests.
2. But having performed duty, we
are not to be careful as to consequences.—(1) Because
unnecessary. Christ cares.
(2) Because useless. It cannot ward
off the evil. The evil only in imagination.
The evil often a good. Itself
the greatest evil.
3. Because positively sinful.—(1) It
breaks a commandment. (2) It sets
aside promises. (3) It undervalues
experience. (4) It distrusts God’s
wisdom and goodness. (5) It is rebellion
against God’s arrangements.
(6) It is an intrusion into God’s
province.
4. Because hurtful and injurious.—(1) It
often deters from duty. (2) It
destroys the comforts of duty.
II. Counsel or advice as to the
manner in which the evil is to be
avoided.—“But in everything by
prayer and supplication.” 1. The correction
is not a needless and reckless
indifference. 2. The emphatic word
here is “everything.” This describes
the range of prayer. This precept is
generally neglected. 3. The performance
of this duty would correct
carefulness. It places everything
under God’s government, and leaves
it there. It leads to a study of the
Divine will in secular affairs. Our
prospects and plans are thus tested.
It gives to every event the character
of an answer to prayer—evil as well
as good. Prayer, i.e. direct entreaty or
petition. Supplication, i.e. deprecation.
Thanksgiving for all past and present.
III. A promise as to the results of
following this counsel or advice.—“And
the peace of God, which passeth all
understanding, shall keep your hearts
and minds.”
1. The mind and the heart are the seat
of care.—The mind calculates, imagines.
The heart feels fear, grief, despair.
2. The mind and heart are made
the seat of peace.—“The peace of God,
which passeth all understanding, shall
keep your hearts and minds through
Jesus Christ.” The peace which God
has flows from unity, from omnipotence.
This is the peace of God, because
He gives it.
3. This peace comes through Jesus
Christ.—He produces the unity. He
encircles with omnipotence.—Stewart.
Vers. 6, 7. Anxious Care.
I. The evil to be avoided.—1. Care
is excessive when it is inconsistent with
peace and quietness. 2. When it induces
loss of temper. 3. When it makes
us distrustful of Providence. 4. When
it hurries us into any improper course of
conduct. (1) Anxiety is useless. (2) Is
positively injurious. (3) Exerts a
mischievous influence on others. (4) Is
criminal.
II. The proper course to be pursued.—1. Prayer.
2. Supplication.
3. Thanksgiving.
III. The happiness to be enjoyed.—“The
peace of God, which passeth
understanding, shall keep your hearts
and minds through Jesus Christ.”—Dr. Robt. Newton.
Ver. 6. Subjects of Prayer.
I. For temporal blessings.—1. Our
health. Value of health. Dependence on
God. 2. Our studies. Not to supersede
diligence. Communicates a right
impulse. Secures a right direction.
3. Our undertakings. Agricultural,
commercial.
II. For spiritual blessings.—1. For
pardon. Of our daily sins in thought,
word, and deed. Of all our sins.
2. For holiness in heart and life.
Regeneration, faith, love, hope, meekness,
zeal, resignation, obedience.
3. For usefulness and happiness.
III. For the outpouring of the Holy
Spirit.—1. On ourselves. 2. On our
relatives and friends. 3. On the
Church. 4.On the world.
IV. For the spread of the Gospel.—1. For
the multiplication of the necessary
means. 2. For the removal of obstacles.
3. For the success of labourers. 4. For
the conversion of sinners.—G. Brooks.
True Prayer.
I. True prayer is specific as well as
earnest.—Nothing is too little to be
made the subject of prayer. The very
act of confidence is pleasing to God and
tranquillising to the supplicant. God is
not only willing to hear the details, but
He desires that we should tell Him.
II. True prayer consists of confession,
supplication, and thanksgiving.—We
are to confess our sins, ask
forgiveness, and do it with gratitude
and thankfulness. God will not
answer the requests of unthankful
beggars. Without thanksgiving what
we call prayer is presumption.—Homiletic Monthly.
Ver. 7. The Peace of God keeping the
Heart.
I. The nature of this defending
principle.—It has as its basis forgiving
mercy.
II. Its author.—“The peace of
God.” It is called His peace, because
that work of mercy on which it rests
is His work, and He Himself communicates
the peace.
III. Its property.—“Passeth all
understanding.” 1. The understanding
of such as are strangers to it.
2. They who enjoy it the most cannot
fully comprehend it.
IV. Its effects.—“Shall keep your
hearts and minds.” 1. In temptation
it secures the heart by satisfying the
heart. 2. It keeps the heart in affliction.
3. It keeps the mind by settling the
judgment, and keeping doubts and errors
out of the mind.
V. Its source and the instrumentality
by which it works.—“Through
Christ Jesus.”—C. Bradley.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 8, 9.
The Science of Christian Ethics—
I. Demands the study of every genuine virtue.—“Whatsoever things are
true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, . . . think on these things” (ver. 8).
In regard to what is honourable, just, pure, lovely, and of good report, there is
a true and a false standard, and for this reason the apostle here places the true
at the beginning, that when the following exhortations are presented, this fact
which our experience so often discloses may at once occur to the Christian, and
he may be led to examine himself and see whether he also is everywhere seeking
for the true (Schleiermacher). Genuine virtue has its root in genuine religion.
The modern school of ethics, which professes to teach morality as something apart
from spiritual Christianity, is a return to the exploded theories of pagan moralists,
an attempt to dress up pre-Christian philosophy in a nineteenth-century garb.
The morality that is lovely and of good report is Christian morality—the
practical, liveable ethics of the New Testament. The ethical terms used in this
verse are closely united. The true, the becoming, the right, and the pure are
elements of virtue or moral excellence, and when exhibited in practical life are
lovely and worthy of all praise. The charm of the Christian character is not
the cultivation of one virtue that overshadows all the rest, but the harmonious
blending of all the virtues in the unity of the Christian life. Christian ethics
should be earnestly studied, not as matters of pure speculation, but because of
their supreme importance and utility in the moral conduct of every-day life.
II. Requires the translation of high moral principles into practical life.—“Those
things which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me,
do” (ver. 9). It is one thing to ponder, admire, and applaud morality; it is another
thing to practise it. The apostle not only taught Christian ethics, but practised
them, and could point to his own example as worthy of imitation; it was not, “Do
as I say,” but “Do as I do.” Christian morality is of little value as a mere creed
of ethics; its true power is seen in changing, elevating, and refining the life. We
have all to lament there is such a wide chasm between theory and practice.
Theory may be learned in a brief period; practice is the work of a lifetime.
The theory of music may be rapidly apprehended, but the mastery of any one
instrument, such as the violin or organ, demands patient and incessant practice.
It means detail-work, plod, perseverance, genius. So is it with every virtue
of Christian ethics. Theory and practice should go together; the one helps the
other; practice more clearly defines theory, and theory more fully apprehended
stimulates practice. It is the practice of Christian morality that preaches to
the world a Gospel that it cannot fail to understand and that is doing so much
to renovate it. Lord Bolingbroke, an avowed infidel, declared: “No religion
ever appeared in the world whose tendency was so much directed to promote the
peace and happiness of mankind as the Christian religion. The Gospel of Christ
is one continued lesson of the strictest morality, of justice, benevolence, and
universal charity. Supposing Christianity to be a human invention, it is the
most amiable and successful invention that ever was imposed on mankind for
their good.”
III. Links practical morality with the promise of Divine blessing.—“And
the God of peace shall be with you” (ver. 9). The upright man—the man who
is striving to shape and mould his life on the ethics of the New Testament—shall
not only enjoy peace, the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, but
the God of peace shall be with him and in him. True religion, in healthy
activity, gives, and can alone give, a restfulness of spirit such as the troubles
of life are impotent to disturb. The two vital elements of true religion are
communion with God and the diligent cultivation of practical holiness—conformity
to the will of God in all things. Pray and bring forth the fruits of the
Spirit, and the God of peace shall be with you, preserving you from unrest and
harm. The peace of God is also an active principle, gentle and noiseless in its
activity, which will help the soul to grow in ethical symmetry and beauty.
Lessons.—1. The Gospel is the foundation of the highest ethics. 2. No system of
morality is trustworthy that does not lead to holy practice. 3. God helps the man
who is honestly striving to live up to his light.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Ver. 8. Mercantile Virtues without
Christianity.
I. What a man of mercantile honour
has.—He has an attribute of character
which is in itself pure, lovely, honourable,
and of good report. He has a
natural principle of integrity, and under
its impulse he may be carried forward
to such fine exhibitions of himself as
are worthy of all admiration. It is
very noble when the simple utterance
of his word carries as much security
along with it, as if he had accompanied
that utterance by the signatures, the
securities, and the legal obligations
which are required of other men. All
the glories of British policy and British
valour are far eclipsed by the moral
splendour which British faith has
thrown over the name and the character
of our nation. There is no denying
the extended prevalence of a principle
of integrity in the commercial world.
II. What a man of mercantile honour
has not.—He may not have one duteous
feeling of reverence which points upward
to God. He may not have one
wish or one anticipation which points
forward to eternity. He may not have
any sense of dependence on the Being
who sustains Him, and who gave him
his very principle of honour as part of
that interior furniture which He has
put into his bosom. He is a man of
integrity, and yet he is a man of ungodliness.
This natural virtue, when
disjoined from a sense of God, is of no
religious estimation whatever; nor will
it lead to any religious blessing, either
in time or in eternity.—T. Chalmers.
Ver. 9. Paul as an Example to
Believers.
I. He was distinguished by his decision
of character in all that relates
to religion.—Constitutionally ardent;
zealous as a Pharisee. From the day
of his conversion he never faltered,
notwithstanding his privations, his
dangers, his sufferings. Be decided.
II. By his care about the culture of
the Divine life in his own soul.—The
student may desire to know the truth
rather than to feel its power. The
preacher may be more solicitous
about the power of the truth over
others than over himself. He never
lost sight of the interests of his own
soul.
III. By his devotional habits.—One
would rather be the author of his prayers
than of his sermons. The difference
between his prayers as a Pharisee and
as a Christian. The subject, the spirit,
the style of his prayers as a Christian.
Be careful. Be not soon shaken in
mind or troubled by speculations about
the philosophy of prayer.
IV. By his spirituality and heavenly-mindedness.—He
did not show any
interest in the class of worldly objects
that might have been expected to
interest a man of his order of mind.
He was absorbed in “spiritual things.”
The second coming of Christ had a
prominent place in his thoughts.
“That day.” Cultivates a habitual
superiority to the things of time and
sense. Seek the things that are above.
V. By his patient submission to the
dispensations of Divine providence.—Rare
amount of suffering. Strong
feeling, unmurmuring submission.
Patient, meek, contented. All from
Christian principle. Be resigned.
VI. By his laborious usefulness.—Sketch
his career. Be useful.—G. Brooks.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 10–14.
The Joy of a Good Man in Extremity—
I. Stimulated by the practical evidence of the growth in his converts of
Christian thoughtfulness.—“Your care of me hath flourished again; wherein ye
were also careful, but ye lacked opportunity” (ver. 10). The Philippians were a
hospitable people, as was shown both by Lydia and the gaoler, who insisted on
the privilege of ministering to the wants of the apostles in the beginning of their
ministry at Philippi. The Church in that city had already sent a liberal contribution
to the apostle to help him in the missionary work; and he now rejoices
over another practical evidence of their generous thoughtfulness in the timely
help they had sent him by the hands of Epaphroditus. Paul and his mission
were much in their thoughts, and they were often devising how they might minister
to his wants and further the work of the Gospel. They were eager to help him
more frequently but lacked opportunity. They valued the Gospel so as to be
willing to pay for it. It is a gratifying and unmistakable proof of religious
growth when we are anxious to contribute of our means, according to our ability,
for the spread of the Gospel. Liberality in money-giving is a crucial test of
genuine godliness. When the commission of excise wrote Wesley, “We cannot
doubt you have plate for which you have hitherto neglected to make an entry,” his
laconic reply was, “I have two silver teaspoons at London, and two at Bristol;
this is all the plate which I have at present, and I shall not buy any more at
present while so many around me want bread.” It is estimated that he gave
away more than £30,000.
II. Maintained by having mastered the secret of Christian contentment.—1. A
contentment gained by actual experience of the ups and downs of life. “Not
that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith
to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound;
everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry,
both to abound and to suffer need” (vers. 11, 12). The checkered and eventful
life of the apostle had taught him many lessons, and not the least useful and
important was the art of contentment. A man with his varied experience is
not easily inconvenienced by fluctuating fortunes. Contentment is gained, not
by the abundance of what we possess, but by discovering how much we can do
without. “That which we miscall poverty is indeed nature,” writes Jeremy
Taylor; “and its proportions are the just measures of a man, and the best
instruments of content. But when we create needs that God or nature never
made, we have erected to ourselves an infinite stock of trouble that can have
no period.” Most desires are first aroused by comparison with others.
Sempronius complained of want of clothes and was much troubled for a
new suit, being ashamed to appear in the theatre with his gown a little threadbare;
but when he got it, and gave his old clothes to Codrus, the poor man
was ravished with joy and went and gave God thanks for his new purchase;
and Codrus was made richly fine and cheerfully warm by that which Sempronius
was ashamed to wear; and yet their natural needs were both alike.
2. A contentment inspired by Divine strength.—“I can do all things through
Christ which strengtheneth me” (ver. 13). The apostle’s contentment was not
self-sufficiency, but self-sufficingness; and this was acquired, not only by the
experiences of life, but the help of Divine grace. He could conceive no circumstances
in which that grace was not sufficient. His contented mind he regarded
as a gift of God. “I have learnt from Thee, O God,” writes Augustine, “to
distinguish between the gift and the fruit. The gift is the thing itself, which is
given by one who supplies what is needed, as money or raiment; but the fruit
is the good and well-ordered will of the giver. It is a gift to receive a prophet
and to give a cup of cold water; but it is fruit to do those acts in the name of a
prophet and in the name of a disciple. The raven brought a gift to Elias when
it brought him bread and flesh, but the widow fruit, because she fed him as a
man of God.”
III. Gratefully commends the generosity of those who alleviate his extremity.—“Notwithstanding
ye have well done, that ye did communicate with my affliction”
(ver. 14). Though the apostle had learned contentment in every
situation, and his mind could accommodate itself to every change of circumstances;
though he had fresh and inexhaustible sources of consolation within himself, and
had been so disciplined as to acquire the mastery over his external condition and
to achieve anything in Christ; yet he felt thankful for the sympathy of the
Philippian Church, and praised them for it. His humanity was not absorbed
in his apostleship, and his heart, though self-sufficed, was deeply moved by such
tokens of affection. Though he was contented, he yet felt there was affliction—loss
of liberty, jealous surveillance, inability to fulfil the great end of his
apostolic mission. This sympathy on the part of the Philippians with the
suffering representative of Christ and His cause is the very trait of character
which the Judge selects for eulogy at last (Matt. xxv. 35) (Eadie).
IV. Had a Divine source.—“But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly” (ver. 10).
He regarded the gift as coming from the Lord, and his joy in its reception was
from the same source. He rejoiced the more in this practical evidence of the
love and gratitude of his converts. Every kindness shown to us by others when
it is recognised as coming from God, will augment our joy in Him.
Lessons.—1. God does not forget His servants in distress. 2. A contented spirit
is a fruit of Divine grace. 3. It is a joy to be remembered by those we love.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Ver. 10. Practical Christian Benevolence—
- Is quick to see the needs of
God’s servants and of the cause in
which they faithfully labour.
- Eagerly watches every opportunity
for supplying those needs.
- Is a matter of exalted joy to
those who fully appreciate both the
supply and the motive that prompted it.
Vers. 11, 12. Tendency of Christian
Principles to produce True Contentment.
I. Christianity takes away the
natural causes of discontent.—1. Pride.
2. Self-preference. 3. Covetousness.
II. Christianity furnishes powerful
motives for the exercise of a contented
mind.—1. The disciples of Christ are
under the strongest obligations to walk
in the footsteps of their Divine Master.
2. True Christians are firmly convinced
that their lot is chosen for them by their
blessed Lord and Master. 3. It is chosen
for them in infinite love and mercy to
their souls.—E. Cooper.
Ver. 11. Contentment.
I. That a man be content with his
own estate without coveting that
which is another’s.
II. That a man be content with his
present estate.—1. Because that only
is properly his own. 2. All looking
beyond that disquiets the mind. 3. The
present is ever best.
III. That a man be content with
any estate.
IV. The art of contentment.—1. Is
not learned from nature. 2. Or outward
things. 3. But is taught us by
God’s Spirit. 4. By His promises.
5. By the rod of discipline. 6. Proficiency
in contentment gained—(1) By
despising unjust gain. (2) By moderating
worldly desires and care. (3) By
carefully using and charitably dispensing
what we have. (4) By bearing
want and loss with patience.—R. Sanderson.
Christian Contentment.
I. What it is.—1. That our desires
of worldly good are low and moderate.
2. That in all our views of bettering
our worldly condition we indulge not
immoderate cares. 3. That whatever
our present condition be, we cheerfully
submit to the providence of God in it.
4. That we are so easy with our own
lot as not to envy others who may be in
more prosperous circumstances. 5. That
we will not use any unlawful means to
better our present condition. 6. That
we make the best of our condition whatever
it be.
II. How it may be learned.—1. Christianity
sets in view the most
solid principles of contentment and the
strongest motives to it. 2. Furnishes
us with the brightest patterns of contentment
to enforce its precepts and prevent
our despair of attaining it.
Lessons.—1. The present state should
be considered as a state of learning.
2. More depends on our spirits than
upon our outward condition in order to
contentment. 3. Labour to have our
minds so formed that they may be content
and tolerably easy in any state of life.
Ver. 13. The Source of the Christian’s
Power.
I. The extent of a Christian’s
ability.—1. He is able to discharge
every duty. 2. He is able to endure
every trial. 3. He is able to brave
every suffering. 4. He is able to overcome
every temptation.
II. The source of the Christian’s
ability.—1. Christ strengthens us by
His teachings. 2. Christ strengthens us
by His example. 3. Christ strengthens
us by the moral influence of His death
as a sacrifice for our sin. 4. Christ
strengthens us by uniting us to Himself,
and bestowing on us, in answer to
the prayer of faith, the influences of the
Holy Spirit. Christ is the fountain
of spiritual strength.—G. Brooks.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 15–19.
A Generous Church—
I. Spontaneously contributing to the earliest efforts in the propagation of the
Gospel.—1. Its generosity conspicuous by its solitary example. “No Church
communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only”
(ver. 15). In the account between us, the giving was on your part, the
receiving on mine. The Philippians had followed Paul with their bounty when
he left Macedonia and came to Corinth. We are not to wait for others in a
good work, saying, “I will do when others do it.” We must go forward
though alone (Fausset). Their liberality followed him on distant missionary
tours, and when no longer in their own province. One single example of
generosity is an inspiration and a hint to others. Any Church will wither into
narrowing dimensions when it confines its benefactions to itself.
2. Its generosity was repeated.—“For even in Thessalonica ye sent once and
again unto my necessity” (ver. 16). Even in Thessalonica, still in their own
province and not far from Philippi, they more than once contributed to his help,
and thus rendered him less dependent on those among whom he was breaking new
ground. Help in time of need is a pleasant memory; and the apostle delights
in reminding the Philippians of their timely and thoughtful generosity.
Repeated kindnesses should increase our gratitude.
II. The gifts of a generous Church are appreciated as indicating growth in
practical religion.—“Not because I desire a gift; but I desire fruit that may
abound to your account” (ver. 17). It is not the gift he covets, but that rich
spiritual blessing which the gift secures to its donors. The apostle wished them
to reap the growing spiritual interest of their generous expenditure. Not for
his own sake but theirs does he desire the gift. He knew that the state of mind
which devised and contributed such a gift was blessed in itself, that it must
attract Divine blessing, for it indicated the depth and amount of spiritual good
which the apostle had done to them, and for which they thus expressed their
gratitude; and it showed their sympathy with the cause of Christ, when they
had sought to enable their spiritual founder in former days to give his whole
time, without distraction or physical exhaustion, to the work of his apostleship.
This was a spiritual condition which could not but meet with the Divine approbation
and secure the Divine reward (Eadie).
III. The gifts of a generous Church are accepted as a sacrifice well pleasing
to God.—“Having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent
from you, an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to
God” (ver. 18). It was a gift in which God delighted, fragrant as the sweet-smelling
incense which burned in the censer. It was felt that God is
supreme Benefactor and that all possessions are His gracious gift, that
these have an end beyond the mere personal enjoyment of them, that they
may and ought to be employed in God’s service, and that the spirit of such
employment is the entire dedication of these to Him. The money, while contributed
to the apostle, was offered to God. They discharged a spiritual
function in doing a secular act—“the altar sanctified the gift” (Ibid.). Giving
to the cause of Christ is worship, acceptable and well-pleasing to God. It
belongs to the same class of acts as the presentation of sacrifices under the old
economy, which was the central act of worship. For the proper use of no talent
is self-denial more needed than for that of money.
IV. The gifts of a generous Church will be recompensed with abundant
spiritual blessing.—“But my God shall supply all your need according to His
riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (ver. 19). The money we give to God’s cause
is well invested and will yield a rich return: spiritual blessing in return for
material gifts; this is beyond the power of arithmetic to compute. This was
no rash and unwarrantable promise on the part of Paul. He knew something
of the riches of the Divine generosity, and was justified in assuring his kind
benefactors of God’s perfect supply of every want of body and soul, bestowed not
grudgingly but with royal beneficence.
Lessons.—1. Gratitude for blessings received should prompt generosity.
2. Money is never more wisely employed than in forwarding the cause of God.
3. Our gifts to God are handsomely rewarded.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 15, 16. Christian Generosity—
- Indicates a genuine interest in
the work of God and love for its
ministers.
- Is especially valuable in prosecuting
pioneer mission work.
- Should not be conspicuous by
one solitary example, but be continuous
and commensurate with the
pressing needs of the work of God.
Vers. 17, 18. Liberality a Fruit of
the Christian Life.
- It is not a gift, but the discharge
of a just claim.
- Paul did not desire a gift only
to benefit himself, because he wanted
nothing.
- Liberality is a fruit of the
Christian life by discharging a debt
to which we stood engaged.
- Liberality is an advantage in
the exercise of our patience before the
day of trial come upon us.
- As God will punish the neglect
of this duty, so if we perform it He
will count Himself in debt to us.—Farindon.
Ver. 19. Man’s Need supplied from
God’s Riches.
I. Look at man’s necessity.
II. God’s wealth.—Its abundance;
its excellence.
III. The supply the apostle anticipates
for this necessity out of this
wealth.
Learn.—1. Contentment with our
present lot. 2. Confidence for the
future.—C. Bradley.
Our Need and our Supply.
I. Examine the scope of the promise.—There
is danger of fanaticism in the
interpretation of truth. God promises
to supply our need, but not to gratify
our wishes or whims. Some of us God
sees cannot bear wealth, and so it is
not given us; but as our day is so is
our strength.
II. The supply.—The supply is not
according to our deserts, but according
to the riches of His glory. The resources
of the Trinity are drawn upon. His
wealth is unbounded. He is not a
cistern, but a fountain.
III. The Medium.—This supply
comes through Christ. We can claim
it in no other name. But God
ordains means and puts us under conditions.
As in agriculture, so here, we
are to work in harmony with God’s
established methods if we would secure
fruits.—Homiletic Monthly.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 20–23.
Last Words.
I. A glowing ascription of praise to the Divine Giver of every blessing.—“Now
unto God and our Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen” (ver. 20).
To God, even our Father, the kind and liberal Supplier of every want to every
child, be eternal glory ascribed. The ascription of praise is the language of
spiritual instinct which cannot be repressed. Let the child realise its relation
to the Father who feeds it, clothes it, and keeps it in life, who enlightens and
guides it, pardons and purifies it, strengthens and upholds it, and all this in
Christ Jesus, and it cannot but in its glowing consciousness cry out, “Now to
God and our Father be glory for ever.” The “Amen” is a fitting conclusion.
As the lips shut themselves, the heart surveys again the facts and the grounds
of praise, and adds, “So be it” (Eadie).
II. Christian salutations.—“Salute every saint in Christ Jesus. All the
saints salute you, chiefly those that are of Cæsar’s household” (vers. 21, 22).
Salutations are tokens of personal interest and living fellowship which should
not be lightly esteemed. The apostolic salutations teach that the Christian
religion does not make men unfriendly and stubborn, but courteous and friendly
(Lange). The reference to the saints in Cæsar’s household may mean either
kinsfolk of Nero or servants in the palace. It is improbable that so many near
relatives of the emperor should have yielded themselves to Christ as to be designated
by this phrase, and it is not likely to suppose that a combination of these
two classes would be grouped under the one head. In all likelihood the reference
is to servants holding more or less important positions in the imperial household—some,
no doubt, slaves; and it is a suggestive testimony to the unwearied
diligence and influence of the apostle in using every opportunity to make known
the saving grace of the Gospel. To explain to any the reason for his imprisonment
was an occasion for preaching Christ. “O Rome, Rome!” exclaims
Starke, “how greatly hast thou changed! Formerly thou hadst true saints
even in the household of a pagan and tyrannical emperor; but now hast thou
false saints, especially in and around the so-called chair of Peter and at the court
of his supposed successor.”
III. Final benediction.—“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
Amen” (ver. 23). The oldest MSS. read, “Be with your spirit.” It is important
that the grace of God should be not only around us, but with us and
in us. The benediction is a prayer that the Divine favour may be conferred upon
them, enriching the noblest elements of their nature with choicest blessings,
making them to grow in spiritual wisdom, beauty, and felicity, that grace may
ultimately merge into glory.
Lessons.—1. Praise should be offered to God in all things. 2. The Christian
spirit is full of kindly courtesy. 3. It is a comprehensive prayer that invokes the
blessing of Divine grace.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Ver. 20. Eternal Praise should be
offered unto God—
- For mercies enjoyed in the past.
- For mercies which as our Father
He holds for us and bestows on us in
the present.
- That the glory of His character
may become increasingly conspicuous
in His works of creation, providence,
and grace.
Vers. 21, 22. Christian Courtesy—
- Elevates and sanctifies the amenities
of social life.
- Awakens and strengthens mutual
sympathy and help in the Christian life.
- Should be exercised by Christians
of all ranks and conditions.
Ver. 23. The Grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ—
- Is the sum of all we can need for
ourselves or desire for others.
- Is a revelation of His own character
and of His regard for us.
- May be sought with the utmost
confidence and enjoyed in ever-increasing
measure.
- Page 299, Introduction, second paragraph, apply RC to “Divine call.”
- Page 300, second new paragraph, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
“Place and time” section, second paragraph, change “iv. 32”
to “ch. iv. 32” and “i. 13” to “ch. i. 13.”
Fifth paragraph, add sentence-ending period after “later date.”
- Page 301, in the synopsis, change “ii. 19–30” to
“ch. ii. 19–30”; add a row to indicate that no information
is presented for chapter ii. verses 12 through 18.
- Page 302, notes on chapter i., verse 7, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Verse 10, add right double quotes after “not causing offence.”
- Page 303, notes on verse 12, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Verse 13, remove right double quotes after “body-guard”; correct
“colouel” to “colonel” and change double quotes
to single quotes around it. Verse 14, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Verse 15, apply RC to “a Gospel.” Verse 19, add right double quote after
“for me.”
- Page 305, lesson “Christian Greeting,” point I, change question mark after
“kingdom” to period. Point II, apply RC to “the Gospel.” Point III,
apply RC to “Divine gifts,” “the Divine majesty,” and
“the Gospel.”
- Page 306, “Commencement” note, point I, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Point II, apply RC to “the Gospel” and “Divine mercy.” Point IV, apply
RC to “the Gospel.” Lesson “Eulogy,” point I, apply RC to
“the Gospel.”
- Page 307, same lesson, point II, apply RC to “the Gospel.” Point III, apply
RC to “the Divine.”
- Page 308, “Making Request” note, point I, apply RC to
“Divine communications.” “Grounds of Confidence” note,
point II, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
- Page 311, lesson “Prayer,” “Definiteness” note, point II,
apply RC to “Divine intelligence.”
- The break between pages 311 and 312 is in a unit that style indicates
should not be broken “destination.—That.”
The entire unit was moved to the earlier page.
- Page 312, “Fruits” note, point I 1, apply RC to “Divine Being.”
“Spiritual Attainment” note, point IV, apply RC to “all Divine.”
“Divine Culture” note, point IV, apply RC to “the Husbandman.”
Lesson “Gospel Irrepressible,” point I 1, apply RC to “the Gospel” (five times).
Point I 2, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
- Page 313, same point, apply RC to “the Gospel” (twice).
Point II 1, apply RC to “the Gospel” (thrice).
Point II 2, apply RC to “the Gospel” (thrice).
- Page 314, point III, apply RC to “the Gospel” (thrice).
Application (“Lessons”), point 1, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
“Development” note, point III, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
- Page 315, “Ministry of Bonds” note, point III, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
“Germ” note, point V, change “afflictions” to “affliction.”
“Real” note, point II 4, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
- Page 316, lesson “Noble Attitude,” point II 1, apply RC to
“the Gospel.”
- Page 317, “Life and Death” note, point I 1 (3),
apply RC to “Divine knowledge.”
- Page 319, lesson “Exhortation,” point I 2, apply RC to
“the Gospel” (twice). Point I 3, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Point III, apply RC to “the Divine” (twice).
- Page 320, “Evangelical Consistency,” each of points I, I 1,
I 2 (twice), I 3, I 4, and II 1, apply RC to “Gospel.”
“Effects” note, point I 1, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Point I 2, apply RC to “the Divine.”
Point II 1, apply RC to “the Gospel” and “its Author.”
- Page 321, notes on chapter ii., verse 1, change “i. 8” to
“ch. i. 8.” Verse 2, change “i. 4” to
“ch. i. 4.” Verse 5, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Verse 6, apply RC to “the Divinity.”
- Page 322, verse 12, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Verse 15, tag “immaculatum” as Latin and set it in Italic.
- Page 323, verse 22, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Verse 29, change “#alue” to “value.”
- Page 324, lesson “Christian Union,” point II, apply RC to
“the Gospel.” Point III 2, add sentence ending period after
“(ver. 4).” Point IV, add “Ps. cxxxiii. 1” reference.
- Page 325, “Unity” note, point 2, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
“Looking” note, point III, change “th#” to “the.”
Lesson “Humiliation,” point I, apply RC to “His Divine” and
“Divinity.”
- Page 326, same lesson, point II, apply RC to “Divinity” (twice).
“Incarnate” note, point I, apply RC to “Divine glory.”
Point II, apply RC to “Divine nature.”
- Page 327, “Christian Temper” note, application (“Lessons”),
point 2, apply RC to “the Gospel.” Point 3, apply RC to “God-like.”
- Page 328, lesson “Exaltation,” point I, apply RC to “Divine act”;
add left parenthesis before “ver. 9.” Point II, apply RC to “the Divine” (thrice).
Point III, apply RC to “Him”; change quote from “and every tongue confess”
to “and that every tongue should confess” to match KJV; apply RC to “His Divine majesty.”
- Page 329, same lesson, same point, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
“Worthy” note, point 2, apply RC to “His Divine majesty.”
Point 3, apply RC to “Divine honour.”
- Page 330, lesson “Salvation,” point II 2, apply RC to “Divine aid.”
Point III, apply RC to “Divine work.” Application (“Lessons”), point 2,
apply RC to “Divine influences.”
- Page 331, “Divine and Human” note, point II, apply RC to “Divine.”
“Active Exertion” note, point I, capitalise “Promised Land.”
“Co-operation” note, point I, apply RC to “Divine.”
- Page 332, same note, point III, apply RC to “Divine operations.”
Lesson “Lustre,” point I, apply RC to “Divine command.” Point II,
apply RC to “the Gospel” and “the Word.”
- Page 333, same lesson, point III 3, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
- Page 334, lesson “Projected,” point II, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Point II 2, apply RC to “Divinity.”
- Page 335, same lesson, point II 3, apply RC to “the Gospel” (twice).
- Page 337, lesson “Devoted,” point IV, apply RC to “glorious Gospel”
and “the Word.” “Anxieties” note, insert point “2”
at the beginning of the second sentence.
- Page 338, notes on chapter iii., verse 1, change “iv. 8” to
“ch. iv. 8.” Verse 8, insert “[R.V., ‘soul’ A.V.].”
- Page 339, verse 14, change “gaol” to “goal.”
Verse 17, apply RC to “Good Shepherd.”
- Page 340, lesson “False and True,” point I, apply RC to
“the Gospel” (twice).
- Page 341, same lesson, point II 2, apply RC to “the Divine” and
“the Divinity”; change period after “yourself” to a question mark;
apply RC to “Divinity.”
- Page 343, lesson “External,” point III, apply RC to “the Divine.”
“Excellent” note, point I, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
- Page 344, same note, renumber second point “VI” to “VII.”
First “Excellency” note, point I, apply RC to “the Divinity.”
Lesson “Features,” point II, apply RC to “Divinely.”
- Page 345, same lesson, same point, apply RC to “Divine.”
Point III, apply RC to “Divine power”; insert point “1” before
first sentence in Italic; point III 1, apply RC to “Divine power”
and “Divine life.” Point III 2, apply RC to “Good Shepherd.”
- Page 346, “Power” note, point I, apply RC to “Divine mission.”
Point II, apply RC to “Divinity” (twice). Point V, apply RC to
“the Gospel.” “Resurrection” note, point II 4,
apply RC to “the Divine.”
- Page 347, lesson “Highest,” point I, apply RC to “Divinely”
“the Gospel,” and “the Divine.” Point III, change “Michael Angelo”
to “Michelangelo”; add comma between “he said” and quotation.
Point IV, apply RC to “Divine light.”
- Page 348, “Pressing” note, point II 3 (2),
change period to question mark.
- Page 349, “Temper” note, point III 3, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
- Page 350, lesson “Examples,” point III 3, apply RC to
“the Gospel.” Point IV, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
- Page 351, lesson “Citizenship,” point I, add sentence-ending period
to last sentence. Point III 2, apply RC to “Divine power.”
- Page 352, same lesson, same point, apply RC to “the Divine” (twice).
- Page 353, notes on chapter iv., verse 3, change the double quotes around “fellow-in-yoke,
fellow labourer” to single quotes and add closing double quotes.
- Page 354, notes on verse 8, identify the Cicero quotation as Latin and set it in Italic.
Verse 11, add em-dash after “etc.”
Verse 12, add em-dash after “etc.” and “Ps. xxiii.” reference.
Verse 18, add “Matt. xxv. 40” reference.
- Page 355, lesson “Plea,” point II, apply RC to “the Gospel”;
change “strengthened by Him” to “him,” speaking of Paul.
Point III, apply RC to “the Gospel” and “the Word.”
- Page 356, lesson “Glimpses,” point I, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Point II, apply RC to “Gospel.” Point III, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
- Page 357, same lesson, point IV 2, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Point IV 3, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
- Page 358, lesson “Joy,” point II, apply RC to “Divine grace”
and “the Gospel.”
- Page 359, same lesson, point III, apply RC to “Divine grace.”
“Rejoicing” note, point I 2, add em-dash after “for.”
Point II 3 (3), apply RC to “His Word.”
- Page 360, lesson “Equity,” point I, apply RC to “Divine Surety.”
Point II, apply RC to “the Gospel” and “His professed followers.”
- Page 361, lesson “Cure,” point I, remove commas from “kill-joy, and”
and “blessings, and.” Point II, remove commas from “mind, but”
and “anxieties, and.”
- Page 362, “Remedy” note, point II 3, apply RC to “Divine will.”
- Page 363, “Subjects” note, point IV, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Lesson “Science,” point I, change “livable” to “liveable.”
- Page 364, same lesson, point II, apply RC to “the Gospel” (twice).
Point III, apply RC to “Divine blessing.” Application (“Lessons”),
point 1, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
- The break between pages 364 and 365 is in the word “upward”: up|ward.
- Page 365, “Paul” note, point II, apply RC to “Divine life.”
Point V, apply RC to “Divine providence.” Lesson “Joy,”
point I, apply RC to “the Gospel”; remove comma from “frequently, but”;
apply RC to “the Gospel” (twice).
- Page 366, same lesson, point II 2, apply RC to “Divine strength”
and “Divine grace.” Point IV, apply RC to “Divine source.”
- Page 367, same lesson, application (“Lessons”), point 2, apply RC to
“Divine grace.” “Tendency” note, point II 1,
apply RC to “Divine Master.”
- Page 368, lesson “Generous,” point I, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Point II, apply RC to “Divine blessing,” “Divine approbation,”
and “Divine reward.”
- Page 369, same lesson, point IV, remove comma from “invested, and”;
apply RC to “Divine generosity.” Lesson “Last Words,” point I,
apply RC to “Divine Giver.”
- Page 370, same lesson, point II, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Point III, apply RC to “Divine favour.” Application (“Lessons”),
point 3, apply RC to “Divine grace.”
Colossæ and its people.—In Asia Minor, a few days’ journey to the east of
Ephesus, is a district which for natural beauty, as described by many travellers,
is hardly to be surpassed. At the foot of Mount Cadmus—now known as Baba
Dagh, or “the Father of Mountains”—near the stream of the Lycus, a tributary
of the Mæander, stood the town of Colossæ. Within a day’s journey stood
Hierapolis and Laodicea, the latter the home of a Church in the later years where
a poor, half-hearted religion was a constant offence to God. Owing to its political
significance, it quite eclipsed Colossæ, as Hierapolis also did, owing to its natural
advantages as a health-resort or watering-place. Though at one time Colossæ
was a flourishing town, where the vast forces of Xerxes or those of Cyrus could
halt, in this country it was only with difficulty and some uncertainty that its
exact site was discovered. Chronos (so called from the funnel-shaped holes into
which the river drops) is its modern substitute, though from two to three miles
south of the site of Colossæ.
The inhabitants of Colossæ were largely of Phrygian derivation, highly religious,
if dread of the supernatural in every form constitutes religion, but ready
to yield themselves up to the wildest orgies and the most degradingly sensual
types of worship. But there were also many Jews in the town, as we learn not
only from the indications in this letter, but from other sources. It was not the
only occasion in history when travelled Jews had learnt to blend with their
ancestral religion the philosophical or theosophical opinions of the neighbourhood
where they had settled. The result was an amalgam very hard to catalogue.
The Hellenism of these Phrygian Jews did as little for them as in later days it
did for Heine, the German Jew. So, because its results were pernicious, the
uncompromising opponent of Pharisaic dead works and herald of one God set
himself to make known to the Colossians the sufficiency of Christian doctrine
without admixture of heathen wisdom (ch. ii. 8, 9) or the administration of Jewish
rites (ch. ii. 11).
Occasion, aim, time, and place of composition.—Epaphras, a member of the
Colossian Church, and to whom the whole neighbourhood was indebted as
the bringer of Gospel tidings, had given St. Paul an account of the state of the
Church to which he ministered, with intimations of the perils threatening it.
This it was which led the apostle to send Tychicus with this letter. The
runaway slave Onesimus accompanied him, sent back to Philemon his master
in Colossæ by St. Paul.
The aim of the apostle in writing the letter was chiefly to warn the Colossians
against the specious errors of certain teachers who had tried to unite Christianity
with Judaism, and these to theosophical notions. The results of this blend could
only be regarded with a pitiful smile. It was pernicious, and, with all its
semblance of humility, immoral. Its main offence to the apostle was that it
dishonoured his Lord, “who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of
all creation.”
Lightfoot thinks this letter, with those to Ephesus and Philemon, was sent by
Tychicus “towards the close of the apostle’s captivity in Rome, about the year
63.” Meyer, who contends that it was sent, not from Rome, but from Cæsarea,
thinks 60 or 61 was the date. The ancient tradition was that the letter emanated
from a Roman prison, and the reasons given against this are too slender to set
it aside in favour of Cæsarea.
Style of the epistle.—“The style of the epistle is somewhat laboured. It
lacks the spontaneity, the fire, the passion, the tender emotion which mark most
of St. Paul’s letters. The reason for this is twofold. It is partly because he is
addressing strangers, the members of Churches which he had not directly founded,
and to whom his expressions did not flow forth from the same full spring of
intimate affection. It is still more because he is refuting errors with which he
was not familiar, and which he had not witnessed in their direct workings. . . .
When he was a little more familiar with the theme (in writing Ephesians) he
writes with more fervency and ease. . . . In the close similarity between these
two, and yet in the strongly marked individuality of each, we have one of the
most indisputable proofs of the genuineness of both. . . . If Colossians has less
of the attractive personal element and the winning pathos of other letters of
St. Paul, it is still living, terse, solid, manly, vigorous; and brief though it be,
it still, as Calvin says, contains the nucleus of the Gospel” (Farrar).
Outline of the epistle.
| Introduction. | i. 1, 2, greeting. 3–8, thanksgiving. 9–14, prayer and
supplication with thanksgiving. |
| i. | 15–23. | Main theme of the epistle. Christ’s personal supremacy and
the universal efficacy of His mediatorial work. |
| | 24–29. | The apostle’s personal explanation of his motive in addressing
them. |
| ii. | 1–7. | His interest in the highest welfare of Christians unknown to
him. |
| | 8–15. |
Warning against a philosophy born of earth, able only to deal
externally with outbursts of sin as contrasted with the
complete putting away of it by Christ’s death and
resurrection. |
| | 16–23. | A protest against the attempt to foist precepts and prohibitions
on those who in Christ have passed beyond the stage
of legalism. |
| iii. | 1–17. | The sufficiency, for conduct, of living consistently with the
life hid with Christ in God, which is fatal, as it grows, to
every form and manifestation of the old and corrupt life. |
| | 18–22. | Duties of wives (18), husbands (19), children (20), fathers (21),
servants (22). |
| | 23–25. | Motives, incentives, and deterrents in service. |
| iv. | 1. | Duties of masters, and motive of conduct. |
| | 2–18. | Sundry exhortations, commendations, and greetings.
The latter concludes with the apostle’s autograph signature,
a touching reference to his “bonds,” and a benediction. |
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.
Ver. 1. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God.—Here, as in the Ephesian
epistle, St. Paul traces his apostolate to the will of God. It does not seem as if any reason
could be given why in these two epistles he uses the phrase and omits it in the Philippians.
Timotheus our brother.—If Philemon, who was a Colossian Christian, had met St. Paul at
Ephesus, probably he had seen Timothy, too, and would no doubt say to the Church how the
apostle valued him (Phil. ii. 19).
Ver. 2. To the saints and faithful brethren.—We may observe that such a phrase is
characteristic of St. Paul’s later epistles; in the earlier it was “to the Church.” It seems
better thus to translate than to give the meaning “to the holy and believing brethren” (see
on Eph. i. 1). Grace . . . and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.—Not
“grace” from the Father and “peace” from the Lord Jesus Christ, as the usual benediction
shows—“The grace of our Lord Jesus.” “Whatsoever the Father doeth, these also doeth
the Son” (John v. 19).
Ver. 3. We give thanks to God.—The apostle here, as usual, gives credit for all that is
worthy in his readers, though the tidings from Colossæ had been disquieting.
Ver. 4. Having heard of your faith.—This last word might possibly mean “fidelity,” the
steadiness of an unwavering loyalty. But it is better to take it as the act of personal trust.
Love to all the saints.—This was the distinguishing trait of all Christians—love one for
another (John xiii. 35). How often have we heard the irony, “How these Christians love
one another!” We are not warranted in withholding love until men are paragons of spiritual
perfection—all in Christ are “saints.”
Ver. 5. For the hope.—This word completes the triad, though the order is changed, and
hope here is the object—the thing hoped for. Laid up for you in heaven.—It is the same
word in Luke xix. 20, “laid up in a napkin”; in 2 Tim. iv. 8, “henceforth there is laid up”;
and in Heb. ix. 27, “it is appointed unto [laid up for] men once to die.” The word of the
truth of the gospel.—Not to be interpreted into “the truly evangelic word.” There is an
imposing sound in the phrase meant to agree with the thing denoted.
Ver. 6. In all the world.—A hyperbolic expression, by which the apostle at the world’s
centre, Rome, seems to say the messengers of the Gospel, go forth to the utmost bounds of
the empire. The faith you have received is no local cult, nor is it an ephemeral excitement.
And bringeth forth fruit.—The R.V. adds to “bearing fruit,” “and increasing.” It is not a
Gospel that is decadent, on which a few fruits may be found, but with too evident traces that
soon fruitfulness will be past.
Ver. 7. As ye learned of Epaphras.—Short for Epaphroditus, but not he of Phil. ii. 25.
He is one of the Colossians; beyond that and his prayerful zeal for them we know nothing
of the only one whom St. Paul calls “a fellow-servant.”
Ver. 9. Do not cease to pray for you, and to desire.—R.V. “pray and make request.”
The general notion comes first, then, the particulars; so in Mark xi. 24. In the Lord’s
Prayer there are several “petitions” or “requests.” Knowledge.—Here represents the
advanced knowledge of the initiated. “Spiritual understanding” is the use in the realm of
things spiritual of the faculty which, as employed in physical research, makes the difference
between the man of scientific method and the empiric. Compare the union of “wisdom” and
“spiritual understanding” with our Lord’s words, “Thou hast hid these things from the
wise and prudent.”
Ver. 10. Walk worthy.—“The end of all knowledge, the apostle would say, is conduct”
(Lightfoot). The previous verse taken with this gives the “theory and practice” of religion.
Unto all pleasing.—With the end ever before you of being approved by God. For the same
combination, see 1 Thess. iv. 1. Being fruitful . . . and increasing.—Like the Gospel itself
(see ver. 6).
Ver. 11. Strengthened with all might according to His glorious power.—Lit. “with all
power made powerful,” etc. The two words representing “might” and “power” have become
familiar in “dynamite” and the termination of “auto-crat”; the one indicating stored-up energy;
the other victorious or ruling force. Patience and longsuffering.—the first word indicates
the attitude of an unfainting mind when things go wrong; the second the quiet endurance
under irritation from others, the being “not soon angry.”
Ver. 12. Made us meet.—Duly qualified us, gave us competence. Just as a man needs
to be a qualified practitioner of medicine or the law, so these Colossians are recognised as fit
and proper persons for participation in the kingdom of light.
Ver. 13. Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness.—The metaphor commenced in
the previous verse is carried on here. The settlement in the land flowing with milk and
honey is preceded by deliverance with a high hand from the house of bondage—the land of
thick darkness. And hath translated us.—The same word by which the Jewish historian
describes the carrying over of the Israelites to Assyria by Tiglath-Pileser. The apostle
regards the deliverance, so far as the Deliverer is concerned, as a thing accomplished. His
dear Son.—The A.V. margin has become the R.V. text, “The Son of His love.” We do not
again find this expression; but as there is “no darkness at all” in God, who “is love,” so
His Son, into whose kingdom we come, reveals the love of the Father.
Ver. 14. In whom we have redemption.—A release effected in consideration of a ransom.
See on the verse Eph. i. 7. The forgiveness of our sins—lit. “the dismissal of our sins.”
Ver. 15. Who is the image of the invisible God.—In 2 Cor. iv. 4 St. Paul had so named
Christ. “Beyond the very obvious notion of likeness, the word for image involves the idea
of representation and manifestation” (Lightfoot). Man is said to be the image of God
(1 Cor. xi. 7), and to have been created in the image of God, as an image on a coin may
represent Cæsar, even though unrecognisable almost. Christ is “the very image” (Heb. i. 3)
of God, able to say, “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.” Firstborn of every
creature.—“Not that He is included as part of the creation, but that the relation of the
whole creation to Him is determined by the fact that He is the ‘firstborn of all creation’
(R.V.), so that without Him creation could not be” (Cremer). The main ideas involved in
the word are (1) priority to all creation; (2) sovereignty over all creation (Lightfoot).
Ver. 16. Thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers.—That Paul believed in a
heavenly hierarchy can scarcely be doubted; but this letter shows that in Colossæ it had
become an elaborate superstition.
Ver. 18. And He is the head of the body, the Church.—As He held priority of all creation,
so also His is the name above every name in the new creation. The firstborn from the dead.—The
cardinal point of the apostle’s faith.
Ver. 19. For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell.—The great
question on this verse is—seeing that “the Father” has been added—what is the nominative
to the word rendered “it pleased”? At least three are possible: (1) “the Father,” as A.V.,
R.V., and many commentators; (2) “all the fulness,” etc.; and (3) “the Son was pleased.”
Lightfoot urges that, as (2) would be an anachronism, and (3) a hopeless confusion of the
theology, “the Father was well pleased” seems to be the best rendering.
Ver. 20. To reconcile all things unto Himself.—The word “reconcile” is meant to indicate
the restoration of a lost friendship; and re-establishment of peaceful relations. It is a good
specimen of the care with which St. Paul’s advanced expressions are selected.
Ver. 21. You, that were sometime alienated.—Does not mean, of course, occasionally
alienated, but as the R.V. gives it, “being in time past alienated”—up to the time of the
reconciliation always estranged. Enemies in your mind by wicked works.—The most
interesting question here is whether God is reconciled to the sinner or only the sinner to
God. Is “enemies” to mean “hostile” or “hateful”? Lightfoot says, “It is the mind of
man, not the mind of God, which must undergo a change that a reunion may be effected.”
Ver. 22. In the body of His flesh through death.—When a teacher has to be explicit it may
seem to those familiar with the subject as if he were verbose or tautological. So here the
body is no phantasm, but fleshy and mortal. To present you holy.—They were professedly
holy “saints” (ver. 2), and the final purpose of their reconciliation is reproachless saintship
(on this word, and “unblameable,” see Eph. i. 4). Unreproveable in His sight.—It is a lofty
eminence to which the holy apostle invites us to look in this word. The light in which we
walk—fierce indeed towards sin—reveals no evil, so that the most captious critic has no
objection (Tit. ii. 8).
Ver. 23. Grounded and settled, and not moved away.—In that land of volcanic agency
the readers would perceive only too readily the graphic force of this metaphor. Where stone
buildings tumbled over like a house of cards, the figure of a faith, proof against all shocks,
was effective (see Heb. xii. 28). Every creature under heaven.—The same rhetorical form of
expression as in ver. 6, affirming the universal fitness of the Gospel as well as its wide dissemination.
Whereof I Paul am made a minister.—Wonder that increases and unceasing
gratitude are in these words—that the persecutor should serve the faith he once destroyed.
Ver. 24. Fill up that which is behind in the afflictions of Christ.—R.V., “and fill up on
my part that which is lacking.” How we seem to hear through these words the cry of the
head of the Church, “Why persecutest thou Me?” And now the persecutor shares the pain
of Christ and those to whom it is granted as a favour to suffer for His sake (Phil. i. 29).
Vers. 25–27. See notes on Eph. iii. 7 ff.
Ver. 28. Whom we preach.—What a glorious comprehensiveness there is in preaching Him
in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead! Here is nothing narrow. Warning every
man.—R.V. “admonishing.” It is a direction of the reflective faculty—a reproof administered
with intent to amend the conduct. It corresponds to “Repent ye!” And teaching
every man.—The positive side of which the warning is the negative. It is not enough to
tell a man he is wrong—the right must be indicated; so the heralds of the Gospel followed up
“Repent ye” with “Believe the Gospel.” Note the repeated “every man.” Exclusiveness
which shuts the door in the face of any “weak brother for whom Christ died” is utterly
strange to the teaching of St. Paul. That we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.—St.
Paul, and every true successor, labours for this end; and, as ver. 22 shows, in so doing
all are “workers together with God.” We have the idea of presentation elsewhere in
St. Paul, as where he speaks of presenting his converts as a chaste virgin to Christ. The
risk of offering a tainted animal for sacrifice is as nothing in comparison of offering a
hypocrite as a trophy of the Gospel.
Ver. 29. I also labour.—The word implies strenuous effort. “The racer who takes care to
slack his speed whenever he is in danger of breaking into a perspiration will not win the
prize” (Maclaren). Striving.—Lit. “agonising,” as in Luke xiii. 24. Like a stripped
gymnast, every encumbrance cast off. The same word in 1 Tim. vi. 12. “Fight the good
fight.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 1.
Apostolic Salutation.
In this verse we have a description of the office and character of the persons
from whom the salutation emanates.
I. An exalted and important office.—“Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ.”
An apostle is one sent. Paul was commissioned to declare the grandest truths—truths
destined to illumine and upraise mankind. His sphere was the world,
his audience the generations of every age. The work of the apostle lives to-day—its
vigour is perennial. His was no empty, unmeaning title. It involved
incredible thought, overburdening care, incessant toil, unparalleled suffering.
It was an office created by the circumstances of the time. That period was the
beginning of a gigantic campaign against the consolidated errors and sins of
ages. An ordinary officer can keep and govern a garrison; but it requires a
gifted general to marshal and direct the militant host in the daring manœuvres
of war. In the Divine government of the world the occasion calls forth the man.
II. The authority that designates and qualifies.—“By the will of God.” The
will of God is the great originating and dynamic moral force of the universe.
That will raised Paul to the apostleship, and invested him with all essential
qualifications. The miraculous incidents of the journey to Damascus (Acts ix.)
formed a crisis in his career. The startling discovery as to the character of the
Being he had madly opposed evoked the utterance of a changed and willing
heart: “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” That was the sublime
moment of his sending. In undertaking the highest work for God, it is not
enough that we possess learning, gifts, piety, unless with all there be a consciously
Divine commission. There are crises when we can gain fresh inspiration
for the exigencies of the work only by falling back on the clearest call and
appointment of the Divine will.
III. A familiar Christian relationship.—“Timotheus, our brother.” Paul
was the means of Timothy’s conversion; and in another place he calls him his
“own son in the faith.” Here he recognises him on the more equal footing of a
brother. Christianity is a brotherhood. Not a low, debasing communism that
drags down all to its own common level, but a holy confederacy in which men
of all ranks, ages, and talents unite. The equality of Christian brotherhood is
based on a moral and spiritual foundation. The minister whose reputation is
won, and position assured loses nothing by honouring his younger brethren.
IV. Union of sympathy and desire.—“Paul . . . and Timothy.” The greatest
intimacy existed between the two, notwithstanding the disparity in rank and
abilities. There were qualities in Timothy that elicited the admiration and
love of the great apostle. They were constant companions in travel; and
Timothy was often a source of comfort to Paul in captivity. They had a
common sympathy in the propagation of the Gospel, and with the changing
fortunes of the newly founded Churches and joined in prayer for their welfare.
The union of Timothy with himself also strengthened the testimony of the
apostle regarding the supernatural character of the truths declared.
Lessons.—Christian salutation—1. Takes its value from the character of the
sender. 2. Should be pervaded with genuine sympathy. 3. Implies a mutual
interest in the success of Christian work.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 2.
Apostolic Estimate of Christian Character.
I. Suggestive phases of Christian character.—“Saints and faithful brethren
in Christ which are at Colossæ.”
1. Saints.—This implies union with God and a personal participation in His
righteousness. This is the root of the saintly life. Faith in Christ is the point
and means of junction. Canonisation cannot make a saint. Must be saintly
experience to produce saintly conduct. A holy reputation excites to action
consistent with itself. Nehemiah refused to hide from threatened assassination
as an act beneath his well-known character for high integrity and bravery
(Neh. vi. 11).
2. Faithful brethren which are at Colossæ.—Implies union with each other.
They embraced a common faith and held steadfastly together amid the
agitations of false teachers and the defections of the wavering. Christianity
blends the strangest elements. It is a foe to all national enmities and
prejudices. Paul, a Jew, Timothy, a Grecian, and the Colossians, a mixture of
several races, are here united in a holy and faithful brotherhood. “Here the
Gentile met the Jew whom he had been accustomed to regard as an enemy of
the human race; the Romans met the lying Greek sophist, the Syrian slave, the
gladiator born beside the Danube. In brotherhood they met, the natural birth
and kindred of each forgotten, the baptism alone remembered in which they had
been born again to God and to each other” (Ecce Homo).
3. The sublime origin of the Christian character.—“In Christ.” Character is
the development and crystallisation of a life. The character of the blossom and
fruit is decided by the vital energy in the tree. Christ is the unfathomable
fount of all spiritual life; the ideal pattern and formative force of a perfect
character. He is the centre and bond of all true brotherhood.
II. The salutation supplicates the bestowment of highest Divine blessings.—1. Grace.
A term of vast significance, inclusive of all the blessings that can
flow from the superabundant and free favour of God. Grace is the source of
all temporal good—life, health, preservation, success, felicity; and of all
spiritual benefactions—pardon, soul-rest, guidance, strength, deliverance, purity,
final triumph. The generosity of God is illimitable.
2. Peace.—Grace expresses the spirit and fulness in which Divine manifestations
come to us; peace the result they accomplish in us. Peace with God.
Sin has thrown human nature into a state of discord and enmity. The
reception of grace must ever precede the enjoyment of peace. The universal
mistake is, in first seeking, through many avenues, the happiness which peace
with God alone can bring, instead of accepting humbly, penitently, believingly,
the grace of God in Christ. Peace with each other—peace in the Church. How
great a blessing is this! One turbulent spirit can ruffle the tranquillity of
thousands.
3. The source of the blessings desired.—“From God our Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ.” The Father’s love and the Son’s work are the sole source and
cause of every blessing to humanity, while the Holy Spirit is the agent of their
communication. The Trinity is ever harmonious in acts of beneficence; the
Divine fountain is inexhaustible.
Learn.—1. The broad, deep charity of the apostolic spirit. 2. The scope and
temper of the prayers we should offer for the race.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 3–5.
The Causes of Ministerial Thanksgiving.
It is customary with the apostle to begin his epistles with the ardent expression
of thanksgiving. This showed the devout habit of his mind, his constant and
emphatic recognition of the grand source of good, and his deep interest in the
spiritual condition of those to whom he wrote.
I. Thanksgiving an essential element in prayer.—“We give thanks, . . . praying
always for you” (ver. 3). The participle marks the thanksgiving as part of the
prayer, and the adverb makes it prominent, indicating that when they prayed for
them they always gave thanks. There is no true prayer without thanksgiving.
Gratitude intensifies the soul’s sense of dependence on God and prompts the cry
for the needed help; and, on the other hand, earnest prayer naturally glides
into fervent thankfulness. As one sin is interlinked with and produced by
another, so the use of one grace begets another. The more temporal things are
used, the more they wear and waste; but spiritual things are strengthened
and increased with exercise. Every spiritual grace has in it the seed of an endless
reproductiveness. Underlying every thanksgiving for others is a spirit of
tender, disinterested love. Moved by this passion, the apostle, from the midst of
imprisonment and sorrow, could soar on the wings of gratitude and prayer to
heaven. “Thanksgiving will be the bliss of eternity.”
II. The Being to whom all thanksgiving is due.—“To God, the Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ” (ver. 3). God is the Father of Jesus Christ, not only as God,
by an eternal generation and communication of His whole essence unto Him in a
method to us mysterious and ineffable, but also as man by virtue of the personal
union of the two natures in Christ, and in a special sense exceeding every other
way in which He is Father to man or angels. Thus, God and the Father of
our Lord Jesus are one; the particle “and” being exegetic of the same thing,
not copulative of something different. All our blessings have their source in the
bosom of the Divine Father. Christ is the only revealer of the Father, and the
active agent in bestowing the paternal benefits on humanity. The paternal
aspect of the Divine character as unfolded by Jesus Christ is most fascinating and
assuring; and the loving heart delights to trace its blessings up to the Parent of
all good and to render Him devout and grateful praise.
III. This thanksgiving was grounded on the reputation of their faith in the
Author of Christianity.—“Since we heard of your faith in Christ” (ver. 4).
1. Christ is the object and foundation of all true faith.—He is so as the Divinely
consecrated Deliverer of the race. The grandeur of His redeeming work and the
dignity and glory of His character are suggested by the titles here given to Him.
Man must believe in Christ, not as an abstract truth, not as a poetic conception,
not as a dim impersonal force acting in the sphere of ideality, but as a Divine-human
person—the anointed Saviour.
2. True faith is the root principle of the Christian life.—Without it neither
love nor hope could exist. All the graces that strengthen and beautify the
Christian character must grow out of faith.
3. True faith is ever manifest.—“Since we heard.” It is seen in the changed
disposition and conduct of the individual believer. It is marked by the anxious
Christian worker and becomes known to a wide circle of both friends and foes.
Epaphras rejoiced to bear tidings of the fact; and the soul of the apostle, since
he heard, glowed with grateful praise. Happy the people whose highest reputation
is their faith in Jesus!
IV. This thanksgiving was grounded on their possession of an expansive
Christian love.—“And of the love which ye have to all the saints” (ver. 4). Love
to Christ is necessarily involved, for love to the saints is really a generous, unselfish
affection for Christ’s image in them. Love is all-embracing. Peculiarities,
defects, differences of opinion, distance, are no barriers to its penetrating
ardour. It is the unanswerable evidence of moral transformation (1 John iii. 14).
It is the grandest triumph over the natural enmity of the human heart. It is
the indissoluble bond of choicest fellowship.
“While we walk with God in light,
God our hearts doth still unite;
Dearest fellowship we prove,
Fellowship in Jesu’s love.”
V. This thanksgiving was further grounded on their enjoyment of a well-sustained
hope.—The grace of hope naturally springs out of and is properly
associated with the preceding two. Not one member of the holy triad can be
divorced from the other without irreparable damage; without, in fact, the loss
of that which is the resultant of the three—viz. active religious life. “Faith
rests on the past; love works in the present; hope looks to the future. They
may be regarded as the efficient, material, and final causes respectively of the
spiritual life” (Lightfoot).
1. The character of this hope.—“The hope which is laid up for you in heaven”
(ver. 5). It is the prospect of future heavenly felicity. Hope is put for the
object hoped for—the hope of possessing a spiritual inheritance whose wealth
never diminishes, whose splendours never fade; the hope of seeing Christ in all
His regal glory; of being like Him; of dwelling with Him for ever. A prospect
like this lifts the soul above the meannesses, disappointments, and sufferings of
the present limited life.
2. The security of this hope.—“Laid up.” This priceless inheritance is safely
deposited as a precious jewel in God’s secret coffer. There no pilfering hands
can touch it, no breath can tarnish, no rust corrode, no moth corrupt. Earthly
treasures vanish, and sometimes, to God’s people, nothing but the treasure of
hope remains. The saint’s enduring riches are in the future, locked up in the
heavenly casket. Where the treasure is there the heart should ever be.
3. The source and foundation of this hope.—“Whereof ye heard before in the
word of the truth of the gospel” (ver. 5). The Gospel is based on unchangeable
truth and is therefore worthy of universal credence. It alone unfolds the mysteries
and glories of the future. The hope of heaven rests, not on the discoveries of
human philosophy, but on the revelations of the true Gospel. In vain do men
seek it elsewhere. By the preaching of the Gospel this hope is made known to
man. How dismal the outlook where hope is unknown!
Lessons.—1. We should thank God for others more on account of their spiritual
than temporal welfare. 2. Learn what are the essential elements of the Christian
character—faith, love, hope. 3. The proclamation of the Gospel should be
welcomed, and its message pondered.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 3–5. Good News and its Good
Effects.
I. The good news, what it was.—That
certain at Colossæ had not only
the Gospel, but had known the grace of
God in truth, and were now joined to
Christ by faith and to His people by
love.
II. What were the results.—1. Abundant
thanksgiving to the God
of redemption. 2. Constant prayer.
3. This epistle.
III. Application.—1. It is well that
ministers should be informed of the
success of the Gospel, both for their own
encouragement and to secure their
sympathy, prayers, and counsel for the
young converts. 2. Established Christians
and especially ministers should
assure young converts of the gratitude,
joy, and sympathy they feel and the
prayers they present on their behalf.
3. If our hearts are right, we shall
rejoice at the success of the Gospel.—Preacher’s Magazine.
Ver. 5. Hope a Stimulus to Christian
Perseverance—
- In gaining the heavenly reward.
- Because the heavenly reward is
secure.—“Laid up for you.”
- Is based on truth already
known.—“Whereof ye heard before in
the word of the truth of the Gospel.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 6–8.
The True Gospel universally the Same.
Wherever the Gospel comes it carries with it the ineffaceable impress of its
Divine origin, and of its universal adaptability to the condition of humanity.
There are certain truths that are self-evident to the understanding and are
not susceptible of proof. They are axiomatic and must be admitted as such
before any satisfactory system can be constructed upon them. Of this character
are the fundamental truths of the Gospel. Their authority is supreme, and their
evidential force irresistible. But a truth may be universally self-evident, and
not be universally adopted. It is at this point the guilt of the unbeliever is
incurred. The Gospel comes to mankind with ever-accumulating evidences of its
Divine truthfulness; but men resist it. This is the condemnation. “He that
believeth on the Son is not condemned; but he that believeth not is condemned
already” (John iii. 18). The false teachers, against whom the apostle warns
the Colossians, sought to spoil the Gospel by the intermixture of ideas from Jew
and Gentile.
I. The true Gospel is universally the same in its adaptation and enterprise.—“Which
is come unto you, as it is in all the world” (ver. 6). The Gospel, though
first proclaimed to the Jews, was not confined to them. It reached, penetrated,
and changed the Colossians. In them all races were represented. Their conversion
was typical of the possibilities of the Gospel for all. The world’s greatest
blessings are not indigenous, are not even sought; they are sent from above.
There is not a human being the Gospel cannot benefit; it adapts itself to the
wants of all. The Gospel started from Judea with a world-wide mission and
was eager to fulfil it. Its enterprise was irresistible. It soon spread throughout
Asia, Europe, and Africa—the regions embracing the Roman empire, which was
then virtually the whole world. Its marvellous propagation proved its universal
adaptability. The celebrated systems of philosophy among the Grecians lived
only in the soil that produced them. Heresies are at best ethnic; truth is
essentially catholic. In less than a quarter of a century Christianity was
diffused through the entire world. The success of Mahometanism was of a
different character and effected by different means. It depended more on the
scimitar than the Koran. Alexander, Sesostris, and others achieved similar
conquests, and as rapidly, by the force of arms. The victories of the Gospel were
won by moral weapons. It is the greatest privilege of any nation to possess the
Gospel, and its most solemn duty to make it known to the world.
II. The true Gospel is universally the same in its results.—“Bringeth forth
fruit, and increaseth” (as the most valuable MSS. read) “as it doth also in you”
(ver. 6). The effects produced on the Colossians by their reception of the Gospel were
a sample of the results in other parts of the world. The fruit-bearing denotes its
inward and subjective influence on the soul and life; the increasing refers to
its outward and diffusive influence as it makes progress in the world. The
metaphor used by the apostle suggests that the Gospel, as a tree, not only bears
fruit, but grows, sending forth its roots more firmly and widely, and extending
its branches in the air. Thus, it bears fruit and makes advancement (Spence).
There are some plants which exhaust themselves in bearing fruit and then
wither. The Gospel is a plant whose seed is in itself, and its external growth
keeps pace with its reproductive energy. We cannot monopolise the benefits of
the Gospel to ourselves; it is intended for the world, and wherever it comes it
brings forth fruit. It is intensely practical, and aims at results, corresponding
with its character, purpose, and power.
III. The true Gospel is universally the same in the manner of its reception.—“Since
the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth” (ver. 6). Faith
cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. The mode of receiving
the Gospel is the same to all. It is apprehended by the understanding, approved
by the judgment, and embraced by the affections. It is not enough that it falls
on the ear like the strain of a seraphic melody, not enough that it enters the
understanding as a clearly conceived, full-orbed truth, not enough that it ripples
through the sphere of the emotions as an unspeakable ecstasy, unless, aided by
the Divine Spirit, it be cordially embraced by the heart and conscience as the
whole truth—the only truth that saves and regenerates. It is in the Gospel
only that we “hear of the grace of God”—the good news that He has provided
redemption and restoration for the race. Nature, with all her revelations of beauty,
wisdom, and power, is dumb on this subject. Providence, with its vast repertory
of mingled mystery and bounty, unfolds it not. It is only by believing the
Gospel that, like the Colossians, we can “know the grace of God in truth.”
IV. The true Gospel is universally the same in the method of its propagation.—1. It
is propagated by preaching. “As ye also learned” (ver. 7)—more correctly,
“Even as ye were instructed” in the truth mentioned in the preceding verse. It is
believed Epaphras first preached the Gospel at Colossæ, and, under the direction
of Paul, he was probably also evangelist to the neighbouring cities of Hierapolis
and Laodicea. Preaching is the Divinely instituted means of disseminating the
Gospel. It cannot be superseded by any other agency. Its success has been
marvellous.
2. It is propagated by men thoroughly qualified for the work.—(1) The apostle recognised
Epaphras as a co-labourer with himself. “Our dear fellow-servant” (ver. 7).
The preacher must labour as belonging to Christ, as entirely dependent on Him,
and as deeply attached to Him. He is not a servant of the Church; he is a
servant for the Church, in doctrine, supplication to God, and varied endeavours
among men. With all frankness, affection, and modesty, the great apostle
acknowledges Epaphras as “a dear fellow-labourer.” Envy and jealousy of the
gifts and reputation of others are pernicious and unjustifiable. (2) The apostle
recognised Epaphras as a faithful minister of Christ. It was a great honour to
be a fellow-servant with Paul, but greater still to be a minister of Christ, the
Lord of glory, the Head of the Church, the Monarch of men and angels;
commissioned by Him to proclaim the most vital truths and promote the best
interests of the people. Moreover, he is called a faithful minister; the appellation
of minister he had in common with many others; the praise of faithfulness is
confined to few. “The great secret lies in these three things—Christ, immortal
souls, self-humiliation” (Bishop Wilson). (3) The apostle recognised Epaphras
as a man of deep spiritual insight. “Who also declared unto us your love in the
Spirit” (ver. 8). Love is the leading characteristic of the Gospel. It is announced
as a message of God’s love to man, and its object is to produce love in every
believing heart. Epaphras apprehended this prominent feature in the message
itself, discerned its origin in the work of the Spirit, and rejoiced in declaring
its exercise towards the apostle, towards God, and towards all men.
Lessons.—1. The universality of the Gospel a strong evidence of its Divine
authorship. 2. Though all the world were to reject the Gospel it would still be
true. 3. To whomsoever the Gospel comes the imperative duty is to believe it.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Ver. 6. The Gospel manifests Itself.
- It spreads its good news in all
possible places.—“Which is come unto
you, as it is in all the world.”
- Produces unmistakable spiritual
results.—“And bringeth forth fruit, as
it doth also in you.”
- Is a revelation of Divine grace.—“The
grace of God in truth.”
- To be an evident blessing it
must be heard and thoroughly believed
as the only truth.—“Since the day ye
heard of and knew.”
Vers. 7, 8. A Successful Preacher—
- Is affectionately recognised as a
faithful minister of Christ (ver. 7).
- Attributes his success to the
work of the Spirit (ver. 8).
- Regards the exercise of love in
his hearers as a prominent feature of
success (ver. 8).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 9–11.
A Comprehensive Apostolic Prayer.
I. It was a prayer expressive of deep spiritual interest.—1. It was suggested
by the report of their active Christian virtues. “For this cause we also, since the
day we heard it, do not cease to pray” (ver. 9). They had believed in Christ, they
had shown a genuine love to the brethren, they hoped for the glory of the future,
they brought forth the fruits of the Spirit. All this excites the grateful heart
of the apostle to pray that they may enjoy yet higher spiritual blessings, may
increase in knowledge and wisdom, and rise to the highest standard of moral
perfection. We best show our love to others by praying for them. Prayer is
always needed, since the most excellent Christian graces are imperfect, liable to
decay, and may be abused.
2. It was constant and fervent.—“Do not cease to pray for you and to desire”
(ver. 9). The apostle had unbounded faith in the efficacy of prayer. Many in these
days limit the advantage of prayer to its reflex influence on the individual who prays—expanding
the thoughts, spiritualising the mind, and sanctifying the heart; and
maintain that it is powerless to affect God, whose purposes must advance by the
irresistible operation of unchanging law, irrespective of human supplication.
Above this partial philosophy of the modern scientist we have the authority
and practice of an inspired apostle. If God did not hear and answer prayer—answer
it, not in violation of, but in harmony with, the highest law—then the
frequent intercessions of the apostle are reduced to a solemn mockery, are unjustifiable
and inexplicable. The apostle prayed with the utmost assiduity—night
and day, as opportunity permitted—and with the utmost ardency, desiring
that the blessings sought might be liberally and at once bestowed. As Augustine
puts it, our desires being prayers, these are continual when our desires are
continual.
II. It was a prayer for amplest knowledge.—1. The main subject of the knowledge
desired. “The knowledge of His will” (ver. 9). Man thirsts for knowledge.
He is eager to become acquainted with himself and the wonders around him.
In his unwearied search after knowledge he has conquered colossal difficulties;
has penetrated the starry spaces with the telescope; revealed the smallest visual
atom with the microscope; and, with the deep-sea dredge, has made us familiar
with the long-hidden treasures of the ocean. But the highest knowledge is the
knowledge of God—not simply of His nature, majesty, perfections, works, but
the knowledge of His will. So far as we are concerned, that will comprehends
all that God wishes us to be, believe, and do. We must know His will in order
to salvation, and as the supreme rule and guide of every action. Man may
be ignorant of many things; but he cannot be ignorant of God’s will and be
saved. The knowledge of that will is the first great urgent duty of life.
2. The measure in which the knowledge may be possessed.—“Filled with knowledge.”
The word “knowledge” is full and emphatic, indicating a living, comprehensive,
complete knowledge of the Divine will. They already possessed some
knowledge of that will; and the apostle prays that it may be deeper, clearer, and
increasingly potent within them, that they may be filled. The soul is not only
to possess this knowledge, but it is to possess the soul—informing, animating,
and impelling it onwards to higher attainments in the things of God. Knowledge
is a power for good only as it acquaints with the Divine will, and as it
pervades and actuates the whole spiritual being. We may seek great things
from God. He gives largely, according to His infinite bounty. There is no
limit to our increase in Divine knowledge but our own capacity, diligence, and
faith.
3. The practical form in which the knowledge should be exercised.—“In all
wisdom and spiritual understanding” (ver. 9). The word “spiritual” applies to both
wisdom and understanding. The false teachers offered a wisdom which they highly
extolled, but it had only a show of wisdom; it was an empty counterfeit, calling
itself philosophy; the offspring of vanity, nurtured by the flesh; it was unspiritual.
The true Gospel is spiritual in its origin, characteristics, and effects.
The wisdom and understanding it imparts are the work of the Holy Spirit.
Without His presence and operation in the soul both the knowledge of the
Divine will and advancement in it would be impossible. The two terms
are similar in meaning, but there is a distinction. Wisdom refers to the God-given
organ by which truth is selected and stored up; understanding to the faculty by
which truth is practically and prudently used; the one is comprehensive and
accumulative, the other discriminative and practical. True spiritual insight is
the work of the Holy Spirit. No amount of mental or moral culture, of human
wisdom and sagacity, can supply it. This was the power lacked by the Galatians
when they were so soon seduced from the Gospel; and to prevent a similar
result among the Colossians the apostle prays they may be filled with the
knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, that they
may discern between the false and the true, the carnal and spiritual, the human
and the Divine.
III. It was a prayer for the loftiest Christian career.—1. The standard of
Christian conduct. “That ye might walk worthy of the Lord” (ver. 10). Life is
a journey; death is the common goal and resting-place where all meet. Our
conduct is the pathway on which we travel. The walk therefore describes the
general course of life, the actions, habits, and deportment of the man in his
relations to God and to the race. This walk is to “be worthy of the Lord”—worthy
of His holy and dignified character; worthy of His law, of His
kingdom, of His glory, of the high destiny He has designed for us. When a
certain prince, on being captured, was asked how he should be treated, his
prompt reply was, “As a king.” We should ever remember the high vocation
wherewith we are called, and the exalted pattern after which our behaviour
should be modelled (Eph. iv. 1; 1 Thess. ii. 12). Our life is to be worthy of the
Lord—in its spirit, motive, active outgoing, development, scope, and aim. For
this purpose, we are filled with the knowledge of His will. The end of knowledge
is practice; its value consists in what it enables us to do. He is not an
architect who simply theorises about buildings, but he who has the art to erect
them. To speak eloquently of war does not constitute a general; he only
deserves that distinction who can skilfully manage an army in the field, whether
in attacking or defending.
2. The rule by which that standard is maintained.—“Unto all pleasing” (ver. 10).
We are to please the Lord in all things; to attempt and sanction nothing that will
not be acceptable to Him. We are not to please ourselves—we are not to please
others—as the ultimate object of life. If our conduct please others—our parents,
our friends, our country—it is well; but though all others are displeased and
estranged, we must strive in all things to please God. This is the simplest as
well as the highest and grandest rule of life. Attention to this will settle many
perplexing questions concerning human duty. The will of God must be studied
as our supreme rule, and to it all our throughs, words, and actions must be
conformed. Thus, the life on earth becomes a preparation and discipline for
heaven and blends the present with a future of immortal blessedness. It is well
with us when we obey the Lord (Jer. xlii. 6).
3. The productiveness of Christian consistency.—“Being fruitful in every good
work” (ver. 10). One result of a worthy walk is fertility in Christian activity. In
order to fruitfulness there must be life. The believer’s life is hid with Christ in God,
and the existence of the hidden life is manifest in the fruits. Fruitfulness also
involves culture. Neglect the vine, and instead of the pendent clusters of glossy,
luscious fruit there will be barrenness and decay—withered branches fit only for
the consuming fire. God disciplines His people for fruitful and abundant
service by painful but loving exercises of His providence (John xv. 2). It is not
enough to bear one kind of fruit; there must be fertility “in every good work.”
The Christian is in sympathy with every good enterprise that aims at the
physical, social, or moral welfare of man, and will heartily contribute his
influence and effort in its promotion.
4. Progress in Divine knowledge.—“And increasing in the knowledge of God”
(ver. 10). The knowledge of God is the real instrument of enlargement, in soul
and life, of the believer (Alford). We can reach no stage in Christian experience
and practice in which additional knowledge is unnecessary. Activity in goodness
sharpens the knowing faculty and adds to the stores of wisdom. On the other
hand, increased knowledge reacts and stimulates the worker (John vii. 17;
Matt. xxv. 29). Divine knowledge is the great necessity of the soul, and the
real means of fruitfulness and growth in goodness. It appeals to, elevates, and
expands the whole man.
IV. It was a prayer for supernatural strength.—1. The appropriateness and
fulness of the blessing desired. “Strengthened with all might” (ver. 11). Man is
morally weak. Sin has enfeebled and debased the soul; it has tyrannised over
humanity for ages. “When we were yet without strength” Christ came and introduced
another force which counteracts sin and will ultimately effect its overthrow.
All who believe in Christ receive strength to struggle against and conquer sin.
This imparted strength is especially necessary in realising the blessings for which
the apostle prays—complete knowledge of the Divine will; a life worthy of the
Lord; spiritual fertility and advancement in heavenly wisdom. “Strengthened
with all might.” Our enemies are numerous, violent, and obstinate, and our
infirmities are many. We therefore need strength of every kind. As it is
necessary to overcome all our enemies, so it is necessary to be endued with all
might—might to endure the most furious assault, might to resist the most
bewitching solicitation to evil.
2. The supernatural source of the blessing.—“According to His glorious power”
(ver. 11)—or, more correctly, “according to the power of His glory.” Moral power
is not native to the Christian; it has its source in God. He imparts it to the
believing heart. The motive and measure of our strength is in the might of His
glory. Power is an essential attribute of the Divine glory; it is manifested in
the splendid works of creation, in the inscrutable ways of Providence, and pre-eminently
in the marvels of human redemption. God’s revelation of Himself to
us, in whatever form, is the one source of our highest strength. The power of
His glory reveals itself more and more to him who walks worthy of the Lord.
Armed with this supernatural energy, the weakest saint becomes invincible.
3. The great practical purpose contemplated by the blessing.—“Unto all patience
and longsuffering with joyfulness” (ver. 11). Patience is the temper which does
not easily succumb under trial; longsuffering, or longmindedness, is the self-restraint
which does not hastily retaliate a wrong. Patience respects the weight
of the affliction, longsuffering its duration. The former is exercised in relation
to God, in the endurance of trial, or in waiting for promised blessing; the latter
in relation to man, in long-continued forbearance under irritating wrongs. The
true strength of the believer consists, not so much in what he can do, as in what
he can endure (Isa. xxx. 15). The quiet, uncomplaining sufferer is greater than
the most vigorous athlete. The characteristic of both patience and long-suffering
is expressed in the phrase “with joyfulness.” To suffer with joyfulness
is the great distinction and triumph of the Christian spirit. The endurance
of the Stoic was often the effect of pride or insensibility. But the Christian,
though keenly sensitive to pain, is enabled by the Holy Spirit to rejoice in the
assurance of God’s presence, in the certain victory of His cause, and in the
prospect of reward both here and hereafter.
Lessons.—1. How sublime are the topics of genuine prayer. 2. Deep experimental
acquaintance with the things of God is essential to a lofty and useful career.
3. Knowledge, wisdom, spiritual fertility, and strength are the gifts of God.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 9–11. Paul’s Prayer for the
Colossians—
I. For knowledge.—Fulness of knowledge
both extensively and intensively
is the burden of his desire. “In all
wisdom”—as a practical guide, not as
mere theory. “And spiritual understanding”—the
spirit of the believer
receiving the Spirit of God to lead him
inwardly to understand, realise, and
delight in the Divine will.
II. For fruitfulness.—-1. A life
worthy of the Christian as it is well
pleasing unto his Lord. 2. Good
works of every kind. 3. Substantial
growth.
III. For strength.—In order to this
fruitfulness all might is required of
body, mind, and spirit, but especially
that of the Spirit within. The measure—“according
to His glorious power”;
so as to suffer patiently the constant
trials of the Christian life and exercise
all longsuffering towards persecutors
and enemies of the truth, and this with
joyfulness. It is not what we can do,
but what He can do in us, and we
through Him.—Preacher’s Magazine.
Ver. 11. Divine Strength—
- Is spiritual strength, the source
and sustenance of all might.
-
May be realised in increasing
measure.
- Arms the soul with invincible
power.—Power to endure with patience
the trials of life; power to bear with
the opposition and cruelty of others.
- Enables the soul to rejoice in
the midst of suffering.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 12.
Meetness for Saintly Inheritance.
The epistle has been hitherto occupied with prefatory observations. In this
verse the writer enters upon his principal theme relating to the person and
redemption of Jesus Christ. He offers thanks to God the Father as the primal
source of that grace which constitutes the meetness for the saintly heritage.
Observe:—
I. The opulent inheritance provided for the good.—1. It is a present and
prospective possession. “The inheritance of the saints in light.” Light is
symbolic of knowledge, purity, and joy. The saints even now are called out of
darkness into God’s kingdom of marvellous light. “They walk in the light as
He is in the light.” They have a measure of knowledge, but it is dimmed by
many earthly obscurities; of purity, but it is surrounded with imperfections; of
joy, but it is moderated by life’s sorrows. In the prospective heavenly inheritance,
of which the earthly portion is a preparation and pledge, knowledge shall
be unclouded and complete, purity unsullied, joy uninterrupted. “The life for
eternity is already begun: we are at and from the very hour of our regeneration
introduced into the spiritual world—a world which, though mysterious and
invisible, is as real as the world of sense around us: the Christian’s life of
heavenliness is the first stage of heaven itself! There is a power now within
the believer in the germ, of which his celestial immortality shall be the proper
fruit. The dawn of heaven hath already begun in all who are yet to rejoice in
its noontide glory” (Archer Butler).
2. It is a possession provided for the good.—“The saints.” Not for the unholy,
the impenitent, the unbelieving, the worldly. It is an inheritance where
only the pure in heart can dwell. There is a world of significance in that pithy
saying of an old Divine: “Every one will get to heaven who could live there.”
Only the saints who have made the Lord their light and their salvation can bear
the splendour of His presence.
3. It is a possession freely given.—The legal heir has no need to work for his
inheritance; he enters in possession by right of succession or testatorial bequest.
The saint enters upon his inheritance of righteousness, not by natural descent
or by any self-constituted right, but on the ground of a free, Divine gift. The
believer has a title to the inheritance; but it is not earned by his own efforts:
it is bestowed by Christ who won the inheritance by suffering and dying. Thus,
all idea of merit is excluded; we can do nothing to deserve such a heritage of
blessing. The word “inheritance” really means “the parcel of the lot”—an
expression borrowed from the Old Testament (Ps. xvi. 5). The promised
Canaan suggests an analogy between it and the higher hopes and wealthier
possessions of the new dispensation. As each Israelite, through the grace of
God, obtained his allotment, so the Christian obtains his portion in the kingdom
of God. The present and future possession of the saints infinitely surpasses the
earthly inheritance.
II. The special meetness necessary to a participation in the inheritance.—“Hath
made us meet to be partakers.”
1. This meetness is absolutely necessary.—Naturally we are unmeet. A
monarch may raise the basest slave to a dukedom, but he cannot give him fitness
to discharge the duties of the exalted position; he may change his state, but he
cannot change his nature. To obtain a moral fitness for the saintly inheritance
our nature must be changed. “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the
kingdom of God.”
2. This meetness consists in the loving conformity of the human will to the
Divine.—The future life of heaven is the object and pattern of our present
heavenly life: “there is the mighty model on which we are to reconstruct our
nature; there dwells that central form of moral and spiritual beauty of which
our life is to be the transcript.” The celestial spirits find their highest glory
and blessedness in the complete submission of their whole nature to God; in
cheerful, willing, loving obedience to His will. The heavenly life is the test and
standard of our life on earth—of every motive, word, and deed. The Church of
Christ is a training school for a more exalted career. An ancient sage once said,
“Boys ought most to learn what most they shall need when they become men.”
So, men ought to learn in this life what they shall need most as glorified beings
in the future. Only as our whole soul is conformed in loving obedience to the
will of God are we “meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in
light.” We are thus brought into sympathy with the good in all realms and
fitted to participate in the most exalted fellowships of the future!
3. This meetness is a Divine work.—It is God “the Father who hath made us
meet.” He provides the inheritance; He gives the title to it; He confers the
moral fitness by which the soul enters into its possession and enjoyment. None
but God, the fountain of holiness, goodness, and power, could accomplish this
work. “He worketh in us to will and to do.” In the meetening process He
hath dealt with us as a Father, instructing our ignorance, correcting and
chastising our faults, and comforting and strengthening us in trouble.
III. The great duty we owe to the generous donor of the inheritance.—“Giving
thanks.” Gratitude is the easiest and commonest duty of a dependent
creature; yet is the duty most frequently and grossly neglected. Our hearts
should ever glow with an unquenchable flame of grateful praise to the bountiful
Author of all our blessings.
Lessons.—1. We owe thanks to God as the Provider of the inheritance. 2. We owe
thanks to God as the active Agent in producing the special meetness to participate in
the enjoyments of the inheritance. 3. Our thanks to God should be expressed in
active obedience to His will. 4. Our thanks to God should be joyful, fervent, and
constant.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSE.
Ver. 12. Qualification for Heaven.
I. The state contemplated.—It is
“an inheritance”; not a purchased
property, but the common heritage of
the children of God. “Of the saints,”
holy persons. “In light,” knowledge,
holiness, happiness.
II. The meetness required.—Adaptations
in the natural world. In social
arrangement. In regard to the heavenly
state. A change of heart is necessary.
Without it heaven would not be
heaven to us. It must be sought and
obtained in the present world. It is
here ascribed to the Father.
III. The thanks to be rendered.—We
thank our fellow-men for their
gifts. We thank God for His other
gifts. We should thank Him for meetness
for heaven. This thanksgiving
prepares us for heaven.—G. Brooks.
Meetness for the Inheritance of the
Saints in Light.—Life for eternity is
already begun. The business and the
beatitude of heaven must consist in
conformity of the will to the will of
God: this is equally the law of earth.
- Faith is the realising power of
this meetness.
- Hope is the consoling and fortifying
power.
-
Love is the uniting power, the
consummation, and the perfection of
all.—A. Butler.
The Inheritance of the Saints.
I. An interesting view of the future
world as it is inherited by believers.—1. The
saints are in light in respect to the
place. 2. As it respects purity. 3. In
respect of the permanency of their felicity.
4. As it respects knowledge.
II. The meetness which is wrought
by God in the hearts of all who are
raised to the enjoyment of this inheritance.—1. The
relative meetness is
expressed by the word “inheritance.” It
is assigned to heirs. 2. The personal
meetness is indicated by the term “saints.”
Lessons.—1. Give thanks to God for
those who are made meet. 2. Give
thanks to God if the work be begun in
yourselves.—R. Watson.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 13, 14.
The Great Moral Translation.
These words amplify the truth unfolded in the preceding verse, and describe
the great change that must take place in order to obtain a meetness for the
saintly inheritance—the translation of the soul from the powerful dominion of
darkness into the glorious kingdom of the Son of God.
I. This translation involves our enfranchisement from a state of dark captivity.—“Who
hath delivered us from the power of darkness” (ver. 13).
1. The unrenewed are in a realm of moral darkness.—This was the condition
of the Colossians and of the whole Gentile world before the times of the Gospel.
“Darkness covered the earth, and gross darkness the people.” Darkness denotes
ignorance, moral blindness. Man is in darkness about the great mysteries of
being, the mystery of sin and suffering, the deep significance of life, the distressing
question of human duty, the destiny of the universe, the character and operations
of God, and His relation to the race. It is possible to know much about religion,
to hold religious ideas at second-hand as a group of poetic conceptions—fancy
pictures from the book of Revelation, like the pictures of the poets from the
book of Nature—and yet be totally in the dark as to the religious experience
of those ideas. May be intellectually light, and spiritually dark. Darkness
denotes danger and misery. Like a traveller in a strange country overtaken
by the night, stumbling along in uncertainty and fear, until one fatal step—and
he lies helpless in the rocky abyss, into the bottom of which he falls.
2. In this realm of moral darkness the unrenewed are held in captivity.—They
are slaves in the land of darkness, tyrannised over by an arbitrary and
capricious ruler. Slavery distorts and defaces the illustrious image in which
man was originally created, darkens the understanding, paralyses the intellect,
and stunts the growth of intelligence; it robs him of his self-respect, poisons
nature, and brands him with unutterable infamy. The “power of darkness”
is that tyranny which sin exercises over its captives, filling their minds with
deadly errors or brutish ignorance, their consciences with terror of indifference,
and dragging them onwards under its dismal yoke into all the horrors of eternal
darkness. The tyrant of this gloomy realm is Satan; and his domination is
founded and conducted on imposture, error, ignorance, and cruelty. He is the
arch-deceiver.
3. From this realm of moral darkness God graciously liberates.—“Who hath
delivered us.” For the slaves of sin there is no help but in God. It is the
nature of sin to incapacitate its victim for making efforts after self-enfranchisement.
He is unwilling to be free. To snap the fetters from a nation of slaves
yearning for liberty is a great and noble act. Our deliverance is mightier than
that. The word “deliver” in the text means to snatch or rescue from danger,
even though the person seized may at first be unwilling to escape, as Lot from
Sodom. God does not force the human will. The method of deliverance was
devised and executed independent of our will; its personal benefits cannot be
enjoyed without our will.
II. This translation places us in a condition of highest moral freedom and
privilege.—1. We are transferred to a kingdom. “Hath translated us into the
kingdom” (ver. 13). Power detains captives; a kingdom fosters willing citizens.
Tyranny has no law but the capricious will of a despot; a kingdom implies good
government, based on universally recognised and authoritative law. “The image
is presented of the wholesale transportation of a conquered people, of which the
history of Oriental monarchies furnishes many examples” (Josephus, Ant., IX. xi.).
They were translated from a bad to a better ruling power. So, the believer is
moved from the realm and power of darkness and bondage to the kingdom of
light and freedom. The laws of this kingdom are prescribed by Christ, its
honours and privileges granted by Him, and its future history and triumphs
will ever be identified with His own transcendent glory.
2. We are placed under the rule of a beneficent and glorious King.—“The
kingdom of God’s dear Son,” more accurately “the Son of His love.” As love
is the essence of the Father, so is it also of the Son. The manifestation of the
Son to the world is manifestation by Him of Divine love (1 John iv. 9).
The kingdom into which believers are translated is founded on love; its entire
government is carried on under the same beneficent principle. The acts of
suffering and death, by which Christ won His kingly dignity and power, were
revelations of love in its most heroic and self-sacrificing forms. When we believe
in Christ, we are translated from the tyranny and darkness of sin into the
kingdom of which the Son of God—the Son infinitely beloved of the Father—is
King. As willing subjects, we share with Him the Father’s love, and are being
prepared for more exalted service and sublimer experiences in the endless
kingdom of the future.
III. The Divine method by which translation is effected.—It is effected by
redemption.
1. The means of redemption.—“Through His blood” (ver. 14). The image of a
captive and enslaved people is still continued. But the metaphor is changed
from the victor who rescues the captive by force of arms to the philanthropist
who releases him by the payment of a ransom (Lightfoot). All men
are under the condemnation of a violated law and sink in the bondage of sin.
There is no release but by paying a ransom; this is involved in the idea of
redemption. The ransom-price paid for the enfranchisement of enslaved
humanity was “not corruptible things, as silver and gold, but the precious blood
of Christ.” The mode of redemption is to us a deep mystery; the reasons
influencing the Divine Mind in its adoption we cannot fathom. But the fact is
plainly revealed (1 Pet. iii. 18, ii. 24; Gal. iii. 13). This was God’s method of
translating from bondage to liberty.
2. The effect of redemption.—“Even the forgiveness of sins” (ver. 14). The
ransom-price is paid, and the slave is free. The first blessing of redemption is
pardon. It is this the penitent soul most urgently needs; it does not exclude all other
redemptive blessings but opens and prepares the soul for their reception. Sin is the
great obstacle between the soul and God; the monster sluice that shuts off the
flow of Divine blessing. Redemption lifts the sluice, and the stream of Divine
goodness pours its tide of benediction into the enraptured soul. An earthly king
may forgive the felon, but he cannot give him a better disposition. God never
forgives without at the same time giving a new heart. Pardon involves every
other blessing—peace, purity, glory; it is the pledge and foundation for the
bestowal of all we can need in time or in eternity.
3. The Author of redemption.—“In whom we have redemption” (ver. 14). Christ,
the Son of God’s love, by the sacrifice of Himself, accomplished our redemption; and
it is only as we are in Him by faith that we actually partake of the freedom He
purchased for us. His blood is not merely the ransom paid for our deliverance,
but He is Himself the personal, living source of redemption. The deliverance of
humanity is not simply in the work of Christ, through what He did and suffered,
but in Himself—“the strong Son of God,” the crucified, risen, and living Saviour.
It is not only a rescue from condemnation and punishment, but a deliverance
from the power and bondage of evil. The words “in whom we have redemption”
teach much and imply more. They describe a continuous gift enjoyed, a continuous
process realised by all who have been translated into the kingdom of
the Saviour. In them the power of redemption is being carried on, so that
they die unto sin, and live unto God, and experience a growing meetness for
the inheritance of the saints in light (Spence). Christ only could be the
Redeemer of men; He combined in one person the Divine and human natures:
He could therefore meet the demands of God and the necessities of man.
Lessons.—1. Sin is a dark, enslaving power. 2. The kingdom of the Redeemer
is one of light and freedom. 3. Moral translation by redemption is a Divine work.
4. The forgiveness of sin can be obtained only by faith in the Son of God.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Ver. 13. From Darkness to Light.
- Man is naturally in a state of
darkness, held captive by sin and
Satan.
- A kingdom of freedom and light
is provided by the intervention of the
Son of God.
- The translation from darkness
to light is a Divine act.
Ver. 14. The Great Blessing of Redemption—
- Is the forgiveness of sins.
- The blessing of forgiveness is
through the agency of Christ.
- Redemption is purchased at a
great cost and sacrifice.—“Through
His blood.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses15–17.
The Relation of Christ to God and to all Created Things.
Having spoken of our redemption, the apostle, in terms of the highest significance
and grandeur, dwells upon the dignity and absolute supremacy of the
Redeemer.
I. The relation of Christ to God.—“Who is the image of the invisible God”
(ver. 15). God is an infinite and eternal Spirit, incomprehensible and invisible.
“No man hath seen God at any time;” yet humanity yearns for some visible
embodiment of Deity. Christ reflects and reveals the Father. “He is the brightness
of His glory, and the express image of His person.” It is believed that the idea
of the Logos underlies the whole of this passage, though the term is not mentioned.
The heretical teachers at Colossæ had introduced a perverted view as to the
nature of the mediation between God and creation, and the apostle aims to
rectify it. The word λόγος,
denoting both reason and speech, was a philosophical
term adopted by Alexandrian Judaism to express the manifestation of the
unseen God—the absolute Being—in the creation and government of the world.
It included all modes by which God makes himself known to man. As His
reason, it denoted His purpose or design; as His speech, it implied His revelation.
When Christian teachers adopted this term, they exalted and fixed its meaning by
attaching it to two precise and definite ideas—that the Word is a Divine person,
and that the Word became incarnate in Jesus Christ (Lightfoot). Christ as the
eternal Word is the perfect image, the visible representation, of the unseen God.
In addition to the idea of similitude, which is capable of a wide and general use,
the word “image” involves two others.
1. Representation.—It implies an archetype of which the image is a copy.
Man is said to be in the image of God; but there is a difference between the
image of God in man and the image of God in Christ. In Christ it is as
Cæsar’s image in his son; in man it is as Cæsar’s image on his coin. In the
God-man Christ Jesus we have a visible, living, perfect, and reliable representation
of the invisible God.
2. Manifestation.—The general idea of the Logos is the manifestation of the
hidden. “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is
in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him” (John i. 18, compared with
xiv. 9, 10, vi. 46). The incarnate Word, in His nature, attributes, and actions,
is the true epiphany of the unseen Deity, setting forth, like distinct rays of one
and the same glorious light, His infinite wisdom, mercy, righteousness, and
power. Our obligations to Christ for His wondrous revelations are unspeakably
great.
II. The relation of Christ to all created things.—1. Christ existed prior to the
creation. He is “the firstborn of every creature” (ver. 15). It is not said He
was the first formed or first created of every creature, but the firstborn—the
first begotten. It is plainly intimated that Christ, the Son of God’s love, was
begotten before any created thing existed. There is therefore no ground in
this passage for the Arians and Socinians to build up their theory of the
creatureship of Christ. In relation to all created things, intelligent or unintelligent,
terrene or celestial, Christ was the firstborn. In an ineffably
mysterious sense He was begotten; they were created. The two ideas involved
in the phrase are: (1) Priority to all creation—the absolute pre-existence
of the Son. The term “first begotten” was frequently used among the
Jews as a term of precedence and dignity. As applied to the Son of God,
it implies priority in rank in relation to all created things. Time is an
accident of the creature. Therefore, the origin of the Son of God precedes all
time. (2) Sovereignty over all creation. God’s firstborn is the natural Ruler,
the acknowledged Head of God’s household. He is “Heir of all things.” He is
creation’s supreme and absolute Lord. He brought all creatures out of nothing,
and by His own will graduated the degree of being each should possess; and it is
fitting He should have unlimited empire over all. As if to prevent the possibility
of any misconception regarding the relation of Christ to the universe, and
to show that He could not be a part of creation however exalted in degree, but
was essentially distinct from it, the apostle sets forth the Son of God as the First
Cause, the Active Agent, and the Grand End of all created things.
2. Christ is Himself the Creator of all things.—(1) The conception of creation
originated in Christ. “For by Him [or in Him] were all things created” (ver. 16).
He was the great First Cause; the being, forms, limitations, energies of all things to
be were bound up in Him. It rested with Himself to create or not to create.
It is thought by some the Platonic idea is here shadowed forth; that the archetypes,
the original patterns of all things, were in Christ before they were
created outwardly. This is simply a philosophic speculation and is readily
suggested by the universal method of the mind first forming a mental conception
within itself of any object it desires to body-forth to the outward eye. It is in
Christ we trace the great work of creation in its beginning, progress, and end.
(2) The powers of creation were distributed by Christ. “All things that are in
heaven, and that are in earth” (ver. 16). He created the heavens also; but those
things which are in the heavens are rather named because the inhabitants are more
noble than their dwellings. “Visible,” things that are evident to the outward
senses; and “invisible,” things that may be conceived by the understanding.
“With a view to meet some peculiar doctrine of the false teachers at Colossæ,
who seem to have alleged that Christ was but one of the heavenly powers, St. Paul
breaks up the things invisible, and distributes them by the words ‘thrones,’
‘dominions,’ ‘principalities,’ or ‘powers.’ It may be difficult, and indeed
impossible, for us now fully to know what the terms severally convey in connection
with the several hierarchies of official glory. Yet all these invisible beings, so
illustrious as to be seated on thrones, so great as to be styled dominions, so
elevated as to be considered principalities, so mighty as to merit the designation
of powers, were created by the Son of God; and they all acknowledge His
supremacy and glory. The highest position in creation is infinitely below Him,
and there is neither majesty nor renown that equals His. All created beings
occupying the loftiest thrones throughout the vastness of immensity and
amidst the mystery of life do homage and service to Christ Jesus as the
firstborn, the only begotten Son of God” (Spence). (3) Christ is Himself
the Great End of creation. “All things were created for Him” (ver. 16). As
all creation emanated from Him, so does it all converge again towards Him.
“The eternal Word is the goal of the universe, as He was the starting-point.
It must end in unity, as it proceeded from unity; and the centre of this
unity is Christ.” The most elaborate and majestic machinery of the universe
and the most highly gifted intelligence alike exist only to serve the ultimate
purpose of creation’s Lord. All created things gather their significance, dignity,
and glory by their connection with Him. Christ must be more than a creature,
as the loftiest creature could not be the end of all created things. It is a narrow
philosophy that teaches that all things were made for man. The grand end of
all our endeavours should ever be the glory of Christ.
3. The unchanging eternity of Christ.—“He is before all things” (ver. 17). Not
only is He before Moses and before Abraham, as He declared to the Jews (John viii.),
but He is before all things. The words refer not so much to His eminence in
rank as to duration. The terms He is, in the Greek, are most emphatic, the
one declaring His personality, the other that His pre-existence is absolute existence.
Christ existed before any created thing—even before time itself; therefore, from
eternity. Knowing the tendency of men to entertain inferior notions of the
person of Christ, and of the redemption He has provided, the apostle multiplies
conceptions to represent His Divine worth and excellency. He should be
preferred before all.
4. The continued existence of creation depends on Christ.—“And by [rather in]
Him all things consist” (ver. 17)—hold together, cohere. He is the principle of
cohesion in the universe. He impresses upon creation that unity and solidarity
which makes it a cosmos instead of a chaos. Thus, to take one instance, the action
of gravitation, which keeps in their places things fixed and regulates the motion
of things moving, is an expression of His mind (Lightfoot). The universe found
its completion in Him and is sustained and preserved every moment by the
continuous exercise of His almighty power. All things hang on Christ; in Him
they live and move and have their being. If He withdrew His upholding hand,
everything would run into confusion and ruin. “Thou hidest Thy face, they
are troubled: Thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their
dust.” In Him all things consist. He is the centre of life, force, motion, and
rest; round Him all things revolve. He imposes their limits, gives to them
their law, strikes the keynote of their harmonies, blends and controls their
diverse operations. He is the All-perfect in the midst of imperfection, the
Unchanged in the midst of change. He is the Author of human redemption;
became incarnate, suffered, died, and rose again, and now reigns with the Father
in glory everlasting. He is worthy of our loftiest adoration, our humblest
submission, our strongest confidence, our most ardent love.
Lessons.—1. The supremacy of the Creator and Preserver of all things is absolute
and universal 2. Human redemption is grounded on the divinity of the Son of
God. 3. Personal trust in the Redeemer brings the soul into direct personal
relation to the Father.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Ver. 15. Christ a Revelation because
He is the Equal of the Father—
I. In His nature.—The incarnation.
II. In His attributes.
III. In His will.—The character of
Christ and His moral system.
IV. In His works.—His miracles,
His death as a sacrifice for sin, His
resurrection. 1. How ungrateful and
unbelieving have we been! 2. How
zealous and devoted should we be!—G. Brooks.
Ver. 16. Christ the Author and the
End of Creation.
I. The Author.—1. The extent.
“All things.” The universe, natural
and moral.
2. The variety.—“Visible and invisible.”
The near and the distant,
the vast and the minute, the material
and the spiritual.
3. The orders.—“Whether they be.”
Scale of being. Gradations in all
classes.
II. The end.—1. Heaven was created
for Him. As the place of His special
residence and as the home of His
people.
2. Angels were created for Him.—Messengers
of His mercy, executioners
of His vengeance.
3. Hell was created for Him.—The
prison of His justice.
4. The earth was created for Him.—The
scene of His incarnation and
atoning death. His mediatorial
kingdom.
5. The human race was created for
Him.—Man created, preserved, redeemed.
(1) How exalted should be
our ideas of Christ! (2) How carefully
should we learn to view everything
in connection with Christ!
3. What ground for confidence, gratitude,
and fear.—Ibid.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 18.
The Relation of Christ to the Moral Creation.
After showing that Christ holds the position of absolute priority and sovereignty
over the whole universe, the apostle now proceeds to point out His relation to
the principal part of that whole—the Church, as the symbol and embodiment of
the new, moral creation. From this verse we learn that Christ is the supreme
Head, and primal life-giving Source of the Church, and as such is invested with
universal pre-eminence.
I. Christ is the supreme Head of the Church—the new moral creation.—1. The
Church is the body of Christ. “The body, the Church.” Much controversy
has prevailed as to what constitutes the Church; and the more worldly the
Church became, the more confused the definition, the more bitter the controversy.
The New Testament idea of the Church is easily comprehended. It is
the whole body of the faithful in Christ Jesus, who are redeemed and regenerated
by His grace—the aggregate multitude of those in heaven and on earth who
love, adore, and serve the Son of God as their Redeemer and Lord. The word
ἐκκλησία constitutes two leading ideas:
the ordained unity, and the calling or
separating out from the world. Three grand features ever distinguish the true
Church—unbroken unity, essential purity, and genuine catholicity. (Cf. Eph. i. 22, 23,
iv. 15, 16; 1 Cor. xii. 12–27).
2. Christ is the Head of the Church.—“And He is the Head of the body, the
Church.” That the world might not be considered this body, the word “Church”
is added; and the materialistic conception of a Church organism thus refuted.
As the Head of the Church—(1) Christ inspires it with spiritual life and activity.
(2) He impresses and moulds its character. (3) He prescribes and enforces its
laws. (4) He governs and controls its destinies. (5) He is the centre of its
unity.
II. Christ is the originating, fontal Source of the organic life of the Church.—In
respect to the state of grace, He is the beginning; in respect to the state of
glory, He is the firstborn from the dead. He gives to the Church its entity,
form, history, and glory; except in and through Him, the Church could have no
existence.
1. He is the Author of the moral creation.—“The beginning.” Christ has been
before described as the Author of the old material creation. Here He is
announced as the beginning of the new spiritual creation. The moral creation
supplies the basis and constituent elements of the Church. In the production,
progress, and final triumph of the new creation, He will redress all the wreck
and ruin occasioned by the wrong-doing of the old creation. Of this new moral
creation Christ is the source, the principle, the beginning; the fountain of life,
purity, goodness, and joy to the souls of men.
2. He is the Author of the moral creation as the Conqueror of Death.—“The
firstborn from the dead.” Sin introduced death into the old creation, and the
insatiable monster still revels and riots amid the corruptions he perpetually
generates. The Son of God, in fulfilment of the Divine plan of redemption,
became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. He descended into
Hades and placed Himself among the dead. On the third day He rose again,
“the firstfruits of them that slept.” He was “the firstborn from the dead”;
the first who had risen by His own power; the first who had risen to die no
more. By dying He conquered death for Himself and all His followers. He can
therefore give life to all that constitute that Church of which He is fittingly the
Head, assure them of a resurrection from the dead, of which His own was a
pattern and pledge, and of transcendent and unfading glory with Himself in the
endless future.
III. The relation of Christ to the Church invests Him with absolute pre-eminence.—“That
in all things He might have the pre-eminence.”
1. He is pre-eminent in His relation to the Father.—He is “the image of the
invisible God”; the Son of His love, joined by a bond to us mysterious and
ineffable, and related in a sense in which no other can be. He is the first and
the last; the only Divine Son.
2. He is pre-eminent in the universe of created things.—He existed before any
being was created, and was Himself the omnipotent Author of all created things.
The whole hierarchy of heaven obey and adore Him. He is alone in His complex
nature as our Emmanuel. Mystery of mysteries; in Him Deity and humanity
unite!
3. He is pre-eminent in His rule over the realm of the dead.—He entered the
gloomy territory of the grave, wrestled with and vanquished the King of
Terrors, rose triumphantly from the dismal battle-field, and is now Lord both
of the dead and of the living. “I am He that liveth and was dead; and behold,
I am alive for evermore; and have the keys of Hades and of death” (Rev. i. 18).
4. He is pre-eminent in His relation to the Church.—The Church from beginning
to end is purely His own creation. He sketched its first rough outline,
projected its design, constructed its organism, informed it with life, dowered it
with spiritual riches; and He will continue to watch over and direct its future
until He shall “present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or
wrinkle, or any such thing”!
5. He is pre-eminent in the estimation and homage of a ransomed world.—He is
the central figure of all history; around Him all events group themselves, and
by Him are stamped with their true character, significance, and worth. The
dream of the ages, the teaching of figures and symbols, the shadows and forecastings
of coming events, are all dismissed in the effulgent presence of Him to whom
they all point, like so many quivering index-fingers. Christ has to-day the
strongest hold upon the heart of humanity. His perplexed enemies admire while
they reject Him; the ever-increasing multitude of His friends reverence and
adore Him; and the era is rapidly advancing when to Him a universe of
worshippers shall bow the knee and acknowledge that “in all things He has the
pre-eminence.”
Lessons.—1. The pre-eminence of Christ entitles Him to universal obedience.
2. The highest blessedness is found in union with the Church of Christ.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSE.
Ver. 18. The Church the Body of
Christ.
I. As the body of Christ the Church
is one with Him.—1. One in covenant
dealing with God. 2. One in respect of
the principle of life. 3. One in history.
4. How Christ may be served or persecuted.
II. As the body of Christ the
Church is one in itself.—1. Identity of
principle. 2. Substantial agreement in
faith. 3. A visible association through
sympathy.
III. As the body of Christ the
Church has many co-operating and
mutually dependent members.—1. The
members are as numerous as are believers
or as are offices. 2. Their mutual dependence
and co-operation illustrated in the
work of spreading the Gospel. 3. Let
each one know his own place and
duties.
IV. As the body of Christ the
Church must grow up to completeness
and maturity.—1. Each believer is first
a babe in Christ and advances to the
measure of the stature of a man in
Christ. 2. As a whole the Church is
gradually augmented and increased—from
Abel onwards. 3. To gather in
and perfect the elect is the peculiar work
of time.
V. As the body of Christ the
Church must be restored to perfect
soundness and health.—1. Christ receives
the Church—dead. 2. The first
step towards perfect soundness is a
resurrection. 3. Hence each believer is
quickened with Christ in order to be
healed. 4. The bodies of the saints shall
likewise be perfect.—The Physician.
5. In heaven no one shall say, “I am
sick.”
VI. As the body of Christ the
Church is the object of His unremitting
care.—1. To provide for the wants
of his body is man’s unceasing care.
2. Christ has made ample provision.
3. He now ministers to His Church’s
wants—clothing, food, defence, habitation.
VII. As the body of Christ the
Church is the instrument through
which He accomplishes His purposes.—1. The
body the instrument of the heart
or soul. 2. The Church the instrument
of Christ. 3. The Church but the
instrument.—Stewart.
Christ the Firstborn from the Dead—
- In the dignity of His person.
- Because He rose by His own
power.
- Because He is the only one who
rose never to die again.
- Because He has taken precedence
of His people who all shall rise from
their graves to glory.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 19, 20.
The Reconciling Work of the Great Mediator.
After showing the grand pre-eminency of Christ in both the natural and
moral creation, and thus declaring the inferior and subordinate position of those
angelic powers whose nature and office the false teachers in Colossæ unduly
extolled, the apostle here proceeds to point out the special fitness of the great
Mediator for that lofty relationship. It is grounded on the fact that in Him all
fulness dwells. Observe—
I. The unique qualification of the great Mediator.—1. In Him all fulness
dwells. The heretical teachers would reduce Christ to the level of an angelic
mediator, a simple evolution from the Divine nature, and one of the links that
bind the finite to the infinite. They admitted there was the manifestation of
Divine power and glory, but that this was only occasional, and not inherent.
The apostle, in refuting this, asserts that the plenitude—the grand totality of
Deity—resided in Christ, not as a transient guest, but as a permanent and
abiding presence. “All fulness.” Well might the profound and devout Bengel
exclaim, “Who can fathom the depth of this subject?” In the marvellous
person of Jesus there is combined all the fulness of humanity as well as the
fulness of Divinity—all the beauty, dignity, and excellency that replenish heaven
and earth, and adorn the nature of God and of men. It is a fulness that stands
related to all the interests of the universe and can supply the moral necessities
of all. There is a fulness of wisdom to keep us from error, fulness of grace to
preserve from apostasy, fulness of joy to keep us from despair, and fulness of
power to protect from all evil. It penetrates and fills the vast universe of
intelligent beings and girds it with a radiant circle of glory and felicity.
2. It is the good pleasure of the Father that this fulness should reside in the Son.—“For
it pleased the Father” (ver. 19). It was the will and purpose of God the Father
that Christ, as the Mediator, should, in order to accomplish the great work of
reconciliation, be filled with the plenitude of all Divine and human excellencies;
that He should be the grand, living, unfailing reservoir of blessing to the whole
intelligent universe. The Father is not only in harmony with the reconciling
work of the Son, but the whole merciful arrangement was from the first
suggested, planned, and appointed by Him. The moving cause and foundation
of all saving grace through the Son is the good pleasure of the Father. It is
not His good pleasure that any other than Christ should be the Mediator of the
universe. We should never seek or acknowledge any other.
II. The reconciling work of the great Mediator.—1. The nature of the reconciliation.
“To reconcile unto Himself” (ver. 20). The word “reconcile” imports to
restore one to a state of amity and friendship, to change the relations of two
parties separated either by one-sided or mutual enmity. Sin places man at
enmity with God, and exposes him to the Divine opposition and anger. The
cross of Christ, by removing the cause of estrangement, opens the way of
reconciliation; and the penitent, believing soul is thus restored to the Divine
favour and friendship. But the word “reconcile” does not always presuppose
the existence of open enmity; and, from the general drift of the verse, the term
should be interpreted in the most liberal sense, yet with the utmost caution and
reverence.
2. The extent of the reconciliation.—“To reconcile all things unto Himself,
whether they be things in earth or things in heaven” (ver. 20). It was on the
earth where the enmities first arose; therefore, it is put first. The humanity of
Christ bringing all creatures around it unites them to God in a bond which never
before existed—a bond which has its origin in the mystery of redemption. Thus
all things in heaven and earth feel the effect of man’s renovation. In Christ, the
great Reconciler, meet and merge the discordant elements which sin had introduced
(see Bengel and Eadie). The false teachers aimed at effecting a partial
reconciliation between God and man, through the interposition of angelic
mediators. The apostle speaks of an absolute and complete reconciliation of
universal nature to God, effected through the mediation of the incarnate Word.
Their mediators were ineffective because they were neither human nor Divine.
The true Mediator must be both human and Divine. The whole universe of
things material, as well as spiritual, shall be restored to harmony with God.
How far this restoration of universal nature may be subjective, as involved in
the changed perceptions of man thus brought into harmony with God, and how
far it may have an objective and independent existence, it were vain to speculate
(Lightfoot). With regard to this reconciliation, we may safely say it includes, with
much more that is too high for us to understand, the following truths: (1) Sinful
creatures on earth are reconciled to God in Christ. For the degenerate and
guilty children of men there is a Reconciler and a way of reconciliation, so that
wrath is turned aside, and friendship restored. (2) Sinful and sinless or unfallen
creatures are reconciled to each other and brought together again in Christ.
Bengel says: “It is certain that the angels, the friends of God, were the enemies
of men when they were in a state of hostility against God.” The discord and
disunion introduced into the moral universe by sin are overcome by the Lord
Jesus. (3) Sinless and unfallen creatures are brought nearer to God in Christ,
and, through His reconciling work and His infinite fulness of grace, are confirmed
for ever in their loyalty and love. In Christ, the Redeemer and
Reconciler, they have views of the Divine nature, character, and glory they never
had before, and which they can nowhere else obtain (Spence). It needed such a
Mediator as Jesus, gifted with the highest Divine and human powers, to restore
the tone and harmony of a discordant universe, and tune every created spirit to
the keynote of sweetest celestial music. The true melody of acceptable praise is
learned only in the ardent, loving adoration of the Son of God.
III. The means by which the reconciliation is effected.—“And having made
peace through the blood of His cross” (ver. 20). To make peace is the same thing
as to reconcile; and the death of Christ—the shedding of His blood on the cross—was
the method by which, in the infinite wisdom of God, the peace-producing
reconciliation is secured. It was the voluntary self-sacrifice of Himself on the
cross that constituted Jesus the grand reconciling Mediator of the universe. “All
things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ” (2 Cor.
v. 18). Only by suffering could suffering be assuaged; only by dying could death
itself be conquered. The cross is therefore the symbol of peace, of power, of
triumph. There the law was fulfilled and magnified, the integrity of the Divine
perfections vindicated, justice was satisfied, mercy found its most bounteous
outlet, and love its crowning joy. The cross is the source of every blessing to
the fallen; the centre round which a disordered universe again revolves in
beauteous order and rejoicing harmony; the loadstone that draws the trembling
sinner to the needed and unutterable repose.
Lessons.—1. The great Mediator has every qualification for His stupendous
work. 2. The reconciliation of a disorganised universe is beyond the power of any
subordinate agent. 3. Rebellious man can be restored to peace with God only as he
yields himself up to the great Mediator.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Ver. 19. The Fulness of Christ—
- Endowed with all Divine and
human excellencies.
- Necessary to accomplish His
reconciling work.
- Was required and approved by
God the Father.
Ver. 20. Christ the Reconciler—
- Restored the friendship between
God and man broken by sin.
- Accomplished His work by the
voluntary sacrifice of His life.
- Introduces harmony into a
disrupted universe.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 21, 22.
The Personal Blessings of Reconciliation.
Having shown the relation of Christ to God, to the whole creation, and to the
Church, and His connection with all moral beings, the writer now proceeds to
point out the relation of Christ to individual man in delivering him from the
fetters of sin and opening up the way of reconciliation with an outraged but
loving Deity. In this passage we have a description of the attitude of sinful man
towards God and the method of his restoration. We learn that:—
I. Sin has placed man in antagonism to God.—1. Man is estranged from God.
“And you that were sometime alienated” (ver. 21). Sin severs the soul from God.
The principle of cohesion—the consciousness of rectitude which God implanted in
man in his sinless state—is weakened, and the sinner, breaking away from the
centre of all goodness, drifts into an ever-widening and ever-darkening wilderness
of alienation and evil. Sin places man at an infinite distance from God, leads him
to shun the Divine presence and disregard the Divine overtures. A state of
alienation is a state of danger; it is a state of spiritual death; and yet it is
painful to observe how few in this state are conscious of their awful peril.
2. Man is hostile to God.—“Enemies in your mind” (ver. 21). The enmity
follows from the estrangement, and both have their seat in the mind—“in the
original and inmost force of the mind which draws after it the other faculties.”
The mind of man opposes the mind of God, sets up a rival kingdom, and organises
an active rebellion against the Divine Ruler. “The carnal mind is enmity against
God” (Rom. viii. 7). If the hostility is not always flagrantly open, it is in the
mind; the fountain of all sin is there. To be a stranger to God is to be an enemy
of God: “He that is not with Me is against Me.” The sinner is his own greatest
enemy. It is a vain thing to fight against God; terrible will be the vengeance
He will ere long wreak upon His enemies.
3. Man’s estrangement and hostility are evident in his actions.—“By wicked
works” (ver. 21). Man is stimulated by his sinful mind to perpetrate the most
outrageous acts of rebellion against God, and to indulge in the most fiendish cruelty
towards his fellow-man. But there are “wicked works” that may not figure in the
criminal columns of the newspapers, nor be detected by the most vigilant watcher.
To cherish envy, hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness is equally heinous in
the sight of God, and an unmistakable evidence of hostility towards Him. Sin
conceived in the mind will, sooner or later, manifest itself in action.
II. Man is reconciled to God in Christ.—1. The distinguished blessing. “Yet
now hath He reconciled” (ver. 21). To effect this all that is necessary is to persuade
the sinner to cease his rebellion and submit to God. In Christ God is reconciled to
the sinner; there is no need to persuade Him. He is love; the sinner is enmity.
He is light; the sinner is darkness. He is nigh unto the sinner, but the sinner
is afar off. The great object is to destroy the sinner’s enmity, that he may have
Divine love; bring him from darkness into Divine light; bring him from his evil
works nigh unto God, and reconciliation is the result (Biblical Museum). The
amity existing between the soul and God, and which sin had interrupted, is now
restored. Dear as are the friendships of earth, none can equal friendship with
God.
"The calls a worm His friend,
He calls Himself my God;
And He shall save me to the end
Through Jesu's blood."
The loftiest communion of the soul with God is renewed. In this the soul finds
its strength, consolation, life, rapture. How much does that man lose whose
heart is not reconciled to God?
2. The gracious medium of the blessing.—“In the body of His flesh through
death” (ver. 22). The apostle here refers in the most explicit terms to the sufferings
and death of Jesus Christ and shows that the great work of reconciliation was
effected in His body, and through death, for that body was crucified and actually
died. The apostle perhaps aimed at correcting certain pseudo-spiritualistic
notions regarding the person of Christ, busily propagated by the false teachers;
some of whom held that Christ was an angelic emanation which animated the
man Jesus for a time and withdrew from Him before He suffered. While maintaining
the proper deity and glory of Christ’s nature, the apostle plainly indicates
that the Divine method of reconciliation was by the incarnation and sacrificial
death of Christ. He thus exalts the significance and value of the death of Christ.
Reconciliation was not accomplished by the faultless example of Christ’s life or
the supernal wisdom of His teaching, but by His crucifixion and death. The
cross, with its unfathomable mystery, is to them that perish foolishness; but to
them that believe it is still the power and wisdom of God.
III. The Divine purpose in reconciliation is to promote man’s highest blessedness.—The
magnificence of the believer’s future career will be in marked contrast
with the obscurity and imperfection of the present; but even in this life he is
lifted by the reconciling grace of God to a high standard of moral excellence.
The terms here employed, while referring to the same spiritual state, delineate
its different aspects.
1. The highest blessedness of man consists in his moral purity.—“To present you
holy” (ver. 22). This shows the condition of the soul in relation to God; it is freely
offered to Him as a living sacrifice; the inward consciousness is wholly consecrated
to the permanent indwelling of the Holy One; every thought, affection,
and aspiration of the soul is hallowed; the whole man is enriched, ennobled, and
radiant with a holy character.
2. The highest blessedness of man consists in his personal blamelessness.—“Unblameable”
(ver. 22). This aspect of character has reference to one’s self; it is the
development in the outward life of the purity and consecration of the heart; it
is a sacrificial term and means without blemish. The soul is inspired with a
sense of integrity, and of always acting for the best. When Socrates was asked,
just before his trial, why he did not prepare himself for his defence, he calmly
answered, “I have been doing nothing else all my life.” A noble, blameless life
is its own defence.
3. The highest blessedness of man consists in his freedom from censure.—“Unreproveable
in His sight” (ver. 22). This feature of a holy character has reference
to others. If man thus purified and blessed can bear the piercing glance of Him
whose scrutiny no defect can escape, his character is unchallengeable. To be
accepted and approved of God places him beyond the accusations of man or
demon; the subtle insinuations of the Great Accuser are powerless to hurt. “It
is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth?” To be holy, unblameable,
and unreproveable in the sight of God is to enjoy the highest honour and completest
bliss. This is the ultimate result of reconciliation in Christ.
Lessons.—1. Sin is the great foe of God and man. 2. The death of Christ is the
means of reconciling sinful man to God. 3. The aim of reconciliation is to produce
an irreproachable character.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Ver. 21. Reconciliation by Christ.
I. Estrangement.—1. The cause—by
wicked works. 2. The result—not
merely that God is angry, but we have
become enemies to God.
II. Reconciliation.—1. Christ has
reconciled man to God. 2. He hath
reconciled man to man. 3. He hath
reconciled man to Himself. 4. He hath
reconciled man to duty.—Robertson.
Ver. 22. Holiness the Supreme End of
Reconciliation.
- Holiness an inward state and an
outward result.—“Holy, unblameable
and unreproveable.”
- Holiness alone can satisfy God.—“In
His sight.”
- Holiness is the final completion
of the soul.—“To present you.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 23.
The Condition of Man’s Final Blessedness.
The ripest fruits can only be produced and gathered by careful and unremitting
culture; so, the enjoyment of the final blessings of reconciliation is conditioned
upon continued allegiance to the Gospel and the diligent practice of its precepts.
We are taught in this verse that the ultimate presentation to God of a perfectly
holy and blameless character depends upon the believer’s firm and persevering
attachment to the Gospel. Observe—
I. Man’s final blessedness depends upon his unswerving continuance in the
faith.—The faith is a comprehensive term; it is inclusive of all the great saving
truths of the Gospel, and of man’s many-sided relation to them. There is
implied:
1. A continuance in the doctrines of the faith.—What a man believes has a
powerful influence in moulding his character. The truths submitted to our
faith shed light upon matters of transcendent import and worth. The baffled
and inquiring mind, straining with painful eagerness after light, finds its
satisfaction and rest amid the soothing radiance of revealed truth. “In
returning and rest shall ye be saved” (Isa. xxx. 15). Unbelief lures the soul
from its restful confidence, sets it adrift amidst the cross currents of bewilderment
and doubt, and exposes it to moral shipwreck and irrevocable loss. The
soul’s eternal safety is ensured, not by an infatuated devotion to mere opinions
about certain dogmas, but by an intelligent, firm, and constant faith in Divine
verities.
2. A continuance in the profession of the faith.—The believer is a witness for
the truth; and it is an imperative duty to bear testimony for Christ before the
world (Rom. x. 9, 10). This is done when we unite in fellowship and service
with the external Church of Christ on earth. The Church, as the representative
of Christ, witnesses for Him in the life and conduct of its individual members.
There is nothing binding as to the special form this witness-bearing should take
in each particular case; nor is any man compelled, for the sake of profession, to
wed himself to any particular branch of the Church catholic. There may be
reasons that render it justifiable, and even necessary, for a man to sever himself
from any given religious community and join another; but on no conceivable
ground can he be liberated from the duty of an open profession of his faith in
Christ; his future acceptability to God hinges on his fidelity in this duty
(Matt. x. 32).
3. A continuance in the practice of the faith.—Faith supplies the motive and
rule of all right conduct. The test of all preceptive enactment and profession is
in the life. The Christian character is developed and perfected, not by believing
or professing, but by doing the will of God. The rewards of the future will be
distributed according to our deeds (Rom. ii. 6–10).
4. Continuance in the faith must be permanent.—“Grounded and settled.”
The edifice, to be durable, must be well founded, that it may settle into a state
of firmness and solidity; so faith, in order to survive the storms and temptations
of this world, and participate in the promised good of the future, must be securely
grounded and settled in the truth. In order to permanency in the faith, the
truth must be—(1) Apprehended intelligently. (2) Embraced cordially. (3) Maintained
courageously.
II. Man’s final blessedness depends upon his unchanging adherence to the
Gospel hope.—1. The Gospel reveals a bright future. It inspires the hope of
the resurrection of the body, and of the glorification of it and the soul together in
the eternal life of the future. Faith and hope are inseparably linked together;
they mutually succour and sustain each other; they rise or fall together. Hope
is the unquestioning expectation of the fruition of those things which we steadily
believe. It is compared to an anchor, which, cast within the veil, fastened and
grounded in heaven, holds our vessel firm and steady amid the agitations and
storms of life’s tempestuous sea. The Gospel is the only source of genuine,
deathless hope; all hopes grounded elsewhere wither and perish.
2. The Gospel to be effectual must come in contact with the individual mind.—“Which
ye have heard.” Epaphras had declared to them the Divine message.
It had been brought to them; they had not sought it. Having heard and
received the Gospel, to relinquish its blessings would be inexcusable and ungrateful.
In some way, either by direct preaching or otherwise, the Gospel must come
to man. There is no power of moral reformation in the human heart itself; the
germinant principle of a better life must come from without; it is conveyed in
the Gospel word.
3. The Gospel is adapted to universal man.—“Which was preached to every
creature which is under heaven.” Already it had spread into every part of the
then known world, and its power was felt in every province of the Roman empire.
The fine prophetic instinct of the apostle saw the universal tendency of the
Gospel, and, in spirit, anticipated the fulfilment of its generous mission. His
motive is to emphasise the universality of the unchangeable Gospel which is
offered without reserve to all alike, and to appeal to its publicity and progress as
the credential and guarantee of its truth. It is adapted to all men; it proclaims
its message in all lands and is destined to win the world to Christ. The
faith and hope of the believer are based, not upon the uncertain declarations of
false teachers, but upon that Gospel, which is unchangeable in its character and
universal in its appeal and adaptability to humanity; a strong reason is thus
furnished for personal steadfastness.
4. The Gospel invested the apostle with an office of high authority.—“Whereof I
Paul am made a minister.” Paul participated in the blessings of the Gospel;
he had felt its transforming power, and from his personal experience of its
preciousness could, with the greater assurance and force, exhort the Colossians to
continue in the faith. But in addition to this the Gospel was committed to the
apostle as a sacred trust and for faithful ministration; and while dwelling on
the broad charity of the Gospel as involving the offer of grace to the Gentiles, he
is impressed with the dignity and responsibility of his office as he interjects,
somewhat abruptly, but with exquisite modesty, the words, “Whereof I Paul
am made a minister.” It has been said of man that he is the priest and interpreter
of nature; that it is his function to observe and test phenomena and
interpret the laws that govern the material world. Another writer has said
that “man is the organ of revelation for the Godhead.” God can find no
adequate form of revelation for Himself in the impersonal forces of nature; only
through a being in His own image can He unfold to the universe His adorable
character. But the highest office to which man can be elevated is to be a
ministrant of Gospel light and grace to his fellow-man.
5. There is an implied possibility of relinquishing our hold of the Gospel hope.—“Be
not moved away from the hope of the Gospel.” The words do not
necessarily imply doubt, but suggest the necessity for constant circumspection,
vigilance, and care. The multiplicity and fulness of our blessing may prove a
snare to us; prosperity tempts us to relax watchfulness, and we are in danger of
becoming a prey to the wiles of the wicked one. Our retention of the Gospel
hope is rendered immovable by constant waiting upon God in fervent prayer,
by a growing acquaintance with the Word of promise, by continually anticipating
in thought the bliss of the future.
Lessons.—1. The Gospel provides the surest basis for faith and hope. 2. Man’s
ultimate blessedness depends on his continued fidelity.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 24.
The Joy of Suffering for the Church.
A stolid indifference to suffering and a heroic endurance of the same were not
unknown to the ancient pagans; but it is Christianity alone that has taught us
to rejoice in afflictions; it supplies an ecstasy of emotion that renders us oblivious
for the time being of encompassing trials. The apostle, as he pondered over the
mighty work of reconciliation, and as he caught a glimpse of the amazing extent
of Divine mercy, could not but rejoice even in his sufferings. In this verse he
expresses his joy that, in suffering for the Church, he supplements that which was
lacking in the afflictions of Christ. Observe—
I. The representative character of the apostle’s sufferings.—1. The apostle
represented the suffering Saviour. “The afflictions of Christ.” We are not to
suppose that the sufferings of Christ were incomplete in themselves or in their
value as constituting a sufficient atonement. The passion of Christ was the one
full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the
whole world. In this sense there could be no deficiency in Christ’s sufferings, for
Christ’s sufferings being different in kind from those of His servants, the two are
incommensurable. Neither the apostle nor any other could represent the
expiatory and sacrificial aspect of the Redeemer’s sufferings. But while His
personal sufferings are over, His afflictions in His people still continue. He so
thoroughly identifies Himself with them that their trials, sorrows, persecutions,
and afflictions become His own. The apostle represented the suffering Saviour in
what he endured for Christ and the Church. Thus, he declared to the Corinthians,
“The sufferings of Christ abound in us.” The Church to-day is the
representative of the suffering Saviour, and so completely is He identified with
His people that He endures in them the pangs of hunger and thirst, shares their
sickness and imprisonment, and reckons every act of kindness done to them as
done to Himself (Matt. xxv.).
2. The sufferings of the apostle supplemented what was lacking in the afflictions
of Christ.—“And fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my
flesh.” In harmony with the representative character of the Church, we can
understand how the afflictions of every saint and martyr do supplement the
afflictions of Christ. Every age of the Church has its measure of suffering. The
Church is built up by repeated acts of self-denial in successive individuals and
successive generations. They continue the work which Christ began. They
bear their part, and supplement what is deficient in the sufferings of Christ
(2 Cor. i. 7; Phil. iii. 10). As an apostle, Paul was a representative man, and
his share in filling up what was wanting in these afflictions was considerable.
In his own flesh he bore unexampled hardship, indignities, and distress. “In
labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prison more frequent, in
deaths oft.” The great Head of the Church was made perfect through suffering;
so must the body be in all its relations and development. Through tribulation,
more or less evident and intense, we must enter the kingdom. Suffering in itself
has no virtue to elevate moral character; it is effective to this end only as it
tends to fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ, only as it is borne
for Christ, and in the Spirit of Christ. The great Mediator suffered to effect our
salvation; and His people, on their part, fill up the suffering needed for the
perfection of their spiritual life and for the full display of the Divine glory.
II. The vicarious character of the apostle’s sufferings.—“For His body’s sake,
which is the Church.” The greater part of the suffering of the believer in this
world is vicarious—is endured on behalf of others. It is thus we most nearly
approach the spirit and example of Christ. St. Paul, as the pioneer missionary,
the wise and edifying instructor, the diligent and anxious overseer, occupied a
prominent and important position among the Churches, and his sufferings on
their behalf would benefit them in many ways.
1. The apostle’s sufferings for the Church confirmed the faith of her converts.—Thousands
are shy in embracing Christianity, because they shrink from the
suffering it seems to involve; thousands more retire from the Christian profession
for the same reason. An example like that of Paul’s—a man profoundly sincere,
intensely earnest, calm and unmoved by the stoutest opposition, and triumphant
amid acutest sufferings—encourages the timid and strengthens and confirms the
tempted and wavering.
2. The apostle’s sufferings were for the consolation of the Church.—Writing to
the Corinthians, he says: “Whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation
and salvation.” Suffering makes us more capable of sympathising with others.
“Great hearts can only be made by great troubles. The spade of trouble digs
the reservoir of comfort deeper and makes more room for the water of consolation.”
The richest anointing of Divine comfort is bestowed in the moment of
severest suffering, and the consolation of one is the consolation of many. When
Mr. James Bainham, who suffered under the reign of Henry VIII., was in the
midst of the flames which had half consumed his arms and legs, he said aloud:
“Oh, ye Papists, ye look for miracles, and here now you may see a miracle; for in
this fire I feel no more pain than if I were in a bed of down, but it is to me a
bed of roses!”
3. The apostle’s sufferings for the Church tended to promote her increase.—The
more the Egyptians afflicted the Hebrews the more they multiplied and grew.
The devil’s way of extinguishing goodness is God’s way of advancing it. The
apostle could testify, in the midst of his sufferings, that “the things which
have happened to me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel.”
Suffering seals the word spoken with a sacred and impressive significance. Many
a convert has been won to the truth by the irresistible example of a suffering life.
III. The high-toned spirit of the apostle’s sufferings.—“Who now rejoice in
my suffering for you.” Nature shrinks from suffering. It is altogether above
nature to triumph in suffering. It is Christianity alone that lifts the spirit into
the tranquil region of patient endurance and inspires us with joy in tribulation.
It is not a love of suffering for its own sake—not a mad, morbid craving for the
ghastly honours of a self-sought martyrdom; but there is a nameless charm
about the truths of Christianity that exalts the mind, thrills the soul, and
transmutes sorrow into joy. Paul was imprisoned at Rome, bound in a chain
for the Gospel, when he wrote this epistle; but as the thoughts suggested by his
theme grew in full-orbed magnificence before his mental vision—as he contemplated
the lavish wealth of God’s mercy in the call of the Gentiles who constituted
the greater portion of the world’s population—and as he saw all the glory of
being allowed to share, and even to supplement, the sufferings of Christ, he rose
above the consideration of his own personal trials, and in a sudden outburst of
thanksgiving could exclaim, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you.” Let us
not repine at our afflictions. Not only is our own soul chastened and purified;
but every pang, every tear, every trial in our lot, is a contribution to the filling
up of that which is still behind in the afflictions of Christ. It baptises suffering
with a new meaning, and arrays it in a new dignity, when it is viewed as a
grand means of promoting the perfection, the purity, and unfading glory of the
whole Church.
Lessons.—1. It is an unspeakable honour to suffer for the Church of Christ.
2. The personal experience of the grace of Christ renders suffering for Him a
joy. 3. The glory of the future will outweigh all we have suffered for the Church
below.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 25–27.
The Pre-eminent Honour and Sublime Theme of the Christian Ministry.
The highest dignity and most solemn responsibility are conferred on man when
he is entrusted with the ministration of God’s Word. It is the infinite condescension
of God that we have this treasure in earthen vessels. He who, in the exercise
of His unchallengeable wisdom, calls man to this work, can alone inspire and
endow him with the necessary intellectual and moral fitness for the awful charge.
In these verses we learn that the apostle was appointed a minister of the Church—a
steward in God’s household—charged to preach without reserve the whole
Gospel of God, to dispense to the Gentiles the stores which His bountiful grace
provided. Note:—
I. The Christian ministry is a Divine institution.—1. The true minister is
Divinely commissioned. “Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation
of God which is given to me for you” (ver. 25). The word “dispensation”
involves the idea of stewardship. God governs His Church, not as a tyrant, who
rules what is not his own; not as a monarch, who knows not a thousandth part
of his subjects; but as a father, who knows, loves, and provides for his own
children. The apostle was entrusted with a stewardship in God’s household; he
was “a steward of the mysteries of God.” He received the office from God.
This invested it with the highest dignity; yet he was the minister of the Church,
and it was his joy to serve it, whatever might be the labour, sacrifice, or suffering
entailed. The Christian ministry is not a lordship, but a stewardship; the
minister is solemnly commissioned of God to maintain, defend, and dispense the
truth that saves and edifies. There are moments when the minister can derive
stimulus and courage for his work only by falling back upon the irrefutable fact
of his Divine call.
2. The true minster is charged with the most complete proclamation of the Divine
Word.—“To fulfil the word of God” (ver. 25)—to preach fully, to give its most
complete development to. The apostle had declared the Gospel in all its depth and
breadth of meaning, its wealth of blessing, and amplitude of revelation. He
had proclaimed it in every direction, in harmony with his insight into its universal
fitness and sufficiency. Fulfil implies the figure of a measure to be filled. The
true minister is empowered to preach the Word of God in all the fulness of its
internal import, and in accord with the universality of its outward purpose.
Whether palatable or unpalatable, he must not shun to declare everywhere the
whole counsel of God. The fulness there is in Christ and the urgent needs of
humanity alike demand this.
II. The Christian ministry deals with a theme of profound significance and
ineffable worth.—1. It is designated a mystery. “Even the mystery which hath
been hid from ages and from generations” (ver. 26). Mystery in the Scripture
sense does not mean something actually incomprehensible, but something concealed
or unknown until it please God to reveal it; something beyond the human mind
to discover for itself, and which can only be attained by Divine aid. The mystery
comprehended two leading features—the Divine purpose in saving man through
a suffering and crucified Saviour, and the free admission of the Gentiles on equal
terms with the Jews to the privileges of the covenant. Unlike the heathen
mysteries, which were confined to a narrow circle, the Christian mystery is freely
communicated to all. The mystery was concealed from the ages, which may be
referred to the angels; and from the generations, which may be referred to men.
Though faintly shadowed in types and figures, the truth would never have been
discovered by man. In the revelation of the mystery the apostle applauded the
lavish wealth of the Divine goodness. The Gospel is still a mystery to the
unconverted.
2. It is a mystery unveiled to those who are morally fitted to understand it.—“But
now is made manifest to His saints” (ver. 26). God chose His own time
for making known the mystery of the Gospel. Like all the Divine procedures, the
development was gradual, increasing in clearness and completeness as the fulness of
time approached; that time embraced the advent of the incarnate Son of God,
His ascension and enthronement in heaven, and the descent of the revealing
Spirit. It is an axiom in optics that the eye only sees what it brings with it
the power to see; and it is equally true in spiritual things that the soul comprehends
the revelation of God only as it is prepared and fitted by the good Spirit.
The holier the organ of Divine revelation, the clearer the vision. It was not to
the dignitaries of imperial Rome or the ruling powers of Judea, but to humble
shepherds that the tidings of the Saviour’s advent were first announced; not to
the aristocracy of Pharisaic or Sadducean intellect, but to the plain, unlettered,
believing fishermen of Galilee that the full glory of salvation by Christ was disclosed.
Augustine has said, “Illiterate men rise and seize heaven, while we, with
all our learning, are rolling in the filth of sin.”
3. The revelation of the mystery was an act of the Divine will.—“To whom God
would make known” (ver. 27). There was nothing impelling Him to unfold this
mystery but His own good pleasure. It was His sovereign will to disclose to the
humble and devout, rather than to the proud and self-sufficient, the wondrous
praise and glory of the Gospel. The most sincere seeker after holiness could not
of himself discover the mystery. But though made known in its richer spiritual
developments only to the good, the good pleasure of God has put the knowledge
of it within the reach of all.
4. The revelation of the mystery endowed humanity with a vast inheritance of
moral wealth.—“What is the riches of the glory of this mystery” (ver. 27). The
terms employed seem inadequate to convey the meaning intended. It is impossible
fully to explain or illustrate the sublime truths they indicate. The Gospel is a
mystery full of glory—a glory unique, resplendent, unsurpassable; and this
glory is dowered with riches, abundant, inexhaustible, and Divine. The riches
of the glory appear in the manifestation of the nature and attributes of God
which the mystery supplies, and also in the moral wealth that has descended
upon man. Here is the most lavish provision for the salvation of sinful and
perishing humanity—an inheritance of imperishable bliss. (1) This inheritance
enriched the most needy. It was exhibited “among the Gentiles” (ver. 27). The
Jews were the children of promise and possessed every religious privilege; the
Gentiles were the children of mercy, and never dared to dream of enjoying
the blessings of the Gospel. In the revelation of the mystery to them, the dispensation
of grace achieved its greatest triumphs and displayed its transcendent
glory. Here, too, was its wealth, for it overflowed all barriers of caste or race.
Judaism was “beggarly” in comparison, since its treasures sufficed only for a few.
The glory of the Gospel was never so brilliant as in the moral transformations it
effected among the degraded Gentiles. (2) This inheritance includes the hope inspired
by the indwelling Christ. “Which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (ver. 27).
The mystery of the Gospel begins and ends in Christ, and Christ is in every
believer the hope of glory. Only in Christ can we hope for the highest glory,
and in Him we infallibly find all the blessedness we can enjoy in this world or
expect in the future. In Him we have here as seed what we shall have in Him
there as harvest. “Even now we sit there in Him and shall sit with Him in
the end.”
Lessons.—1. The Christian ministry involves solemn responsibilities. 2. The
transcendent theme of the Christian ministry is Divinely revealed. 3. Personal
experience of the grace of God endows man with the clearest insight into its mystery,
and the most satisfying possession of its spiritual riches.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 25–27. The Glory of the Gospel—
- A mystery once hidden, but now
revealed (vers. 26, 27).
- Enriches all nations with moral
blessings.
- Is entrusted to Divinely authorised
messengers to make known (vers. 25, 27).
Ver. 27. Christ in you the Hope of
Glory.
I. What it implies of present
experience.—1. Generally—Christ
among you. 2. Personally—Christ in
you.
II. What is presages.—“The hope
of glory.”
1. Personal glory—in the perfection
of being where the servant is like his
Lord.
2. Relative glory—sharing the throne
with Jesus, and sharing in His triumph
and glory.—Preacher’s Magazine.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 28, 29.
The Secret of Effective Preaching.
Much has been written concerning the inefficiency of the modern pulpit; and
it has been argued that the press is now the great and successful rival of the
preacher and must ere long render his office nugatory. This prediction might
possibly be fulfilled if the preaching of the Gospel was simply a human institution
and depended only on man for its permanency. But when we remember that
preaching is a Divine ordinance, and is adapted to reach and stir the heart as no
other agency can, the preacher’s function can never cease while human nature
remains what it is, or while God honours His own institution with His blessing.
Only as the pulpit is faithful to its grand theme and lofty mission will it be
effective. The deepest want of the age is Christ; and that preaching will be
irresistibly potent that most adequately represents Him. These verses reveal
to us the secret of effective preaching.
I. In order to effectiveness in preaching Christ must be the changeless
theme.—“Whom we preach” (ver. 28).
1. Preach Christ as to the special characteristic and unrivalled excellencies of His
person.—The greatest men who ever lived, however brilliant and capacious their
genius or stupendous their labours, never made so profound and widespread an
impression upon humanity as Christ has done and is now doing. Their
influence operated for only a limited period; His pervades all time—past,
present, and future; theirs was confined to a narrow locality, His is diffused
through the universe. The person of Christ is unique in this—that it combines
two natures, the Divine and the human. It was necessary He should be
both God and man in order to fully accomplish the work He voluntarily undertook.
As God, He met and satisfied all the requirements of Deity; and as
man—putting Himself in our place—He realised and reached the extremities of
our need, and thus fairly laying hold of us, gathering up and grasping the roots
of our corrupt nature, He raised from sin to holiness, from earth to heaven.
He is Emmanuel—God with us.
2. Preach Christ in His mediatorial character.—As the Prophet who testified
of the truth of God; as the Priest, who, by His one offering of Himself on the
cross, has atoned for sin and made reconciliation possible; and as the King who
has vanquished all our spiritual enemies and demands our absolute allegiance to
His rule.
3. Preach Christ as the Saviour of every man, and as the only Saviour.—The
threefold repetition of the phrase “every man” has a special significance, and
emphasises the universality of the Gospel. This great truth, a truth which the
apostle sacrificed his life in establishing, had been endangered by the doctrine
of a ceremonial exclusiveness taught by the Judaizers in several places, and was
now endangered by the doctrine of an intellectual exclusiveness taught by the
Gnosticizers at Colossæ. Christ must be proclaimed as the Saviour of men of
every class, community, and country. He is the only Saviour, for “there is
none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved” (Acts iv. 12).
The preaching of Christ is no narrow theme but stands essentially related to all
the noblest truths of the universe.
II. In order to effectiveness variety of method must be adopted.—The
declaration of the truth must be:—
1. Authoritative.—“Whom we preach” (ver. 28). The New Testament idea
of preaching involves three elements—the announcement of joyful tidings; the
proclamation of truth as by a herald, urgently and authoritatively; and the
conviction and persuasion of men to belief by means of arguments. The preacher
is the ambassador of God, and the message must be delivered as coming from
Him, in His name, and by His authority.
2. Admonitory.—“Warning every man” (ver. 28). Sin has placed man in imminent
peril, and its tendency is to deaden his sensibilities and render him oblivious of his
danger. Hence, he must be roused to concern and repentance by faithful remonstrance,
by earnest exhortation, by solemn admonition, by impassioned appeal.
3. Instructive.—“Teaching every man” (ver. 28). Not only must the emotions
be swayed, but the understanding enlightened. It is not enough to convince the
unbeliever of his error, not enough to bring home to the lover of sin the vileness
and enormity of his transgressions, but by clear and forcible exposition and
persuasion the fill of the individual offender must be seized, and with firm, yet
loving pressure biassed to seek after the light, truth, and purity that once were
shunned.
4. With shrewd insight as to its adaptability.—”In all wisdom” (ver. 28). The
ancients spoke of a blind faith in their mysteries which belonged to the many, and
of a higher knowledge that was confined to the few. The apostle, while declaring
that in the Gospel the fullest wisdom was offered to all alike, without restriction,
exercised discretion as to the method in which he presented it to the individual.
The style of his address at Athens would be different from that adopted at
Jerusalem. This involves a study of character, and of what goes to make it—habits,
customs, opinions, sympathies, and the general circumstances of life-culture.
III. In order to effectiveness man must be aided in realising the highest
ideal of the Christian character.—“That we may present every man perfect in
Christ Jesus” (ver. 28). The Gospel is a mirror in which is glassed the portrait of
the character after which each believer is to model his own. That character is
not simply a development of one’s own natural manhood, so much as it is something
added to and thrown around that manhood, lifting it into dignity and transfiguring
it with a glorious beauty. The Gospel reveals the ideal of the Christian
character after which the soul is continually to aspire. That ideal, in all its
loveliness and witchery, is projected before the soul’s inmost vision in the Spirit
and life of the man Christ Jesus. He who approximates nearest to the Christly
character attains the highest moral perfection. It is the sublime mission of the
preacher not to gratify the intellect, charm the imagination, or expand the mind
by propagating the ideas of a transcendental philosophy; but to strengthen the
soul in the great contest with evil, to supply it with holiest motives, to promote
its spiritual progress, to present it “perfect in Christ Jesus.”
IV. In order to effectiveness there must be self-denying toil and the vigorous
forth-putting of Divinely inspired energy.—“Whereunto I also labour, striving
according to His working which worketh in me mightily” (ver. 29). All great
ideas have cost the solitary and individual thinker unspeakable labour, and not a
little suffering in the endeavour to elaborate and make them known and set them
in their due relation before the world. The world is ruled by ideas; but the
revolution they occasion is a slow and painful process. The apostle was
the custodian of a great idea—that the Gospel was intended for all and must be
fully preached to all. The idea is familiar to us; but it was new to that age
and revolutionised the whole realm of human thought. If the apostle had been
content to preach an exclusive Gospel, he might have saved himself more than
half the troubles of his life. But he saw the magnitude of the issues at stake;
he espoused the God-given truth with all the strength of his great nature; he
confronted the colossal prejudices of the ages; he trained himself in the discipline
of self-denying toil; he suffered as only the true martyr-soul can suffer; he strove
with an agony of earnestness to make known the whole truth; and, aided by the
mighty working of the Divine power within him, he triumphed signally. Preaching
is always effective when it is the consentaneous outworking of the Divinely
imparted energy within the man. The preacher alone, however strenuous
his efforts, is powerless; but inspired and strengthened by the Divine Spirit,
and acting in harmony with His promptness and help, he is mighty to prevail.
Lessons.—1. Every sermon should be full of Christ. 2. The preacher should be
master of every method that will ensure success. 3. That sermon will be most effective
that is prepared and preached under the most direct influence of the Divine Spirit.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Ver. 28. Apostolic Preaching.
- They preached Christ as the only
foundation of a sinner’s hope of salvation.
- As the object of supreme love.
- As the source of our supplies.
- As the model of our lives.—W. Antiff, D.D.
Ver. 29. The Christian Ministry—
- Involves strenuous labour and
patient suffering.
- Is dependent on Divine help.
- Ascribes all its success to
God.
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.
Ver. 1. What great conflict.—R.V. “how greatly I strive.” It is a repetition of the
thought of the previous verse expressed in terms of the arena. For them at Laodicea.—About
a dozen miles distant from Colossæ.
Ver. 2. The mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ.—The R.V. has greatly simplified
this perplexing phrase: “The mystery of God, even Christ.” Of the eleven various readings
extant (given by Lightfoot) that of our A.V. is to all appearance the latest and worst.
Ver. 3. In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.—When we have “laid
our reasonings at His feet,” He does not stultify us. Neither pure reason nor practical
reason is to “fust in us unused,” if they seek their answers in Him.
Ver. 4. Should beguile you with enticing words.—The word for “beguile” is only
again found in the New Testament at Jas. i. 22. It means to lead into error by sophistical
reasoning. Enticing words, or persuasive speech, plausible but false.
Ver. 5. The stedfastness of your faith in Christ.—Some think “stedfastness” (as well
as “order” preceding) may have a military significance. If so, it would mean the compact
firmness of the phalanx. Others say that meaning is not inherent, but derived from its
context, which here does not suggest it. The word is used in the LXX. for firmament—a
solid vault, as it was thought.
Ver. 7. Rooted and built up.—St. Paul passes over rapidly from one conception to another
of quite a different kind. We cannot call it mixed metaphor. We commonly speak of a new
town planted or a house planted.
Ver. 8. Beware lest any man spoil you.—R.V. “maketh spoil of you.” The word for
“spoil” means “to lead away as booty,” as the Sabeans swooped down on the oxen and asses
of Job and carried them away as their own property. Through philosophy and vain deceit.—We
are reminded of the saying, “It is the privilege of a philosopher to depreciate philosophy.”
And then men say, “How well he’s read to reason against reading!” St. Paul
speaks here of philosophy “falsely so called.” The love of wisdom can never be a dangerous
thing to men whose Master said, “Be wise as serpents”; only it must be the “wisdom which
cometh from above.” St. Paul’s alias for what they call philosophy is “empty fallacy,” a
hollow pretence; or what George Herbert might name “nothing between two dishes.” After
the tradition of men.—Something passed over from one to another, as the deep secrets of the
esoteric religions were whispered into the ears of the perfect. That a matter has been
believed always, everywhere, and by all is no guarantee of its truth, as Galileo knew.
Ver. 9. In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.—There is no minimising
the significance of this statement. It is either true or it is the wildest raving of blasphemy.
“Dwelleth”—has its settled abode. A change of prefix would give us the word in
Luke xxiv. 18. “Dost thou alone sojourn?” etc. Dualism separates God from matter as
far as possible; the Incarnation unites Him for ever with it. “Great is the mystery.”
“Godhead.” Though twice before in our A.V. (Acts xvii. 29; Rom. i. 23), the word here
differs from both.
Ver. 10. And ye are complete in Him.—These minor powers of whom you have heard are
all subordinate to Him in whom directly you have all you need. There is no need to go viâ
Philip and Andrew, Mary or Michael, when “we would see Jesus.”
Ver. 11. In whom also ye are circumcised . . . by the circumcision of Christ.—What to
the Jew was a bodily act, at best symbolical and of no value otherwise, was to the Colossian
disciple a spiritual renovation, so complete as to render the old symbol of it inadequate.
Ver. 12. Buried . . . risen.—Referring to the definite acts when, as Christian converts,
they went beneath the baptismal waters and emerged to live the faith thus publicly confessed.
Through the faith of the operation of God.—An obscure phrase. The R.V. is clear: “Through
faith in the working of God.”
Ver. 14. Blotting out the handwriting.—“Wiping out the old score,” as we might say. All
that bond which was valid against them Christ had for ever rendered nugatory whilst they
confided in His salvation. Against us, which was contrary to us.—We have here the author
of those hot protests against work-righteousness. The threatening aspect of the law is
expressed in this reiteration. The law not only menaces wrong-doers; it proceeds against
them with punishment. Nailing it to His cross.—The bond is discharged and may be filed.
We are reminded of St. Peter’s equally bold expression: “Who His own self bare our sins in
His own body [to, and] on the tree” (1 Pet. ii. 24).
Ver. 15. Having spoiled principalities.—R.V. “having put off from Himself.” The
authorities are divided between the A.V. and the R.V. The English reader must not conclude
that he has again the word and idea of ver. 8. The apostle says that Christ had flung off
from Himself the powers of wickedness. As these Colossians needed no intercessions of
good angels, so, on the other hand, they need fear nothing from the maleficent powers of
darkness, now vanquished.
Ver. 16. Let no man therefore judge you.—They could not well prevent an adverse
judgment being given on their disregard of what the ritualists thought to be of supreme
moment, but they could refuse to argue about such trifles.
Ver. 17. Shadow . . . body.—The relationship is indicated here of the old ceremonial
worship to the worship of the Spirit. To confound shadow and substance, or mistake the
shadow for the substance, has ever been the fatal error of ritualism.
Ver. 18. Let no man beguile you of your reward.—R.V. “let no man rob you of your
prize.” There seems to be implied some such thoughts as this: Do not allow these heretical
teachers to lay down for you the conditions on which the prize shall be yours; for when
they pronounce in your favour, “the Lord, the righteous Judge,” pronounces against you.
In a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels.—In acts of self-imposed abasement
in the presence of invisible beings. St. John tells us of the rebuke administered by the
angel before whom he prostrated himself: “See thou do it not: . . . worship God.” But
there are men who would say, “Nay, my Lord,” and continue their forbidden worship.
Intruding into those things which he hath not seen.—The change in the R.V. is considerable:
“dwelling in the things which he hath seen.” The apostle is apparently speaking ironically
of the boasted manifestations made to the Gnostic teachers.
Ver. 20. Dead . . . from the rudiments of the world.—Such as are given in ver. 21. Subject
to ordinances.—Why do you consent to receive these “burdens grievous to be borne?”
Ver. 21. Touch not; taste not; handle not.—“These three prohibitions apply probably
(1) to marriage, (2) to the use of certain foods, (3) to contact with material objects”
(Godet). The rigour of the prohibitions is greatest in the last of the three. Note the change
in R.V.: “handle not, nor taste, nor touch.”
Ver. 23. Neglecting of the body.—A.V. margin, “punishing or not sparing.” R.V. text,
“severity to the body.” No doubt the apostle felt that on this subject he would need to
tread cautiously, for he himself had beaten his body into subjection (1 Cor. ix. 27). Not in
any honour to the satisfying of the flesh.—The R.V. gives light on this obscurity: “not of
any value against the indulgence of the flesh.” This is the evidence which for ever disqualifies
asceticism in its many forms. We can understand how a Lenten fast or a hair-shirt may
make a man irritable. If they are of any value in themselves, monastic annals need revision
and expurgation, and the Christian finds himself far outdone by the dervish.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 1–4.
Ministerial Anxiety.
The more clearly we apprehend truth in its many-sided aspects and in its
complex and vital relations, the more grievous and calamitous does error appear.
Error cannot come into collision with truth without creating confusion of ideas
and much mental distraction, and as a consequence robbing the soul of the peace
and solace it enjoyed. The apostle saw the dangerous tendency of the doctrines
advocated by the false teachers against whom his epistle was directed, and he
was deeply concerned lest the pure and simple Gospel embraced by the new
converts should be contaminated. As one drop of ink pollutes the whole vessel
of water, as one stroke of the hammer diverts the rod from a straight line and
spoils it throughout its whole length, so one single error obscures and warps the
holiest truth.
I. This anxiety was intense.—“For I would that ye knew what great
conflict I have” (ver. 1). In the closing words of the preceding chapter the apostle
referred to his stern self-discipline in training himself for his arduous and self-denying
labours as an apostle; and in this verse he expands the same thought
and would have the converts know the magnitude of the struggle which his
anxiety for their welfare cost him. This conflict refers not only to his external
labours on behalf of the Churches, in journeys, perils, privations, persecutions, and
imprisonments, but more especially to his fervent wrestling with God in prayer,
like Jacob of old; his importunity, like the widow with the unjust judge; his
inward soul struggles in earnest intercession for their stability in the faith. The
danger must have been serious that produced in such a man so great an agony of
anxiety: great souls are not affected by trifles. People little know what their
pastors pass through: when they think them the most at leisure, then are they
the least so—the fervent conflict of prayer is going on in secret. A knowledge
of the minister’s anxiety is sometimes necessary to create a responsive sympathy,
and to teach the people the care and anxiety they should feel for their own
salvation.
II. This anxiety was disinterested.—“For you, and for them at Laodicea, and
for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh” (ver. 1). The solicitude of the
apostle was not restricted to the Colossians, as though they were more liable than
others to defection from the truth but embraced the converts in the neighbouring
city of Laodicea. In this populous and thriving city, celebrated at that time for
its immense commercial wealth and for the high intellectual attainments of its
philosophers, the heretic leaven had begun to work; and the subsequent history
of the Church there showed that it spread only too surely and disastrously
(Rev. iii. 14–18). The apostle also extended his anxious regard to “as many as
had not seen his face in the flesh.” The bulk of our troubles in this life we
endure on behalf of others. The Christian spirit, in its broad, comprehensive
charity, gives us a deep interest in all who have any connection with Christ.
Fervent prayer on behalf of others, notwithstanding the sneers of some modern
scientists, is efficacious, irrespective of locality or of actual personal intercourse.
Prayers offered in private are often answered in a strange, unlooked-for manner in
public. God has a sovereign right to select the mode in which He answers the
prayers of the faithful. An old Divine has said: “If we would reap openly in
the conversion of souls and their steady walk, we must plough in secret with
prayers and tears.” Our anxiety about the welfare of others is a strong
evidence of our possessing the genuine love of the truth. It was a trenchant
aphorism of Coleridge that, “He who begins by loving Christianity better than
truth, will proceed by loving his own sect or Church better than Christianity, and
end in loving himself better than all.”
III. This anxiety had special reference to the highest spiritual attainments
of believers.—1. The apostle was solicitous for the confirmation of their faith.
“That their hearts might be comforted” (ver. 2).—i.e. encouraged, confirmed. The
apostle knew the subtle power of error in disintegrating the heart’s confidence,
producing trouble, dejection, doubt, and perplexity. Hence, he was anxious so
to present the truth as it is in Jesus, as to restore and cheer the bewildered mind
and settle it on the firm basis of an intelligent and cordial faith. No man can
reach the high attainments of the Christian life whose heart is not at rest
in God.
2. The apostle was solicitous for their union in love.—“Being knit together in
love” (ver. 2). The heart can never enjoy solid comfort till it is united in the love,
as well as in the faith, of the truth. Error divides as well as distresses; it snaps
the bond of love, splits the Christian Church into parties, rends what ought to
be the seamless robe of Christ. Where there is discord in the understanding
about fundamental truths, there cannot be concord in the will and affections.
The stability of believers depends upon their being knit together in a mutual
love, as the timbers of a building are joined and compacted by a carpenter—such
is the original signification of the word—each part being fitted in with the rest,
and all subserving the firmness and safety of the whole. “He that dwelleth in
love, dwelleth in God, and God in him.”
3. The apostle was solicitous they should be enriched with the unspeakable wealth
of the Divine mystery.—(1) The Divine mystery is explained in the unique person
and endowments of Christ. “The mystery of God, and of the Father, and of
Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (vers. 2, 3).
Christ embraced in His own person the Divine and human natures. As God, He
is equal with the Father, and possesses in Himself all the essentials of Deity; but
as man He is dowered with moral treasures surpassing the endowments of the
highest angel. The mystery is not so much Christ, as Christ containing in Himself
“all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” There is in Christ an all-sufficiency
for every possible want of man—copious and inexhaustive riches of
eternal and saving wisdom. These riches are hid in Christ as treasure in a field—concealed
from the gaze of mere passers-by, the careless, indolent, and proud;
but revealed to and enjoyed by the humble, diligent, and persevering seeker.
“He who is not content with Christ, but goes out of Him to philosophy or
tradition, forsakes the treasures for the miserable beggary of human counterfeits.”
It is still a mystery to the world how Christ can be the grand depositary
of all wisdom; and the mystery is dispelled only as the soul becomes savingly
acquainted with Him. (2) The believer is privileged to gain the full knowledge of
the Divine mystery.—“To the acknowledgment of the mystery” (ver. 2). The
word implies that the knowledge of God and of Christ is the perfection of
knowledge. The ancient sage declared: “If thou criest after knowledge, then
shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.”
And the apostle prayed for the Ephesians that “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ
might give unto them the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of
Him.” This knowledge is to be not a simple perception of the truths continued in
the Divine mystery, but a full, firm, and distinct knowledge as the result of careful
sifting, and the actual experience of their soul-transforming power. We know
nothing to purpose until it is strongly grasped by the heart as well as by the
understanding. (3) A clear and profound understanding of the Divine mystery
is the true enrichment of the mind.—“Unto all riches of the full assurance of
understanding” (ver. 2). The vast store of moral riches here indicated is opposed
to the poverty of the mind, which has only a few confused, unconnected truths
about the Gospel laid up in its treasury. By the full assurance of understanding is
meant an unclouded perception and firm conviction of the truth revealed in the
Gospel. This is obtained only by diligent study and the inner illumination
of the Spirit; the understanding is cleared up, the judgment settled, and the
individual believer enabled to apprehend each part of the Gospel in its essential
relation to the grand whole, and thus to grasp with a firm hold the salient
features of the Divine mystery. In this assured knowledge of the greatest
truths the mind of man finds it true enrichment; its abiding rest and felicity.
“Wisdom is more precious than rubies, and all the things thou canst desire are
not to be compared unto her” (Prov. viii. 11). Every other kind of knowledge, however rare
and extensive, is in itself poor and unsatisfying.
IV. This anxiety prompted the apostle faithfully to warn the Church.—“And
this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words” (ver. 4).
Error assumes the most seductive forms: it charms with its eloquence, bewilders
with its subtle reasoning, misleads with its bold, assured statements of half-truths.
The soul is fascinated as by the gaze of a basilisk, and morally poisoned by its
breath. “Men are easily persuaded to believe that which flatters their own
vanity, and dilutes or modifies the Gospel, so as to accommodate it to their own
degenerate tastes.” It is needful to maintain a vigilant outlook and be on our
guard against every phase of false teaching. Some contend that words have
little to do with religion; that true religion is a sentiment in the soul independent
of words. The apostle thought differently when he exhorted to hold
fast “the form of sound words”; and in this verse he distinctly avers that
enticing words may beguile. He solemnly warns the Ephesians, who were
assailed with a similar class of errors: “Let no man deceive you with vain
words; for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children
of disobedience” (Eph. v. 6). The most effectual antidote to any heresy is the faithful,
simple proclamation of the doctrine of Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge. This is the clue that leads us out of all the mazes
of error.
Lessons.—1. The true minister is anxious to promote the highest good of the
people. 2. All truth finds its explanation and all error its refutation in Christ,
the Source of eternal wisdom. 3. False doctrine should be fearlessly and faithfully
exposed.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 3.
The Hidden Treasures of Wisdom in Christ.
Wisdom does not consist in the possession of varied and extensive knowledge.
The student may be deeply read in ancient and long-forgotten lore, be versed
in the entire circle of the arts, sciences, and philosophies, be intelligibly familiar
with the best literature of the day, be a walking encyclopædia, a literary fountain
gushing in a perennial stream of information, and yet be far from being a wise
man. Wisdom is the practical application of knowledge, the attainment of the
highest moral results by the use of the best and simplest means. The cry of the
human intellect in all ages has been, “Where shall wisdom be found? and where
is the place of understanding?” The greatest souls have toiled painfully in
search of the coveted treasure but failed to discover it. Their mightiest
endeavours have terminated in disappointment and despair. True wisdom is
a Divine revelation. The world by wisdom knew not God; and one of the
profoundest philosophers of any age, and who approached as near the threshold
of the grand discovery as the unaided human mind was perhaps ever permitted
to do, had to confess with a sigh, “If ever man is destined to know the good and
the true, it must be by a revelation of the Deity.” That wisdom which all
need, and of which all are in quest, is found only in Christ. This verse declares
that Christ is the unfathomable depositary of the highest wisdom. Observe:—
I. That Christ is the inexhaustible Source of the truest wisdom.—“In Him
are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” The false teachers at
Colossæ, like certain pretentious philosophers of modern times, boasted of the
vast range of their wisdom and knowledge. They discussed questions, some of
which, strange to say, are reproduced and advocated to-day—questions on the
nature of the world, the eternity or non-eternity of matter, the chief good of
man, the orders and ranks of the angelic hierarchies and their relation to the
mediatorial work of Christ, the necessity of observing the ceremonies and
austerities of the law, and of the beauty and grandeur of the theories of Plato
and Pythagoras, the ruling philosophers of the time. But all this is simply
“the wisdom of this world and of the princes of this world, which come to
nought.” It is only in Christ we find all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge
to furnish and enrich the mind and to guide into the way of salvation. He is
“to us who are saved the power of God and the wisdom of God.” If, for the
sake of illustration, we classify the principal sources of human knowledge into
poetry, history, philosophy, and theology, we may assert that only in Christ does
each department find its fullest explication, and from Him derive its significance
and worth.
1. Christ is the loftiest ideal and purest inspiration of the poet.—Poetry
occupies an important place in contributing to the sum of human knowledge,
and to the culture, development, and happiness of man. It was the language
of the world’s infancy, as it is of the infancy of man; the spontaneous outflow
of the soul, on its first acquaintance with the marvels of the present life, expresses
itself in strains of poetic music. It is true this great gift has been abused, and
often made the instrument of debasing instead of elevating the mind. Hence Plato,
in constructing his ideal republic, would exclude the poets because of the evil
tendency of some of their productions, though he accords them all honour on
account of their learning and genius. The genuine poet pants after the noblest
expression of the beautiful and the good. Christ is the glorious ideal and embodiment
of the pure and beautiful; the poet drinks in his most ravishing inspiration
from Him and exhausts all the resources of his genius in attempting to portray
the exquisite lineaments of His matchless character.
2. Christ is the grandest hero of the historian.—History furnishes us with the
knowledge of man and his doings in all ages—in his individual, social, and
national aspects. It traces the development of the race from the first solitary
man to the peopling of the world with the varied nationalities which now swarm
upon its surface. But the history of the world and man would be a dark,
unsolvable enigma if the name of Christ could be struck out. The story of
redemption unites Christ with the destiny of man in all ages—past, present, and
future; and “no history of the world, political or moral, can be either just or
accurate that does not find in Christ foretold to come, or in Christ come and
crucified, its centre and its key.” The world was created by Christ; it exists for
Him; and, without interfering with individual freedom, it may be said that He
makes its history: His name and influence are traceable everywhere and are
everywhere potent. The devout historian finds in Him the hero in whom all
excellencies combine, and whose exploits he loves to chronicle.
3. Christ is prominent among the sublimest themes of the philosopher.—A
philosophy that does not recognise the Divine plunges its votaries into labyrinthine
darkness; its legitimate office is to conduct to God. Coleridge has well said:
“In wonder all philosophy began; in wonder it ends; and admiration fills up
the interspace. But the first wonder is the offspring of ignorance; the last is
the parent of adoration.” In every sphere where philosophy penetrates it is
confronted with ineffaceable evidences of the power and presence of Christ.
Among the splendid phenomena of the natural creation—the forces that move,
and the laws that control its vast machinery—Christ is acknowledged as the
creating and ruling spirit; and only as the material world is regarded as the
theatre of redemption, and of moral conflict and discipline, does the philosopher
reach its highest meaning: in the realm of mind, the true dignity, preciousness,
and immortal endowments of the soul are understood only as we apprehend that
the life of the great Redeemer was sacrificed to effect its ransom; and, in the
sphere of morals, we decipher the relation of man to man, and to society at
large, learn the duties and obligations we owe to each other and to God, discover
the standard of right actions, and are aided in explaining and harmonising the
inequalities that exist, when we gain an insight into the moral relation of
Christ to the whole race.
4. Christ is the all-comprehensive subject of the theologian.—God is inscrutable
to the unchristianised reason. “Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst
thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? It is as high as heaven, what
canst thou do? deeper than hell, what canst thou know?” Men have sought
God in all ages with tears, sacrifices, and sufferings indescribable; but in vain.
Christ is the only way to the Father; in Himself He reveals and illustrates the
Godhead. All our saving and renewing knowledge of God, and of our manifold
relations to Him, we owe entirely to Christ. “No man hath seen God at any
time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath
declared Him.” In the domain of theology “Christ is all in all.” But for
Him the office of the theologian would be an impossibility.
II. That the treasures of Divine wisdom are discoverable by the sincere
and earnest seeker.—They are hid; but not so hid as to be beyond our reach.
They are intended for discovery and appropriation. Their brilliancy sparkles
even in their hiding-place. They are like a mine, whose riches, though faintly
indicated on the surface, are concealed in the depths of the earth. The more
diligently the mine is worked, the more precious and abundant the ore appears.
So, in Christ there are treasures of wisdom unseen by the superficial and careless
observer; but to the humble and believing student new and deeper veins are
perpetually opening up, until, still pursuing his search, he is dazzled by the
splendour and inexhaustible fulness of wealth, surpassing all finite comprehension,
and filling him with admiration and awe.
Lessons.—1. Man universally covets wisdom. 2. The highest wisdom is
treasured up in Christ for man. 3. If man finds it not, it is his own fault.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 1–3. Christian Unity.
- We cannot but lament the
divisions and scandals of the professed
disciples of Jesus, which have more
than anything else prevented the
universal diffusion of the Gospel.
- We should make it manifest, by
acknowledging the truth in whomsoever
found, that we are not bigoted
sectarians.
- As regards those with whom
we are united in fellowship, let us
prove by our humble, modest, and kind
disposition that we are lovers of peace
and concord.
- Christian unity is promoted by
mutual efforts to edify one another in
faith and love.—W. France.
Ver. 3. Christ the Treasury of Wisdom
and Knowledge.—The revelation of
Christ not merely teaches us a series
of truths of inexpressible importance,
and without it wholly unattainable, but
it also, as a great central discovery,
harmonises all our beliefs, sacred and
secular, binds them together as its own
servants, gives them a new interest,
position, and colouring, and dignifies
the pursuit of them as a labour in the
very cause of God Himself, begun
and prosecuted with a view to His
glory—for to know the beauty of the
temple is to know the glory of the
Architect.—Archer Butler.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 5.
Apostolic Praise of Order and Stability.
It is an impressive spectacle to see a well-armed body of troops drawn up in
compact military order, resisting with calm, unflinching courage the terrible
charge of the enemy. Every point of attack is strongly guarded, every vacancy
occurring in the exposed front line is instantly supplied, and the broad, deep
phalanx remains impenetrable and invincible. The enforced companionship of
the apostle with the soldiers of the prætorian guard, in his imprisonment in
Rome, where he would be a daily witness of their exercises, might suggest some
such metaphor as this to the mind. And as he foresaw the confusion and ruin
that would be introduced into the Colossian Church if the fatal errors of the
false teachers were triumphant, in this verse he expresses his joyous satisfaction
in being assured of the orderly array and firmly set stability which their faith in
Christ presented against the assaults of the foe. Note:—
I. The apostle commended the external order of the members of the Church.—“Beholding
your order.” This is mentioned first, because it first meets the eye,
though all external discipline and order must necessarily spring out of and accompany
a genuine faith. There is no form of ecclesiastical government that can
claim an exclusively Divine sanction. The New Testament lays down broad, general
principles; and the Christian Church has been left to shape itself according to
circumstances and in harmony with the indications of Divine Providence. True
order depends, not upon the form of Church polity we adopt—whether prelacy,
presbytery, or congregationalism—as upon the consistency, fidelity, and union of
the individual members of the Church. Order that is not based on a vigorous
Church-life, and regulated by it, is empty and powerless; it is like the ice of the
Polar regions, which sometimes assumes forms of exquisite and wondrous beauty,
but is cold, heartless, dead. The Scriptural directions on this subject are brief
but pregnant with meaning: “Let all things be done decently and in order”;
“God is not the Author of confusion, but of peace, as in all the Churches of the
saints”; “Let all things be done with charity“; “The rest will I set in order
when I come” (1 Cor. xiv. 40, xiv. 33, xvi. 14, xi. 34). While organisation that is not instinct with a moving, pervasive
and aggressive life is cumbersome, vapid, and useless; on the other hand,
Christian steadfastness is imperilled where order is disregarded.
II. The apostle commended their stability in the faith.—“And the steadfastness
of your faith in Christ.” These words describe the internal condition of
the Church; and the picture of a firm, confident reliance on Christ which he
beheld delighted the soul of the anxious apostle. Order is the fence and guard,
steadfastness the end in view, order is the garb and ornament, steadfastness
the substance of the Christian character. Faith girds and strengthens the soul
with its unchanging and invincible verities; the shafts of error and profanity
assail it in vain. When the Roman proconsul, from his judgment-seat, urged
the holy Polycarp to save his life by cursing the name of Jesus Christ, the
venerable martyr calmly answered: “For eighty-six years I have served Him;
He has never yet done me harm. How can I blaspheme my King, who has
saved me?” Man is great and noble, not by what he possesses, not by what he
says, not by what he gives, not by what he does, but by what he believes. The
most magnanimous outward conduct may be, after all, a very imperfect representation
of the soul’s deepest faith. What a man believes is not therefore
a matter of comparative indifference, but a question of supreme importance;
he must have a clear, definite creed. True a creed is but the visible, expressive
mould of the inward conception of the truth believed; but as the tendency of all
life is to assume form and can be understood by us only as it does so, so faith, as
a vital and irresistibly active principle, must inevitably shape itself into some
outward expression. Where there is no creed, there is no faith; a creedless man
believes in nothing, and he is himself that nothing. He has no more cohesion in
him than the separate particles of sand in the hour-glass. All true faith takes
its rise “in Christ,” and gathers its stability by continuing in Him.
III. The apostle cherished a deep, personal interest in their welfare.—1. In
spirit he was present with them. “For though I be absent in the flesh,
yet I am with you in the spirit.” We have no satisfactory evidence that the
apostle had as yet personally visited Colossæ. Epaphras, the faithful and anxious
evangelist, sought him out in Rome, perhaps for the purpose of laying before
him the state of Colossæ and of the neighbouring Churches on the banks of the
Lycus. The apostle’s interest in Colossæ was further excited at this time by
meeting with Onesimus, a runaway slave, belonging to the household of
Philemon, a Colossian. The apostle was the means of bringing the runaway
to repentance and to the enjoyment of the liberty of the spiritually free. These
circumstances deepened St. Paul’s concern in the affairs of the Colossian
Christians; he grasped all the points of the situation, was keenly alive to the
gravity of the dangers with which they were threatened, and, as though he
were personally present in their midst, expressed his sincere sympathy with them
in their trials, and his profound satisfaction on hearing of their steady adherence
to the truth. It is not necessary to be locally near in order to hold spiritual
intercourse; oceans may roll between individuals whose souls participate in the
highest communion. The soul is where it loves: thither it directs its affections,
wishes, and hopes.
2. He rejoiced in their fidelity.—“Joying and beholding.” As though an
actual spectator of their order and steadfastness, his soul is filled with joy. The
expression of his hearty interest in their state, and his praise of their fidelity,
prepared them to give heed to his cautions against the seductions of false
teachers, and to his exhortations to perseverance. No disappointment is so
poignant as that arising from the failure of Christian toil, and no joy so
exquisite as the joy of success. The spectacle of a Christian Church poised in
beauteous order and strengthened with the might of an unfalteringly aggressive
faith, is a subject of unspeakable joy to God, to His angels, and to all true
ministers.
Lessons.—1. Attention must be paid to the outward as well as the inward state
of the Church. 2. While the Church preserves its order and stability it is invulnerable.
3. It is cause of rejoicing when the Church faithfully maintains the conquests
already won.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 6, 7.
Suggestive Features of the Christian Life.
The Christian life is essentially progressive. The law that governs its
existence involves perpetual, active increase; if it did not grow, it would
cease to live. Unlike the principle of growth in the natural world, we cannot
conceive a point in the religious life where it necessarily becomes stationary, and
then begins to decline, on the other hand, every provision is made for its
unceasing expansion in the highest moral excellencies.
I. The Christian life begins in a personal reception of Christ.—“As ye have
therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord” (ver. 6). Religion is not a self-development
of innate human goodness, as many in the present day believe and teach.
The soul of man is infected with the virulent poison of sin; no part has escaped
the destructive moral taint. The utmost exercise of the unsanctified powers of
the soul can therefore tend only towards the development of its own inborn
corruption. As the vinegar plant reproduces itself with great rapidity and
impregnates every branch and fibre with its own essential acid, so the evil
reigning in man reproduces itself with marvellous rapidity and permeates the
whole soul with its debasing poison. Religion is a receiving—the receiving of a
gift, and that a Divine gift. It is the growth and development of the supernatural
in man. “Christ in you the hope of glory.”
1. Christ is received as the Christ.—The Colossian heresy aimed at subverting
the true idea of the Christ, the Anointed One, commissioned by the Father to
effect the reconciliation of the world to Himself; it interposed a graduated
series of angelic mediators, and thus thought to discredit the sole and absolute
mediatorship of Christ. To receive the Son of God effectually is to receive Him
in all that He claimed to be, and all that He came to do, as the Divine, specially
anointed Son, who alone and fully manifested the Father, and who is the only
mediator between sinful man and God. It is of unspeakable importance to
catch the true idea of the character and office of Christ at the beginning of the
Christian life.
2. Christ is received as Jesus the Lord.—Jesus is the name by which He was
known among men, and points out how completely He has identified Himself
with humanity as the Saviour. “It behoved Him to be made like unto His
brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest, to make reconciliation
for the sins of the people.” He is also Lord, the supreme Governor in
all spheres, in nature, providence, and grace. To receive Jesus aright, He must
be trusted as the Saviour, able to save to the uttermost, acknowledged as the
Sovereign and universal Ruler, and homage and obedience rendered to His
rightful authority. Our reception of Christ does not place us beyond the reach
of law but creates in us the capacity for rendering an intelligent and cheerful
obedience to its holy requirements.
3. Christ is received by an act of faith.—To receive Christ is to believe in Him;
and faith in Christ is simply the reception of Christ: the only way of receiving
Him into the soul is by faith. The soul accepts, not only the testimony concerning
Christ, whether furnished by Himself or by His witnesses, but accepts Christ
Himself. The great, final object of faith that saves is Christ, and all testimony
is valuable only as it brings us to Him. The sin-tossed spirit finds rest and
peace only as it reposes, not in an abstract truth, but in a person—not in love as
the law of the moral universe, but in a person who is Himself love.
II. The Christian life is governed by the law of Christ.—“So walk ye in Him”
(ver. 6). The word “walk” expresses the general conduct of man and the process
of progression in the formation of individual character. The will of Christ, as
indicated in His character, words, spirit, and example, is the ruling principle in
the life of the believer.
1. To walk in Christ implies a recognition of Him in all things.—In everything
that constitutes our daily life—business, domestic relations, social engagements,
friendships, pleasures, cares, and trials—we may trace the presence of Christ
and recognise His rule. Everywhere, on road, or rail, or sea—in all seasons of
distress or joy, of poverty or wealth, of disturbance or rest—we may be conscious
of the encompassing and regulating presence of Christ Jesus the Lord.
2. To walk in Christ implies a complete consecration to Him.—He has the
supreme claim upon our devotion and service: “We are not our own; we are
bought with a price.” Our life consists in serving Him: “Whether we live, we
live unto the Lord.” The best of everything we possess should be cheerfully
offered to Him. Carpeaux, the celebrated French sculptor, was kept in
comparative retirement for some time before his death by a long and painful
illness. One Sunday, as he was being drawn to church, he was accosted by a
certain prince, who exclaimed, “Carpeaux, I have good news for you! You
have been advanced in the Legion of Honour. Here is the rosette d’officier.”
The emaciated sculptor smiled and replied, “Thank you, my dear friend. It is
the good God who shall first have the noble gift.” Saying which, he approached
the altar, put the rosette in his button-hole, and reverentially knelt down to pray.
3. To walk in Christ implies a continual approximation to the highest life in
Him.—The Christian can rise no higher than to be most like Christ. The
highest ambition of the apostle was to be “found in Him.” Life in Him is a
perpetual progress in personal purity and ever-deepening felicity. Our interest
in the vast future is intensified by the Christ-inspired hope that we shall be
for ever virtually united to Him, that we shall delight in ever-changing visions
of His matchless glory, that we shall be like Him, and reflect and illustrate the
splendour of His all-perfect character. Every triumph over sin is a substantial
advance towards this glorious future destiny.
III. The Christian life is supported and established by faith in fully
declared truth.—1. There is the idea of stability. The believer is rooted in
Christ, as a tree planted in firm, immovable soil; he is built up in Christ, as an
edifice on a sure foundation; and in both senses, as a tree and as a building, he
must be established in the truth which has been demonstrated to him as Divine
and all-authoritative. It is not enough to preserve the appearance of an
external walk in Christ; but the roots of our faith must be worked into Him,
and the superstructure of holiness rest on Him as the only foundation laid in
Zion. The soul thus firmly established will survive the heaviest storms of
adversity and the most furious assaults of error.
2. There is the idea of progress.—Walking implies a continual advance to a
given destination; a tree is planted in order to grow; the building, after the
foundation is laid, rises to completion. The word “built” is in the present tense
and describes a work in actual process. So the believer, having become attached
to the only foundation that is laid, which is Christ Jesus, is ever rising in conformity
with the foundation and with the outlines of that grand spiritual edifice
of which Christ is the pattern and glory. Faith is the cement that fastens one
part of the building to the other; but faith as a living, active principle, also
admits of increase. With respect to every individual effort after a higher
spiritual life, according to our faith it is done unto us.
IV. The Christian life has its most appropriate outflow in thanksgiving.—“Abounding
therein with thanksgiving” (ver. 7). The end of all human conduct
is thanksgiving. It should be expressed in every word and appear in every
action. Life should be a ceaseless, ever-abounding outflow of gratitude. We
should never forget the magnitude of the blessings we have received, the wealth
of mercies now offered to us, and the source whence they all issue. A thankful
remembrance of past benefits cheers and strengthens the heart under difficulties
and disposes the bounteous Donor to confer further benefits. There is nothing
in which Christians are more deficient than in a devout and heartily expressed
gratitude. Gratitude expands our sympathies for the race. What a triumph
of disinterested thankfulness was that of the invalid who, though confined to his
room, “thanked God for the sunshine for others to enjoy”! The spirit of
Christian progress is one of unceasing thanksgiving.
Lessons.—1. The Christian life is Divinely bestowed. 2. The Christian life is
Divinely sustained. 3. The reality of the Christian life is evidenced by effusive and
practical gratitude.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 6, 7. Retrospection the Basis of
Progress.
I. The Christian consciousness in its
apprehension of Christ.—1. There are
two opposing theories prevalent on the
person of Christ—the rationalistic and
the revealed. The one rules out His
Godhead; the other is the basis of the
Christian faith. 2. Two systems of
theology, widely distinct from each other,
are dependent on these theories. The
one puts man at its centre, and is
wholly human; the other enthrones
God, and is essentially Divine. 3. There
is only one Christ, one faith, one salvation.
4. It is within the one or the other
of these two systems that we must posit
our decisions.
II. The Christian consciousness in
its reception of Christ.—1. Faith receives
the whole Christ. 2. Christ asks
and gets the whole man. 3. The life of
faith, as embodied in the moralities of
Christian living, is thus provided for
and follows this consecrating act.
III. The Christian consciousness in
its subjection to Christ.—1. The sphere
of the lordship of Christ is the human
mind. 2. The claim of this lordship
is absolute. 3. The mind is free and
unconstrained in its surrender to the
authority of Christ.—John Burton.
Ver. 6. Moral Imitation.
- The text assumes that man possesses
the faculty of imitation.
- He requires an example to imitate
and that example is Christ.
- A model must be seen to be
imitated, so Christ has presented
Himself to us for that purpose.—W. Frazer.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 8.
The Marks of a False Philosophy.
Philosophy plays an important part in the investigation and discovery of
truth. The use of the word arose out of the humility of Pythagoras, who
called himself a lover of wisdom. The noblest intellects of all ages have been
devoted to the pursuit of the same coveted prize. Philosophy represents the
highest effort of the human intellect in its search after knowledge. It explores
and tests phenomena in the realm of physics and of morals and discovers the
subtle laws by which those phenomena are governed. It elevates man to his
true rank in creation, and teaches that he must be estimated, not by his physical
relation to the outward world, but by the sublime endowments of his mind, into
which it is the special function of philosophy to inquire. The philosophic mood
never reaches its highest development till it is Christianised. The apostle does
not stigmatise all philosophy as in vain; he knew the value of a true philosophy,
and in his estimation the Christian religion was the embodiment of the highest
philosophy. But he warned the Colossians against a false philosophy that was
deceptive in its pretensions and deadly in its influence.
I. A false philosophy is known by its profitless speculations.—The absence
of both preposition and article in the second clause shows that “vain deceit”
describes and qualifies philosophy. A celebrated Roman sophist summed up his
deliberate judgment on the efforts of the learned in the painful search after
wisdom in these words: “The human mind wanders in a diseased delirium, and
it is therefore not surprising that there is no possible folly which philosophers,
at one time or another, have propounded as a lesson of wisdom.” When the
most highly cultured intellects have been gravely occupied with tricks of magic,
the casting of nativities, the random guesses of soothsaying, and the pretended
marvels of a mystic astrology; when the best of life has been spent in discussing
transcendental questions as to the eternity of matter, fate, the mortality of the
soul, the worship of angels, and their mature endowments and habits, and in
definitional hair-splitting as to what constitutes the chief good of man; when the
truest and best discoveries of human reason are used to disparage Divine revelation
and discredit the absolute authority of saving truth—then philosophy falsifies
its name, frustrates its lofty mission, and degenerates into vain, empty, profitless
speculations. The student of the theories and contradictions of certain philosophic
schools may begin with extravagant expectations, only to end in chagrin
and despondency. The errors which assailed the Colossian Church were a mixture
of the Oriental system of Zoroaster with Judaism, and with the crude, half-comprehended
truths of Christianity. It was a mongrel system of philosophy,
containing the germs of what afterwards developed into an advanced Gnosticism
and became the prolific source of many forms of heresy. Its abettors became
“vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened; professing
themselves wise, they became fools” (Rom. i. 21, 22).
II. A false philosophy is known by its purely human origin.—“After the
tradition of men.”
1. The human mind is limited.—The stream can never rise higher than its
source; so the wisdom that comes from man is necessarily bounded by the range
of his mental powers. The human mind cannot penetrate far into any subject
without discovering there is a point beyond which all is darkness and uncertainty.
It is impossible for the circumscribed and unaided mind of man to construct
a philosophy that shall be universally true and beneficial. Tillotson has said:
“Philosophy has given us several plausible rules for attaining peace and tranquillity
of mind, but they fall very much short in bringing men to it.”
2. All human knowledge is imperfect.—“If any man think that he knoweth
anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.” The traditions of men
are the accumulation of mere human theories transmitted from age to age until
they have assumed the pretensions of a philosophy, imposing a number of uninspired
and unauthorised observances and austerities. The imperfection of
human knowledge is not obliterated but aggravated by its antiquity. A philosophy
that builds solely on man is baseless and full of danger.
III. A false philosophy is known by its undue exaltation of elementary
principles.—“After the rudiments of the world.” The source of the false
teaching against which the apostle warned was found in human tradition, and
its subject-matter was made up of “the rudiments of the world”—the most
elementary instruction conveyed by external and material objects, suited only to
man’s infancy in the world. The legal rights and ceremonies instituted by
Moses are evidently referred to here; they were the first rough elements of an
introductory religion fit only for children—shadows at best of great and deeper
truths to which they were intended to lead, and yet, by the tendency of the soul
to cling to the outward, gendering to bondage. “Even so we, when we were
children, were in bondage under the elements [rudiments] of the world. But
now, after that ye have known God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly
elements?” (Gal. iv. 3–10). The apostle shows the Colossians that, in Christ,
they had been exalted into the sphere of the Spirit, and that it would be a sad
retrogression to plunge again into the midst of the sensuous and ceremonial. A
true philosophy, while starting necessarily with elementary principles, conducts
its votaries into a pathway of increasing knowledge and of spiritual exaltation
and liberty. A false philosophy fetters the mind by exaggerating the importance
of first principles and insisting on their eternal obligation.
IV. A false philosophy is known by its Christlessness.—“And not after
Christ.” Christ is neither the author nor the substance of its teaching; not the
author, for its advocates rely on human traditions; not the substance, for they
ignore Christ by the substitution of external ceremonies and angelic mediators.
Such a method of philosophising may be after the Jewish fanatics, after the
Pythagoreans or Platonists, after Moses and his abrogated legalism; but is it
not after Christ. There is no affinity between Christ and their inventions; the
substances cannot amalgamate. As it is impossible, by any process, to convert a
baser metal into gold, so it is impossible to elevate a vain philosophy into Christianity.
All true saving knowledge must be after—i.e. according to—Christ.
It is in Him alone the deepest wants of man’s nature can be met and satisfied.
Any philosophy, though championed by the most brilliant intellects, that tends
to lure the soul from Christ, that puts anything in the place of Him, or depreciates
in any way our estimate of His glorious character, is false and full of peril.
V. A false philosophy is known by its destructive influence.—“Lest any
man spoil you.” The meaning of the word “spoil” is very full and significant: it
is not simply to despoil—to strip off—but to carry away as spoil, just as the
four kings, after the battle in the vale of Siddim, plundered the cities of Sodom
and Gomorrah, and bore away as spoil the people and all their property and
victuals (Gen. xiv. 12–16). The Colossians had been rescued from the bondage
of darkness and transferred to the kingdom of light; they were settled there as
free and happy citizens; and now there was danger lest they should be tampered
with by some crafty marauder, seized and carried away as booty, and fall into a
worse state than their former slavery. There are worse losses than loss of
property, or even of children: man is never so grievously spoiled as when his
soul is debased and robbed by the errors of wicked seducers. Men who have
contemptuously given up the Bible as a book of fables, lost their peace of mind,
wrecked their moral character, and blasted their prospects for ever, began their
downward career by embracing the apparently harmless ideas of a false philosophy.
“The thief cometh not,” saith Jesus, “but to steal, to kill, and to destroy; I”—the
infallible Teacher, the incorruptible Guardian, the inexhaustible Life-giver—“am
come that they might have life, and that they might have it more
abundantly” (John x. 10).
VI. Against a false philosophy the Church must be faithfully warned.—“Beware.”
1. Because it is seductive in its pretensions.—It seeks to refine and elevate the
plain Gospel by a show of lofty intellectualism; it dignifies some particular religious
rite into an unjustifiable importance; it elaborates a ritual marvellous for spectacular
display and musical effect; it flatters the pride and ministers to the
corruption of the human heart; and, stealing through the avenue of the charmed
senses, gains an imperious mastery over the whole man.
2. Because it is baneful in its effect.—It not only misrepresents and distorts the
truth, but injures the faculties of the soul by which truth is obtained and kept.
It darkens the understanding, pollutes the conscience, and weakens the will. It
robs man of his dearest treasure, and offers in exchange a beggarly system of
crude, unsatisfying speculations. The soul is goaded into a restless search after
rest and cursed with its non-attainment.
Lessons.—1. Human philosophy is essentially defective. 2. The true philosophy
is the highest knowledge of Christ. 3. All philosophy that weans the soul from
Christ is false and should be shunned.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 9, 10.
The Divine Fulness of Christ a Pledge of the Believer’s Perfection.
Christianity is the true philosophy. Here are its profoundest depths, its loftiest
themes, its most substantial discoveries. The philosophy that is not after Christ
is vain and misleading. It was a false conception of the Colossian heresy that
the Divine energy was dispersed among several spiritual agencies. The apostle
boldly declares that in Christ dwells the whole
πλήρωμα, the entire fulness of
the Deity, and that it is in vain to seek for spiritual life in communion with
inferior creatures.
I. The Divine fulness of Christ.—1. In Christ is the fulness of the Deity.
“For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead” (ver. 9). A small text,
but a great subject. These words contain the sublimest truth in the narrowest
compass. Fulness is a term used to signify all that anything contains. Hence,
we read of the fulness of the earth, the fulness of the sea, and that the Church
is Christ’s body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all. In Christ inhere all
the perfections, attributes, and qualities that essentially constitute the Divine
nature—power, wisdom, eternity, self-existence, omnipresence, truth, love,
holiness. The deities of the heathen never pretended to possess more than a
few Divine attributes, some portion of Divinity. But Christ contains in Himself
the totality of Divine powers and excellencies.
2. The fulness of the Deity in Christ is present and permanent.—“Dwelleth.”
The present tense is used. It is not as a transient gleam or as a brilliant
display to serve a temporary purpose, but as an ever-present and unchanging
reality. Mystery of mysteries! the body that hungered and thirsted, that
bled and died, that rose and ascended on high, is still the temple of illimitable
Deity! The manifestations of God through angels and prophets were brief and
partial. The Shekinah, or visible glory, that hovered over the ark of the
covenant was a symbol only of a present deity and disappeared as mysteriously
as it came. But in Christ, the transcendent fulness of the Godhead finds its
permanent home, never to depart, never to vanish.
3. The fulness of the Deity in Christ has a visible embodiment.—“Bodily.” In
the person of Christ every moral perfection of the Godhead was enshrined and
brought within the range of human vision. He presented and proved the fact
of the Divine existence. He embodied and declared the Divine spirituality. He
delineated the Divine disposition, and character in the days of His flesh. Gleams
of the Divine nature occasionally broke forth. “We beheld His glory, the
glory as of the only begotten Son of God” (John i. 14). And now, from that subtle,
glorified human form of our exalted Mediator, the splendour of the Deity rays
forth, filling the universe with light and glory and joy. In Christ the
Godhead is revealed, not as a changing, shadowy phantasm, but as a positive,
substantial reality.
II. The supreme authority of Christ.—“Which is the Head of all principality
and power” (ver. 10).
1. Angels are the principalities and powers of the universe.—They are called
spirits to express their nature, and angels to designate their office as messengers
sent by God. They are called sons of God, to indicate their lofty relationship;
cherubim, because of their composite nature, and because they are placed under
the presence of Jehovah, whose moving throne they appear to draw; seraphim,
because of their burning ardour in executing the commands of God; stars of the
morning, to set forth their brightness; a flaming fire, because of the fierceness
and celerity with which they carry out the vengeance of Heaven; and they are
called principalities and powers on account of their exalted rank and superior
endowments.
2. Among the principalities and powers of the universe Christ has supreme
authority.—He is the Head of all angelic hierarchies. He called them into being.
He endows them with vast intelligence. He designates their rank. He controls
their beneficent ministries. He fills the circle of their bliss. To worship angels,
or to seek their mediation in the affairs of the soul, is not only gross idolatry,
but an insufferable insult to the fulness of the Deity in Christ.
III. The believer’s fulness in Christ.—“And ye are complete in Him” (ver. 10).
1. In Christ is the inspiration of the believer’s life.—The soul finds its true life
by believing on the Son of God. “He that hath the Son hath life” (1 John v. 12). In
ourselves we are like empty vessels; but in Christ we are filled up to the brim.
As there is an original and Divine fulness of the Godhead in Christ, so there is
a derived fulness communicated to us. Every advance in Christian experience,
every aspiration after a more exalted spiritual tone, every yearning of the soul
after clearer light, every struggle for victory over self and sin, is prompted and
accelerated by the impetuous inflow of the Divine life.
2. In Christ is the perfect ideal of the believer’s character.—Christ has exalted
human nature. He took not on Him the nature of angels, but the seed of
Abraham. He has shown what human nature can become, and what it can do.
In Him we have the illustrious pattern after which our souls are to be fashioned
and rounded off into a full-orbed completeness. “Christ is the mirror that
glasses God’s image before us, and the Spirit is the plastic force within that
transfers and photographs that image; and so, beholding as in a glass the glory
of the Lord, we are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by
the Spirit of the Lord.”
3. In Christ is the interminable bliss of the believer’s future.—The present life
is a training for the future. The more it is in harmony with the will of Christ
the happier will it be. Every attempt, amid the multiform relations of life, to
do our duty in a Christly spirit, is bringing us into closer sympathy with Christ,
and preparing us for a joyous life with Him hereafter. The apostle expressed
the condition of the highest conceivable bliss to the believer in the words, “And
so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1 Thess. iv. 17).
Lessons.—1. Christ is essentially Divine. 2. There is an ineffable fulness of
salvation in Christ. 3. All secondary mediators between God and man are superfluous.
4. The soul is complete in Christ only as it believes in Him.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 9, 10. A Presentation of Two
Great Truths.
- That all Christianity centres in
Christ.
- That union to Christ makes the
soul independent of others.—Dykes.
Ver. 9. The Fulness of Christ.
- Christ is full of the power of God.
- The love of God.
- The grace of God.
- The faithfulness of God.
- The purpose of God to punish
sin.—Preacher’s Magazine.
Ver. 10. The Completing of the Soul.
- We are made complete in Christ
by inspirations.
- We have ideas and ideals in
Christ.
- We are set in a various scheme
of relations that we may have a
training in virtues equally various
and be perfected in them and by means
of them.—Bushnell.
The Believer Complete in Christ.
I. Complete in Him with respect to
the work which He hath already performed.—1. His
obedience and atonement
were precisely what God Himself
had prescribed. 2. That He obeyed and
atoned, we have the perfect evidence of
observation and testimony. He Himself
declared, “I have finished the
work which Thou gavest Me to do.”
“It is finished.” To this the Father
and the Spirit have expressly borne
testimony: by signs and wonders; His
resurrection; His ascension; the descent
of the Spirit; conversions; the
glorification of His people. 3. Into
His righteousness thus perfect the believer
is admitted.
II. Complete in Him with respect
to the work which He is now performing.—1. Interceding
in heaven. 2. Ruling
on earth, and thus giving grace and
affording protection.
III. Complete in Him with respect
to the work which He is hereafter to
perform.—1. As the Resurrection. 2. As
the Judge. 3. As the Glorifier. 4. As
the Consummation and Communicator
of eternal blessedness.—Stewart.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 11, 12.
Christian Circumcision.
There were two principal errors lying at the root of the heresy that was doing
so much damage at Colossæ. One was the theological error of substituting
inferior and created angelic mediators for the Divine Head Himself. The other
was a practical error, in insisting upon ritual and ascetic observances as the
foundation of moral teaching. Thus, their theological speculations and ethical
code alike were at fault. Both errors flowed from a common source—the
false conception that evil resides in matter, a fruitful source of many fatal
heresies. Some contended the Colossians could not be complete in Christ without
submitting to the Jewish rite of circumcision; but the apostle showed that they
were the subjects of a superior circumcision.
I. Christian circumcision is inward and spiritual.—“Ye are circumcised with
the circumcision made without hands” (ver. 11). The hand-wrought circumcision
of the Jews was simply an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual
grace. This is abundantly clear in the language of the Old Testament: “No
stranger uncircumcised in heart, nor uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into My
sanctuary.” “The Lord Thy God will circumcise thine heart, to love the Lord thy
God with all thine heart and all thy soul” (Ezek. xliv. 9; Deut. xxx. 6). The argument of the apostle is that
the Colossians had secured all the spiritual results aimed at in the ancient rite,
and that by a better circumcision, even that made without hands, by the
spiritual and almighty power of Christ, so that it was unnecessary for them or
any other Gentiles to submit to the abrogated Hebraic ordinance. The true
circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter (Rom. ii. 28, 29).
II. Christian circumcision is complete.—“In putting off the body of the sins
of the flesh” (ver. 11); or, as Bengel translates, putting off the body of the sins—that
is to say, the flesh. Manual circumcision, according to the law of Moses, was
the cutting away of only a small part of the flesh. But the true spiritual circumcision
consists in putting off, renouncing, and casting away with disgust the
whole body of our corrupt nature—the entire fleshly principle. The whole bulk
of sin is fitly compared to a body, because of the weight of guilt there is in it
(Rom. vii. 24), and the soul is completely compassed by it, as it is with our
natural body (Gen. vi. 5). When the heart is circumcised, the total mass of sin
is put off, as the porter puts off his burden, the beggar his rages, the master his
false servant, and the serpent its skin. Old things pass away; all things
become new.
III. Christian circumcision is Divine.—“By the circumcision of Christ” (ver. 11).
It is wrought, without hands, by the inward, invisible power of the Divine Spirit
of Christ. It supersedes the external form of the circumcision of the law and
fulfils all its spiritual designs in a far more perfect manner than even the
spiritually-minded Jew could adequately conceive. What can never be effected
by the moral law, by external, ascetic ceremonies, or by philosophic speculations,
is accomplished by the circumcision of Christ. The whole body of sin is mortified,
the soul is quickened and renewed, and brought into the possession of the highest
moral perfection.
IV. Christian circumcision is realised by the thorough identification of the
believer with Christ in His death and resurrection.—“Buried with Him, wherein
also ye are risen with Him” (ver. 12). Burial implies previous death; and to
secure the true circumcision we must be spiritually identified with Christ in His
death, burial, and resurrection. It is the familiar teaching of the New Testament
that he who believes in Christ is said to die with Him, to be buried with Him, and
to rise with Him (ver. 13; Rom. vi. 11; Eph. ii. 5). A circumcised heart, a new
nature, cannot be obtained by mere human effort, by stern resolutions, painful
processes of self-mortification, or by the most advanced and rigorous mental
culture. It is secured only by a complete, vital union and incorporation with
Christ, and a sympathetic participation with Him in all He has done and
suffered. With Christ the believer enters the grave where the vast body of sin
dies and is buried; and with Christ he emerges into a new and heavenlier life
that transforms the soul into a Diviner beauty, and fills it with unutterable
rapture and melodious praise.
V. Christian circumcision is wrought in the soul by a spiritual baptism.—“Buried
with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him” (ver. 12).
Baptism by water, like legal circumcision, is an outward and visible sign of an
inward and spiritual grace. But it does not appear that there is any allusion here
to the ordinance of baptism. The leading ideas and figures used in these two
verses refer to spiritual realities: the death, burial, and resurrection, the circumcision
without hands, and the putting off of the body of the flesh, are all
spiritual; and the baptism is evidently of the same character. It is by the
baptism of the Spirit—the quickening and renewing power of the Holy Ghost—that
the soul is so united to and identified with Christ that the believer may be
said to be buried and to rise with Him. It is possible to die with Christ and to
rise with Him without being baptised with water; but it is impossible to do
either without the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Spiritual baptism is the grave
of the old man and the birth of the new. As he sinks beneath the baptismal
waters, the believer buries there all his corrupt affections and past sins; ans he
emerges thence, he rises regenerate, quickened to new hopes and a new life.
VI. Christian circumcision is received by faith.—“Through the faith of the
operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead” (ver. 12). Faith is not a
natural production of the human heart. It is a Divine gift and is bestowed on
man by a Divine operation. Man can believe because God has given him the power
to believe. No unbeliever can receive the baptism that effects the spiritual resurrection.
The faith specially referred to is to be fixed on the power of God as
exerted and displayed in the resurrection of Christ from the tomb. The same
power is employed in that mysterious baptismal process by which the soul throws
off its mass of moral vileness and rises into newness of life. Faith opens every
gateway of the soul, so that it gratefully welcomes and exults in the transforming
operations of the Divine energy.
Lessons.—1. All external ordinances are powerless to change the heart. 2. The
true circumcision is accomplished by the baptism of the Holy Ghost. 3. To realise
the renewing power of God faith is indispensable.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Ver. 11. The True Circumcision.
- Is not an outward rite, but an
inward change.
- Is an excision of the body of sin
by our union with Christ, who has
conquered sin.
- Is not an external observance,
but a spiritual experience and a holy
life.
Ver. 12. The True Baptism—
- Is spiritual regeneration.
- Is being buried and raised again
with Christ.
- Is secured by an active, realising
faith in the power of God.
- Renders circumcision and all
outward rites valueless as means of
salvation.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 13, 14.
The Transition from Death to Life.
In relation to man, the physical order is a descent from life to death, the
spiritual order an ascent from death to life. The soul of man is held captive
in the dark and dismal prison-house of sin, and the Divine law—at once its
judge and gaoler—has declared its condemnation to death. The great Mediator
offers Himself a ransom for human sin. He is accepted. The sentence of
condemnation is cancelled, and spiritual liberty proclaimed.
I. That the natural condition of humanity is one of moral and spiritual
death.—1. Man is in a condition of spiritual insensibility. “You, being dead in
your sins” (ver. 13). The dead know not anything. They are as unconscious as
the dust in the midst of which they slumber. The sweetest sounds or the brightest
scenes appeal in vain to the locked-up senses. This figure strikingly depicts the
moral condition of man. The soul may be keenly alive to the relations and
interests of the outer world, and at the same time dead to the grandest spiritual
realities. He is insensible to the character and claims of God, to the sublimest
truths, to the most ravishing prospects. With faculties to appreciate all that is
lovely in nature and wonderful in art, he is insensible and unresponsive to the
highest moral beauty.
2. Man is in a condition of moral corruption.—“And the uncircumcision of
your flesh” (ver. 13). Death unbinds the forces that brace up the body in life and
health and leaves it a prey to the ever-active power of corruption. The flesh is
the carnal principle—the old corrupt nature; and its uncircumcision indicates
that it has not been cut off, mortified, or conquered. It is the loathsome, putrid
fruit of a nature spiritually dead—the outworkings of a wicked, unrenewed
heart, through all the channels of unchecked appetites and passions—moral
putrescence fattening on itself. No description of sin can surpass the revolting
spectacle of its own self-registered results.
3. Man is in a condition of condemnation.—(1) The Divine ordinances record an
indictment against the transgressor. “The handwriting of ordinances that was
against us” (ver. 14). A handwriting imports what any one writes with his own
hand, and is usually applied to a note of hand, a bond, or obligation, as having
the signature of the debtor or contracting party. The primary reference in the
terms used is to the Jews, who might be said to have signed the contract when
they bound themselves, by a curse, to observe all the enactments of the law
(Deut. xxvii. 14–26). Ordinances, though referring primarily to the Mosaic
ordinances, includes all forms of positive decrees (ordinances) in which moral or
social principles are embodied or religious duties defined. Man everywhere is
under law, written or unwritten; and he is morally obligated to obey it. That
law has been universally violated, and its ordinances and sanctions are against
us. We are involved in legal condemnation; we owe to God what we can never
pay. (2) The Divine ordinances are hostile towards the transgressor. “Which
was contrary to us” (ver. 14). We are often painfully reminded of our broken
bond, as the debtor is often distressingly reminded of his undischarged obligation.
Our peace is disturbed, our conscience troubled, our prospects darkened. The
sense of condemnation pursues us in every part of life and haunts us with visions
of terrible vengeance to come.
II. That the believer is raised into a condition of spiritual life.—1. Spiritual
life begins in the consciousness of liberty. “Having forgiven you all trespasses”
(ver. 13). Sin enthrals the soul in an intolerable bondage and smites it with a
deathly blow. There is no return to life until liberty is bestowed. Forgiveness
confers that liberty. Pardon is the point at which spiritual life begins. The
sense of liberty is the first glad thrill in the soul of a new and nobler life. The
pardon is ample; it is all-comprehensive—having forgiven you all trespasses.
Every legal barrier is removed. All guilt is cancelled. Every stain is purged
away. Every vestige of corruption disappears. The Divine mercy triumphs in
the prompt, generous, loving, full forgiveness of sins.
2. Spiritual life implies a freedom from all condemnation.—(1) The indictment
recorded in the Divine ordinances is cancelled and abolished. “Blotting out the
handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and
took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross” (ver. 14). Every assurance is given
to the trembling believer that his guilt is pardoned, and his condemnation removed.
The handwriting is blotted out—as it were, cross-strokes are drawn through it;
and that all suspicion it may again become legible, may be allayed, it is added,
“and took it out of the way”; it is entirely removed. But lest, haply, it should
again be found and produced, it is declared—it is destroyed, torn, nailed to the
cross, and so made utterly useless ever to witness anything against the believer.
“Now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held”
(Rom. vii. 6). The handwriting against us is removed and destroyed by the
sacrificial death of Christ on the cross. There we behold the cancelled sentence
torn and rent by the very nails that pierced the sacred body of the world’s
Redeemer. (2) Freedom from condemnation is effected by the cross. “His
cross.” Much as the doctrine of salvation through the vicarious sufferings of
Christ may be misunderstood and despised, it is the only method by which
pardon can be bestowed, condemnation removed, and spiritual life imparted.
“Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse
for us.”
III. That the transition of the soul from death to spiritual life is a Divine
work.—“You hath He quickened together with Him” (ver. 13). God only can
raise the dead. He who first fashioned us in His own image, who raised from the
dead Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, rescues man from the gloomy domain
of spiritual death, and inspires him with a new and holier life. It is a life of
blessed union with the Divine. Its activities are spontaneous and Godward in
their tendencies. It has the power of growth and endless development. Its
aspirations are the purest and noblest. It is intensely individual. It is the
movement of the Divine in the sphere of the human, not defacing or destroying
the human, but exalting and perfecting its worthiest traits.
Lessons.—1. All men are dead in sin. 2. Law condemns but cannot deliver.
3. Pardon of sin is the gateway of spiritual life. 4. Pardon is obtained only by
looking to the cross.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Ver. 13. Death and Spiritual Life.
- Man by sin is spiritually dead
and disabled from exercising spiritual
acts.
- Man is quickened into spiritual
life by virtue of the resurrection of
Christ.
- Spiritual life is obtainable only
by the pardon of sin.
Ver. 14. The Handwriting of Ordinances.
- Describes our condemnation.
- Must be cancelled in order to
pardon.
- Cancelled by the sufferings on
the cross.
- Is blotted out against us when
we accept the Crucified.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 15.
The Triumph of the Cross.
The apostle has shown the worthlessness of the Jewish ceremonies and the
galling tyranny of their yoke. He has exposed the emptiness of the philosophy
that was of human fabrication, with its illusive theories about angel mediators,
its vast accretions of conflicting traditions, and its intolerable impositions. He
has declared that they are all transfixed to the cross—torn, lacerated, illegible,
cancelled—and exhibited there as a spectacle for the perpetual consolation and
assurance of the believer. And now the apostle, rising with the grandeur of his
theme, compares the scene of the cross to the splendid triumph of a Roman
general, in which the captives taken in battle were led in gorgeous procession
through the city as substantial trophies of the victor.
I. The triumph of the cross was over the powers of evil.—“Principalities and
Powers.”
1. The existence of evil is a painful fact.—We meet with it everywhere and in
everything. It mars the beauty of external creation and loads it with a burden
of unutterable woe. It flings its shadow over the brightest sky, transforms the
music of life into a doleful monotone, and translates the softest zephyrs into
sighs. It impregnates man’s moral nature, deflects the purest principles, shatters
the noblest powers, arrests the loftiest aspirations and drags the soul down to
the lowest hell.
2. Evil is embodied in invisible and potent personalities.—They are here called
principalities because of their excellency, their deep penetration, vast knowledge,
and exalted station. They are called powers because of their ability, the mighty
influence they can wield, and the terrible havoc they can work. Their dominion
extends over the whole realm of sin. They exist in vast numbers (2 Pet. iv. 2;
Jude 6), but they are inspired and guided by one great master-spirit—the
prince of the power of the air. They are animated and bound together by one
spirit—a spirit of bitter hatred and savage hostility towards God, and of contemptuous
scorn for His authority. They are eager to obey the slightest behest
of their malignant leader.
“He spake: and to confirm his words outflew
Millions of flaming swords, drawn from the thighs,
Of mighty cherubim: the sudden blaze
Far round illumined hell: highly they raged
Against the Highest, and fierce with grasped arms
Clashed on their sounding shields the din of war,
Hurling defiance towards the vault of heaven.”
These hosts of evil spirits are the great foes of man with which he has incessantly
to contend (Eph. vi. 12). The struggle would be hopeless had not Christ
defeated them.
II. The triumph of the cross was achieved after severe conflict.—“Having
spoiled.”
1. The conflict was continuous.—It was fought from the earliest period between
Satan and man, and the day was lost. The woeful issues of that conquest are
with us to-day. The battle has been raging ever since. The enmity existing
between the serpent and the seed of the woman is still active. The symbols and
foreshadowings of the great strife appeared on many occasions during the Mosaic
period. But when Christ assumed our humanity and stepped upon the field as
the great Captain of our salvation, the conflict reached its climax.
2. The conflict was fierce.—Hosts of demons swarmed around the solitary
Warrior, and with incredible fury sought to gain a victory over the human
nature he had assumed. Again and again, they rushed to the attack; but each
fresh assault ended with a new defeat. In the wilderness He was tempted by
Satan; but the arch-tempter was compelled to retire, baffled and conquered.
Through the voice of His chief disciple the temptation was renewed, and He was
urged to decline His appointed sufferings and death (Matt. xvi. 23). But Satan
was again foiled.
3. The conflict was deadly.—Then came the final hour—the great crisis when
the power of darkness made itself felt, when the prince of this world threw his
last fatal shaft and asserted his tyranny (Luke xxii. 53; John xii. 30). The
closing act in the conflict began with the agony of Gethsemane; it ended with
the cross of Calvary. The Son of God expires on the accursed tree. But, lo!
strange reversal of all human conflicts—the moment of apparent defeat is the
moment of victory! By dying Christ has conquered death and wrested from
the enemy his most potent weapon of terror. The principalities and powers of
evil, that clung around the humanity of Christ like a fatal Nessus tunic, were
spoiled—torn off and cast aside for ever. Evil assailed the great Redeemer from
without, but never penetrated Him as it does humanity. In the act of dying
the crucified One stripped off and flung to the ground the great potentates of evil
never more to be in the ascendant.
III. The triumph of the cross was signal and complete.—1. It was signal.
“He made a show of them openly.” The overthrow of the principalities and
powers of evil was boldly declared to the universe. They were declared to be
liars, traitors, deceivers, usurpers, and murderers! It was not a private but a
public victory, in which the universe was interested, and in which all men may
well rejoice. The victory of mankind is involved in the victory of Christ. In
His cross we too are divested of the poisonous, clinging garments of temptation,
sin, and death—we spoil, strip off, put away from us the powers of evil, and are
liberated from the dominion of the flesh.
2. It was complete.—“Triumphing over them in it.” Christ proved Himself
on the cross the Conqueror of death and hell. Here the paradox of the
Crucifixion is placed in the strongest light—triumph in helplessness, glory in
shame, the vanquished become the conqueror. The gloom of the convict’s
gibbet is transformed into the splendour of the victor’s chariot. In the cross we
see the greatest triumph of our Immanuel—the law fulfilled; God’s moral
government vindicated; death robbed of its prey; Satan, “the prince of this
world” cast out; principalities and powers dragged in procession as captives; a
show of them boldly made; the imprisoned world set free; and the final victory
over every enemy assured.
Lessons.—1. Christ has conquered the powers of evil. 2. To the believer ultimate
victory is certain. 3. Keep up a brave heart in the fiercest conflict.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 16, 17.
The Ceremonial and the Real in Religion.
After dealing with the speculative theories so busily propagated by the false
teachers at Colossæ, the apostle descends from the height of his lofty argument,
and with incomparable force sweeps away the whole group of errors which
overrated an excessive ritualism and insisted on a rigorous asceticism. The
existence of the ceremonial in religion is a confession of the imperfection of our
nature; and the more rudimentary the ceremonial, the lower it supposes our
condition. The ceremonial foreshadows the real and is intended to help in
attaining it. In the nature of things, therefore, the ceremonial is but temporary.
When it puts man in possession of the real it vanishes. The shadow is absorbed
in the substance. To compel man to find salvation in the ceremonial, when he
already possesses the real, is a retrogression and an injustice. The liberty of
the Gospel places the believer above the slavery of external ordinances and
furnishes him with a law—the law of a Christianised conscience—as to their use
or neglect.
I. That the ceremonial in religion can form no just basis for individual condemnation.—“Let
no man, therefore, judge you in meat,” etc. (ver. 16). The
Mosaic law enforced certain injunctions concerning eating and drinking. It
gave minute directions as to the animals that were to be eaten, making a distinction
between the clean and the unclean. As to drinking, the priests were
strictly forbidden the use of wine on the eve of solemn public duty; and the vow
of the Nazarites required entire abstinence from the fruit of the vine. The
tendency of the Jews was to multiply these distinctions and prohibitions, and to
exalt them into undue importance. The reference to special days embraces the
collective periodical feasts and sacred seasons of the Levitical ritual—the yearly,
monthly, and weekly celebrations. The term holy day would include the festivals
of the Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles respectively. The new moon alludes
to the monthly celebrations mentioned (Num. x. 10, xxviii. 11). The Sabbath days
refer to the weekly solemnities and services of the seventh day. The Jews
assumed that the obligation of these regulations was permanent, and their
observance essential to the salvation of the Christian believer. The Gospel
teaches that the observance or non-observance of these ceremonial rites is no
just ground for judging each other. We are not justified in condemning any
one for neglecting them, or to think any better of one who reverently observes
them. The essence of religion does not consist in the outward form, but in the
inward spirit—not in the ceremonial, but in the real. “Which are a shadow of
things to come; but the body is of Christ” (ver. 17).
II. That the ceremonial in religion is typical of the real.—“Which are a
shadow of things to come” (ver. 17). Ceremonies have their place in the culture of
mankind, and in their legitimate sphere they are important. They are adapted
to the infant stage in the development of the race. They sketch out the bold,
rough outlines of truths that are in a half-formed embryotic state. They are
shadows projected across the disc of our mental vision—of grand realities which
are ever advancing into clearer view. They are typical of the existence and
certain manifestation of deeper and unchangeable truths. They are predictive
of things to come. The great yearly festival of the Passover typified the forgiveness
of sins by the shedding of the precious blood of Christ. The Pentecost, or
feast of the firstfruits, sets forth the sustenance and ample provision God has
made for the soul. The feast of Tabernacles was a significant reminder of
God’s providential guidance and fatherly care of human life. The new moon, or
first day of the month, with its usual service, impressed on the minds of the
people the truth that Jehovah, the Ruler of the seasons, was the God of
providence as well as of creation. The weekly Sabbath, with its grateful rest,
was expressly instituted to commemorate the rest of God after the exercise of
His creative energy. Then the ordinary sacrifices were doubled, and the shewbread
renewed, to indicate that God is the source and sustenance of our life.
And so, the whole Mosaic law was a type and presage of the Gospel. The
spiritually enlightened look through the outward and visible symbol to the great
truth signified. The ceremonial is valuable only as it conducts to the real.
III. That the ceremonial in religion is abolished and rendered nugatory by
the real.—“But the body is of Christ” (ver. 17). When the substance appears,
the shadow is swallowed up. As the shadows are to the body, so were the types
and ceremonies of the law to Christ. They were figures of evangelical blessings;
but the truth, the reality, and abiding substance of them are found in the person,
work, and salvation of Christ. All the grand truths prefigured by the ancient
Mosaic ritual are embodied in Christ. He gives the fullest personal representation
of Jehovah as the God of nature, providence, and redemption, at once the
Author and the Ruler of the spiritual life. In Christ, therefore, as the substance
and Antitype, all shadow and symbol disappear. It is a dangerous infatuation
to snatch at the shadow and cling to it when we may embrace and rest in the
sufficiency of the substance. This is to restore the cancelled handwriting and
nullify the splendid triumph of the cross. In Christ the ceremonial is effete,
powerless, dead. He only is the changeless, eternal, all-satisfying real.
Lessons.—1. Learn to exercise the spirit of Christian forbearance in external
observances. 2. Be careful not to rest in the ceremonial. 3. Christ alone can
satisfy the deepest craving of the soul.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 16, 17. The Shadow and the
Substance of the Sabbath.
I. The transient shadow which has
passed away.—The Sabbath as a sign
between God and the Israelites, marking
them off from all other nations
by its observance—as a mere Jewish
institution.
II. The permanent substance which
cannot pass.—“The body is of Christ”—the
Spirit of Christ is the fulfilment
of the law. To have the Spirit of Christ
is to have fulfilled the law. Apply
this to Sabbath observance.—F. W. Robertson.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 18, 19.
The Seductive Peril of a False Philosophy.
The apostle had warned the Colossians against the dangerous consequences of
attaching too much importance to the ceremonial in religion, inasmuch as it was
the substitution of the shadow for the substance. He now reveals the peril of
being seduced by the theological error that insisted on interposition of angel
mediators, which was the preference of an inferior member to the Head. In
this verse the writer distinctly warns the Colossian Christians against the peril
that threatened them and exposes the presumptuous speculations of a false
philosophy.
I. That the teachings of a false philosophy threaten to rob the believer of
his most coveted reward.—“Let no man beguile you of your reward” (ver. 18).
The Christian’s career is a race; the present world is the stadium, or racecourse;
Christ is the umpire—the dispenser of rewards; eternal life is the victor’s prize.
The Colossians were in a fair way for winning the prize; they had duly entered
the lists; they were contending bravely; but the false teachers unhappily
crossed their path, sought to impede their progress, and to rob them of their
reward. Error is subtle in its influence and pernicious in its effects. Many
erroneous opinions may possibly be held without invalidating the salvation of
the soul; but any error that in any degree depreciates our estimate of Christ
and interrupts the advance of our Christian life is a robbery. It may be said
that the dangerous speculations of a false philosophy are confined only to a few—the
higher circle of thinkers. That is bad enough. But what is damaging
the higher order of intellects will by-and-by reach the lower and work its
mischief there. There is need for uninterrupted vigilance.
II. That a false philosophy advocates the most presumptuous and perilous
speculations.—1. It affects a spurious humility. God is unknowable to the
limited and uncertain powers of man; He is too high to be accessible, and too
much absorbed in loftier matters to concern Himself about individual man. He
can be approached only through inferior beings, and their assistance should be
humbly sought. So it reasons. But this humility was voluntary, self-induced,
and was in reality another form of high spiritual pride. Humility, when it
becomes self-conscious, ceases to have any value.
2. It invents a dangerous system of angelolatry.—“Worshipping of angels”
(ver. 18). The Jews were fond of philosophising about the dignity, offices, and
ranks of the angelic powers; and many held the opinion that they were messengers
who presented our prayers to God. The false teachers made the most of
the authority they could derive from Jewish sources. They would tell how the law
was given by the disposition of angels—that angels conducted the Israelites through
the wilderness, and on various occasions appeared to patriarchs, prophets, and
apostles. They would dwell on the weakness of man and his distance from God
and insist that homage should be paid to these angelic messengers as necessary
mediators. Alas, how fatal has been the influence through the centuries of this
delusive angelolatry! The apostle here condemns it, and thus sweeps away all
ground for the Christ-dishonouring practices of invocation of saints and the
worship of the Virgin.
3. It pretends to a knowledge of the mysterious.—“Intruding into those things
which he hath not seen” (ver. 18). Man is everywhere circled with mystery.
It is one of the saddest moments of life when he first becomes conscious of the
limitation of his own powers, and of his utter inability to fathom the mysteries
which seem to invite his inquiry while they baffle his attempt. Locke somewhere
says, a worm in the drawer of a cabinet, shut up in its tiny enclosure, might as well
pretend to guess at the construction of the vast universe, as mortal man ventures
to speculate about the unseen world, except so far as revealed for purposes of
salvation. But fools will rush in where angels fear to tread. The boast of
possessing a profound knowledge of the mysterious is one of the marks of a false
philosophy.
4. It is inflated with an excessive pride.—“Vainly puffed up by its fleshly
mind” (ver. 18). The carnal mind, which is enmity against God, rises to a pitch
of reckless daring in its inventions, and revelling in its own creative genius, is
vainly puffed up with a conceit of novelty and with a fancied superiority over the
humbler disciple. There is no state more dangerous than this or more difficult
to change. It is proof against every ordinary method of recovery. The proud
man lives “half-way down the slope to hell.” God only can break the delusive
snare, humble the soul, and revoke its threatened doom.
III. That a false philosophy ignores the Divine source of all spiritual increase.—1. Christ
is the great Head of the Church. He is the centre of its unity,
the primal source of its life, authority, and influence. He founded the Church,
and gave it shape, symmetry, and durableness. He alone is supreme—the Alpha
and Omega—the living and only Head. To ignore Him is to forfeit the
substantial for the shadowy—the rock for the precarious footing of the crumbling
shale.
2. The Church is vitally and essentially united to Christ.—“From which all the
body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered and knit together”
(ver. 19). As the members of the human frame are joined to the head, and derive
life, motion, and sensation from it by means of arteries, veins, nerves, and other
attachments, so the spiritual members of Christ are knit to Him by invisible
joints and bands, and depend on Him for sustenance, character, and influence.
3. The vital union of the Church with Christ is the condition of spiritual increase.—“Increaseth
with the increase of God” (ver. 19). Christ is the Divine source
of increase, and the Church can grow only as it receives nourishment from Him.
The growth corresponds with its nature—it is Divine; it increaseth with the
increase of God. There may be a morbid increase, as there may be an unnatural
enlargement of some part of the human body; but it is only the excessive
inflation of a worldly splendour and ecclesiastical pretension. Like Jonah’s gourd,
such a growth may disappear as rapidly as it came. The true increase is that
which comes from God, of which He is the source, and active, sustaining influence,
and which advances in harmony with His will and purpose. Such an increase
can be secured only by vital union with Christ.
Lessons.—1. A false philosophy distorts the grandest truths. 2. A false philosophy
substitutes for truth the most perilous speculations. 3. Against the teachings
of a false philosophy be ever on your guard.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Ver. 18. Philosophic Vagaries—
- Making pretence of superior
knowledge.
- Affecting a spurious humility in
worship.
- Inflated with pride.
- Dangerous to those sincerely
seeking the truth.
Ver. 19. How a Church lives and
grows.
I. The source of all the life of the
body.—Christ is the Head, therefore
the source from which all parts of the
body partake of a common life. There
are three symbols employed to represent
the union of Christ with His Church—the
vine, the body, and the marriage
bond.
II. The various and harmonious
action of all the parts.—1. From Jesus
comes all nourishment of the Divine life,
even when we think that we instruct or
stimulate each other. 2. From Jesus
comes the oneness of the body.
III. The consequent increase of the
whole.—1. The increase of life in the
Church, both as a community and in its
separate elements, depends on the harmonious
activity of all the parts.
2. Is dependent of the activity of all, and
sadly hampered when some are idle.
3. Depends on its vitality within and on
the concurrent activity of all its members.
4. Depends not only on the action
of all its parts, but on their health and
vitality. 5. There is an increase which
is not the increase of God.
IV. The personal hold of Jesus
Christ which is the condition of all
life and growth.—A firm, almost desperate
clutch in which Love and Need,
like two hands, clasp Him and will not
let Him go. Such tenacious grip implies
the adhesive energy of the whole
nature—the mind laying hold on truth,
the heart clinging to love, the will
submitting to authority.—A. Maclaren.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 20–23.
The Ceremonial in Religion Transitory and Unsatisfying.
The apostle returns again to the question of outward observances. He saw
the extreme danger with which the Colossians were threatened from that source,
and before turning to other matters in his epistle he lifts up a warning voice as
for the last time.
I. That the ceremonial in religion is simply elementary.—“The rudiments of
the world” (ver. 20). The ceremonial in religion is the alphabetical stage, suited
only to the world’s infancy and to the crudest condition in human development.
It is the childish period which, with all its toys and pictures and gewgaws, is put
away when spiritual manhood is attained. It is in its nature transitory and
imperfect. It conveys knowledge but in part; and when that which is perfect
is come, then that which is in part is done away.
II. The ceremonial in religion is unworthy the submission of the Christian
believer.—1. The believer is liberated from the slavery of the ceremonial. He is
“dead with Christ” (ver. 20). As Christ by His death cancelled the handwriting
of ordinances that was against us, and vanquished Satan and all his hosts, so the
believer, united with Christ in His death, shares in the triumph of that death.
He is free; he rises into a new life, not under the tyranny of the old law, with
its demands and penalties, but in allegiance to Christ. He has passed into
another sphere of existence. Worldly ordinances have ceased to have any value
for him, because his worldly life is ended. They belong to the realm of the
transitory and perishable; he has been translated into the realm of the free and
the eternal.
2. To return to the ceremonial is to forfeit Christian liberty.—“Why, as though
living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances?” (ver. 20). It is to ignore all
progress, to impugn the reality of the change wrought in the soul by spiritual
baptism, to close one’s eyes to the altered state of things into which he has been
introduced, and to submit again to the galling yoke of legal observances and
human traditions which never had Divine sanction and from which he had been
emancipated. It is a denial of his Christianity to subject himself again to their
tyranny—to return once more to the dominion of the world. It is giving up the
substance for the shadow. It is a deliberate self-degradation to the most abject
and pitiable slavery. It is supposed that many of the ascetic practices of the false
teachers at Colossæ were borrowed from the Pythagoreans. Their philosophy
was all on the side of prohibitions, abstinences, a forced celibacy, the unlawfulness
of animal food, the possibility of attaining perfection by neglecting the
body, under the delusion that evil resided in matter.
III. The ceremonial in religion, in its main features, is universally the same.—1. It
is the same in its dictatorial prohibitions. “Touch not; taste not; handle
not” (ver. 21). Such is the arrogant language of a narrow, bigoted, and imperious
superstition. It is an instruction to observe the gradual and insidious manner
in which it obtains the mastery over the human conscience. Touch not: it
prohibits even a light partaking of some meat or drink. Taste not: the prohibition
is extended, so that it becomes a crime even to taste, though refusing to eat.
Handle not: to come in contact with the forbidden object, even in the handling,
is a dreadful sacrilege. So is it ever with the clamorous demands of a proud,
assumptious ritualism. There is no end to the unauthorised prohibitions with
which it seeks to bind the conscience.
2. It is the same in its undue exaltation of the external and transitory.—“Which
all are to perish with the using” (ver. 22). The very eating and
drinking of them destroys them. They are consumed in the using; and in order
to nourish us they themselves perish—a plain proof that all the benefit we receive
from them respects only our physical and mortal life. What folly is it to insist
on a scrupulous avoidance or observance of externals in order to salvation! You
claim an affinity with the eternal, and it is unworthy of your glorious destiny
to be absorbed with the worship of the perishable.
3. It is the same in its human origin.—“After the commandments and
doctrines of men” (ver. 22). A commandment is a precept; a doctrine is the
principle or truth on which it is based. The one furnishes a direction, the other
the reason on which the direction rests. The ceremonial in religion is an
accumulation of the commandments and doctrines of men. Depending on
human authority, it has no value in itself; and when it is made obligatory
in order to human salvation, it is an impious insult to Christ and an intolerable
servitude to man. The commandments of men, having no solid doctrines to rest
upon, are transitory and illusory.
IV. The ceremonial in religion can never satisfy the many-sided wants of
humanity.—1. It pretends to a wisdom it does not possess. (1) In self-imposed
methods of worship. “Which things have, indeed, a show of wisdom in will-worship”
(ver. 23). It insists on certain distinctions of meats and drinks; on
abstinence from this or that kind of food; on certain ritual observances as
necessary in order to render due homage to God. The enthusiast for the
ceremonial argues that he who only does what God positively demands does
only what is common; but he who goes beyond, and submits to additional
observances, reaches a higher degree of saintliness. This is will-worship, which
has peculiar charms for the corrupt tendencies of our depraved nature. The
works of supererogation it invents are pleasanter than the holy, humble, adoring
worship of God through the blood of the cross. (2) In the affectation of a
spurious humility. “In humility” (ver. 23). It is a pretence of wisdom to
renounce all worldly splendour and profess to live in poverty and seclusion. But
at the root of this profession the most pernicious pride may lurk. A self-conscious
and dramatically acted humility is the most degrading and detestable. (3) In
an unjustifiable indifference to bodily wants. “And neglecting of the body”
(ver. 23). The body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, and is to be honoured and
cherished, and all its just wants satisfied, in order that its best powers may be
employed in the service of God. But the abuse of the body in starvation, painful
macerations, and squalid neglect is a folly and a sin.
2. It is of no value in preventing the indulgence of the flesh.—“Not in any
honour to the satisfying of the flesh” (ver. 23). The radical error of the ascetic
lies in his belief that evil resides in matter. Not the body, but the soul, is the
source of sin: the body is depraved because the soul is depraved. Sin exists as a
thought and conception of the heart before it exists as an act of the flesh. No
amount of outward flagellation, or of abstinence from needful food, will satisfy
the natural wants of the body, or destroy its sinful tendencies. The attempt to be
virtuous by afflicting the body is like battering the outwork while the main
citadel remains untouched. The outward man can never satisfy the complicated needs
of man’s nature. First bring the soul into a right relation to God, and, with
the aid of Divine grace, it will control all the outgoings of the flesh.
Lessons.—1. The ceremonial has its place in religion, and therefore should not
be despised. 2. The believer is raised above the power of the ceremonial in religion,
and therefore should not be subject to it.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Ver. 20. Principles above Rules; or,
Wheat is better than Bread.—Bread may
feed us for the moment, but when once
eaten it is gone for ever. Wheat on
the contrary will bear seed, increase,
and multiply. Every rule is taken from
a principle, as a loaf of bread is made
from wheat. It is right to enforce
the principle rather than the action,
because a good principle is sure of
producing good actions. Seeming
goodness is not better than religion;
precept is not better than principle.—A. W. Hare.
Vers. 21-23. Asceticism—
- Multiplies unnecessary restriction.
- Is a species of self-worship.
- Is unjust to the body.
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.
Ver. 1. Seek those things that are above.—Our Lord says that as He was “from above,” so
His disbelieving hearers were “from beneath,” which He interprets as “of this world”
(John viii. 23, 24). The apostle in like manner in the next verse opposes the “things above”
to “things on earth.”
Ver. 3. Your life is hid with Christ in God.—You are much more likely to have it kept
pure by having it in Christ than by setting round it a hedge of “Thou shalt” and “Thou
shalt not.”
Ver. 5. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth.—“Quite so!” the
heretic teacher might say; “this is just what we ourselves advise.” “Yes,” rejoins the
apostle; “but let us know what it is we are to slaughter.” It is no hewing and hacking of
the body, but what is as much more difficult as it is noble—the excision or eradication of evil
thoughts (Matt. xv. 19, 20). Inordinate affection, evil concupiscence.—R.V. “passion, evil
desire.” The former of these seems to indicate the corrupt conditions from which the latter
springs. Covetousness, which is idolatry.—“Covetousness,” or “having more.” There is
many a man, beside the clown in Twelfth Night, who says, “I would not have you to think
my desire of having is the sin of covetousness.” The full drag can afford to sacrifice
(Hab. i. 16).
Ver. 8. Anger, wrath.—The former is the smouldering fire, the latter the fierce out-leaping
flame. Malice, blasphemy.—The former is the vicious disposition, the latter the manifestation
of it in speech that is meant to inflict injury. Filthy communication—One word in the
original; R.V. gives it as “shameful speaking.” The word does not occur again in the New
Testament. It means scurrilous or obscene speech. A glimpse of Eastern life helps us to
understand the frequent injunctions as to restraint of the tongue in the New Testament.
Dr. Norman Macleod says: “In vehemence of gesticulation, in genuine power of lip and lung
to fill the air with a roar of incomprehensible exclamations, nothing on earth, so long as
the body retains its present arrangement of muscles and nervous vitality, can surpass
the Egyptians and their language.” But the same thing is witnessed of other Eastern
tongues.
Ver. 9. Lie not one to another.—“Very elementary teaching,” we should be inclined
to say. Whether there was any special tendency to this vice in the Colossian converts we
cannot know.
Ver. 12. Bowels of mercies.—R.V. “a heart of compassion.” A case of concrete for
abstract. The physical effect of pity lies at the bottom of the phrase.
Ver. 13. Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another.—Literally it would be,
“Bearing with one another, and dealing graciously with yourselves”; for not only the verbs
but the pronouns also change with a delicate shade of meaning. Forbearance, like a peace-making
angel, passes to and fro between the incensed parties. Even as Christ forgave you,
so also do ye.—The pattern of all graciousness is Christ. See His parable (Matt. xviii. 33).
Ver. 14. Above all these things put on charity.—Reminding us of the exalted place which
the queenly virtue holds in St. Paul’s triad. As the outermost dress of an Oriental was
perhaps that which was most serviceable, so whatever else is put on, “above everything”
love must be remembered. Which is the bond of perfectness.—“That in which all the
virtues are so bound together that perfection is the result and not one of them is wanting to
that perfection” (Grimm).
Ver. 15. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts.—R.V. margin, “arbitrate.” We met
the verb for “rule” in ch. ii. 18, but with a prefix “against.” “Let the peace of God be
umpire,” says the apostle, in every case of uncertainty and hesitation. He who slept on
Galilee’s stormy waters had but to say, “Peace! Be still!” and there was a great calm. He
said, “My peace I leave with you”; and reckless of consequences the men who received it
amazed the authorities by the boldness of their question, “Whether it be right in the sight
of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye” (Acts iv. 19).
Ver. 16. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.—The word for “dwell in” is the
same which assures the believer of an indwelling power which shall quicken the mortal body,
and which describes the Divine act of grace. “I will dwell in them.” In psalms and hymns
and spiritual songs.—See on Eph. v. 18, 19. The same composition may be either psalm,
hymn, or spiritual song. The first may be a technical word, as in Luke xxiv. 44. It
indicates a song accompanied by a stringed instrument. A hymn is a song in praise of
some one, exalting the character and attributes. The third term is the most comprehensive,
and to it, with good reason, St. Paul prefixes “spiritual.” Bacchanalian songs were common
enough about Colossæ with their noisy, unhallowed mirth. St. Paul, like St. James, would
not object to his readers being merry if the spiritual joys—
"From out their hearts arise
And speak and sparkle in their eyes
And vibrate on their tongues."
Ver. 18. As it is fit in the Lord.—See Eph. v. 22. The feeling of propriety St. Paul
emphasises here and limits it “in the Lord.”
Ver. 19. Be not bitter against them.—As love in its most degraded form might alternate
with paroxysms of anger, St. Paul uses the nobler word for Christian love which casts out
hatred as well as fear.
Ver. 20. For this is well-pleasing.—Eph. vi. 1: “This is right.” What in Ephesians is
regarded as an equitable due from child to parent is here looked at in another light. The
best commentary is Luke ii. 51, 52. The child Jesus was subject to his parents and increased
in favour with God.
Ver. 21. Fathers, provoke not your children.—The word for “provoke” is not the same as in
Eph. vi. 4. There the word is “do not exasperate.” Here it is “do not irritate.” The difficulty
of discriminating between them may perhaps show how near the original words are in
meaning. “Irritation is the first consequence of being too exacting with children, and
irritation leads to moroseness” (Lightfoot). Lest they be discouraged.—Broken-spirited.
It is a sad sight to see a man for whom the stress of life has been too much, but to see a
child cowed and dejected—the world has no sadder spectacle.
Ver. 23. Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily.—Eph. vi. 7, “With good will doing service.”
R.V. gives the distinction which is obliterated by “do, do” of A.V. “Whatsoever ye do, work
heartily” (margin, “from the soul”).
Ver. 25. He that doeth wrong.—The participle of the original points to the habitual
practice of wrong-doing. There is no respect of persons.—In the Ephesian letter this consideration
is urged upon the masters as it is here upon the slaves. Both are amenable to the
same authority.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 1, 2.
The Higher Aspirations of the Soul.
You have seen the clouds gather in the sky and settle on the hills. The
thunder mutters, the rain falls, and the scene is one of storm, confusion, and
darkness. Suddenly the whole aspect of the heavens is changed. A blaze of
light springs up among the hills; the storm ceases; the gloom is swept away;
and the outlook is one of tranquillity, of triumph, and of splendour. Similar
to this is the striking change between the close of the last chapter of this
epistle and the beginning of the present one. The grave warnings against the
sombre errors of a false philosophy, and the supposed meritorious torturings of
the body, which occupy a considerable part of the second chapter, give place in
the opening of the third chapter to a luminous and inspiring picture of the
glorious privileges and lofty destiny of the believing soul. These verses teach
that, being raised by Christ into newness of life, the soul should aspire to the
attainment of the highest blessings.
I. The distinguished relation in which the believing soul stands to Christ.—“Risen
with Christ” (ver. 1).
1. This relation implies the living union of the soul with Christ.—The apostle
had spoken of the soul as dying with Christ, as buried with Him, as quickened
with Him; and now he advances another step, and declares that it is also
raised with Him. The union between the believer and Christ was so complete
that he participates with Christ in all He has done. “Therefore we are
buried with Him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up
from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in
newness of life” (Rom. vi. 4). As the dead body of the man cast into the
sepulchre of Elisha revived and stood up the moment it touched the bones of
the prophet (2 Kings xiii. 21), so the soul, dead in trespasses and sins, is
quickened by believing contact with Christ, and rises into a higher and more
glorious life.
2. This relation indicates the nature and tendencies of the soul.—“Risen with
Christ: . . . set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth”
(vers. 1, 2). The change involved in union with Christ affects man’s whole
nature. It affects not only his practical conduct, but also his intellectual
conceptions. He is translated from earth to heaven; and with this translation
his point of view is altered, his standard of judgment wholly changed. His
aspirations spurn the earthly and transitory, and soar towards the heavenly
and eternal. The flies that sport upon the summer stream, while they plunge
their bodies in the water, are careful not to wet their wings, so that they may
fly again into the sunny air. So, while we are necessarily immersed in “things
on the earth,” we should take heed that the wings of our soul are not so clogged
as to retard our flight to heaven.
II. The sublime objects of the soul’s higher aspirations.—“Things above.”
(ver. 2).
1. Christ is above.—“Where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God” (ver. 1).
This indicates that Christ is exalted to the highest dignity. He is above all
angelic powers, whatever their position or rank. The right hand of God also
indicates the right hand of power. Thence Christ wields all the authority and
power of universal government. “Him hath God exalted to be a Prince and
a Saviour.” He reigns on high in order to carry out to a glorious consummation
the work He accomplished on the cross. To Him all hearts turn for love
and blessedness, as the flowers turn to the sun. The rudiments of the world
have no longer any power to satisfy. The soul ascends to heaven, for where
the treasure is there will be the heart also; and the flow of time is rapidly
hurrying us on to the moment when we shall be—
"Caught up to share
The triumph of our Lord."
2. The source of the greatest spiritual blessings is above.—When Christ ascended
into the heavens He received gifts for men; and from His lofty throne He
delights to distribute those gifts to the needy sons of men. Thence we receive
pardon, the conscious favour of God, holiness of character, comfort in every time
of distress, and hope to light the pathway of the future. Of all the blessings
laid up for us above, the highest and the best is that which in itself includes all
others—the gift of the Holy Ghost. All, all we want is there.
3. The heavenly home is above.—There is the abode of peace and purity; there
temptation has no power, and suffering and sorrow can never enter; there the
Saviour reveals His glories and diffuses the joy of His radiant presence; there
all the members of the Father’s family assemble from every part of the globe,
never more to separate. The soul, burdened with the cares of life, and troubled
with multiplied disappointments, yearns for the rest of the heavenly home. The
things on the earth can never satisfy the wants of the soul; they are unsuited to
it; they are beneath it; and, liberated from their trammels by the resurrection
power of the Christ, it seeks its true happiness above the stars.
III. The paramount duty of the soul to aspire to the highest good.—Seek, set
“your affections on things above” (ver. 1). A similar expression repeated for
the emphasis. You are not only to seek heaven, but also to think heaven. The
understanding must be engaged in duly estimating the value of heavenly things,
the will in preferring them above all things earthly, the affections in embracing
them as the objects to be most evidently desired and loved; in fact, all the
powers of the soul must be constantly exercised in the search. The soul, raised
from the death of sin, is ever responding to the attractive influence of its risen
Lord. “Being thus already risen, every motion of grace is the struggle of the
soul for the final consummation—the bird is caged, but the wings are free to
flutter within their prison.” The soul is now willing, cheerfully and faithfully,
to follow the call of duty, whatever it may entail.
“Oft where she leads, thy blood must mark thy footsteps;
Oft where she leads, thy head must bear the storm,
And thy shrunk form endure heat, cold, and hunger;
But she will guide thee up to noble heights,
Which he who gains seems native of the sky;
While earthly things lie stretched beneath his feet,
Diminished, shrunk, and valueless.”
Lessons.—1. The soul is endowed with vast powers and capable of the highest
destiny. 2. It is sad to witness thousands whose souls rise no higher than the
things on the earth. 3. The soul can realise its highest aspirations only as it is
risen with Christ.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Ver. 1. Seeking the Things Above.
I. Contemplate the sublime object—the
state of future blessedness of believers.
1. The perfection of character
they exhibit. 2. The exercises in which
they shall be engaged. 3. The happiness
in which they participate. 4. The friendships
they share.
II. The conduct enjoined upon us.—“Seek
those things.” 1. Implies
belief in their existence. 2. That attention
is directed much towards them.
3. Set our attachment upon them. 4. Use
diligent and persevering exertions to
obtain them.
III. Motives to this conduct.—1. A
regard to consistency. 2. The reasonableness
of the duty. 3. Present
advantages. 4. Because they are the
scene in which are displayed Christ’s
personal presence and glory.
Risen with Christ.
- Christianity begins where everything
else ends: it begins with death.
- After dying to sin we are to
begin to live in good earnest.
- The Christian toils, labours, and
tasks his mind for the glory of God
and the good of others.
- The true Christian seeks the
things which are above.—1. Holiness.
2. Love. 3. Peace. 4. Truth.—A. W. Hare.
The New Life.
I. There is a great difference between
the new life and the old.—1. In
our feelings. 2. Principles. 3. Aims.
4. Methods. 5. Conduct. 6. Thoughts.
7. Company. 8. Influence.
II. This difference should lead us
to think much of heaven and to seek
after heavenly things.—1. To know all
we can about heaven. 2. To prepare
all we can for heaven. 3. To take all
we can with us to heaven.—Preacher’s Magazine.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 3, 4.
The Present Condition and Future Glory of Life in Christ.
The Christian life has a twofold aspect. Outwardly it is shorn of all splendours,
and to the eye of the world appears a life of weakness, ignominy, and suffering;
but inwardly it is radiant with Divine light and pervaded with a heavenly peace.
The believer is often as a monarch in the disguise of a beggar. The world knows
nothing of the new life of which he has become possessed, and the new life must
know nothing of the world. Its aspirations are directed towards higher things.
The relish for earthly things is gone.
I. That the present condition of the believer’s life in Christ involves a new
relation to outward things.—“For ye are dead” (ver. 3). There was a time when
he not only lived in the world, but to the world and for the world. He was wholly
captivated and absorbed in the pursuits and enjoyments of the carnal mind. But
now, while still in the world, he is dead to its charms and to its ordinances. All
the mainsprings of activity are changed. He is risen with Christ and shares
the power of His resurrection life. Man lives where He loves, and, having
experienced so complete a change, his affections are now fixed on things above,
and his life is bound up in the love and service of Christ, who sitteth on the
right hand of God. He is dead because he is crucified with Christ, and hath
put off the old man—the old fleshly nature—with his deeds. This death involves
a renunciation of all the ceremonial observances against which the apostle so
faithfully warned in the preceding chapter—the Mosaic ritual, the vain
philosophy, the angelolatry, the pride of the fleshly mind, the traditions and
commandments of men, and all the pernicious doctrines of the false teachers.
He is dead to the past and realising the beating of a new life within him, he
enters upon a brighter and loftier career.
II. That the present condition of the believer’s life in Christ is one of concealment
from the outward world.—1. It is hid. “Your life is hid” (ver. 3). All life
is hid. Its origin is a profound mystery. The botanist fails to discover it as he
picks his plant into microscopic atoms. The scalpel of the anatomist has not
pierced its dark domain and laid bare its hiding-place. Its presence is known
only by its effects. So is it with the new life of the soul. It is hid from the
world. It has a glory and a power of its own; but the world is incapable of
appreciating either. It is not a life of vulgar display and noisy demonstration.
It is gentle, quiet, and retiring, sometimes obscured by a tempest of persecution
and suffering. It is sometimes partially hidden to the believer himself when
assailed by temptations and oppressed by the weight of heavy chastisements.
Yet that hidden life is the power that shall shake and transform the world.
2. It is hid with Christ.—“Your life is hid with Christ” (ver. 3). Christ Himself
was hidden when on earth. To the undiscerning, He was a root out of a dry
ground, possessing neither form nor comeliness. Even now Christ is hidden to
the worldly mind; and the believer’s life is hidden with Him, as a river, concealed
for a time in a hidden channel, flows on beneath and out of sight. This hiding
of the believer’s life with Christ indicates (1) Dependence. It is not hid with
the believer himself. He derives it from Christ, as the great fontal source of all
life; and on Him he depends for its constant supply and nourishment. The
springs of this life abide when every other channel of supply is dry and its
fount exhausted. We must wait on Christ for daily supplies of living water. It
indicates (2) Security. Our life is safer in Christ’s keeping than it could be in
our own. Man was once entrusted with the gift of a glorious life, and he lost it.
But in the hands of Christ our life is out of all danger. It is secure amid the conflicts
of time, the subtle temptations of the world, and the wild rage of demons.
3. It is hid in the depths of the Godhead.—“Your life is hid with Christ in God”
(ver. 3). A grand but unfathomable truth! It is not lost in the abyss of Deity,
as the mystic or pantheist would teach; but it is so hid as to retain its own
conscious individuality, while sharing in the boundless life of God. It is a gift
from God, bestowed through Christ the great Mediator, created by the power
and energy of the Holy Ghost; so that the nature, manner, and destiny of
the gift are hidden in God through the mediation of His Son. “God hath given
unto us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.” The exercise of faith brings
the soul into living union with the glorious Trinity.
III. That the believer’s life in Christ will, in the future, be manifested in
ineffable glory.—1. There will be a signal manifestation of Christ in the future.
“When Christ, who is our life, shall appear” (ver. 4). Christ is now invisible
to His people and to the world. He withdrew from the scene of His suffering
ministry, entered the serene heights of heaven, and there, all-potent, is carrying
on His high purposes of grace and salvation. But by-and-by—not at the bidding
of the impatient prophets, who dare to fix the Lord a time, and, in their too
realistic interpretation of His Word, consider His second coming as the grand
and only specific for the world’s evils—in His own good time, to the joy of His
people and the dismay of His foes, He will come in overwhelming glory.
2. The believer will share in the ineffable glory of that manifestation.—“Then
shall ye also appear with Him in glory” (ver. 4). (1) This implies public recognition.
The believer, obscure and despised on earth, is acknowledged before the universe
as related to Christ by the dearest ties and as deriving his life from Him. All
the ends of secrecy are answered. The hidden is revealed. The baffled, persecuted,
unappreciated, afflicted people of God are for ever vindicated. (2) This
also implies a personal participation in the splendour of Christ’s triumph and in
the bliss of His character. “With Him in glory.” Glory is a comprehensive
term, and not easily defined. But whether we regard it as expressive of external
and visible splendour, or as describing a condition of unutterable and endless
felicity, in either sense, or both, the believer shares it with his exultant Lord.
Rapture of raptures! to see Jesus, to be with Him, and to live in the sunshine of
His smile for ever!
Lessons.—1. The believer’s life in Christ is a hidden, but a real life. 2. Bear
patiently the trials of the present life. 3. The glory of the believer’s future life will
more than recompense him for the troubles of the present.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Ver. 3. Death and Life with Christ.
I. Ye are dead.—1. In your original
state of unconcern and unbelief ye are
dead. 2. By the Holy Ghost you are
made to recognise this death as real and
to acquiesce in it as just. 3. You continue
to be thus dead with Christ.
II. Your life is hid with Christ.—1. As
partakers of His right to live. 2. In
respect of the new spirit of your life.
3. Your life being with Christ must be
where He is. In God as its source, its
centre, its pattern. 4. This life with
Christ is hid. For security; in its
intimacy; as separated from the world;
is not to be always hidden (ver. 4).—R. S. Candlish.
Ver. 4. Christ our Life.
I. The vital principle recognised.—“Christ
who is our life.” 1. The life
is spiritual in its nature. 2. Eternal
in its duration.
II. The splendid spectacle predicted.—“Christ
shall appear.”
1. The manner.—In the glory of
His Father, with His angels.
2. The purpose.—To judge the quick
and the dead.
III. The glorious hope awakened.—“Then
shall ye appear with Him in
glory.” 1. The great hope of the
Christian life is that one day we shall
be with Christ. 2. That we shall participate
in Christ’s glory. 3. These
words are full of comfort to those
drawing near to death.—J. T. Woodhouse.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 5–9.
Mortification of the Sinful Principle in Man.
Practice follows doctrine. The genuineness of a precept is tested by its
adaptability to the practical working out of life’s problem. The apostle has
laid down his doctrine clearly and emphatically, and now he proceeds to
enforce the use of the best methods for securing the highest degree of personal
holiness. These methods are in perfect harmony with the exalted experience
into which the believer is introduced when he is risen with Christ and participates
in that glorious life which is hid with Christ in God.
I. That the sinful principle in man has an active outward development.—1. It
is mundane in its tendencies. “Your members which are upon the earth” (ver. 5).
It is earthly, sensual, depraved. It teaches the soul to grovel when it ought to
soar. It is in sympathy with the whole mass of earthly things—riches, honour,
pleasure, fame—which stand opposed to the higher aspirations of the soul, whose
affection is fixed on things above.
2. It is manifested in acts of gross sensuality.—“Fornication, uncleanness, inordinate
affection, evil concupiscence” (ver. 5). A revolting catalogue, a loathsome
index to the festering mass of corruption within! A rake’s progress has been
portrayed by the genius of a Hogarth; but where is the pencil that can delineate
the dark progress of evil? For there is an order observed in its abhorrent
development. The mischief begins in evil concupiscence; yielding to the first
unholy impulse, it goes on to lustful and inordinate affection; proceeds to uncleanness—pollutions
which follow on the two preceding vices; and ends in
fornication, both in its ordinary meaning and in that of adultery. Possibly the
apostle had reference to the rites of Bacchus and Cybele, which were wont to be
celebrated with many peculiar impurities in Phrygia, of which Colossæ, Laodicea,
and Hierapolis were cities, and which so deeply depraved the morals of the
people. The outgoings of evil are not less rampant and shocking in modern
times. Evil is the same in principle everywhere.
3. It is recognised by a debasing idolatry.—“And covetousness, which is
idolatry” (ver. 5). Covetousness is a sin that comes the earliest into the human
heart and is the last and most difficult to be driven out. It is an insatiable lust
after material possessions—the greed of getting more for the sake of more, till
often the brain is turned and the heart withered. The apostle brands it with the
significant term “idolatry.” With the covetous man his idol is his gold, which,
in his eyes, answereth all things; his soul is the shrine where the idol is set up;
and the worship which he owes to God is transferred to mammon. Avarice is
the seed of the most hateful and outrageous vices. The exhortation to mortify
the flesh is pressed home by reminding them of the certainty of the Divine wrath
which would overtake the contumacious and disobedient.
II. That the active outgoings of the sinful principle in man call for the
infliction of Divine vengeance.—The wrath of God is not a malignant, unreasoning
passion, like that with which we are familiar among men. Nor is it
a strong figure of speech, into which the maudlin philosophers of the day would
fain resolve it. It is an awful reality. It is not merely a thing of the past, to
the terrible havoc of which history bears faithful and suggestive testimony. It
is the wrath to come and will be “revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men.” It is not inconsistent with infinite love, but is
an impressive form in which the Divine righteousness expresses itself against all
disobedient and impenitent workers of iniquity.
III. That the indulgence of the sinful principle in man is inconsistent with
the new life he has in Christ.—There was a time when the sins here enumerated
formed the atmosphere in which the Colossians lived, moved, and breathed;
they represented the condition of their life and the character of their practice;
they lived and walked in sin. But that time was past. A great change had
taken place. They were surrounded by a purer atmosphere; they lived in
another world; they aspired to a nobler destiny. To return to the vices and
idolatries of their former life was utterly inconsistent with their exalted
character; it was unworthy of the high and holy vocation wherewith they were
called. It is salutary to be reminded now and then of our former life of sin.
It magnifies the grace of God in the great change He has wrought. It warns
against the danger of being drawn into old habits and associations. It
stimulates the heavenward tendencies of the new life.
IV. That the sinful principle in man is the source of the most malignant
passions.—The former classification embraced sins which related more especially
to self; this includes sins which have a bearing upon others.
1. There are sins of the heart and temper.—“Anger, wrath, malice” (ver. 8).
There is an anger which is a righteous indignation against wrong, and which is
so far justifiable and sinless. It is the anger without cause or beyond cause,
and which degenerates into a bitter feeling of revenge, that is here condemned.
Wrath is the fierce ebullition of anger, expressed with ungovernable passion;
and is at all times unseemly and unlawful. Malice is anger long cherished,
until it becomes a settled habit of mind. It involves hatred, secret envy, desire
of revenge and retaliation, and universal ill-will towards others. It is altogether
a diabolical passion. If anger exceeds its bounds, it becomes wrath; if wrath
lies brooding in the bosom, it degenerates into malice.
2. There are sins of the tongue.—“Blasphemy, filthy communication out of your
mouth. Lie not one to another” (vers. 8, 9). Blasphemy in a lower sense includes
all calumny, evil-speaking, railing, slandering, scoffing, ridiculing—all vile insinuations,
whether against God or man. Filthy communication refers to all
foul-mouthed abuse, indelicate illusions, details of vicious scenes, and whatever
hurts the feelings and shocks the sense of propriety rather than injures the
character. Lying is also here condemned. Wherever this vice prevails society
is rotten to the core. The almost total want of truthfulness is one of the saddest
features of the moral condition of heathendom. Lying basely violates the gift
of speech, saps the foundation of human intercourse, and overturns the first
principles of morals. That which is spoken in ignorance, though untrue, is not
a lie; but to equivocate, to speak so as to lead another to a false conclusion, is
to lie as really as if the speaker deliberately stated what he knew was a falsehood.
All these sins are directly opposed to that ingenuous sincerity which is
the leading characteristic of the new life in Christ.
V. That the sinful principle in man, and all its outgoings, must be wholly
renounced and resolutely mortified.—“But now ye also put off all these”
(ver. 8). “Mortify, therefore, your members” (ver. 5). There is much force
in the word “therefore.” Since ye are dead with Christ and are risen with Him,
since ye possess a glorious life hid with Christ in God, therefore mortify—put to
death the members of your earthly and corrupt nature, and encourage the
expansion of that pure, beauteous, and exalted life which ye have received
through the faith of the operation of God. Not that we are to kill or mutilate
the members of the body that have been the instruments of sin, but to crucify
the interior vices of the mind and will. It is wholly a moral process; the
incipient inclination to sin must be restrained, deadened, crushed. In order to
this there must be the total renunciation of all sin. “But now ye also put off
all these.” The verb is imperative and the exhortation emphatic. There must
be not only an abstinence from open vice—heathen morality insists on as much
as this—but there must be the putting away of every secret evil passion—removing
it out of sight as we would remove a dead body to burial. As the prince
casts off the coarse garment in which he has been disguised and stands forth in
an apparel befitting his rank and dignity, so the believer is to divest himself of
the unsightly and filthy garment of the old man and allow the new man to
appear adorned with heavenly magnificence and bright with the inextinguishable
lustre of a Divine spiritual life.
Lessons.—1. The sinful principle in man is a great power. 2. The new
spiritual life in the believer is in ceaseless antagonism with the old. 3. The constant
duty of the believer is to subdue and destroy the sinful principle. 4. In fulfilling
this duty all the powers of good are on his side.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Ver. 5. Covetousness, which is Idolatry.
I. In its essence.—It is putting the
creature in the place of the Creator,
and giving it the worship due to God
alone.
II. In its practice.—Body and soul
are consecrated to the service of
mammon.
III. In its punishment.—Idolatry is
a sin peculiarly obnoxious to God—is
not merely the breach of His law, but
treason against His government. God
deprives the covetous of his idol at last,
and sends him treasureless into the
unseen world, wrecked and ruined, to
endure the wrath to come.—Preacher’s
Magazine.
Ver. 6. The Wrath of God.—
- A reality to be dreaded.
- Is roused by the workings of
iniquity.
- Will overtake the disobedient.
Vers. 7–9. The New Life—
- Must break thoroughly away
from the old life of sin.
- Is evident in temper and speech.
- Is the interpretation of all that
is pure and true.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 9–11.
The New Spiritual Nature.
In the primitive Church it was customary for the new converts, after putting
aside their heathenish vestments, to array themselves in white garments, that
they might indicate, in the most public manner, the great change which had
taken place. It was perhaps in allusion to this custom that the apostle bases
his exhortation. A courtier would not dare to insult his sovereign by appearing
before him in squalid and tattered garments but would be specially studious to
attire himself in a dress every way suited to his rank and character. So, the
believer would not dishonour God and disgrace the religion he has embraced
by exhibiting the vices and passions that characterised his former unrenewed
state but is the more solicitous to magnify the grace of God in a life of outward
consistency and purity. In the former verses the writer has insisted on
sanctification in its negative aspect—the mortification of sin, the putting off the
old man. In these words, he deals with sanctification on its positive side, and
shows that it is the putting on the new spiritual nature, in which the believer is
ever advancing to a higher knowledge. Observe:—
I. That the possession of the new spiritual nature implies a complete change
of the whole man.—“Seeing that ye have put off the old man, with his deeds,
and have put on the new man” (vers. 9, 10). The believer has a twofold moral
personality. There is in him the old man—the sinful principle; and there is in
him also the new—the God-like, spiritual nature. Whatever we bring with us
from the womb of our mother is the old man; whatever we receive by the grace
of the Holy Spirit is the new. In the great spiritual transformation experienced
by every believer there is a twofold and coincident operation—the putting off of
the old and the putting on of the new; there is an act of renunciation and
unclothing and an act of reception and investment. This change is complete;
it pervades the whole man, ruling every power, fashioning the character,
and inspiring the entire life. This change is Divine in its origin and outworking.
Man has no power of himself to effect the renewal of his nature. It is “not of
the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” It is the triumph
of Divine grace, and to God only all praise is due.
II. That the new spiritual nature is ever advancing to a higher knowledge.—“Which
is renewed in knowledge” (ver. 10), which is ever being renewed unto
perfect knowledge (Lightfoot). The present tense is used, and it is indicated
that the new spiritual nature does not reach perfection at once but is in a state
of growth and development. The realisation of the new life in man is bounded
by the amount and character of the knowledge he possesses, and by the clearness
and tenacity with which that knowledge is apprehended and maintained. The
experience may be below the actual knowledge possessed but cannot be beyond
it. Whatever degree of holiness the soul attains, it is still susceptible of
advancement. The process of renewal is continually going on, as the statue
grows, under the chisel of the sculptor, into a more perfect form of beauty.
The knowledge referred to is the true knowledge of Christ as opposed to the
false knowledge of the heretical teachers. The process of renewal increases the
capacity of the believing soul to appreciate the knowledge of Divine and heavenly
realities, and the increase in the knowledge of the highest things reacts
advantageously on the renewed nature. The higher we ascend in the knowledge
of God, the more like Him do we become.
III. That the new spiritual nature is refashioned after the most perfect model.—“After
the image of Him that created him” (ver. 10). Man was originally
created in the image of God, that image consisting in a moral resemblance—“in
righteousness and true holiness.” Christ is Himself “the image of the invisible
God,” and conformity to Him is the pattern of our renewal, the all-perfect standard
towards which we are continually to approximate. The moral image which we
lost in the fall of the first Adam is more than regained in the second Adam.
Redemption places man on a higher platform than he would have occupied if he
had remained the moral condition in which he was originally created. It brings
him nearer to God, gives him a broader and more sympathetic insight into the
Divine character and purposes, and makes him more like God. In the spiritual
region into which the believer in Christ is transferred all minor distinctions
vanish. Not only do they not exist, they cannot exist. It is a region to which
they are utterly unsuited and cannot therefore be recognised.
IV. That the new spiritual nature is superior to all earthly distinctions.—1. It
is superior to all national distinctions. “Where there is neither Greek nor
Jew” (ver. 11). To the Jew the whole world was divided into two classes: Jews
and Gentiles—the privileged and unprivileged portions of mankind; religious prerogative
being taken as the line of demarcation. But such a narrow distinction
is antagonistic to the broad and generous spirit of the Gospel. Let a man be
but renewed in Christ Jesus, and it inquires not as to what country he belongs.
2. It is superior to all ritualistic distinctions.—“Circumcision nor uncircumcision”
(ver. 11). It matters not whether a man is born in a Christian country
and brought up in the midst of the greatest ecclesiastical privileges, or whether he
is cradled in the darkest paganism; in either case a change of heart is absolutely
necessary. No branch of the universal Church can claim the exclusive right of
admitting souls into heaven; and it is intolerable impertinence to insist upon
the necessity of ceremonial observances in order to salvation—as was the case
with the false teachers of Colossæ, and as is the case with the pretentious ritualism
of the day. “In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor
uncircumcision, but a new creature.”
3. It is superior to all political distinctions.—“Barbarian, Scythian” (ver. 11).
Like the Jews, the Greeks divided mankind into two classes—Greeks and
barbarians—civilisation and culture being now the criterion of distinction. The
Scythian was the lowest type of barbarian. Christianity acknowledges no such
distinction. Whether gathered from the most refined or most barbarous nation,
all are one in Christ Jesus. The Gospel has broken down the narrow and arbitrary
classification of the race, maintained the right of all nations of the world to be
classed as one genus, and replaced the barbarian by the more humane and unifying
title of brother. Max Müller writes: “Humanity is a word which you look
for in vain in Plato or Aristotle; the idea of mankind as one family, as the
children of one God, is an idea of Christian growth; and the science of mankind,
and of the languages of mankind, is a science which, without Christianity, would
never have sprung into life.”
4. It is superior to all social distinctions.—“Bond nor free” (ver. 11). The
diversities of condition which divide men in the present world are unknown in the
sphere of this spiritual renewal. The grace which changed the heart of Philemon
the master also renewed the soul of Onesimus, his slave; and often the bondman
is the first to enter into the liberty of the children of God. Here the rich
and poor, the nobility and peasantry, meet together, and form one common
brotherhood.
V. That the new spiritual nature recognises Christ as everything.—“But
Christ is all, and in all” (ver. 11). All belongs to Him; He originated and sustains
all, and He is in all. He is everything to the believer—the Source and Centre of his
life, the Ideal after which he continually aspires, the Possession by which he will
be enriched for ever. The believer is a living, speaking, active expression of the
Christ within him. Christ, without the exclusion of any nation or sect, unites
all; and so, through His indwelling in all, is Himself all.
Lessons.—1. Christ is the Author, Pattern, and End of the new spiritual
nature. 2. To put on the new spiritual nature it is essential to believe in Christ.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 9–11. Religion a Change of Life.
- Evident by putting off the old
nature and its sins (ver. 9).
- By putting on a new nature
renewed after the Divine likeness
(ver. 10).
- Superior to all conventional
distinctions (ver. 11).
- In which Christ is everything
(ver. 11).
Ver. 11. Christ All and in All.
I. Christ is all and in all in the
realm of creation.—The vast fabric of
created things sprang into being at His
word. Out of nothing He created all
that is. The distance between being
and no-being is so great that nothing
short of infinite power can cause that
to be which never before existed. The
heavens are “the firmament of His
power.” He made the stars, kindled
their brilliant fires, fixed their rank,
regulated their motions, and appointed
their mission. He formed the earth,
robed it in vestments of ever-changing
beauty, and endowed it with unfailing
productiveness. He fashioned man
after the model of His own illustrious
image, freighted him with faculties of
wondrous compass, indicated the possibilities
of his career, and the character
of his destiny. Christ is the grand
centre of the magnificent systems by
which He is encircled, and which He
has grouped around Himself by the
exercise of His creative hand. On
Him their continued existence every
moment hangs.
II. Christ is all and in all in the
sphere of providence.—He sustains
and governs all. Close as population
follows on the heels of production, food
never fails for man and beast. Study
the sublime epic on the Divine preservation
furnished by Psalm civ. and
consider how the history of human
experience in all ages confirms the
truth. Christ controls all the forces of
nature. The sweep of the heavenly
bodies, the surge and re-surge of the
tide, the eccentric course and velocity
of the wind, the departure and return
of the light, the roll of the dreaded
thunder, the recurrent phases of the
seasons, all are obedient to His nod.
He is predominant among the spiritual
agencies of the universe. He restricts
the power of the great enemy of man.
He restrains the power of evil. He
governs the complicated passions of
human hearts and makes even the
wrath of men to praise Him. He
guards, guides, and delivers His
Church. The greatness of His providential
power is seen in His accomplishing
the mightiest results by
insignificant instrumentalities. He is
conducting all things to a glorious
consummation.
III. Christ is all and in all in the
work of redemption.—He suffered to
the death on behalf of the sinning race.
He was a voluntary victim. He was
unique in His person—comprising in
Himself the Divine and human natures.
As man, He met all the necessities of
sinful and condemned humanity; as
God, He answered all the requirements
of the Divine righteousness.
While the greatest modern philosophers
are puzzling their minds with an endless
variety of methods for recovering
man from his lapsed condition, we
behold the problem solved in the life,
sufferings, and death of Christ. That
was a method of redemption that
would never have occurred to a finite
mind; and it is now beyond the
range of the greatest human intellect
to fathom. Christ, and Christ alone,
could redeem. In that sphere He is
all in all, or He is nothing. His work
of redemption is an entrancing expression
of the tenderest, deepest, most
mysterious love.
IV. Christ is all and in all in the
kingdom of glory.—He is the Head of
all principalities and powers in the
heavenly places. They depend on
Him for life and purity, they obey His
slightest word, they adore His infinite
majesty, they delight in His hallowed
fellowship. Christ is also Head over
all things to the Church, which is His
body; the fulness of Him that filleth
all in all. He is the central attraction
and source of bliss in the realm of
glory. The redeemed cast their crowns
before Him and chant His praise in
ceaseless anthems. If Christ were
absent, heaven would lose its greatest
charm.
“I love to think of heaven; its cloudless light,
Its tearless joys, its recognitions and its fellowships
Of love and joy unending; but when my mind anticipates
The sight of God incarnate, wearing on His hands,
And feet, and side, marks of the wounds
Which He, for me, on Calvary endured,
All heaven beside is swallowed up in this;
And He who was my hope of heaven below,
Becomes the glory of my heaven above.”
V. Christ is all and in all to the
believing soul.—He appears as the
great Emancipator; He delivers from
the power of darkness, and translates
the benighted but groping soul into
the kingdom of light. He gives rest
to the weary and heavy laden. He
comforts the mourner. He defends
and succours the tempted. He is the
refuge in every time of distress. All
the wants of the soul are anticipated
and abundantly supplied. He will
conduct safely through all the changeful
scenes of this life; and finally
invest the soul with the imperishable
splendours of an endless future.
Christ is the great necessity and the
all-satisfying portion of the soul.
Lessons.—1. Christ is supreme in all
spheres. 2. Christ is the great need of
the human soul. 3. Faith in Christ
brings the soul into a personal participation
in the Divine fulness.
Christ is All and in All.
- The essential glories of Christ.—He
possesses all things.
- Christ has purchased all blessings
for us.—All temporal and all
spiritual blessings.
- All blessings are treasured up
in Christ for the eternal use of His
Church.
- He will keep His family in the
possession of all good for ever.—W. Howels.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 12, 13.
Essentials of the Christian Character.
In the cultivation of a rare and valuable plant care must be taken to rid it of
everything that would retard its growth, and to supply it with whatever aids it
in reaching the highest possibility of shapeliness and beauty. Not only must it
be severely pruned and divested of every noxious weed and destructive parasite,
but it must be diligently tended, and liberally provided with air, light, and
moisture. So is it in the training of the Christian character. It is not enough
that the old man—the sinful principle—is suppressed, mortified, deadened; all
the graces of the new man—the new spiritual nature—must be assumed and
sedulously cultivated. Religion is not a dry, sapless, dead negation, but a
grand positive reality—an active, ever-growing life, pushing its way through
every channel of man’s nature, and fashioning his character after the loftiest
pattern of moral loveliness and purity. The change the Colossians had experienced
furnished the most forcible reason why they should advance in spiritual
development. Having risen with Christ, and having put off the old man, with
his deeds, there is an unmistakable emphasis in the exhortation—Put on,
therefore, the characteristics of the new man.
I. That the Christian character is distinguished by a special designation.—“The
elect of God, holy and beloved” (ver. 12).
1. Distinguished as the object of the Divine choice.—“The elect of God”—chosen
by Him, as an act of undeserved, unmerited mercy, to the knowledge of
Himself and His glorious salvation; called out of darkness and translated into
the kingdom of His dear Son. This election is a condition of exalted privilege to
which all rise who accept the message of God’s mercy through Jesus Christ.
2. Distinguished by personal purity.—“Holy.” Here is the evidence and
practical result of the Divine election. “Chosen in Christ before the foundation
of the world, that they should be holy and without blame before Him in love”
(Eph. i. 4). The people of God are called to be holy—consecrated to His service;
set apart from a common and wholly devoted to a sacred purpose. Holiness is
the habitual condition, aim, delight, and employment of the Christian’s life.
3. Distinguished by the Divine affection.—“Beloved.” The believer is the
object of God’s special love, of the favour which He beareth unto His people.
“Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us that we should
be called the sons of God.” The epithets here used have each the force of a
motive. Since the believer is elect, holy, beloved, let him act in harmony with his
exalted character and calling. Lavater has said, “The more honesty a man has,
the less he affects the air of a saint.”
II. That the Christian character is distinguished by a heartfelt sympathy.—1. This
sympathy arises from a spirit of tender mercy. “Bowels of mercies”
(ver. 12)—a phrase which expresses the effect on the body of strong emotions
of pity. It was said of Joseph that “his bowels did yearn over his brethren,
and he sought where to weep.” The miseries of our fellow-creatures, especially
of those who are in a worse condition than ourselves, call for our compassion
and help; and a genuine pity is not only visible in the countenance and uttered
by the lips, but felt in the inmost heart, and prompts to generous actions.
2. This sympathy arises from a spirit of kindness.—“Kindness” refers to the
temper we should show towards those we meet in the daily intercourse of life
who are on an equality with ourselves. The Christian should be amiable, courteous,
kind in speech and action, eager to relieve others according to his means—the
farthest remove from a crabbed, sullen, churlish disposition. A hard, cold,
selfish, unfeeling heart is a characteristic of fallen, unrenewed man; bowels of
mercies and kindness of the renewed one.
III. That the Christian character is distinguished by a genuine humility.—“Humbleness
of mind” (ver. 12). These words describe the estimate that is to
be formed of self. The believer is taught not to overrate nor unduly to depreciate
himself. He is governed by the apostolic rule, “Let each esteem other better
than themselves.” The more exalted his views of God, and the more he
remembers his own unworthiness, weakness, ignorance, and sin, the more softly
and lowly does he seek to walk. As in the garden that branch hangs down the
lowest which is most heavily laden with fruit, so in the Church the ripest saints
are those who walk humbly with God. The humble man is the most susceptible
to compassion and genuine in its practical manifestation. The proud man is too
full of himself to feel for others; he is always dissatisfied, always embroiling
in quarrels the family, the Church, the social circle where he resides. The
humblest man is the bravest man. He endures with composure the contempt
and arrogance of others.
IV. That the Christian character is distinguished by a gentle and patient
spirit.—“Meekness, longsuffering” (ver. 12).
1. The Christian spirit is gentle.—“Meekness.” This grace indicates what
should be our conduct towards others in their treatment of us. Meekness is
evidenced in modesty of countenance, gentleness of manner, softness of voice,
and mildness of language; it is opposed to rudeness or harshness. We see it
exemplified in the way in which Gideon pacified the irascible men of Ephraim
(Judg. viii. 2). It is slow to take, and scorns to give, offence.
2. The Christian spirit is patient.—“Longsuffering,” which is meekness continued,
though subjected to the fiercest provocations. It is opposed to resentment,
revenge, wrath. Meekness exercises itself in matters of chagrin, impertinence,
folly; longsuffering in those of violent outrage, affront, injury. Meekness may
be required by the mere manner of others towards us; longsuffering is often
necessary by their conduct. There is a difference between enduring long and
longsuffering. The genuine grace is accompanied, not only with patience, but
with joyous activity and watchfulness. It is not like the senseless rock which
endures the full force of the storm unmoved and unresponsive, but like the nimble
vessel that, while it bends to the tempest, is at the same time diligently speeding
on its mission.
V. That the Christian character is distinguished by a practical manifestation
of a spirit of mutual forbearance and forgiveness.—1. Mutual forbearance and
forgiveness are to be exercised universally. “Forbearing one another and forgiving
one another, if any man have a quarrel against any” (ver. 13). The word
“quarrel” is better rendered complaint. It takes two to make a quarrel, and
of these the Christian should never be one. Whatever occasion of offence may
arise, whatever cause of complaint, in any man, under any circumstances, and
however just the complaint may appear, forbearance is to be exercised; and
even if the forbearance is abused and injury be added, we must forgive. It
is never on one side only that the fault exists. It is one another, each in his
turn, that gives and receives forbearance. If this were more frequently observed,
how many unseemly discords and mischievous separations would be prevented!
2. The exercise of forgiveness is enforced by the highest example.—“Even as Christ
forgave you, so also do ye” (ver. 13). These words come as an impressive climax,
enforcing the duty of forgiveness by the strongest motive. The more difficult
the duty, the more powerful should be the arguments urging its performance.
The example of Christ is supreme in its authority. What are the injuries
committed by others against us compared with the number and enormity of our
sins against God? Yet Christ forgave us all, freely, fully, unreservedly, and for
ever. The heart that is not moved to forgiveness by such an example is hopelessly
incorrigible.
Lessons.—1. The unity of Christian character is made up of many separate
essential graces. 2. The condition of things in this world affords ample scope for
the exercise of every Christian grace. 3. To forgive is at once the most difficult and
most Christ-like.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Ver. 12. Christian Humility.
I. The nature of this holy temper.—1. A
humble apprehension of our own
knowledge. The imperfection of our
faculties, our fallibility of judgment,
when we compare our knowledge with
the attainments of others, and a persuasion
of the small value of the most
exalted knowledge without practical
influence. 2. Of our own goodness.
3. Of our independence and wants.
4. Of our own rank and station.
II. The obligations to cultivate a
humble temper.—1. It is mentioned in
Scripture with peculiar marks of distinction
and honour. The most distinguished
promises are made to it. It is
a necessary introduction to other graces
and duties. 2. It is a grace which
adorns every other virtue and recommends
religion to every beholder. 3. Is
recommended to us by the example of the
Author and Finisher of our faith. 4. Is
a grace that will go with us to heaven.
Lessons.—1. Those destitute of this
grace have the rudiments of Christianity
to learn. 2. We should look principally
to the temper of our spirits to judge of
our humility. 3. By it we judge of the
improving or declining state of our souls.—J. Evans, D.D.
Ver. 13. Christian Forgiveness—
- Is exercised where there is mutual
forbearance.
- Is the noblest method of ending
quarrels.
- Is a Christ-like disposition.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 14.
Love the Perfection of the Christian Character.
Love is the commonest and most potent affection of the human heart. It
has been the inexhaustible theme of writers in all ages, in poetry and prose.
It has been invested with the bewitching drapery of romance and exhibited
as the instrumental cause of the darkest crimes and of the brightest virtues.
The world never tires of learning of its adventures, trials, and victories. While
it is ever commonplace, it is ever fresh. It is the perennial force in human
life—the first to inspire, the longest to endure, the last to perish. But Christian
love—love to Jesus Christ, and to all others for His sake—is not a native-born
affection. It does not spring spontaneously from the human heart. It is a gift
from God. It is the richest fruit of the new spiritual nature implanted in the
believer. It is first to be acquired and then diligently cultivated. The apostle
has just described the distinctive garments with which the believer is to be
adorned—with a heart of tender compassion, with humility, with a gentle,
patient, and forgiving spirit. But in addition to all this, and in order to
complete the Christian character, he is to be clothed in a robe which is to cover
every other garment and bind it to its place—a robe whose purity and brightness
shall shed a lustre over all the rest.
I. That love is the prime element in every other grace of the Christian
character.—It is the soul of every virtue and the guarantee of a genuine sincerity.
Without love all other graces, according to an old writer, are but glittering sins.
There is a great power of affectionateness in the human heart, but no man
possesses naturally the spiritual love of God and love of the race. It is a fruit
of the Holy Ghost and comes though that faith which works by love. It is
possible to assume all the essentials of the Christian character, enumerated in
ver. 12, and previously commented on; but without love they would be meaningless,
cold, and dead. Mercy would degenerate into weak sentimentality;
kindness into foolish extravagance; humility into a mock self-depreciation—which
is but another form of the proudest egotism; and longsuffering into a
dull, dogged stupidity. Love is the grand element in which all other graces
move and from which they derive their vitality and value. It is the grace which
alone redeems all other from the curse of selfishness, and is, itself, the most
unselfish.
II. That love occupies the most exalted place in the Christian character.—“Above
all these things.” Not simply in addition to, but over and above all
these, put on charity, as the outer garment that covers and binds together all
the rest. Other graces are local and limited in their use; love is all-expansive
and universal. A philosopher, in a vein of pungent satire, has dilated on the
philosophy of clothes; and experience testifies how mightily the world is influenced
and instructed by outward appearances. As the dress frequently indicates the
rank and importance of the wearer, so the garment of love, worn without ostentation
or pride, is the badge by which the Christian is known in the world
(John xiii. 35). Love is the presiding queen over all Christian graces, inspiring
and harmonising their exercises, and developing them into a living and
beauteous unity of character. The apostle fixes the exalted rank of love in
1 Cor. xiii. 13.
III. That love is the pledge of permanency in the Christian character.—“Which
is the bond of perfectness.” As a girdle, or cincture, bound together
with firmness and symmetry the loose flowing robes generally worn by the
ancients, so love is the power that unites and holds together all those graces
and virtues which together make up perfection. Love is the preservative force
in the Christian character. Without it knowledge would lose its enterprise,
mercy and kindness become languid, humility faint, and longsuffering indifferent.
Love binds all excellencies together in a bond which time cannot injure, the
enemy unloose, or death destroy. No church, or community of individuals, can
exist long without the sustaining power of love. It is not a similarity in taste,
intellectual pursuits, in knowledge, or in creed, that can permanently unite
human hearts, but the all-potent sympathy of Christian love. Charity never
faileth.
IV. That the perfection of the Christian character is seen in the practical
manifestation of love.—“Put on charity.”
1. Love is indispensable.—It is possible to possess many beautiful traits of
character—much that is humane and amiable—without being a complete Christian:
to be very near perfection, and yet lack one thing. Without love all other
graces are inconsistent, heartless, wayward, selfish. They are but as sounding
brass and a tinkling cymbal. Charity is indispensable to give life, force, meaning,
truth, permanence to the whole. It supplies the imperfections and defects of
other graces and virtues.
2. Love is susceptible of individual cultivation.—It may be “put on.” We
may have more if we strive after it and faithfully use what is already possessed.
It is a pressing, practical duty which all Christians are bound to attend to. And
yet there is no grace which is more constantly suppressed. What a power the
Church would become, and how marvellously would the character of the world be
changed if love had a freer scope and was universally exercised. The pretentious
coverings of sectarianism and bigotry would vanish, and the whole Church of the
redeemed be girt with the ample robe of a seamless unity. To win the love of
others we must put it on ourselves.
Lessons.—1. The mere profession of Christianity is empty and valueless.
2. Every grace of the Christian character must be diligently exercised. 3. Above
and through all other graces love must operate.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 15.
The Rule of Divine Peace.
War in any form is unfriendly to the growth of piety. The soul is tossed on
the waves of disquietude, and courage—the principal virtue called into exercise—is
apt to acquire an unnatural and unhealthy development at the expense of
all other graces. The whole structure of the Christian character is dislocated
and thrown off its balance. Peace restores the soul to its true equipoise, fixes
every power in its just relation to each other and to the whole, and encourages
the harmonious cultivation of that love which is the bond of perfectness. Lord
Bacon has said: “It is heaven upon earth to have a man’s mind move in charity,
rest in Providence, and turn upon the poles of truth.” In this verse we are
taught that the one supreme umpire in the heart, by which all differences are to be
settled, is the peace of God—the destined end of the Christian calling, in which is
realised the unity belonging to members of one body; and that this blessing is to
be sought in a spirit of thankfulness. Observe:—
I. That peace is a Divine blessing.—“The peace of God.” Some of the oldest
manuscripts have read, “The peace of Christ”—a reading adopted by the
ablest biblical critics. The verbal difference, however, is of no moment. The
truth is the same: it is equally the peace of God and the peace of Christ—a
Divine tranquillity filling the soul with a calm that no mere worldly power can
give or take away, and that the ocean-surges of trouble can never diminish or
disturb. Christ hath made peace through the blood of His cross and left it as a
sacred legacy to all His disciples through all time. In its essence it is the peace
that Christ Himself enjoys—a sublime calmness similar to that which pervades
the Divine bosom. It is not like the long, painful, oppressive stillness that is
the precursor of a storm, but a profound, pervasive, heavenly quiet that soothes
while it invigorates the soul. It proceeds from God through Christ and is
maintained and nourished in the heart as a positive, gracious reality and priceless
blessing.
II. That peace is a ruling power.—“Let the peace of God rule.” The word
“rule” is borrowed from the practice of the Greeks at their great national games
and described the duty of the arbiter or umpire presiding, who held the prize in
his hand while the contest proceeded in the stadium and conferred it on the
victor at the close. Thereby he exercised over the athletes a peculiar kind of
rule. Impelled by a sight of the prize, they gave their whole being to the
contest. So, in contending in the race of life, the peace of God, as containing
all desirable blessings, is to exercise supreme authority and regulate all the
concerns of the soul.
1. As a ruling power peace pervades and stimulates every other grace.—It lifts
the soul to God, and enables it to take hold of His strength. It prepares for
every holy duty and stimulates to every spiritual enterprise. The more the soul
is permeated with Divine peace, the more desire and aptitude will there be for
higher attainments in piety.
2. As a ruling power peace is a powerful defence.—It resists successfully the
attacks of evil from whatever source they come. The shafts of infidelity cannot
pierce the invulnerable defence of a conscious peace with God; right feeling is
superior to the subtlest logic. Peace erects a formidable bulwark against
temptation and is the surest safeguard against every form of sin.
3. As a ruling power it concentrates and controls all the energies of the soul.—It
calms the intellect, soothes the heart, tranquillises the conscience, and centralises
all the powers of manhood, that they may go forth and do valiant battle for
the truth. As by an unerring instinct it decides upon what is right and shuns
the wrong. The questions as to whether it is right to engage in certain amusements,
to visit certain places, or to join this or that company, will soon be
settled when the peace of God rules in the heart. It is a regulating power in
moral difficulties, and a potent help in all moral enterprises. The peace of God
keeps the heart and mind through Jesus Christ (Phil. iv. 7).
III. That peace is a ruling power in man.—“In your hearts.” The heart is
the region where the ruling power is exercised and takes effect. It embraces
the will and affections as distinguished from the intellect. It is the choosing
faculty as distinguished from the knowing faculty. When the heart is drawn in
one direction the whole man follows. There the moral disease begins, and there
the remedy must be applied. By sin the heart has become deceitful above all
things; in the regeneration the heart is made new. The rush of an evil heart’s
affections will not always yield to reason. When God, by His Word and Spirit,
comes to save, He saves by arresting and renewing the heart. The psalmist
recognised this when he cried, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew
a right spirit within me” (Ps. li. 10). No man is conquered until his heart is conquered.
It is in this region the peace of God has powerful sway, and where it aids in
achieving the most brilliant moral conquests.
IV. That peace is essential to the unity of the Church.—1. The Church is
called to the enjoyment of peace. “To the which also ye are called.” The burden
of the Gospel message is peace. Its mission is to extinguish wars and enmities,
and to pacify heaven and earth. The Church is called to peace by the commands
of Christ, by the teachings of His example when on earth, by the reiterated
precepts of God’s Word, and by the necessities of the grand enterprise in which
she is engaged.
2. The enjoyment of peace is essential in preserving and promoting the unity of
the Church.—“In one body.” As ye were called as members of one body so let
there be one Spirit animating that body. Among the stellar systems, in social
communities and states, as well as in the Christian Church, a common agreement
is essential to unity. Divine peace preserves harmony, nourishes spiritual
strength, and promotes union by drawing the souls, in which it is the ruling
power, more closely to God and to each other. There is to be the constant
endeavour “to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. iv. 3).
V. That peace is to be cultivated in the spirit of thankfulness.—“And be
ye thankful.” These words are not to be restricted in their application. Not
only do they imply that the Colossians were to act towards each other in a
thankful and amiable temper, but they teach in what spirit the peace of God
should be universally sought and exercised. The duty of thankfulness was the
constant theme of the apostle: there are upwards of thirty references to it in
his epistles. Here we are exhorted to consider it in special connection with the
enjoyment of peace. Only he who has been swung in the dark whirl of unrest
and doubt, who has witnessed the horrible riot of disunion and discord, can
appreciate the blessing of peace and the gratitude it inspires. Cicero declared
that gratitude was the mother of all other virtues. Certain it is that no man
sins without ingratitude. Thanksgiving has always been the principal element
in all religion, whether instituted by Divine command, prompted by natural
reason, or propagated by general tradition. The pagan religion consists in the
praise of their gods and acknowledgments of their benefits; the Jewish, to a
great extent, in eucharistic oblations and solemn commemorations of providential
favours; and the ancient Christians were distinguished by singing hymns to
Christ, and by mutual sacraments obliging themselves to abstain from all
villainy. Thanksgiving is a joyous exercise—the pleasantest of duties. Prayer
reminds us of our wants and imperfections; confession enforces a painful remembrance
of our sins; but gratitude includes nothing but the memory of exceeding
goodness. It is a duty most acceptable to God and most profitable to man.
Lessons.—1. True peace is found only in Christ. 2. Peace is a mighty engine
of spiritual power. 3. Gratitude should combine with every blessing.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSE.
Unity and Peace.
I. The unity of the Church of
Christ.—1. Distinguish the unity of
comprehensiveness from the unity of mere
singularity. 2. It subsists between
things not similar or alike, but dissimilar
or unlike. 3. It is made up of
dissimilar members, without which dissimilarity
there could be no unity. 4. It
consists in submission to one single influence
or spirit. The Spirit of its God.
II. The individual peace resulting
from this unity.—1. It is God’s peace.
2. A living peace. 3. The peace which
comes from an inward power. 4. The
peace of reception.—Robertson.
The Peace of God ruling in the Heart.
I. The region.—“In your hearts.”
When the heart is drawn in one direction,
the whole man follows. When
God by His Word and Spirit comes to
save, He saves by arresting the heart
and making it new.
II. The reign.—“Rule.” Freedom
from rule is not competent to man; the
only choice he has is a choice of masters.
III. The Ruler.—“The peace of God.”
1. It is God and no idol that should
rule in a human heart. 2. It is not the
wrath but the peace of God that rules in
a human heart. It is the act of letting
me go free that binds my whole soul
for ever.—W. Arnot.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 16.
The Poetry of the Christian Life.
In the life of the individual and of nations the era of poetry comes first and
is followed by the era of criticism. The impulse of a youthful and enthusiastic
passion and the boundless play of a prolific imagination produce certain artistic
results; and then comes the cool, reflective critic, with microscopic eye and
mathematical rules, to measure and appraise the loved production. How soon
the glowing efflorescence withers, and the expanding magnitude dwindles to the
smallest practical limits. Genuine poetry is superior to all criticism, outlives
the most violent opposition, and is imperishable as humanity. Poetry is the
language of the soul in its highest and holiest mood, when it is fired with a
Divinely kindled rapture, when it strives to grasp the invisible and pants to
express the grandest truths of the universe. The Christian life has its poetry.
It is of the loftiest order, its theme the noblest, and its melody haunts the
soul for ever with strains of ravishing harmony. In this verse we learn that
the poetry of the Christian life draws its inspiration from the Divine Word and
ministers to the culture and enjoyment of the Church. Observe:—
I. That the poetry of the Christian life draws its deepest inspiration from
the Divine Word.—“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.”
1. That the Divine Word is fitly called the Word of Christ.—It contains the
record of His personal teaching—the revelation of new and startling truths, and
the resetting of old truths in such a light as to connect the old and new dispensations,
and blend them in an unbroken homogeneousness. It unfolds the
mystery of that redemption He died to accomplish, and which forms so prominent
a part of the teaching of this epistle. It is inspired by the Spirit of Christ, and
gleams in every part with brilliant manifestations of His supernal glory. Christ
is the all-pervading theme of the Scriptures—the key of the arch—the cornerstone
of the foundation—the sun, illuminating with light and salvation the
whole Gospel system to its remotest circumference.
2. The Divine Word to create a true poetic fervour must wholly occupy the soul.—“Dwell
in you richly.” The Word of Christ is to be embraced as a whole, and
due prominence given to every part of His character and work. Not to exalt
His humanity to the denial of His Divinity; not to be so enamoured with the
moral beauty of His life as to overlook the significance and power of His death.
The Word is to dwell in us so completely as to possess and enrich every faculty
and power of our nature. Not simply to give it a place in the region of intellectual
opinion or in judging of moral questions, but to let it have a mighty
sway over the affections of the heart—let it enter, saturate, purify, and govern
the whole mental, moral, and spiritual being. It is to occupy the soul as a
constant and permanent inspiration; to dwell—not as a stranger to stand
without, or to be saluted at a distance, but to enter, to abide, and be treated as a
loved and intimate guest. Let the Word of Christ be clearly apprehended,
diligently pondered, and firmly grasped, and it will fill the soul with heavenly
visions and inflame it with the holiest poetic ardour.
II. That the poetry of the Christian life has made valuable literary contributions
to the psalmody of the Church.—“In psalms and hymns and spiritual
songs.” It is not easy to make arbitrary distinctions between these poetic
effusions. The psalm was a sacred poem on whatever subject, and similar to the
productions in the book of Psalms in the Old Testament; the hymn specially
celebrated the praises of the Almighty; and the spiritual song, or ode, was more
mixed in its matter and more artificial in its arrangement and referred to
personal effusions of a more general character. The gift of poesy was among
the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit in the early Church (1 Cor. xiv. 26).
The first form of literature in all countries is for the most part in song. A
certain writer has said, that if he were allowed to make the songs of a nation, he
cared not who made the laws. And in the Christian Church, from the earliest
period, sacred psalmody has been a mighty power for edification and comfort. The
hymnology of the church is becoming increasingly rich in its poetic treasures.
III. That the poetry of the Christian life ministers to the mutual culture
and happiness of the Church.—1. It is intellectual in its character. “In all
wisdom teaching one another.” A more correct punctuation connects the clause
“in all wisdom” with the words that follow, not, as in our version, with the words
that precede. To teach in all wisdom demands the highest intellectual exercise,
especially when poetry is the medium of instruction and the Word of Christ the
theme. Without wisdom, poetry would sink into a maudlin sensuousness, a mere
verbal jingling, and intolerable monotony. Wisdom is necessary to compare and
balance the different parts of Scripture truth, to apply the Word on proper
occasions to its proper ends and in harmony with its spirit, and to adopt the
best means for attaining the highest results in mutual instruction. The profoundest
feelings of our nature can only be expressed in poetry. The orator, as
he reaches the loftiest strains of eloquence, becomes poetical.
2. It is moral in its tendency.—“And admonishing one another.” There is
implied a deep concern for each other’s moral condition and safety. The poetry
of the early Christians was moral in its exercise and tendency. No one can feel
an interest in another’s morality who is himself immoral. An eminent critic has
said: “The element in which poetry dwells is truth, and when imagination
divorces itself from that relation, it declines into the neighbourhood of empty
fiction or the dreams of lunacy.” The poetry of the Christian life is based on
eternal truth, and it is to be judiciously used as an instrument of admonition as
well as of instruction. There is need for warning and brotherly counsel to
restore the wanderer, to raise him if he has fallen, to reprove him if he is wrong,
to protect and admonish him if he is in danger (Ps. cxli. 5).
3. It is joyous in its effects.—“Singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”
Music and poetry are sometimes prostituted to the basest purposes, ministering
to the lowest passions, and inciting to the vilest actions. But the poetry of the
Christian life refines the soul, raises it towards God, and fills it with the music
of unspeakable delight. The proper sphere of music is the heavenly and the
spiritual.
“Beyond the visible world she soars to seek,
For what delights the sense is false and weak;
Ideal form, the universal mould.”
As the sea-shell conveys to the ear the faint music of the distant waves, so the
poetry of the Christian life indicates in some degree the rapturous music that
awaits on the heavenly shore. Coleridge said: “Poetry has been to me its
own exceeding great reward. It has soothed my affliction, it has endeared
solitude, and it has given me the habit of wishing to discover the good and
beautiful in all that surrounds me.” And Keats said: “Let me have music
dying and I seek no more delight.”
Lessons.—1. The highest poetry is found in the Divine Word. 2. To administer
instruction and admonition through the medium of song is at once modest and
significant. 3. The Christian life should be one sweet harmonious poem.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSE.
The Word of Christ: its Characteristics
as the Saviour’s Book and the
Sinner’s Book.
- It is simple.
- Significant.
- Saving.
- Sanctifying.
- Supporting.
- Suited to all.
Lessons.—1. Let its truths and realities
inhabit your convictions. 2. Let its
tone be infused into your temper. 3. Let
the Word of Christ dwell in you richly.—James Hamilton, D.D.
The Indwelling Word of Christ.
I. Let the Word of Christ dwell in
you.—1. Implies a sense of the preciousness
of Christ Himself. 2. The preciousness
of Christ’s words, as well as of
Christ Himself, is essential to its dwelling
in you. 3. The felt preciousness of real
present and living intercourse between
Christ and you will cause the Word, as
His Word, to abide in you.
II. Dwell in you richly.—1. It may
refer to quantity. 2. It may have respect
to quality. 3. The rich indwelling
of the Word of Christ in you may be held
to correspond to the riches of Him whose
Word it is. 4. It is to dwell in you not
only as rich receivers but as rich dispensers
also.
Lessons.—1. Make sure of the first
condition of Christ’s Word in you—the
preciousness of Christ Himself. 2. Make
full proof of all suitable helps for the
indwelling of the Word of Christ in you.—R. S. Candlish.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 17.
Suggestive Summary of the Law of Christian Duty.
Labour, which was originally imposed on man as a curse, may minister very
largely to the increase of human happiness. The effort necessary to contend
with and subdue the hostile forces of nature, and wrest from the earth the food
essential to existence, strengthens and elevates the best powers of man. All
men are prompted to labour by some distinct principle or ruling passion: the
savage by the cravings of physical hunger, the patriot by the love of his country,
the philosopher by an inextinguishable thirst for knowledge and delight in
intellectual exercises. The ruling principle of action in the believer is that of
supreme devotion to the Lord; he is to do everything in the name of the Lord
Jesus. This exhortation embraces everything previously mentioned in the
epistle, and every possible duty of the Christian life.
I. The guiding law of Christian duty.—“Do all in the name of the Lord
Jesus.” The name of Christ suggests the predominating principle by which the
whole course of life is to be regulated, the watchword in every enterprise, the
battle-cry in every conflict, the rallying centre in every disaster. In warfare,
armies have been animated with the enthusiasm of action by simply mentioning
the name of a Wellington, a Napoleon, a Garibaldi, a Von Moltke. But oh!
how glorious and all potent is the name Lord Jesus! It suggests the sublime
dignity and redemptive achievements of Christ, and that He is the great exemplar
after which all who believe in Him are to be morally fashioned.
1. In Christ is the purest motive to duty.—Motive originates and governs
action, and makes it good or bad. The believer does everything for Christ’s sake,
out of love for Him and respect to His authority. The tendency in all men is to
live in themselves, to act in their own name and strength, and to carry out their
own selfish purposes. Selfishness is one of the mightiest and most general
motives to action. It is only in Christ we find the holiest and purest motive;
in Him love takes the place of selfishness. The love of Christ constraineth us
(2 Cor. v. 14, 15).
2. In Christ is the noblest pattern of duty.—Not only do we see in His character
the most perfect representation of moral excellence, but his whole career is an
instructive example of devotion to duty. He fulfilled the will of His Father:
He was obedient unto death. He has taught us how to live and how to die.
One of the grandest pictures of moral heroism is seen in the maintenance of an
intelligent and faithful obedience in the midst of danger and threatened death.
3. In Christ is the highest end of duty.—All things in the material universe
exist for Him, and in the moral realm He is the goal towards which all actions
tend. Everything should be done with reference to Christ. We can have no
worthier ambition than to seek in all things His glory. Cf. Mark ix. 41;
Matt. xviii. 5; John xiv. 14; and note how Christ lays it down as a universal
principle that everything is to be done in His name. There is no higher name,
for it “is above every name”; there is no loftier end, for “He is before all
things.”
4. In Christ is the final authority of Christian duty.—Many things have been
done in the name of Christ that never had His sanction and were contrary to
His authority. The most disastrous persecutions and cruellest tortures have
been perpetrated in the name of Christ. These blasphemous outrages have been
committed to strengthen the authority and hide the bloodthirsty rapacity of a
corrupt and domineering Church. No ecclesiastical hierarchy has a right to
compel the blind, unreasoning submission of a free, intelligent agent. Above all
Jesuitical maxims and Papal decrees is the authority of Christ. His will is
supreme in all spheres, and that will is the guiding law of duty in the
Christian life.
II. The universal obligation of Christian duty.—“Whatsoever ye do in word
or deed.”
1. There must be a recognition of Christ in everything.—In all our employments,
conversation, public acts of worship, in social and private prayer, in
secular and domestic concerns, in all matters relating to the place of our abode,
in changing residences, in connections we form for ourselves and our children.
There is a comprehensiveness in the obligation which is all-embracing. Not
that we are to parade our piety, to obtrude our religious notions upon everybody
we meet, or to be ever unctuously repeating the name of Christ, irrespective of
time or place. The merchant is not to provoke unseemly discussions on sacred
subjects when he ought to be attending to the business of the counting-house;
the clerk should not be reading his Bible when he ought to be posting his
ledger; the servant-maid should not be praying when she ought to be cleaning
her kitchen; nor ought the mother to be gadding about, or running to endless
revival meetings, while her house is dirty and her husband and children neglected.
It is not so much that everything is to be done after one special outward form
as that every duty is to be done in a religious spirit. Religion is not a series of
formal acts, or a string of set phrases; but it is a life, pervading all our activities,
and making every part of our career sublime. Recognise Christ in everything,
and a new meaning will be thrown on passing events; the commonplaces of life
will be exalted into dignity, and the future assume irresistible attractions.
2. There must be absolute dependence on Christ at all times.—We cannot say
and do everything in the name of Christ unless we fully surrender ourselves to
Him. We are helpless and full of spiritual infirmities, but the more conscious
we are of our complete dependence on Him the stronger are we in labour and in
hope. In our successes, lest we be puffed up with vanity—in our perplexities,
lest we are discouraged—in our grief, lest we sink despairing into the abyss—and
in our transports of joy, lest we be exalted above measure—there must ever be
a full, voluntary, and conscious reliance on Jesus. Thus resting on Him and
realising His life-giving power, we can say with Paul, “I can do all things
through Christ which strengtheneth me.”
3. There must be supreme devotion to Christ.—All we have we owe to Him.
He gave His all for us, and it is but a righteous return that we consecrate to
Him all that is highest and best in ourselves. We must love Christ supremely,
and then every faculty and power of our being will render homage and service
to Him. We shall be obedient to His commands, we shall magnify His grace,
we shall strive to walk worthy of His great name, and in all things seek to
promote His glory. We pledge ourselves to Him for ever, and no consideration
should tempt us to relax our devotion. George III. was a man of firm mind,
with whom one had pleasure in acting. He was very slow in forming his
opinion, very diligent in procuring every information on the subject; but once
convinced, he would act with unflinching firmness. His beautiful speech about
the Roman Catholic question shows his character: “I can give up my crown
and retire from power, I can quit my palace and live in a cottage, I can lay my
head on a block and lose my life, but I can not break my oath.”
III. The unvarying spirit in which Christian duty is to be done.—“Giving
thanks to God and the Father by Him.” They who do all things in Christ’s
name will never want matter of thanksgiving to God. The apostle has frequently
referred to this duty of gratitude, and he evidently regarded it as a very important
element of the Christian character. It was Christianity that first
taught the duty of being thankful even in trial and suffering. We are to thank
God for the privilege of acting so that we may honour Him. A thankful spirit
has a blessedness and a power of blessing which those only realise who cherish it.
All thanksgiving is to be offered to God the Father by Jesus Christ, as He is our
only mediator, and it is through Him we obtain whatever good the Father
bestows upon us. The giving of thanks to God is one of the highest duties of
religious worship; and if this be done in the name of the Lord Jesus, then all
subordinate duties must be done in the same manner.
Lessons.—1. The name of Christ is the greatest power in the universe. 2. All
duty gathers its significance and blessedness from its relation to Christ. 3. A
thankful spirit is happy in enterprise, brave in difficulties, and patient in reverses.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSE.
Ver. 17 (compared with 1 Cor. xi. 24).
The Lord’s Supper the Sample of the
Christian Life.
- All the objects around us are to
be regarded by us as being symbols
and memorials of our Lord.
- Every act of our life is to be
done from the same motive as that
holy communion.
- All life, like the communion
of the Lord’s Supper, may be and ought
to be a showing forth of Christ’s
death.
- This communion is in itself one
of the mightiest means for making the
whole of life like itself.—A. Maclaren.
Doing all in the Name of Christ.
- Doing it as His agent.
- We are not our own, but His.
- Whatever it is right to do is
His work.—T. G. Crippen.
Christ in the Practical Life.
- Here we find a rule of life.
- Here we find a motive.
- Here we find our life redeemed.—Preacher’s Magazine.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 18, 19.
Duties of Husbands and Wives.
After the apostle has laid down the law of duty for the government of all
Christians in the general conduct of life, he proceeds to show the application
of the same law to the domestic relationships. Obedience to the law in the
general is an excellent preparation for observing it in the particular: the best
Christian will make the best husband or wife. The morality of Christianity is
one of its brightest glories and most beneficent influences; it provides for
the purity and happiness of domestic life, and where it rules all is peace, love,
and contentment. Where polygamy prevails, as in heathen and Mahometan
countries, the most lamentable domestic complications occur, and all is distraction
and misery. The family is the source and pattern of society. If the
family is corrupt and disorganised, society suffers. A holy, well-regulated
household is a regenerative force in society. It is in the home that the social
principle finds its highest development. There the tenderest feelings are roused,
the deepest and most permanent impressions made, the foundation and first
rough outlines of what we may become laid down and indicated, the first
principle of good or evil imbibed, and the mightiest moral forces brought into
play. Much, therefore, depends upon the understanding that exists between the
husband and wife, and the way in which they discharge their mutual duties,
as to what shall be the character of the household government. The apostle, in
enforcing these relative duties, mentions the three classes which divide the
domestic circle—husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and servants.
He begins with the inferior relation in each class—wife, child, servant—perhaps
because the difficulty of obedience is greater, because in disputes it is the duty
of the humbler party to submit, and because the discharge of duty by that
party is the surest method of securing it in the other.
I. The duty of the wife is submission to the husband.—“Wives, submit yourselves
to your own husbands” (ver. 18).
1. This implies dependence.—It is the Divine order that “the husband is the
head of the wife.” In point of nature, and of their relation to God, they are
both equal; but when brought into the married relation the husband has the
first place, and the wife, as the weaker vessel, and under a sense of dependence,
is called to submit. When the order is reversed, and the wife takes the lead,
mischief is sure to ensue. Not that woman is to be the slave and drudge of her
husband; but the relationship between the two ought to be so adjusted by
the power of religion that the wife is never rudely reminded of her state of
dependence.
2. Implies respect.—It is difficult to respect some men, and still more difficult
to love where we cannot respect. But the apostolic injunction is emphatic: “Let
the wife see that she reverence her husband.” Though the husband be a
reckless, incapable ne’er-do-well, the wife is to respect the position of her
husband and show him deference as the head of the family. Alas! how many
a noble woman has had her life embittered by a worthless husband, but who,
with a heroism, truly sublime, and a love truly angelical, has bravely done her
duty and striven to screen the faults of the man who caused her misery.
3. Implies obedience in all things lawful.—St. Peter refers to “the holy women
in the old time, being in subjection unto their own husbands, even as Sara
obeyed Abraham, calling him lord” (1 Pet. iii. 5, 6). A true wife is wholly
devoted to her husband. She will care for his person, property, health,
character, and reputation, as for her own. In all things reasonable and lawful
she will rejoice to meet the requests of her husband and follow his counsel.
II. The submission of the wife to the husband is governed by religious
principle.—“As it is fit in the Lord” (ver. 18). The wife is first to submit herself
fully to Christ, and, from love to Him, to submit herself to her own husband, and
to look upon her subjection as service done to Christ. This will be a consolation
and strength to her in many an unkind word from a cruel, apathetic, and
unappreciative husband. It would never do for two wills to be ruling a family.
There would be endless clashing and confusion. It is the Divine arrangement
that the husband is the head of the house, and “it is fit in the Lord” that the
wife should be in subjection. She is not to forget her responsibility to God in a
slavish, unreasoning, and sinful obedience to her husband. Governed by a pure
and lofty religious principle, she may so fulfil her duty as to win, or at least
disarm, her unreasonable partner. A wise submission may sometimes work
wonders. She stoops to conquer. An old writer has said: “A wife is ordained
for man, like a little Zoar—a city of refuge to fly to in all his troubles.”
III. The duty of the husband is to show affection towards the wife.—1. This
affection is to be genuinely manifested. “Husbands, love your wives” (ver. 19).
Obligation is not all on one side. The husband is not less bound to discharge
his duty to his wife than the wife to him. Love is the sum of the husband’s
duty, and that which will regulate every other. Where love rules, the family
circle becomes a tranquil and cherished haven of rest, peace, harmony, and joy.
Nor is it enough that this affection should be recognised as a matter of course—let
it be manifested. That woman is a strange, heartless shrew who is unaffected
by the gentle evidences of a devoted and manly love. The true wife needs,
craves for and knows how to appreciate a genuine and evident affection. Let
the husband show the same tender and considerate regard to his wife as life
advances and cares multiply as when he stood by her side at the altar, a lovely
and confiding bride.
2. This affection is to be free from harshness.—“And be not bitter against them”
(ver. 19). It is evidently implied that the love of a Christian heart may be marred
by a sour and morose temper. It is ungenerous and cruel to vent upon his wife
and family the anger which the man had not the courage to display before those
who roused it when mixing among them in the world. Bitterness may be manifested
as much by a cold, repulsive silence as by the most stinging words of sharp
and angry reproof, or by the irritating actions of a wilful and tantalising
conduct. It is a species of savage and fiendish brutality for a husband to study
how he can inflict the keenest torture on a loving and submissive nature. It
sometimes requires the most assiduous art of the tenderest affection to repair the
damage done by a single word. Amid the perplexities and trials of married
life many occasions will arise in which mutual patience and forbearance will
need to be exercised. Let love reign supreme and banish the first symptoms of a
harsh and churlish disposition.
Lessons.—1. Be careful whom you marry. 2. Beware of the first quarrel.
3. Bear with Christian resignation the life-consequences of an unfortunate choice.
4. Connubial bliss is attained only by the faithful exercise of mutual duties.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 20, 21.
Duties of Parents and Children.
It is God who hath set the solitary in families. The domestic constitution is
the formal type of all governments. If discipline is neglected in the home,
it is rarely that the loss is made up when the untaught becomes a citizen
of the world. Coleridge has well said: “If you bring up your children in
a which puts them out of sympathy with the religious feelings of
the nation in which they life, the chances are that they will ultimately turn
out ruffians or fanatics, and one as likely as the other.” “A wise son maketh
a glad father; but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother” (Prov. x. 1).
Lord Bacon observes that fathers have most comfort of the good proof of their
sons, but the mothers have most discomfort of their ill proof. It is therefore of
vital importance that the reciprocal duties of parents and children should be
faithfully and diligently observed. These verses indicate the character of filial
duty and of parental authority. Observe:—
I. That the duty of the child to the parent is to obey.—1. This obedience is
universal. “Children, obey your parents in all things” (ver. 20). The Old Testament
law commands, “Honour thy father and thy mother”; and the most signal
way in which a child can honour his parents is to obey them. Parents have learnt
wisdom by experience; they know the dangers that threaten their children, and
are in a position to offer wise and judicious counsel. Filial obedience should be
prompt, cheerful, self-denying, uniform; not dilatory and reluctant. It is
universal in its obligation, and is binding, not only in those commands that are
pleasant to obey, but in those that are troublesome, and that seem unreasonable
and perverse, so long as they do not involve a violation of Divine law. It is a
painful spectacle to see a child defy parental authority, and even exult in his
rebellion and in the distress it causes his father and mother. But filial
disobedience rarely reaches such a pitch of cruel retaliation without there having
been some defect in the early training. The child who renders due reverence to
his parents is sure to meet with the rich rewards of heaven in the enjoyment of
temporal and spiritual blessing.
2. This obedience is qualified and limited by the Divine approval.—“For this is
well-pleasing unto God” (ver. 20). It is only when the commands of the parent
are in harmony with the will of God that the child is bound to obey, and a powerful
motive to practise obedience is derived from the fact that it “is well-pleasing
unto the Lord.” The parent has no authority to enforce obedience beyond what
has been given to him of God; and the exercise of that authority must ever be
in subjection to the higher authority of the Divine law. Obedience to parents
in what is right is obedience to the Lord. It is the way of safety and of
happiness. A little boy, about seven years old, was on a visit to a lady who was
very fond of him. One day, at breakfast, there was some hot bread on the table,
and it was handed to him; but he would not take it. “Do you not like hot
bread?” asked the lady. “Yes,” said the boy; “I like it very much.” “Then,
my dear, why do you not take some?” “Because,” he said, “my father does
not wish me to eat hot bread.” “But your father is a great way off,” said the
lady, “and will not know whether you eat it or not. You may take it for once;
there will be no harm in that.” “No, ma’am; I will not disobey my father and
my mother. I must do what they have told me to do, although they are a great
way off. I would not touch it if I was sure nobody would see. I myself should
know it, and that would be enough to make me unhappy.” A reckless disobedience
of parental authority will not go unpunished. The example of Christ’s
subjection to his earthly parents exalts filial duty into a sublime and holy
exercise.
II. That the duty of the parent to the child is to rule.—1. The parent is not
to rule in a spirit of exasperating severity. “Fathers, provoke not your children
to anger” (ver. 21). The obedience of the child will be very much influenced by
the character of the parental government. Counsel, remonstrance, and even
chastisement will be necessary in the successful training of children. But
discipline is to be administered so wisely, lovingly, and firmly as not to irritate
to rebellion, but to subdue and bend into obedience. An excessive severity is as
baneful as an excessive indulgence.
“The voices of parents is the voice of God,
For to their children they are heaven’s lieutenants;
Made fathers, not for common uses merely,
But to steer
The wanton freight of youth through storms and dangers,
Which, with full sails, they bear upon and straighten
The mortal line of life they bend so often.
For these are we made fathers, and for these
May challenge duty on our children’s part.
Obedience is the sacrifice of angels,
Whose form you carry.”—Shakespeare.
2. To rule in a spirit of exasperating severity tends only to dishearten.—“Lest
they be discouraged” (ver. 21). If the child sees that all his endeavours to
please are in vain, and that he is repulsed with sternness and cruel severity,
he loses heart, and becomes sullen or morose, or is stung into a state of desperate
revenge. To be perpetually fault-finding, and to gratify your angry passions in
brutal, savage chastisement, will crush the spirit of any youth, and perhaps
transform him into a monster more terrible than yourself. Children are to be
led, not driven; to be treated as reasonable beings, not forced like brute animals;
to be encouraged by commendation where it is merited, and the defects of their
obedience kindly interpreted. A certain writer has significantly said: “What if
God should place in your hand a diamond, and tell you to inscribe on it a sentence
which should be read at the last day, and shown there as an index of your own
thoughts and feelings? What care, what caution, would you exercise in the
selection! Now this is what God has done. He has placed before you the
immortal minds of your children, more imperishable than the diamond, on which
you are about to inscribe every day and every hour, by your instruction, by
your spirit, or by your example, something that will remain and be exhibited for
or against you at the judgment day.”
Lessons.—1. To rule wisely we must first learn to obey. 2. Disobedience is the
essence of all sin. 3. That government is the most effective that tempers justice with
mercy.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 22–25—Ch. iv. 1.
Duties of Masters and Servants.
The jealous conflict between capital and labour threatens the good understanding
that was wont to exist between employer and employed with a serious
rupture. Such a rupture would benefit neither side and would inflict incalculable
disaster on both. There are economic laws, which regulate the employment of
capital and labour, which no number of combinations and unions among masters
and servants can ever set aside. Though a temporary advantage may, in
extraordinary times, be snatched by either party, the law of supply and demand
inevitably tends to balance and equalise all interests. It would be well, therefore,
for masters and servants to ponder the teaching of the New Testament
regarding their reciprocal duties. It was Christianity that rescued the servant
from a condition of abject civil slavery and placed him in his just relation to
his fellow-subjects in the commonwealth. The farther men drift away from the
Christian spirit in seeking to adjust the questions between capital and labour,
the more difficult and complicated they become. It is only as these questions
are settled on a Christian basis, in harmony with the laws of a sound political
economy, that party jealousies will subside, and the best understanding between
masters and servants be established. Observe:—
I. That the duty of the servant is to obey his master in all things relating to
his state of servitude.—“Servants, obey in all things your masters according to
the flesh” (ver. 22). There is nothing degrading in service. It is the employment
of angels. “They serve Him day and night” (Rev. vii. 15). It is ennobled by the
example of Christ, who “came not to be ministered unto, but to minister” (Mark x. 45). To
obey in all things is not always pleasant or easy; but the Christian servant
will strive to accomplish the task. He consults the master’s will, not his own;
he does the master’s way, not his own; he considers the master’s time, not his
own. His obedience is universally binding in everything relating to his state of
servitude but is restricted to that. His employer is his master only according
to the flesh, has control over his bodily powers, and over the time in which he
has engaged to labour; but he has not power over the spirit. The master
cannot demand obedience in any matter forbidden of God.
II. That the duty of the servant is to be done in a spirit of sincerity.—1. It is
to be free from duplicity. “Not with eye-service as men-pleasers; but in singleness
of heart” (ver. 22). The servants of whom the apostle writes were slaves
and treated merely as chattels. There are supposed to have been sixty millions of
slaves in the Roman empire. From the treatment they usually received, they
were greatly tempted to be merely eye-servants—diligent when their master was
present, but indolent and reckless in his absence. Christianity has elevated man
from slavery and provided him with the highest motives to moral action. It
teaches that service is to be rendered, not with a hypocritical deference and sham
industriousness, but with a single, undivided heart, doing the best at all times
for the master.
2. It is to be done in the fear of God.—“Fearing God” (ver. 22)—the one Lord and
Master, as contrasted with the master according to the flesh. The Christian
servant has a conscience to satisfy and a heavenly Master to please. The fear
of the Lord is the holiest motive-power in all acceptable service. He who serves
his earthly master as he seeks to serve God will take care that the Divine and
human interests do not come into collision with each other.
III. That the duty of the servant is to be discharged from the loftiest
religious principle.—1. In every duty God is to be recognised. “And whatsoever
ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men” (ver. 23). The Christian servant
must look higher than his earthly master; that is a service that may be rendered
mechanically, and by men who make no pretence to be Christian. The true
servant will give Christ the chief place in his service—will so act that his
obedience shall honour Christ and be acceptable to Him. His best efforts may
fail to satisfy the exactions of an unreasonable master, and the faithful servant
will find his consolation and recompense in the fact that he aims to secure the
Divine approval. This will give a moral dignity to the most menial employment,
and exalt the common drudgery of toil into a means of religious refreshment and
invigoration.
2. In every duty the best powers should be exercised.—“Do it heartily” (ver. 23).
If the heart be engaged, it will put into operation the best powers of the whole
man. No work is well done when the heart is not in it. Whatever is worth doing
at all is worth doing well; and surely no power can move the springs of action so
completely as the ever-present thought that, whatever we do, we “do it as to
the Lord, and not unto men.” Our best efforts fall immeasurably below the
lofty ideal of Christian service; but it is no small commendation when the
Divine Master can declare respecting the anxious and delighted worker, “She hath
done what she could” (Mark xiv. 8). Acting on such a principle, the capacity for the highest
kind of work is cultivated, the sphere of usefulness widened, and the most coveted
honours and enjoyments of the faithful servant secured.
IV. That faithful service will meet with a glorious reward.—“Knowing that
of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for ye serve the Lord
Christ” (ver. 24). Under the sinister judgment passed by Satan on the devotion
of Job there lurks an encouraging truth—man does not serve God for nought.
Though there is nothing meritorious in the best actions of the busiest life, yet it
has pleased God, in the exuberance of His condescending bounty, to provide
abundant recompense for all work done as unto Him. The reward of the
inheritance is in generous disproportion to the service rendered; the service is
marred and limited by the numberless imperfections of the human; the reward
is amply freighted with the overflowing munificence and glittering splendours of
the Divine. It is the inheritance of imperishable happiness—of incorruptible
and unfading glory—of heaven—of God (1 Pet. i. 4). What an encouragement to work!
V. That every act of injustice will meet with impartial retribution.—“But he
that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done, and there is no
respect of persons” (ver. 25). Some regard the wrong-doer referred to in this verse
as the servant who defrauds the master of his service; others, as the master who
defrauds the servant of his just recompense. But the words announce a general
principle which is equally applicable to both. The philosophers of Greece taught,
and the laws of Rome assumed, that the slave was a chattel, and that as a
chattel he had no rights. The New Testament places the relation of master and
servant in a wholly new light and shows that between both there is a reciprocity
of duties and of penalties. The injustice done in the world, whether by master
or by servant, shall be impartially redressed, and the injured one vindicated at
the day of final retribution.
VI. That the duty of the master is to deal righteously towards his servants.—1. He
is to act towards his servants according to the principles of justice and
equity. “Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal” (ver. 1).
If the masters here addressed were exhorted to deal fairly and justly with those
who were their slaves, not less fully is the modern master bound to act justly
and equitably towards those who serve him. The position of master is one
of great power and authority; it is, at the same time, one of solemn responsibility.
Capital has not only its cares and privileges, it has also its duties, and
these cannot be abused with impunity. The communistic doctrine of equality
has no countenance here. If all were socially and financially equal to-day, the
inequality would be restored to-morrow. The duty of the master is to give to
his servants that which is righteous and reciprocally fair. Treat them as human
beings, with human rights, and as rational and religious beings, who, like yourselves,
have an endless future to prepare for. Give them fair remuneration for
work done. Be generous in prosperous times, and considerate when adversity
comes. While acting commercially according to the laws of political economy,
which no sane business man can disregard, yield in all justness and fairness to
the impulse of the higher law of Christian charity and kindness. Interest
yourselves in the physical, moral, and religious welfare of your work-people. Good
masters make good servants.
2. He is to remember that he is responsible to a higher Master. “Knowing that
ye also have a Master in heaven” (ver. 1). The master is not less bound than
the servant to do his duty as unto the Lord. They are both servants of the one
great Lord and Master of all. “One is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are
brethren” (Matt. xxiii. 8). Do not impose impossible tasks upon your servants. Avoid an
overbearing tyranny, and “forbear threatening.” Exercise your authority with
humanity and gentleness. Use your wealth, reputation, and influence in
promoting the best interest of your work-people, and in serving the Lord Christ.
Remember that whatever you do to the poorest servant of your heavenly
Master is reckoned and recompensed as done to Himself (Matt. xxv. 40).
Lessons.—1. Social distinctions afford opportunities for personal discipline.
2. Every rank in life has its special perils. 3. The law of duty is binding in all
ranks. 4. The dust of both masters and servants will soon mingle in a common grave.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Ver. 23. Do all for God.
I. The Christian’s practical life comprises
working, acting, and suffering.
II. Abide with God in your calling.—Intention
gives a moral character to
actions.
III. Motives to duty.—1. Mechanical
activity. 2. Supernatural motive.
“Do it heartily as to the Lord.”
3. Our good intention should be renewed
at intervals. 4. Our lesser
actions should be brought under the
control of Christian principle.—E. M.
Goulburn.
A Hearty Christianity.
I. The highest end of all work is
work done for God and to God.—1. Not
work done for self. 2. Not
work done for society.
II. The highest kind of work of
which we are capable is that which
engages all the powers of our spiritual
nature.—“Do it heartily.” 1. The
character of the work we do will be
decided by the state of our heart. 2. By
the predominating impulse of the heart.
3. The character of our work as a whole
will be influenced by the heartiness we
throw into every single duty. “Whatsoever
ye do.”
Lessons.—1. A hearty Christianity
is a happy Christianity. 2. Is not
easily daunted by difficulties. 3. Is
aggressive.
Vers. 23–25. Piety in the Household.
I. We are serving the Lord.—This
will dignify the most insignificant
duty.
II. We should seek to be actuated
by the highest possible motive.—Out
of the heart, or influenced by the affections.
The highest motive will cover
the lowest.
III. The Lord Himself will give us
the highest reward.—With Him is no
respect of persons.—Homiletic Monthly.
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.
Ver. 2. Watch in the same.—“Being wakeful.” Here again the apostle changes his
language from that used in enjoining the same precepts in Ephesians. Remaining sleepless
(Eph. vi. 18) is the same thing as being wakeful.
Ver. 3. A door of utterance.—R.V. “a door for the word.” The Word of God cannot be
bound, though its messenger may; but St. Paul can scarcely think its being glorified comes
so quickly as it would if he had liberty to preach it. “An open door” with “many adversaries”
is more to St. Paul’s mind than the custodia libera. See Eph. vi. 19, 20.
Ver. 5. Walk in wisdom.—Eph. v. 15. Walk circumspectly. R.V. “carefully.” It would
appear from this as if the adverb in Eph. v. 15 should go with “walk” rather than with “look,”
as in R.V. Towards them that are without.—Who do not participate in the benefits of the new
kingdom. Redeeming the time.—As in Eph. v. 16. Seizing for yourselves, like bargains in
the market, each opportunity (see R.V. margin).
Ver. 6. Let your speech be alway with grace.—There is no excuse for a Christian’s conversation
becoming rude and churlish. It may be necessary to speak plainly and boldly at
times—the way of doing even that graciously ought to characterise Christians. Seasoned
with salt.—The pungent flavour of wit and facetiousness was called salt by the Greeks, often
with a spice of indecency. “Salt” in the New Testament is the opposite of corruption.
Ver. 11. A comfort to me.—The word for “comfort” is only found in this place in the New
Testament. It is a medical term, and points to relief given in suffering—then, by way of
ministering to a mind diseased or in trouble, is used of the speech which soothes and calms.
Ver. 12. Always labouring fervently for you.—R.V. “always striving.” Lit. “agonising.”
Like the mighty wrestler who held the Angel till daybreak, Epaphras intercedes for
His Colossian brethren. Complete in all the will of God.—R.V. “fully assured.” “From the
tenor of the letter it appears that the Colossians needed a deeper Christian insight and more
intelligent and well-grounded convictions respecting the truth ‘as in Jesus’ ” (Findlay).
Ver. 13. Zeal . . . for them that are in Laodicea.—Here then is one who differs from the
Laodicean spirit of St. John’s time.
Ver. 17. And say to Archippus, Take heed to the ministry.—He is again closely connected
with Colossæ in the epistle to Philemon. A monition perhaps needed by Archippus. In the
Lord.—The element in which every work of the Christian, and especially the Christian
minister, is to be done.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 2–4.
The Efficacy of Prayer.
Prayer is a supreme necessity of the soul. It is the cry of conscious want,
an outlet for the pent-up feelings, and a mighty engine of power in all spiritual
enterprises. It is the holiest exercise of the believer, his solace in trouble, his
support in weakness, the solver of his doubts and perplexities, his safety in
peril, his unfailing resource in adversity, his balance in prosperity, his weapon
in every conflict. It is the key which opens the door of the heavenly treasury,
and places at his disposal the boundless wealth of the Divine beneficence. The
efficacy of prayer does not terminate in the individual petitioner but extends
to others on whose behalf supplication is made. God hears the cry of the
believing suppliant, and in some way, not always explicable to us, but in
harmony with His Divine perfections and the fitness of things, answers and
blesses. The apostle knew the value and power of prayer when earnestly
and humbly exercised, and, after giving directions concerning the discharge
of certain specific relative duties, he returns, in concluding this epistle, to some
general admonitions in which this important duty holds a foremost place.
Prayer, says Thomas Aquinas, should have three qualities: it should be
assiduous, watchful, and grateful. The perseverance with which prayer uninterruptedly
draws itself through all events, internal and external, like a thread,
or encircles them like a chain, is its vital power; the watchfulness, the lively
circumspection, the gratitude, are the quiet tone or firm basis of the same.
I. That prayer to be efficacious must be earnest and unceasing.—“Continue
in prayer” (ver. 2). The heart must be in the duty and all the best powers of the
man put forth. That in which we have no interest will stir no feeling, will
challenge no effort. To repeat a verbal formulary is not prayer. Alas! how many
thousand prayers go no farther than the sound they make and are as useless!
Genuine prayer involves thought, diligent inquiry, passionate entreaty, unwearied
perseverance. The highest blessings of the Christian life, the brightest visions
of God, the deepest insight into truth, the most enravishing ecstasies of the soul,
are obtained only by fervent and persistent wrestling. Prayer must be offered
with close-cleaving constancy, as the word “continue” implies, and with daily
frequency. Let prayer be the key of the morning and the bolt of the evening.
II. That prayer to be efficacious must be joined with vigilance.—“And
watch in the same” (ver. 2). Long, prosy, spiritless prayers lull the soul into a
dangerous slumber; and without incessant watchfulness all prayers are apt to
become long, prosy, and spiritless. It is not necessary we should rob ourselves
of needful sleep in order to spend so many hours in formal devotion. The
vigilance refers to the spirit and manner in which all prayer is to be offered.
There may be times when, under the pressures of some great solicitude, the soul
is drawn out in prayer so as to preclude sleep; but at these times the quality
of watchfulness is often in most vigorous operation. Watch, as a sentinel
suspecting the approach of an enemy; as a physician attending to all the
symptoms of a disease; as the keeper of a prison watching an insidious and
treacherous criminal. We have need to watch against the temptations arising
from worldly associations, from the sinfulness of our own hearts, and from the
vile insinuations of the enemy, all which mar the efficacy of our prayers.
Chrysostom says, “The devil knoweth how great a good prayer is.” No wonder
he should seek to distract the mind of the earnest suppliant. “Prayer,” said
Bernard, “is a virtue that prevaileth against all temptations;” but this is so
only when a sleepless vigilance is exercised.
III. That prayer to be efficacious must be mingled with gratitude.—“With
thanksgiving” (ver. 2). The apostle has, throughout the epistle, repeatedly enforced
the duty of thankfulness. He once more recurs to it in this place; and we cannot
fail to note the vast importance he attached to the exercise of this grace, and
how it ought to interpenetrate every Christian duty. We are ever more ready
to grumble than to give thanks. Such is the deceitfulness of sin, or the vanity
and purblindness of the human heart, that the very regularity and abundance
of the Divine mercies, instead of increasing, are apt to restrict our gratitude.
We take, as a matter of course, what ought to be received with humblest
thankfulness. An old writer has well said, “Need will make us beggars, but grace
only thanksgivers. Gratitude opens the hand of God to give, and the heart of
the suppliant to receive aright. Thankfulness for past mercies is an important
condition of success in pleading for additional blessings.”
IV. That prayer is efficacious in promoting an efficient declaration of the
Gospel.—1. Prayer should be offered on behalf of Christian ministers. “Withal
praying also for us” (ver. 3). The Colossians were exhorted to pray, not only for
Paul, his fellow-labourer Timothy, and their own evangelist Epaphras, but for all
teachers of the Gospel. The preacher is engaged in a work of vast magnitude,
environed with colossal difficulties, and is himself ferociously assailed by great
and peculiar perils. The earnest intercessions of a devout and holy people are
to him a safeguard and a tower of strength. A once-popular minister gradually
lost his influence and congregation. The blame was laid entirely upon him.
Some of his Church officials went to talk with him on the subject. He replied:
“I am quite sensible to all you say, for I feel it to be true; and the reason of it
is, I have lost my prayer-book.” He explained: “Once my preaching was
acceptable, many were edified by it, and numbers were added to the Church,
which was then in a prosperous state. But we were then a praying people.
Prayer was restrained, and the present condition of things followed. Let us
return to the same means, and the same results may be expected.” They acted
upon this suggestion, and in a short time the minister was as popular as he
had ever been, and the Church was again in a flourishing state. The great
apostle felt the necessity of co-operative sympathy and prayer (Rom. xv. 30;
2 Thess. iii. 1).
2. Prayer should be offered that the most prominent features of the Gospel may be
declared.—“To speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds” (ver. 3).
It has before been explained in this epistle that the mystery of Christ is a grand
summary of all the leading truths of the Gospel: the mystery of the incarnation
of Christ, the mystery of His sufferings and death as a sacrifice for sin, the
mystery of admitting the Gentiles on equal terms with the Jews to all the
privileges and blessings of the new covenant. It was the apostle’s intrepid
advocacy of the rights of the despised Gentile—maugre the fierce bigotry of his
own countrymen, the deep-seated prejudice of the times, and even the slavish
indifference of the Gentiles themselves—which led to his imprisonment: “for
which I am also in bonds.” The prayers of the good give the preacher
courage to declare all the counsel of God, whether it be palatable or not, and to
give special prominence to those truths which are of priceless importance to
humanity.
3. Prayer should be offered, that opportunity may be afforded for the free declaration
of the Gospel.—“That God would open unto us a door of utterance” (ver. 3).
The door had been closed and barred to the apostle for four years by his imprisonment.
He felt a holy impatience to be free, that he might resume the loved
labour of former years, when “from Jerusalem and round about into Illyricum
he had fully preached the Gospel of Christ.” But he waited till the door was
opened by Divine providence; and this he knew was often done in answer to
believing prayer. So there are times, in all ages of the Church, when the door
of opportunity for disseminating the Gospel is shut by the opposition of the
world, by the plottings of Satan, by the prevalence of a rabid infidelity, or by
the removal of eminent champions for the truth; but, in response to the earnest
intercessions of God’s people, a great and effectual door is opened, and the Church
advances to fresh conquests.
4. Prayer should be offered that the Gospel may be declared with fearless self-evidencing
power.—“That I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak” (ver. 4).
There are some who preach the Gospel in a cold, lifeless, perfunctory manner, or
with unmeaning feebleness and unmanly timidity. When the preacher sinks down
into a condition so abject as this, he has lost sight of the true meaning of the Gospel,
he becomes the most pitiable object under the sun, and is exposed to the scathing
vengeance of heaven. To preach the Gospel with clearness, with intrepidity,
and with irresistible persuasiveness, that he “may make it manifest, as he ought
to speak,” demands the best energies of the soul, and, above all, the special
endowments of the Holy Ghost. A minister is mightily aided in preaching by
the wrestling intercessions of a holy and sympathetic people.
Lessons.—1. Prayer is an excellent training for efficiency in all other duties.
2. Prayer is a gigantic power in the propagation of the Gospel. 3. The topics for
prayer are vast in range and not far to seek. 4. When you can do nothing else
you can pray.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Ver. 2. True Devotion.
I. Explain the meaning of the text.—It is:—
1. Not to be engaged without intermission
in outward and formal acts of
devotion.—This is inconsistent with our
nature, with commanded duties, with
the ends of prayer.
2. To be frequently engaged in formal
acts of devotion.—(1) No exercise more
hallowing and soothing to the soul.
(2) None more profitable as procuring
blessings. (3) One to which those
whose example is recorded gave a
prominent place—Job, David, Daniel,
Paul, Christ. (4) Morning, evening,
intervals, social.
3. To be persevering and importunate
in asking particular blessings.—God
does not always send sensibly the
answer at once. A deeper sense of
want may be necessary. A trial of
faith, patience, and submissiveness
may be expedient. The proper season
may not have come. God’s sovereignty
must be owned. We ought to assure
ourselves that we pray according to
God’s will.
II. Enforce the exhortation.—1. Because
you are commanded to do
so. 2. Because Christ and the Spirit
intercede for you. There is no duty
for which there is more ample assistance
provided. 3. Because of the
number and greatness of your wants.
It is by faith that we know our wants.
Hence the necessity. 4. Because of the
exhaustless provision that God has made
for you. God acts as God in the provision
and in the bestowal. 5. Because
of the number of promises not yet
fulfilled. To you individually, to the
Church, to Christ. 6. Because the
season for prayer is speedily hastening
away.—Stewart.
Vers. 3, 4. Praying and Preaching.
- The sermon is powerful that is
well prayed over (ver. 4).
- A praying preacher uses every
available opportunity to proclaim the
truth (ver. 3).
- The theme of the preacher
becomes more definite and effective by
prayer (ver. 3).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 5, 6.
The Wise Conduct of Life.
The Christian lives a dual life: one in spiritual communion with heaven,
under the eye of God; the other in daily contact with the outer world, exposed
to its observation and criticism. The aspects of the life patent to the world’s
gaze do not always correspond with the best impulses of the life concealed; the
actual falls short of the ideal. The world forms its judgment of the Christian
from what it sees of his outer life and makes no allowance for his unseen
struggles after moral perfection and his bitter penitence over conscious failures.
Nor can we blame the world for this; the outer life of the believer furnishes
the only evidence on which the world can form its estimate, and it is incapable
of apprehending and taking into account hidden spiritual causes. The living
example of the believer presents the only ideas of Christianity that great
numbers have any means of possessing; he is a Christ to them, until they are
brought to a clearer knowledge of the true and only Christ. With what wisdom
and circumspection should the believer walk toward them that are without!
I. That the conduct of life is to be regulated according to the dictates of the
highest wisdom.—1. Religion is a life. “Walk” (ver. 5). A walk implies motion, progression,
continual approximation to destination. Our life is a walk; we are
perpetually and actively advancing towards our destiny. Religion is not a
sentiment, not a round of bewitching ceremonies, not a succession of pleasurable
emotions; it is a life. It pervades the whole soul, thrills every nerve,
participates in every joy and sorrow, and moulds and inspires the individual
character.
2. Religion is a life shaped and controlled by the highest wisdom.—“Walk in
wisdom” (ver. 5). Christian conduct is governed by the Spirit of that wisdom which
is from above, and under the influence of the knowledge which maketh wise unto
salvation (Jas. iii. 17). It is ruled, not by an erratic sentiment or by the
wild impulse of a senseless fanaticism, but by a sound understanding and a wise
discretion. Its experience and hopes rest upon a basis of truth transcending in
certainty, wisdom, and majesty the most imposing speculations of the human
mind.
3. Religion is a life that should be instructive to the irreligious.—“Toward
them that are without” (ver. 5)—without the pale of the Church, the unbelievers.
An upright, holy, consistent example is often more eloquent than words, more
practically effective than the most elaborate code of moral maxims. The follies
and glaring inconsistencies of professing Christians have often inflicted serious
damage upon the Church itself and turned religion into ridicule among the
thoughtless and irreligious outsiders. The world is to be largely trained into
correct views of truth and a just appreciation of the Christian spirit by the
humble, saintly lives of those who have experienced the transforming power of
the Gospel. Be more anxious to live religiously than to talk religiously.
4. Religion is a life that impels the soul to seize every opportunity for good doing.—“Redeeming
the time” (ver. 5)—buying up the opportunity for yourselves.
Opportunity is the flower of time, which blooms but for a moment and is gone forever.
Evil is prevalent; it effects the great majority, it advances with ever accelerating
momentum; every opportunity for checking its career and destroying its
power should be snatched with eagerness and used with promptitude and
discretion. The wisdom that regulates the religious life will be the safest guide
as to the way in which the passing moment may be turned to the best advantage.
The children of Issachar were commended as men that had understanding of the
times, to know what Israel ought to do (1 Chron. xii. 32). Ill-timed and inconsiderate
zeal will do more harm than good.
II. That the conduct of life is to be regulated by judicious speech.—1. Christian
speech should be gracious. “Let your speech be alway with grace”
(ver. 6). The mouth ought to be a treasury of benediction, out of which no corrupt
communication should issue, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it
may minister grace unto the hearers. Truth is the soul of grace; and infinite
pains should be taken that every utterance of the tongue should at least be true.
Idle gossip, slander, falsehood, should never fall from lips circumcised by the grace
of God. Beware of the promiscuous use of the hackneyed phrases of pious cant.
It is not so much a set religious phraseology that is wanted, as that all our speech
should be baptised with the chrism of a religious spirit.
2. Christian speech should be piquant.—“Seasoned with salt” (ver. 6). Salt is the
emblem of what is quickening and preservative; and the conversation seasoned
with it will be pure, agreeable, pointed—free from all taint and corrupting
influence. The ancient teachers of rhetoric used to speak of “Attic salt,” with
which they advised their pupils to flavour their speeches, that they might sparkle
with jests and witticisms. But it is not this kind of condiment that the apostle
recommends. Wit is a dangerous gift to most men; but where it is joined with
a well-balanced understanding, and sanctified by the grace of God, it may
become a powerful weapon in the advocacy of truth and minister to the good of
many. Speech, to be beneficial, must be thoughtful, choice, sharp, clear, forceful.
3. Christian speech should be practical.—“That ye may know how ye ought to
answer every man” (ver. 6). It requires much practical wisdom to be able to speak
well and wisely about religion to both objectors and inquirers, and only the man
accustomed to carefully weigh his words and guard his utterances can become an
adept in this work. Every Christian may cultivate the wisdom which governs
the tongue and is bound to do so (1 Pet. iii. 15). Silence is sometimes the
most conclusive answer. It is the triumph of wisdom to know when to speak
and when to hold our peace.
Lessons.—1. The power of a blameless life. 2. The value of a well-chosen
word. 3. The supreme control claimed by religion over actions and speech.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Ver. 5. The Worth of Time.
I. Time ought to be improved because
its value is inexpressible.—1. The
worth of time may be argued from a
survey of the great and momentous
business to which it must be appropriated—to
get ready for eternity. 2. From the
astonishing price at which it has been
purchased for us. 3. From the careful
manner in which it is allotted to mankind.
II. Because of the brevity of its
duration.
III. Because, short as our time is,
much of it has already elapsed.
IV. Because what remains to us is
uncertain.
V. Because nothing can ever compensate
the loss of time.
VI. God has made eternity to depend
on the issues and results of time.—Dr. Robt. Newton.
Ver. 6. Christian Conversation.—The
apostle recommends a seasoning
- Of piety.
- Of chastity.
- Of charity.
- Of severity.
- Of solidity.
Lessons.—1. Extravagant raillery
poisons conversation. 2. A spirit of
disputing is a vice of conversation.
3. Indiscreet questions are a pest of
conversation.—Saurin.
Christ’s Truth in Relation to our
Daily Conversation.
- The large space which words
occupy in human life.—1. On account
of their number. 2. On account of their
consequences.
- The importance of special self-examination
in reference to our
words.
- Earnest listening to the Divine
voices the cure for vain speech and
the source of gracious speech.
- Our words are not to be all about
religion but pervaded by the spirit of
religion.
- Our conversation being thus
seasoned, we shall know how we ought
to answer every man.—R. Abercrombie.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 7–11.
Side-lights on Church-life in the Early Times.
A straw will indicate the direction of current; a bit of glass will reveal
a star; a kick of the foot may discover a treasure that will enrich successive
generations; a word, a look, an involuntary movement will disclose the leading
tendency of an individual character; so on the crowded stage of life it is not
always the gigantic and public scenes that are most suggestive and instructive,
but rather the trivial, undesigned incidents which are unnoticed by an ordinary
observer. A reflective mind will pick up material for thought from the most
unexpected and unpromising quarters. The apostle has finished the grand
argument of the epistle and shown the importance of certain duties which
grow out of the reception of the truths enforced. In approaching the conclusion,
he appears to be chiefly occupied with a mass of personal and miscellaneous
matters. The few remaining verses contain little else but a series of names,
with the briefest qualifying phrases attached. But here and there light is
thrown on truths which, though familiar, are all the more strongly impressed
on our minds because of their evident antiquity. In these verses there are side-lights
thrown on Church-life in the early times with reference to Christian sympathy,
commendations, courtesy, and co-operation. We learn:—
I. The value of Christian sympathy.—1. As fostering mutual interest in tidings
concerning the work of God. “All my state shall Tychicus declare unto you, . . .
whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose; . . . shall make known unto
you all things which are done here” (vers. 7–9). The apostle, though in prison
and separated by a long distance from the Colossians, does not abate anything
of his interest in their welfare. He had received tidings of their condition as
a Church; of their steadfastness, successes, and perils; and he was sure that
intelligence from him would be eagerly welcomed by them. He therefore
despatched Tychicus and Onesimus, who could furnish more details concerning
the apostle, the exemplary spirit in which he bore his sufferings, his profound
anxiety on behalf of the Churches and the progress of the Gospel in Rome, than
were contained in the epistle they carried. A heart, touched with a genuine
Christian sympathy, rejoices in the extension of the work of God, in whatever
part of the world, and by whatever Christian agency. The mutual interchange
of intelligence tends to excite the interest, promote the union, and stimulate the
enterprise of the Churches.
2. As a source of encouragement and strength in the Christian life.—“That he
might know your estate and comfort your heart” (ver. 8). Instead of “that
he might know your estate,” another reading of the original, adopted by Lightfoot
and other eminent critics, has “that ye might know our affairs.” “But,” as Bishop
Wordsworth remarks, “the very purpose for which Paul sent Tychicus to the
Colossians was not, it would seem, in order that they might know how St. Paul
was faring, but that he might know whether they were standing steadfast in
the faith against the attempts of the false teachers.” Whichever reading is
adopted, the practical lesson is the same; both express the reality, strength,
and beauty of a mutual sympathy. The presence of Tychicus and Onesimus, the
character of the tidings they brought, and the fervour of their exhortations,
would encourage and reassure the Colossians amid the perplexities and doubts
occasioned by the false teachers. Mutual expression of sympathy and inter-community
of intelligence will do much to comfort and edify the Churches.
II. The appropriateness of Christian commendation (ver. 7).—The apostle
speaks highly of his two messengers—not in terms of extravagant flattery, but
in a way calculated to ensure their favourable reception by the Colossians and
a respectful attention to their message. Tychicus was a native of proconsular
Asia, perhaps of Ephesus. He was well known as an authorised delegate of
St. Paul and is mentioned in other places as being with the apostle (Acts xx. 42;
2 Tim. iv. 12; Tit. iii. 12). He is spoken of in this verse as “a beloved brother,
a faithful minister, a fellow-servant in the Lord.” The great apostle, far from
taking advantage of his exalted calling and inspiration, humbled himself before
the least of his brethren, spoke in the highest terms of their faithful labours,
and associated them with his own. Onesimus, a Colossian, is commended as
“a faithful and beloved brother.” It was the more needful he should be thus
commended, because if he was known to the Colossians at all it would be as a
worthless, runaway slave. Some time before, Onesimus had forsaken his master
Philemon, and fled to Rome—the common sink of all nations—probably as a
convenient hiding-place where he might escape detection among its crowds and
make a livelihood as best he could. In the metropolis—perhaps accidentally,
perhaps through the intervention of Epaphras—he fell in with the apostle, his
master’s old friend. St. Paul becomes interested in his case, instructs him in
the Gospel, and is the instrument of his conversion; and now he is commended
to the Colossians, no more as a good-for-nothing slave, but as a brother; no more
dishonest and faithless, but trustworthy; no more an object of contempt, but
love. The apostle sent him back to his master Philemon, and it is generally
thought, having been set at liberty by his owner, he became a faithful and
laborious minister of Christ. Such is the transforming power of Divine grace
in changing and renewing the heart, in obliterating all former distinctions and
degradations, and in elevating a poor slave to the dignity of “a faithful and
beloved brother” of the greatest of apostles. Christian commendations are
valuable according to the character of the persons from whom they issue, and as
they are borne out in the subsequent conduct of the persons commended. Every
care should be taken that the testimonial of recommendation is strictly true.
It is putting a man in a false position and doing him an injury to exaggerate
his qualifications by excessive glory.
III. Suggestive examples of Christian courtesy.—“Aristarchus my fellow-prisoner
saluteth you, and Marcus, sister’s son to Barnabas, (touching whom ye
received commandments: if he come unto you, receive him;) and Jesus, which
is called Justus, who are of the circumcision” (vers. 10, 11). Aristarchus was
a Jew, though a native of Thessalonica. He was with Paul during the riot at
Ephesus and was hurried with Gaius into the theatre by Demetrius and his
craftsmen. He accompanied the apostle from Greece to Jerusalem with the
collection for the saints. When Paul was imprisoned in Judea, he abode with
him; and when he went into Italy, he also went and remained with him there
during his confinement, till at length he became, it may be, obnoxious to the
magistrates, and was cast into prison; or perhaps he became a voluntary
prisoner, that he might share the apostle’s captivity. What a glimpse have we
here of heroic devotion, and of the irresistible charm there must have been in
the apostle in attaching men to himself! Marcus was the John Mark frequently
referred to in the Acts of the Apostles. He had been the occasion of a contention
between Paul and Barnabas, which led to their separating from each other and
following different scenes of labour. Mark had, from cowardice or some other
motive, “departed from them from Pamphylia, and went not with them out
to the work”; and when Barnabas, probably influenced by his affection
as near kinsman, wished to take him with them, Paul resolutely refused
thus to distinguish a young and unstable disciple. But from the reference here
it appears that Mark had repented of his timid and selfish behaviour and
returned to a better spirit. Perhaps the displeasure of the apostle weighed
upon his mind, and, with Barnabas’ prayers and example, had brought him to a
right view of his misconduct. He was now restored to the apostle’s confidence,
and it appears Paul had already given directions to the Colossians concerning
Mark to welcome him heartily if he paid them a visit—“touching whom ye
received commandments: if he come to you, receive him.” The third Hebrew
convert who united in sending salutations was Jesus, which was also called
Justus—a common name or surname of Jews and proselytes, denoting obedience
and devotion to the law. Nothing definite is known of this person; but the
apostle held him in such esteem as to join his salutation with the rest. These
three friends and companions of Paul were Jews—they were of the circumcision;
and yet they send their salutations to a Church composed chiefly of Gentiles.
The Christian spirit triumphed over their deep-rooted prejudices, and their
greeting would be all the more valued as an expression of their personal esteem,
their brotherly affection, and their oneness in Christ. That courtesy is the most
refined, graceful, gentle, and acceptable that springs from the Christian spirit.
IV. The solace of Christian co-operation.—“These only are my fellow-workers
unto the kingdom of God, which have been a comfort unto me” (ver. 11). The
tendency of the Jewish convert was to lean to the Mosaic ritual and insist on
its necessity in realising the efficacy of the Gospel. Thus, they favoured the
false philosophy of the Jewish Platonists, and fell into the errors against which
the apostle so faithfully warns in this epistle. The action of the Judaizing
teachers and their sympathisers was often a grief and hindrance to him. Of all
the Jewish converts in Rome only three were a comfort to him. They thoroughly
embraced and advocated the free and unconditional admission of the Gentiles
into the Church of Christ and were devoted and zealous fellow-workers with
him in extending the kingdom of God. It is an evidence of the unpopularity
among the Jews of the Gospel as intended equally for the Gentiles, and of the
formidable prejudices and difficulties with which the apostle had to contend in
that early time, that there were only three Hebrew converts who were a comfort
to him. And yet how consoling is the sympathy and co-operation of the faithful
few! Sometimes the noblest men are deserted by timid and time-serving
professors and left to toil on alone in peril and sadness. History records the
triumphs of those who have successfully braved the solitary struggle in some
great crisis; but it is silent about the vanquished who, with broken hearts and
shattered intellects, have sunk into unchronicled oblivion.
Lessons.—1. Christian experience is the same in all ages. 2. True courtesy
costs little and accomplishes much. 3. Genuine sympathy is best shown by an active
and self-denying co-operation.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 12, 13.
The Model Pastor.
Nothing is known of Epaphras beyond the few but significant notices
which connect him with Colossæ, of which city he was a native. Acting
under the direction of St. Paul, probably when the apostle was residing for three
years at Ephesus, Epaphras was the honoured agent in introducing the Gospel
into Colossæ and the neighbouring cities of Laodicea and Hierapolis; and it
is evident he regarded himself as responsible for the spiritual well-being of all
these places. The dangerous condition of the Colossian and neighbouring
Churches at this time filled the mind of Epaphras with a holy jealousy and
alarm. A strange form of heresy had appeared among them—a mixture of
Jewish formalism with the speculations of an Oriental philosophy—and was
rapidly spreading. The distress of the faithful evangelist was extreme. He
journeyed to Rome in order to lay this state of things before the apostle,
and to seek his counsel and assistance. The apostle bears testimony to his
profound anxiety for the spiritual condition of the newly founded Churches on
the banks of the Lycus. He had much toil for them and was ever fervently
wrestling in prayer on their behalf, that they might stand fast and not lose the
simplicity of their earlier faith but might advance to a more perfect knowledge
of the Divine will. In the verses now under consideration we have Epaphras
brought before us as the model pastor.
I. The model pastor is distinguished by a suggestive designation.—“A
servant of Christ” (ver. 12). This title, which the apostle uses several times
for himself, is not elsewhere conferred on any other individual, except once on
Timothy (Phil. i. 1), and probably points to exceptional services in the cause of
the Gospel on the part of Epaphras (Lightfoot). A true pastor is not the servant
of the Church to echo its decisions and do its bidding; but he is the servant for
the Church to influence its deliberations and decisions, to mould its character
and direct its enterprises. He is a servant of Christ, receiving his commission
from Him, ever anxious to ascertain His will, and ready to carry out that will at
whatever sacrifice. Such a service involves no loss of self-respect or manliness,
no degradation, but is free, honourable, and rich in blessing.
II. The model pastor is incessant in zealous labour.—“For I bear him
record, that he hath a great zeal for you, and them that are in Laodicea and
them in Hierapolis” (ver. 13). The zeal of Epaphras urged him to extend his
Christian labours beyond the limits of Colossæ: he visited the adjoining cities,
which were much larger in population and wealthier in commerce. Laodicea,
rising from obscurity, had become, two or three generations before the apostle
wrote, a populous and thriving city, and was then the metropolis of the cities
on the banks of the Lycus. Hierapolis was an important and growing city, and,
in addition to its trade in dyed wools, had a reputation as a fashionable watering-place,
where the seekers of pleasure and of health resorted to partake of its
waters which possessed valuable medicinal qualities. The rare virtues of the
city have been celebrated in song:
“Hail, fairest soil in all broad Asia’s realm;
Hail, golden city, nymph divine, bedeck’d
With flowing rills, thy jewels.”
Into the midst of these populations the fervent Epaphras introduced the Gospel
and spared no pains in his endeavour to establish and confirm the believers. It
was on their behalf he undertook the journey to Rome to confer with St. Paul
as to their state; and the apostle testifies to the unceasing exercise of his great
and holy zeal for his distant but ever-remembered flock. When the heart is
interested and moved, labour is a delight; and it is the way in which the heart
is affected towards any work that gives to it significance and worth. Canon
Liddon writes: “Are we not very imperfectly alive to the moral meaning of work
and the moral fruits of work as work?” The true pastor, with a heart overflowing
with zeal for the glory of God and the good of men, cheerfully undertakes
labour from which the ordinary worker would timidly shrink.
III. The model pastor is intensely exercised in prayer for the people of God.—“Always
labouring fervently [wrestling, agonising] for you in prayers”
(ver. 12). The faithful minister has not only to teach his flock—a task which
involves vigilant observation, extensive reading, and anxious study—but he has
also to plead earnestly at the throne of grace on their behalf. In times of
spiritual dearth, disappointment, embarrassment, and distress, prayer is the all-efficacious
resource. There are circumstances in which the minister can do
nothing but pray. Difficulties that defied all other means have vanished before
the irresistible power of persistent and believing intercession. Prayer attains
what the most conclusive reasoning, the most eloquent appeal, the most diligent
personal attention, sometimes fail to accomplish. It sets in silent but stupendous
operation the mightiest spiritual agencies of the universe. It opens the fountain
of Divine grace, and its streams flow in full-tide velocity through the hitherto
arid wilderness of human hearts, and life, freshness, fertility, and beauty spring
up in its reviving course. It is God only whose help is omnipotent, and on this
help faithful prayer lays hold and uses it in effecting its wonderous transformations.
IV. The model pastor is constantly solicitous that the people of God should
be firmly established in the highest good.—“That ye may stand perfect and
complete in all the will of God” (ver. 12)—perfectly instructed and fully convinced
in everything willed by God. The great aim of all ministerial anxiety is not
only to instruct his people in the full and accurate knowledge of the Divine will,
but to produce such a persuasion of the supreme majesty and authority of that
will to induce steadfast continuance in practical obedience. The will of God
and the highest good of man are always in harmony. Whatever threatens to
disturb the stability of the believer, or to retard his development towards the
highest moral excellence, whether it arises from his personal unwatchfulness and
indifference or from the subtle attacks of error, is always a subject of keen
solicitude to the faithful pastor. He knows that if his converts fall away they
are lost and the truth itself is disgraced. To be established in an unswerving
obedience it is necessary to be filled with the knowledge of God’s will. This
blessedness is the grand scope and crowning glory of the Christian life.
Lessons.—1. The office of pastor is fraught with endless anxieties, great responsibilities,
and rare opportunities. 2. The true pastor finds his purest inspirations,
his most potent spiritual weapon, and his grandest successes in prayer.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 14–17.
Christian Greetings and Counsels.
It is sometimes asked, with an indiscriminate flippancy, “What’s in a
name?” There are some names which have no title to a lasting remembrance,
and with reference to these the flippancy may be justified. But there are names
whose reputation is imperishable, and which are written on the world’s history
in indelible characters. The name of Paul, the great apostle of the Gentiles,
will be venerated by the coming ages when the titles of the greatest sages
and warriors shall have faded away in the darkness of oblivion; and, just as
there are lesser lights in the firmament that share in the glory of the great
luminary to which they are essentially related, so there are names of lesser note
grouped around that of the great apostle that are immortalised by their
association with him. Besides, names as they are quoted and used by St. Paul
in this and other epistles often furnish evidence of the authenticity of Scripture
and undesigned coincidences of the truth of the sacred history. In these verses
there are some names preserved to us which were lifted into prominence by the
connection of the persons they represented with the apostle, and by their
own eminent piety and usefulness. They furnish another illustration of the
truth of the sacred saying, “The memory of the just is blessed; but the
name of the wicked shall rot” (Prov. x. 7). We have here a series of kindly Christian
greetings and important Christian counsels. Observe:—
I. The value of a Christian greeting is estimated by the moral character
of those from whom it emanates.—“Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greet
you” (ver. 14). Two persons are here mentioned whose individual histories
present a suggestive contrast; and it is observable, by the way in which their
names are mentioned, that the two men stood very differently in the apostle’s
estimation.
1. Luke is the beloved physician—the very dear and attached friend of Paul.
He was his constant companion in travel and stood faithfully by him in his
greatest trials. He joined the apostle at Troas (Acts xvi. 10), accompanied him
into Judea, remained with him during two years of his imprisonment at
Jerusalem and Cæsarea, and was no doubt present at his trial before Festus and
Felix; he went with him into Italy when Paul was sent there as a prisoner, and
during his second and final imprisonment in Rome; while others deserted him,
Luke continued his staunch and faithful friend. In the last epistle probably the
apostle ever wrote is the simple but pathetic reference, “Only Luke is with me.”
We can understand, therefore, the affectionate tenderness with which Luke is
designated the beloved physician. As St. Paul was not a robust man but was
troubled with a “thorn in the flesh,” the presence of a medical friend must have
been of immense service to him in his laborious missionary journeys and during
his long imprisonment. The physicians of ancient times had a very questionable
reputation for religiousness; but in these modern days there is an increasing
number of medical men who are no less eminent for piety than for their
professional skill, and many and important are the opportunities of such for
doing good both to body and soul. The greetings of a man of superlative moral
excellence is gratefully welcomed and respectfully treasured.
2. And Demas!—How suggestive is the laconic allusion! There is no explanation,
no qualifying word of any special regard. Perhaps the apostle was already
beginning to suspect him, to mark the increasing worldliness of his spirit, and his
growing indifference to Divine things. About three years after this greeting was
despatched to the Colossians, we meet with the melancholy record: “Demas hath
forsaken me, having loved this present world” (2 Tim. iv. 10). Alas! how
seductive and how fatal are the allurements of the world! The highest and holiest
are not invulnerable to its charms. The most promising career of usefulness and
honour has often been blighted by its influence. Bitter indeed would be the
disappointment of the apostle’s heart to witness one, whom he had acknowledged
and trusted as a fellow-worker in the Gospel, fall a victim to worldly avarice, and,
like Achan, covet the golden wedge and Babylonish garment of secular things.
There is a specially solemn significance in the warning of the beloved disciple:
“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world” (1 John ii. 15).
II. Christian greeting recognises the universal brotherhood of the Church.—1. We
learn the early Christian churches were composed of brethren. “Salute
the brethren which are in Laodicea” (ver. 15). This recognition of a common
brotherhood was a great advance upon the eclecticism and sharp, prejudiced
distinctions of the times. In the circle of the Christian Church the Jew
surrendered his Judaism, and the Gentile his paganism, and became one in
Christ; the slave and the freeman enjoyed the same spiritual liberty, and the
barbarian was no longer dreaded as a monster, but hailed as a brother. The
test of brotherhood and union is an individual faith in the common Saviour, the
sharing of one common life in the Holy Spirit, and the assurance of possessing
one common Father in God. It is only as we encourage the brotherly spirit that
we can ensure union and permanency in the Churches. About thirty years
after this salutation was sent to the Laodiceans, the Church in that city had
degenerated into a state of lukewarmness and sterility (Rev. iii. 15, 16). There
is need for united watchfulness and fidelity in order to continue, “steadfast,
immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord” (1 Cor. xv. 58).
2. We learn further that a separate assembly of brethren constituted a Church.—“And
Nymphas, and the Church which is in his house” (ver. 15). This was not
the principal Church in Laodicea, nor was it simply a meeting together of the family,
but an assembly of worshippers. Nymphas was probably a man of position and
influence in the city and being also a man of piety, he afforded every opportunity
for the gathering together of the brethren for Christian worship and communion.
There is little said in the New Testament about Church polity, and there is no
ecclesiastical organisation, whether Episcopal, Presbyterian, or Congregational,
that can claim exclusive Divine authority and sanction. Whether meeting in
large numbers in the stately cathedral, the modern tabernacle, or a few in the
private dwelling-house, a company of believers assembled for worship and mutual
edification constitutes a Church. Thus the true brotherhood of Christianity is
maintained, irrespective of locality, of ecclesiastical structure, or of sacerdotal
claims and pretensions.
III. The reading of the Holy Scriptures in the Church an important subject
of apostolic counsel.—“And when this epistle is read among you, cause that it
be read also in the Church of the Laodiceans, and that ye likewise read the
epistle from Laodicea” (ver. 16). The epistle from Laodicea refers to a letter
that St. Paul had sent to that city, and which was to be forwarded to Colossæ
for perusal. Some think this was a letter specifically addressed to the Laodiceans,
and which is now lost; but the best commentators now believe that the epistle
to the Ephesians is meant, which was, in fact, a circular letter addressed to the
principal Churches in proconsular Asia. Tychicus was obliged to pass through
Laodicea on his way to Colossæ and would leave a copy of the Ephesian epistle
there before the Colossian letter was delivered. Here we learn that one important
means of edification was the reading of the inspired letters of the apostle
in the assemblies of the brethren. The public reading of the Scriptures has
been an invaluable method of instruction to the Church in all ages and places,
and it is a provision with which the Church will never be able to dispense. The
Church which dares to prohibit the general perusal of the Scriptures, or reads
only small portions, and those mumbled in a language not understood by the
people, has thrown off all regard for apostolic counsel and inflicts an unutterable
injury upon humanity. Shut up the Bible, and the Churches will instantly be
invaded by the most enfeebling superstitions, the civilisation of the nations will
be put centuries behind, and the widespread ignorance and moral and social
degradation of the dark ages will reappear.
IV. An example of apostolic counsel concerning fidelity in the Christian
ministry.—“And say to Archippus, Take heed to the ministry which thou hast
received in the Lord, that thou fulfil it” (ver. 17). It is probable that Archippus
was a youthful pastor recently appointed to the Church at Laodicea. Already
signs of a slackened zeal began to appear, which afterwards culminated in the
state of lukewarmness for which this Church was denounced (Rev. iii. 19). The
condition of preacher and people reacts upon each other; the Church takes its
colour from and communicates its colour to its spiritual pastor. Hence the
apostle, well knowing the perils surrounding the inexperienced Archippus, sends
to him this timely warning to take heed of his ministry. He is reminded of:—
1. The direct authority of the ministry.—“The ministry which thou hast received
in the Lord.” The commission to preach the Gospel can come from no
other than the Lord and can be properly received only by one who is himself
spiritually in the Lord; there must be not only gifts, but also grace. The
minister must be in direct and constant communication with the Lord, depend
on Him for help in doing his duty, remember he is accountable to Him, and
strive to seek His glory in preference to all personal considerations. In times
of difficulty and trial it will sustain the courage of the minister to feel that his
commission is Divine in its source and authority.
2. The implied dangers of the ministry.—“Take heed.” The special dangers
that threatened the Colossian Church at that time have been distinctly pointed
out in the epistle. The ministry is ever encompassed with perils, arising from
the seductive forms of error, the flatteries and frowns of the world, the subtle
workings of self-approbation, and the deceitfulness of sin. There is need for the
exercise of a sleepless vigilance, a tireless zeal, and a faultless circumspection.
3. The imperative personal demands of the ministry.—“That thou fulfil it.”
The whole truth must be made known, and that with the utmost clearness,
faithfulness, kindness, and completeness. Every energy must be consecrated to
the sacred work, and the aid of all the powers of heaven earnestly implored.
No pains must be spared in prayer, study, and self-sacrifice to reach the highest
efficiency and make “full proof” of the ministry. Failure here is lamentable
and irremediable.
Lessons.—1. Salutations are valuable when imbued with the Christian spirit.
2. The true appreciation of the Holy Scriptures is shown in their constant and
studious perusal. 3. The Christian ministry should be sustained by practical
sympathy and intelligent co-operation.
GERM NOTES OF THE VERSES.
Ver. 14. “Luke, the beloved physician.”
Religion and the Medical Profession.
- The deference shown to medical
science.
- Benevolence of the medical profession.
- Religious drawbacks in assaults
from materialism.—Mind is one thing,
matter is another.
- Religious responsibilities.—Vast
power for good. Co-operation
with the minister.
- The Great Physician.—Doctor
and patient need Him alike.—Homiletic
Monthly.
Ver. 16. The Public Reading of the
Holy Scriptures an Important Means of
Church Edification.
- It is in harmony with the usage
of the ancient Church.
- It is enforced by precept and
example in the Scriptures themselves.
- It familiarises the mind with
the grandest truths.
- It is a mighty agency in advocating
and moulding national character.
- It keeps alive the enthusiasm
of the Church for aggressive enterprise.
- It demands the most laborious
study and practice to render it
effective.
Ver. 17. The Christian Ministry a
Solemn and Responsible Trust.
- It is Divine in its bestowal.—“Received
in the Lord.”
-
It is personal in its responsibility.—“Which
thou hast received.”
- It involves the communication
of good to others.—“Ministry.”
- It has a special aspect of importance
to the individual minister.—“The
ministry.”
“That thou fulfil it.” The Christian
Ministry demands Unswerving Fidelity
in accomplishing its Lofty Mission.
- Divine truth must be clearly apprehended
and profoundly realised.
- The whole truth must be declared.
- The declaration of the truth
must be full and courageous.
“Take heed.” The Christian Ministry
is surrounded by Peculiar Perils.—A
shrewd and ever-wakeful vigilance is
needed—
- Against the stealthy encroachments
of error.
- Against the pernicious influences
of the world.
- Against the subtle temptations
to unfaithfulness.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 18.
Words of Farewell.
Last words have in them a nameless touch of pathos. They linger in the
memory as a loved familiar presence, they soothe life’s sorrows, and exert upon
the soul a strange and irresistible fascination. As the years rush by, how
rich in meaning do the words that have fallen from dying lips become, as
when Cæsar said sadly, “And thou, Brutus!”; or when John Quincy Adams
said, “This is the last of earth”; or Mirabeau’s frantic cry for music, after a
life of discord; or George Washington’s calm statement, “It is well”; or
Wesley’s triumphant utterance, “The best of all is, God is with us.” And these
closing words of the high-souled apostle written from his Roman prison, in
prospect of threatened death, carry with them a significance and tenderness
which will be felt wherever this epistle is read. In these words we have a
personally inscribed salutation, a touching reminder, and a brief benediction.
I. A personally inscribed salutation.—“The salutation by the hand of me
Paul.” The rest of the epistle was dictated by the apostle to an amanuensis,
who, in this case, was probably Timothy. Paul adds his own personal salutation,
not only as an expression of his anxious love, but also as a mark of the
authenticity of the document, and of his unqualified approval of its contents.
It would surely be a scene worthy of the pencil of genius to portray the noble
prisoner, whose right hand was linked to the left of his military gaoler, tracing
with tremulous fingers the final words to those for whose sake he was in bonds!
How would the hand-writing of such a man be prized and venerated, and with
what holy eagerness would his words be read and pondered!
II. A touching reminder.—“Remember my bonds.” The apostle was in
prison, not for any offence against the laws of God or man, but for the sake of
the Gospel he loved to preach, and which had wrought so marvellous a change in
the lives of those to whom he wrote. His bonds bore irrefragable testimony
to the truth he was called to proclaim, and to his unalterable determination
to insist upon the rights and privileges of the Gentiles, on whose behalf he
suffered. He wished to be remembered in prayer, that he might be sustained
in his imprisonment, and that he might be speedily delivered from it, so that he
might preach the glorious news of spiritual liberty to the benighted and fettered
sons of men. “Remember my bonds.” These words seem to indicate that the
illustrious prisoner was more concerned to exhibit a spirit and deportment
betting the Gospel than to be released from his incarceration. The Church of
Christ in all ages has had abundant reason to remember with gratitude and
praise the bonds of the great apostle, not only for the stimulating example of
holy patience and dignified submission displayed under trying circumstances, but
for the unspeakably precious literary treasures they enabled him to bequeath to
the world. Bishop Wordsworth has well said: “The fact that this epistle was
written by Paul in this state of durance and restraint, and yet designed to
minister comfort to others, and that it has never ceased to cheer the Church of
Christ, is certainly one which is worthy of everlasting remembrance.” In the
prayer for “all prisoners and captives” special reference should be made to
those who are now suffering for the truth. The offence of the cross has not yet
ceased. We must practically remember the imprisoned when we supply their
wants and assuage their sufferings.
III. A brief benediction.—“Grace be with you. Amen.” The epistle begins
and ends with blessing; and between these two extremes lies a magnificent body
of truth which has dispensed blessings to thousands and is destined to bless
thousands more. The benediction is short, but it is instinct with fervent life
and laden with the unutterable wealth of Divine beneficence. Grace is inclusive
of all the good God can bestow or man receive. Grace is what all need, what
none can merit, and what God alone can give. To possess the grace of God is to
be rich indeed; without it “ ’Tis misery all, and woe.” Grace kindles the lamp
of hope amidst the darkest experiences of life, supplies the clue which unravels
the most tangled mysteries, presses the nectar of consolation into the bitterest
cup, implants in the soul its holiest motives and opens up its noblest career,
strengthens the dying saint when he traverses the lonely borderland of the
unknown, and tunes and perpetuates the celestial harmonies of the everlasting
song.
Lessons.—1. Praise God for a well-authenticated Bible. 2. Praise God for the
teachings of a suffering life. 3. Praise God for His boundless grace.
- Page 371, Introduction, second paragraph, change “ii. 8, 9”
to “ch. ii. 8, 9” and “ii. 11” to
“ch. ii. 11.”
- Page 372, Introduction, first “Occasion” paragraph, apply RC to
“Gospel.” “Style” paragraph, apply RC to
“the Gospel.”
- Page 374, notes on chapter i., verse 6, apply RC to “Gospel”
(twice). Verse 9, add right double quote after “prudent.”
Verse 10, apply RC to “the Gospel”; add left parenthesis before
“see ver. 6.”
- Page 375, verse 22, change “unblamable” to “unblameable”
and “unreprovable” to “unreproveable.” Verse 23, apply RC
to “the Gospel.”
- Page 376, verse 28, apply RC to “the Gospel” (thrice).
Lesson “Salutation,” point I, apply RC to “Divine.”
Point II, apply RC to “Divine” (twice).
- Page 377, same lesson, point III, add comma to “won and.”
Point IV, apply RC to “the Gospel”; remove comma from
“Churches, and.” Lesson “Estimate,” point I 2,
remove comma from “faith, and.” Point II, apply RC to
“Divine.” Point II 2, apply RC to “Divine.”
- Page 378, same lesson, point II 3, apply RC to “Divine.”
Lesson “Causes,” point I, remove comma from “God, and.”
Point II, add comma to “Thus God”; apply RC to “Divine”
(twice); remove comma from “good, and.” Point III 1, apply RC to
“Divinely” and “Divine-human.”
- Page 379, same lesson, point III 3, remove comma from
“worker, and.” Point V 3, apply RC to “the Gospel”;
remove comma from “truth, and”; apply RC to “the Gospel”
(twice). Application (“Lessons”), point 3, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
- Page 380, “Good News” note, each of points I, III 1, and
III 3, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
“Hope” note, point III, apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Lesson “True Gospel,”
introduction, apply RC to “the Gospel” and “Divine”;
remove commas from “understanding, and” and “axiomatic,
and”; apply RC to “the Gospel” (twice), “Divine”
and “the Gospel.” Point I, apply RC to “Gospel” (five times);
remove comma from “mission, and.”
- Page 381, same lesson, same point, apply RC to “Gospel” (twice).
Point II, apply RC to “Gospel” (thrice); add comma to “Thus it”;
apply RC to “Gospel” (twice). Point III, apply RC to “Gospel,”
“Word,” “Gospel,” “Divine Spirit,” and
“Gospel” (twice). Point IV, apply RC to “Gospel.”
Point IV 1, apply RC to “Gospel,” “Divinely,”
and “Gospel.”
- Page 382, same lesson, point IV 2 (3), apply RC to “the Gospel.”
Application (“Lessons”), point 1, apply RC to “Gospel” and “Divine.”
Each of points 2 and 3, apply RC to “Gospel.” “Gospel” note, point III,
apply RC to “Divine.”
- Page 383, lesson “Comprehensive,” point II 2, apply RC to
“Divine” (thrice). Point II 3, apply RC to “Gospel,”
“Divine,” “Gospel,” and “Divine.”
- The break between pages 383 and 384 is in a unit that style indicates
should not be broken “Lord|—worthy.” The whole unit
was moved to the earlier page.
- Page 384, same lesson, point III 1, add comma to “purpose we.”
Point III 2, add comma to “Thus the”; remove comma from
“heaven, and.” Point III 4, apply RC to “Divine.”
Point IV 1, apply RC to “Divine.”
- Page 385, same lesson, point IV 2, apply RC to “Divine” and “Providence.”
Point IV 3, apply RC to “His cause.”
“Paul’s Prayer” note, point I, apply RC to “Divine.”
Point III, remove comma from “life, and.”
- Page 386, lesson “Meetness,” point I 2, capitalise
“Divine,” referring to a churchman. Point I 3, apply RC to
“Divine”; add comma to “Thus all.”
- Page 387, same lesson, point II 2, apply RC to “Divine”;
add comma to “So men”; remove comma from “realms, and.”
Point II 3, apply RC to “Divine.”
- Page 388, “Inheritance” note, point II 1, add double quotes around
“inheritance.” Point II 2, add double quotes around “saints.”
Lesson “Translation,” point I 1, apply RC to “Gospel.”
- Page 389, same lesson, point II 1, add comma to “So the.”
Point II 2, apply RC to “Divine”; add comma to “subjects we.”
Point III, apply RC to “Divine.” Point III 1, remove comma from
“law, and”; apply RC to “Divine.” Point III 2,
remove comma from “blessings, but”; apply RC to “Divine”
(twice).
- Page 390, same lesson, point III 3, apply RC to “Divine.”
Application (“Lessons”), point 3, apply RC to “Divine.”
“Darkness” note, point III, apply RC to “Divine.”
“Great Blessing” note title, change “Re demption” to
“Redemption.” Lesson “Relation” title, change
“Greated” to “Created.” Point I, apply RC to
“Divine.”
- Page 391, same lesson, point II 1 (1), add comma to
“Therefore the.” Point II 1 (2), apply RC to
“First Cause,” “Active Agent,” and “Grand End.”
Point II 2 (1), apply RC to “First Cause”; remove comma from
“speculation, and.”
- Page 392, same lesson, point II 2 (2), change double quotes around
“thrones,” “dominions,” “principalities,” and
“powers’ to single quotes within the Spence quotation.
Point II 2 (3), apply RC to “Great End.”
Point II 3, apply RC to “Divine.” Point II 4, remove comma
from “Him, and.”
- Page 394, lesson “Relation,” point II 2, apply RC to
“Divine”; remove comma from “Hades, and.” Point III 1,
apply RC to “Divine.”
- Page 395, “Church the Body” note, point III 2, apply RC to
“Gospel.” Point IV 1, remove comma from “Christ, and.”
- Page 396, lesson “Reconciling,” point I 1, apply RC to
“Divine” (twice) and “Divinity”; remove commas from
“universe, and” and “beings, and.” Point I 2,
apply RC to “Divine.” Point II 1, apply RC to “Divine”
(twice). Point II 2, add comma to “therefore it.”
- Page 397, same note, same point, apply RC to “Divine” (twice).
Point II 2 (1), add comma to “aside and.” Point
II 2 (2), remove comma from “other, and.” Point
II 2 (3), apply RC to “Divine” (twice). Point III,
apply RC to “Divine.”
- Page 398, “Fulness” note, point I, apply RC to “Divine.”
Lesson “Blessings,” introduction, remove comma from “sin, and”;
change “His restoration” to “his,” referring to a sinful man.
Point I 1, apply RC to “Divine” (twice). Point I 2, apply RC to
“Divine.”
- Page 399, same lesson, point II, apply RC to “Divine” (twice).
Point II 2, remove comma from “Christ, and”; apply RC to
“Divine.” Point III, apply RC to “Divine.” Point III 2,
change “unblamable” to “unblameable”; remove comma
from “term, and.” Point III 3, change “unreprovable”
to “unreproveable” and “unblamable” to
“unblameable.”
- Page 400, same lesson, same point, change “unreprovable” to
“unreproveable.” “Reconciliation” note, point II 3,
apply RC to “Himself.” “Holiness” note, point I, change
“unblamable” to “unblameable” and
“unreprovable” to “unreproveable.”
Lesson “Condition,” introduction, add comma to “so the”;
apply RC to “Gospel” (twice). Point I, apply RC to
“Gospel.” Point I 1, apply RC to “Divine.”
- Page 401, same lesson, point II, apply RC to “Gospel.”
Point II 1, apply RC to “Gospel” (twice). Point II 2,
apply RC to “Gospel,” “Divine,” and “Gospel”
(thrice). Point II 3, apply RC to “Gospel” (thrice);
remove comma from “lands, and”; apply RC to “Gospel.”
Point II 4, apply RC to “Gospel” (four times).
- Page 402, same lesson, same point, remove comma from “phenomena, and”;
apply RC to “Gospel.” Point II 5, apply RC to “Gospel”
(thrice) and “Word.” Application (“Lessons”), point 1, apply RC
to “Gospel.” Lesson “Joy,” introduction, apply RC to
“Divine.” Point I 1, add comma to “Thus he.”
- Page 403, same lesson, point I 2, apply RC to “Divine.”
Point II 2, remove comma from “deeper, and”; apply RC to
“Divine.”
- Page 404, same lesson, point III, apply RC to “Gospel.”
Lesson “Honor,” introduction, apply RC to “Word” and
“Gospel.” Point I, apply RC to “Divine.” Point I 1,
apply RC to “Divinely”; change the comma after “own”
to a semi-colon, for consistency in punctuating the series; apply RC to
“Divine.” Point I 2, apply RC to “Divine” and
“Gospel.”
- Page 405, same lesson, same point, apply RC to “Word.”
Point II 1, apply RC to “Divine” (thrice) and “Gospel.”
Point II 2, apply RC to “Gospel” and “Divine” (twice).
Point II 3, apply RC to “Divine” and “Gospel.”
Point II 4, apply RC to “Gospel” and “Divine.”
- Page 406, same lesson, point II 4 (1), apply RC to “Gospel”
(twice). Point II 4 (2), apply RC to “Gospel”; remove comma
from “Him, and.” Application (“Lessons”), point 2, apply RC
to “Divinely.” “Glory” note, point III, apply RC to
“Divinely.” “Christ in you” note, correct point I to put
the period after the number. Lesson “Preaching,” introduction, remove
comma from “preacher, and”; apply RC to “Gospel” and
“Divine.”
- Page 407, same lesson, point I 1, apply RC to “Divine.”
Point I 3, apply RC to “Gospel”; add “Acts iv. 12”
reference; remove comma from “theme, but.” Point II 2, add
“(ver. 28)” for consistency; add comma to “Hence he.”
Point II 4, apply RC to “Gospel.”
- Page 408, same lesson, point III, apply RC to “Gospel” (twice).
Point IV, apply RC to “Divinely” and “Gospel”; remove
commas from “all, and” and “age, and”; apply RC to
“Gospel,” “Divine,” “Divinely,” and
“Divine.” Application (“Lessons”), point 3, apply RC to
“Divine.” “Ministry” note, point II, apply RC to
“Divine.”
- Page 410, lesson “Anxiety,” introduction, apply RC to
“Gospel.” Point I, remove comma from “thought, and.”
- Page 411, same lesson, point II, remove comma from “truth, but”;
capitalise “Divine” as referring to a churchman. Point III 1,
add comma to “Hence he.” Point III 3, apply RC to “Divine.”
Point III 3 (1), apply RC to “Divine.”
- Page 412, same lesson, same point, apply RC to “Divine.”
Point III 3 (2), apply RC to “Divine” (twice).
Point III 3 (3), apply RC to “Divine,” “Gospel”
(thrice), and “Divine”; add “Prov. viii. 11” reference.
Point IV, apply RC to “Gospel”; remove comma from “outlook, and.”
- Page 413, same lesson, same point, add “Eph. v. 6” reference.
Lesson “Hidden Treasures,” introduction, remove comma from
“treasure, but”; apply RC to “Divine.”
- Page 414, same lesson, point I 1, remove comma from “Him, and.”
Point I 2, remove comma from “everywhere, and.” Point I 3, apply
RC to “Divine.”
- Page 415, same lesson, point II, apply RC to “Divine”; change
“ar#” to “are”; add comma to “So in.”
“Unity” note, point I, apply RC to “Gospel.”
- Page 416, lesson “Apostolic Praise,” point I, apply RC to
“Divine” (twice); remove comma from “brief, but”;
add “1 Cor. xiv. 40, xiv. 33, xvi. 14, xi. 34”
references. Point II, apply RC to “served Him”; change exclamation
point to question mark; remove comma from “form, and.”
- Page 417, point III 2, remove comma from “order, and.”
Lesson “Suggestive,” point I, remove comma from
“rapidity, and” (twice); apply RC to “Divine.”
Point I 1, apply RC to “Divine.”
- Page 418, same lesson, point I 2, remove comma from “law, but.”
Point III, apply RC to “Divine.”
- Page 419, same lesson, point III 2, remove comma from “tense, and.”
Point IV, remove commas from “word, and” and “difficulties, and.”
Application (“Lessons”), each of points 1 and 2, apply RC to
“Divinely.” “Retrospection” note, point I 2, apply RC to
“Divine.” “Imitation” note, point II, remove comma for
“imitate, and.”
- Page 420, lesson “Marks,” introduction, remove comma from
“morals, and.” Point I, apply RC to “Divine”; remove
comma from “Gnosticism, and”; add “Rom i. 21, 22”
reference.
- Page 422, same lesson, point V, add “John x. 10” reference.
Point VI 1, apply RC to “Gospel.” Point VI 2, remove comma
from “rest, and.” Application (“Lessons”), point 3, remove
comma from “false, and.” Lesson “Divine Fulness,” introduction,
apply RC to “Divine.” Point I, apply RC to “Divine.”
Point I 1, add comma to “Hence we”; apply RC to “Divine”
(twice), “Divinity,” and “Divine.” Point I 2,
remove comma from “deity, and.”
- Page 423, same lesson, point I 3, remove comma from
“enshrined, and”; apply RC to “Divine” (four times);
add “John i. 14” reference. Point III 1, add
“1 John v. 12” reference; apply RC to “Divine”
(twice). Point III 2, apply RC to “the Spirit.”
Point III 3, add “1 Thess. iv. 17” reference.
- Page 424, same lesson, application (“Lessons”), point 1, apply RC
to “Divine.” Lesson “Circumcision,” introduction, apply RC
to “Divine”; add comma to “Thus their.”
- Page 425, same lesson, point I, add “Ezek. xliv. 9; Duet. xxx. 6”
references. Point III, apply RC to “Divine” (twice), remove comma from
“law, and.” Point IV, remove comma from “dies, and”;
apply RC to “Diviner.”
- Page 426, same lesson, point VI, apply RC to “Divine”; remove comma
from “gift, and”; apply RC to “Divine” (twice).
Lesson “Transition,” introduction, apply RC to “Divine.”
- Page 427, same lesson, point I 2, remove comma from “health, and.”
Each of points I 3 (1) and I 3 (2), apply RC to “Divine.”
Point I 3 (2), remove comma from “life, and.” Point II 1,
remove comma from “bondage, and”; apply RC to “Divine.”
Point II 2, apply RC to “Divine”; add comma to “pardoned and.”
- Page 428, same lesson, point III, apply RC to “Divine” (thrice).
Lesson “Triumph,” point I 1, remove comma from “creation, and.”
Point II 2, add comma to “again they.” Point II 3, remove comma from
“death, and.”
- Page 430, lesson “Ceremonial,” introduction, remove comma from
“real, and”; apply RC to “Gospel”; remove comma from
“ordinances, and”; capitalise “Christianised.” Point I,
apply RC to “Gospel.”
- Page 431, same lesson, point II, add comma to “so the”; apply RC to
“Gospel.” Point III, apply RC to “Antitype”;
remove comma from “it, when.”
- Page 432, lesson “Seductive,” introduction, remove comma from
“them, and.” Point II 2, remove comma from “God, and.”
Point II 3, change “mortal man venture” to “mortal man ventures.”
- Page 433, same lesson, point III, apply RC to “Divine.”
Point III 3, apply RC to “Divine” (twice).
“How a Church lives” note, point II 1, apply RC to “Divine.”
- Page 434, lesson “Ceremonial,” point II 2, apply RC to “Divine.”
- Page 436, same lesson, point IV 2, apply RC to “Divine.”
- Page 437, notes on chapter iii., verse 15, change “ii. 18” to
“ch. ii. 18.”
Verse 16, apply RC to “Divine”; add an em-dash at the end of the paragraph.
Verse 18, remove comma from “here, and.” Verse 23, add double quotes around
“Whatsoever ye do, work heartily” and “from the soul.”
- The page break between pages 439 and 440 is in a unit that style indicates
should not be broken: “conduct.—1. |A.” The entire unit was moved
to the earlier page.
- Page 438, lesson “Aspirations,” point II 1, change “ver. 2“
to “ver. 1.”
- Page 439, same lesson, point II 1, add an em-dash at the
end of the paragraph.
- Page 440, lesson “Present Condition,” introduction, apply RC to
“Divine light.” Point I, remove comma from “past, and.”
- Page 441, same lesson, point II 2, add comma to “undiscerning He.”
Point III, apply RC to “His Word.”
- Page 443, lesson “Mortification,” point I 3, remove comma from
“heart, and”; apply RC to “Divine.” Point II, apply RC to
“Divine”; remove comma from “come, and”; apply RC to
“Divine.”
- Page 444, same lesson, point V, remove commas from “disguised, and”
and “man, and”; apply RC to “Divine.”
- Page 445, lesson “New Nature,” introduction, remove comma from
“garments, but”; add comma to “So the”; remove comma from
“state, but”; add comma to “words he.” Point I, apply RC
to “Divine” (twice). Point II, remove commas from “once, but”
and “possessed, but”; apply RC to “Divine.”
- Page 446, same lesson, point III, apply RC to “Divine”; remove
comma from “unsuited, and.” Point IV 1, apply RC to “Gospel.”
Point IV 2, remove comma from “country, and.” Point IV 3,
apply RC to “Gospel.” Point V, apply RC to “Source,”
“Centre,” “Ideal,” and “Possession”;
change “He” to “he,” referring to the believer.
- Page 447, “Religion” note, point II, apply RC to “Divine.”
“Christ” note, point II, apply RC to “Divine,” remove commas
from “civ., and” and “hearts, and.” Point III, apply RC to
“Divine” (twice).
- Page 448, same note, point IV, remove comma from “Him, and.”
Application (“Lessons”), point 3, apply RC to “Divine.”
- Page 449, lesson “Essentials,” point I 1, apply RC to
“Divine” and “Son.” Point I 2, apply RC to
“Divine.” Point I 3, apply RC to “Divine.”
- Page 451, lesson “Love,” introduction, remove commas from
“romance, and” and “garment, and.” Point I, remove comma
from “Ghost, and.”
- Page 452, same lesson, point IV 2, remove comma from “changed, if.”
Lesson “Rule,” point I, apply RC to “Divine.”
- Page 453, same lesson, same point, apply RC to “Divine”; remove comma
from “cross, and”; apply RC to “Divine”; remove comma from
“Christ, and.” Point II, remove commas from “games, and” and
“stadium, and.” Point II 1, remove comma from “duty, and”;
apply RC to “Divine.” Point II 2, remove comma from
“temptation, and.” Point II 3, remove comma from
“right, and”; apply RC to “His Word”;
add “Ps. li. 10” reference.
- Page 454, same lesson, point IV 1, apply RC to “Gospel” and
“God’s Word.” Point IV 2, remove comma from “body, so”;
apply RC to “Spirit.” Point V, change “sin#” to “sins”
and “#ll” to “all”; apply RC to “Divine.”
“Peace” note, point I, apply RC to “His Word.”
- Page 455, lesson “Poetry,” introduction, remove comma from
“first, and”; apply RC to “Divinely” and “Divine Word.”
Point I, apply RC to “Divine Word.” Point I 1, apply RC to
“Divine Word,” “Word,” and “Gospel.”
Point I 2, apply RC to “Divine Word,” “Word,”
“Divinity,” and “Word” (twice).
- Page 456, same lesson, point II, remove comma from “arrangement, and.”
Point III 1, apply RC to “Word” (twice). After the poem, remove comma
from “dying, and.” Application (“Lessons”), point 1, apply RC
to “Divine Word.”
- Page 457, first note, application (“Lessons”), point 3, apply RC to
“Word.” Second note, add “I.” before first bold point and
apply RC to “Word.” Point I 3, apply RC to “Word” (twice).
Point II 3, apply RC to “Word” (twice). Application
(“Lessons”), each of point 1 and 2, apply RC to “Word.”
- Page 460, lesson “Duties of Husbands,” point I 1, apply RC to
“Divine.”
- Page 461, same lesson, point II, apply RC to “Divine.” Point III 2,
remove comma from “supreme, and.”
- Page 462, lesson “Duties of Parents,” point I 1, apply RC to
“Divine.” Point I 2, apply RC to “Divine” (twice).
- Page 463, point II 2, replace left single quote before “Lest”
with a left double quote. Lesson “Duties of Masters,” introduction,
remove comma from “slavery, and.”
- Page 464, same lesson, point I, add “Rev. vii. 15” and
“Mark x. 45” references; remove comma from “servitude, but.”
Point II 1, remove commas from “slaves, and” and “slavery, and.”
Point II 2, add “ver. 22” reference; apply RC to “Divine.”
Point III 1, add “heartily” into the verse 23 quotation; apply RC to
“Divine.” Point III 2, apply RC to “Divine”;
change “He hath done what he could” to “She hath done what she could”
to match KJV and add “Mark xiv. 8” reference.
- Page 465, same lesson, point IV, apply RC to “Divine”; add
“1 Pet. i. 4” reference. Point V, remove comma from
“light, and.” Point VI 2, add “Matt. xxiii. 8”
and “Matt. xxv. 40” references.
- Page 466, critical notes for chapter iv., verse 3, apply RC to “Word.”
- Page 467, lesson “Efficacy,” introduction, apply RC to “Divine”;
remove comma from “petitioner, but”; apply RC to “Divine.”
Point I, remove comma from “make, and.”
- Page 468, same lesson, point III, apply RC to “Divine”; add double
quotes around the saying of an old writer (assumed to finish the paragraph).
Point IV, apply RC to “Gospel.” Point IV 1,
apply RC to “Gospel”; change “once popular minister” to
“once-popular minister.” Point IV 2, apply RC to “Gospel”
(twice).
- The break between pages 468 and 469 is in the word “declaration”: declara|tion.
- Page 469, same lesson, point IV 3, apply RC to “Gospel” (twice), “Divine,”
and “Gospel.” Point IV 4, apply RC to “Gospel” (four times).
Application (“Lessons”), point 2, apply RC to “Gospel.”
- Page 470, lesson “Wise,” introduction, remove comma from “life, and.”
Point I 1, add “ver. 5” reference.
Point I 2, apply RC to “Spirit.”
Point I 3, remove comma from “itself, and”; apply RC to “Gospel.”
- Page 471, same lesson, point I 4, remove comma from “eagerness, and.”
Point II 3, remove comma from “tongue, and.” First note, add sentence-ending
period to point IV.
- Page 472, “Truth” note, point III, apply RC to “Divine.” Point IV,
remove comma from “religion, but.” Lesson “Side-lights,”
introduction, remove comma from “epistle, and.” Point I, apply RC to
“Gospel.”
- Page 473, same lesson, point II, remove commas from “Paul, and” and
“crowds, and”; apply RC to “Gospel” and “Divine.”
Point III, remove comma from “Ephesus, and.”
- Page 474, same lesson, point IV, remove comma from “ritual, and”;
apply RC to “Gospel”; add comma to “thus they”; remove comma
from “Christ, and”; apply RC to “Gospel”; remove comma from
“professors, and.”
- Page 475, lesson “Model Pastor,” introduction, apply RC to
“Gospel”; remove commas from “them, and” and “faith, but”;
apply RC to “Divine.” Point I, apply RC to “Gospel.” Point II,
after poem, apply RC to “Gospel.”
- Page 476, same lesson, point III, apply RC to “Divine.” Point IV,
apply RC to “Divine.”
- Page 477, lesson “Greetings,” introduction, add
“Prov. x. 7” reference. Point I 1, remove commas from
“travel, and” and “man, but.” Point I 2,
apply RC to “Divine” and “Gospel.”
- Page 478, same lesson, point II 1, add “1 Cor. xv. 58” reference.
Point II 2, remove comma from “city, and”;
add comma to “piety he”; apply RC to “Divine.” Point III,
remove comma from “Colossæ, and.”
- Page 479, point IV 1, apply RC to “Gospel”; remove comma from
“Lord, and”; apply RC to “Divine.” “Luke” note, point V, apply
RC to “Great Physician.” “Ministry” note, point I, apply RC to “Divine.”
- Page 480, lesson “Farewell,” point I, change “mo” to
“me.” Point II, apply RC to “Gospel” (twice).
- Page 481, same lesson, point III, apply RC to “Divine.”